Markets are about efficiency, right? It doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense, even from an economic perspective, why there is so much sprawl or why people are destroying remote habitats instead of sustainably cultivating habitats closer to them. That is, until you understand how power functions given our entrenched system of land …
As anyone familiar with classical political economy knows, true property rights are rooted in self-ownership. You own yourself, and by extension you own what you make through labor or voluntary transactions thereof. Land, however, is not a fruit of labor.
One might reasonably suppose that land, being unlike other things that are called property, would …
The world is a complex place, or so we are told here in the USA.
The pundits and journalists will tell you that there are no simple remedies to our problems, with an air of authority reserved only for those serious few with the courage to offer up this sober dose of “reality.” Besides, even …
I haven’t found much cogent criticism of Henry George, and I’m always open to reading any serious critiques. In the discussion page of the wikipedia article on Georgism there was a link to a mutualist critique located within W. H. Van Ornum’s book “Why Government at All?”
The focus of this blog post will …
You may have heard of Peter Thiel, the right-wing “libertarian” co-founder of Paypal and early investor in Facebook. He seems to be a magnet for controversy and intrigue, with his penchant for casual misogyny and exotic philanthropic endeavors. So, who or what is he really?
Despite his attempts to label himself a libertarian, it …
I have often referred to myself as a progressive but I have felt increasingly uneasy doing so. The word ‘progressive’ like nearly every other term which refers to a political ideology has become so broadly applied as to become virtually meaningless.
Historically, the term conjured images of Teddy Roosevelt and “Fighting Bob” La Follette. Progressives …
Pretty early on in my philosophical journey I decided that I was a pantheist, of the naturalist sort. Pantheism is all about the one-ness and unity of everything… and I do mean everything.
Considering this mindset, it should be no wonder why I recently came to the conclusion that we might all be manifestations of …
The healthcare debate is shockingly narrow. We have the do nothing crowd, the privatize it more crowd, the single-payer people, and the public option folks. On the more radical end of the mainstream debates are those calling for more general practitioners, preventive care/incentives, and co-ops. Of the bills pushing through congress now, I have …
Cross-posted at Sentient Developments
There is a long list of crises that we need to face and I won’t waste time boring you by listing them. As our brightest minds admit they were wrong, I hope that I can say, without qualification, that big changes in our thinking are required. Unfortunately, we haven’t made that …
The elite capitalist class has undergone numerous makeovers in the past century. From the Organization Man of the 50s, to the Yuppies of the 80s, to the Bobos of the dot-com era. A combination of structural changes and cultural pendulum swings have produced these makeovers.
For instance, as those who were immersed in the counterculture …
1 Comment » 
