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Behaviors Tangentially Connected to your Libertarian Moral Principles

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RagnarD Posted: Tue, Sep 11 2012 11:06 PM

i can't remember who recently mentioned in a thread that they considered, while on a flight if writing in the margins of a complimentary magazine was vandalism.  This got me to thinking about minor things in my behavior that are related to Libertarian moral principles, and I thought it would be interesting to hear how it influences others behavior outside of clear political and legal issues. 

The ones that came to mind for myself were:

While driving I feel a duty to not slow anyone down, anyone driving faster than me I go out of my way to give way for.  Clearly reciprocity as I expect the same from others when I'm in a hurry.

I'm working a crap job, and have no loyalty to the company, my loyalty and strong work ethic is due to not wanting to leave a higher burden for my co-workers (reciprocity again).  I've recently noticed with a very small sample size Dems tend to be slugs, couldn't care less about getting stuff done, have to be directed  on everything or they just goof off, republicans seem to have more company loyalty, they do a decent job of what they're told by the book, while libertarians seem to have a similar ethic of wanting to make things run smoothly for everyone regardless of what the rules/book says.

One that I dont necessarily feel is extremely positive is I'm hesitant to jump into conversations for fear of being rude interrupting people

Lastly, I'm very slow to accuse people of anything, I must have proof before I will make any accusations. 

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i tend to blame the government for everything.

“Since people are concerned that ‘X’ will not be provided, ‘X’ will naturally be provided by those who are concerned by its absence."
"The sweetest of minds can harbor the harshest of men.”

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very bad habit. annoys all my friends lol.

“Since people are concerned that ‘X’ will not be provided, ‘X’ will naturally be provided by those who are concerned by its absence."
"The sweetest of minds can harbor the harshest of men.”

http://voluntaryistreader.wordpress.org

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bloomj31 replied on Wed, Sep 12 2012 12:00 AM

I'm not a libertarian but my brother is.

He recently refused to go to jury duty, refuses to renew his license tag and is contemplating refusal of payment of the tickets he's accumulated as a result of his outdated tag.

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I'm not a libertarian but my brother is.

He recently refused to go to jury duty, refuses to renew his license tag and is contemplating refusal of payment of the tickets he's accumulated as a result of his outdated tag.

hahaa sounds like he knows how to pick his battles.  I'll combat the state like that when they try to draft me to go fight for Israel, JP Morgan, and/or Exxon..

"The Fed does not make predictions. It makes forecasts..." - Mustang19
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RagnarD replied on Wed, Sep 12 2012 1:02 AM

Yea, he's got quite the battle ahead of him, and unless he's :

a: planning to skip the country

b:wanting to go to jail for a while

c:  the real life incarnation of Rambo crossed with Bruce Lee and can take out a whole country of cops

What's gonna happen is a $50 ticket will turn into a $50 ticket plus $140 in court fees, then they suspend his license and he ends up with getting a driving while suspended ticket, and they charge him $50 for his tags $140 in court fees, $500 for driving while suspended and give him I believe 8 points on his license so his insurance goes through the roof. 

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Clayton replied on Wed, Sep 12 2012 1:54 AM

@bloomj: You're Dean Clifford's brother??!? :-P

Seriously, I have better things to do with my time. But as a potential beneficiary of the activism of these brave souls, I heartily applaud them and wish them all the best!

Clayton -

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FlyingAxe replied on Wed, Sep 12 2012 3:23 AM

Aristophanes:
I'll combat the state like that when they try to draft me to go fight for Israel, JP Morgan, and/or Exxon..

 
Which is never.
 
Re:topic: I have started doing the road-sharing thing more consciously. Also, I never cared for rules, but now I respect rules on private property (including private parking) more, while rules on "public property" less.
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xahrx replied on Wed, Sep 12 2012 8:47 AM

My libertarianism just tends to lead me to mind my own business in most personal instances.  People seem to react badly to the fact that I often don't react one way or another to something they find controversial, like gays.  I know some Christians who get all riled up by the very idea, I couldn't care less and I simply want my gay friends to be happy.  Where libertarianism and more importantly Austrian Economics has made a big difference in is my career.

I'm in HR, and unlike a lot of other HR types I want performance data for myself and our employees.  It amazes me how much management is done off the cuff with no reflection or introspection.  Recently I've gotton into an online debate/argument with a proponent of a method of hiring called Performance Based Hiring, which I overall agree with.  However, his contention is that so called 'passive' candidates are inherrently superior to people who are actually looking for a job for any reason.  On this I called bullshit and demanded evidence.  None was forthcoming.

You'd think it would be easy.  You judge employees generally by performance and tenure; the better the performance and the longer the tenure, the better the hire.  But the field of HR and recruiting is full of so much BS and is outright hostile to data based approaches.*  And it's been my arguments with Keynesian types that have let me point out the obvious BS and weak points in people's methods in the areas of hiring and management methods.  Also, my knowledge of economics has lead to some unpopular but eventually proven points being made in my current job.  But it's been, in part at least, my desire to look at data through the framework of how and why people decisions on the margins that has lead to better performance all around.  Time to fill positions is way down, tenure and performance are up, and for my part it was because I learned how to discect BS arguments, largely while arguing with people over economic and political issues.

*In large part I think this is because HR in part exists as it does today simply because of government compliance reasons.  HR people tend to focus on reporting and legalities, not performance and profit.  So often, say in recruiting, getting the best person for the job gets mutated into getting the 'right' mix of applicants, making sure the 'right' reasons were given for rejecting the ones you didn't hire, and then hiring someone only after you consider any potential legal risks for doing so.  Also, HR methods tend to protect against making mistakes more so than getting top performance.

"I was just in the bathroom getting ready to leave the house, if you must know, and a sudden wave of admiration for the cotton swab came over me." - Anonymous
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Wheylous replied on Wed, Sep 12 2012 9:13 AM

I was the complementary article guy. I also like to drive consciously.

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