Libertarianism.org Guides
Summary: Libertarianism.org is the Cato Institute’s resource for exploring the theory, history, and practice of liberty. Taught by top professors and experts, Libertarianism.org Guides introduce the basic ideas and principles of a free and flourishing society. The core of each guide is a series of short lectures given in a small seminar setting accompanied by book, very often from the Libertarianism.org Introduction series. Guides also serve as a path to further learning. If you’d like to dig deeper, each Guide’s homepage offers reading lists, essays, and links to other helpful materials. Access and watch Libertarianism.org Guides anytime and anywhere, and all for free, at www.libertarianism.org.
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Policies aimed at economic stabilization do more harm than good. Macroeconomic policy should be focused not on stabilization, but on economic growth.
There’s a plausible case, though not a fully persuasive one, for redistributing income to relieve poverty. Other forms of redistribution should be eliminated.
Government intervention has lowered the quality of medical care and made it more expensive.
Even though markets aren’t perfect, most regulations end up being counterproductive. Other regulations, like contract enforcement and rules against fraud, help.
Markets have been shown to be effective to a degree in combating certain types of discrimination. Anti-discrimination laws have drawbacks we shouldn’t ignore.
If government provides marriages, there’s no reason to allow only opposite-sex couples to marry. A libertarian legal order could have a variety of marriage types.
It’s doubtful whether any government involvement in education is a net good, and it would be better for the state to finance vouchers than to run schools itself.
The policy “cures” for a variety of putative social ills—drug use, gambling, sex work, gun ownership, etc.—are worse than the “diseases” they purport to treat.
Miron’s “Consequential Libertarianism” holds that on a rigorous, broad understanding, the costs of restricting liberty outweigh the benefits.
Brennan discusses the intersection of political philosophy and political economy in this conclusion to our Guide.
Are sweatshops a least-bad choice for the third world? Brennan applies the foregoing discussion of political philosophy to the case of labor ethics.
What are the economic and moral cases for allowing more immigration? Do immigrant workers depress native wages? Do they sully native culture? Commit more crime?
Is democracy a means to an end, or is it valuable in itself? Jason Brennan discusses democracy and voting.
Jason Brennan examines a key question in political philosophy: what, if anything, is the difference between the government and ordinary people?
The libertarian philosopher Robert Nozick offered important criticisms of pattern-based theories of distributive justice and offered his own alternative framework.
