another miss at cafe hayek
how can don boudreaux be dead on target for some posts and then get all wibbly on another? on the same subject! weird.
he bogs out a multi-paragraph analysis to the question, “Hey Mr. Free Trader, do you at least agree that companies should be required to tell customers if the people they’re dealing with on the phone live in America or not?”
the obvious answer is “such a thing may only be morally required through market pressure.”
instead, don goes off on a utilitarian trail, skipping the truth entirely. he even says:
Sen. Kerry’s bill, if passed, would have required any
United States corporation or its subsidiaries that utilizes a call center to initiate telephone calls to, or receive telephone calls from, individuals located in the United States, shall require each employee in the call center to disclose the physical location of such employee at the beginning of each telephone call so initiated or received.The argument in favor of such a requirement is that it’s not coercive (at least not to consumers).
is that like how me going out and dropping a cinderblock on somebody’s head isn’t an assault (at least not to me)?
c’mon, don. wake up, buddy. liberty! never forget it; it’s the cornerstone of everything we cherish, and makes arguments much easier. does a proposal dishonor liberty? is it coercive in any way? then fuck it. we should shove this word “liberty” in faces every chance we get if the people killing it claim to fight for it. it means something.
April 27th, 2005 at 00:05
Right on.
April 27th, 2005 at 10:31
You make it sound so simple, so easy, SaltyPig … that makes the public-policy-pusher’s life a lot less important, you know.
Your recent hammering on liberty is much appreciated. In that spirit, I’m pretty sure you’ve already seen it, but I’ll post this for posterity’s sake anyway: Do You Hate the State?
April 27th, 2005 at 19:15
you really think monsieur bourdeax gets it right for some things? My hit on the austrian cult leader is that he’s wrong about almost everything!
April 27th, 2005 at 19:45
thanks, anon.
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sunni snake, i hadn’t seen that article. looks like we both learned more about mr. rothbard today. thanks!
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re the cult leader comment, i think he’s often too watered down, but usually headed in the right direction. i’m curious what you think he’s wrong about. you’re anti-austrian in general?
April 28th, 2005 at 15:42
“such a thing may only be morally required through market pressure.” Mark Odell