Political Theory

Re: myth of the day

ama gi — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 06:09:10 GMT

One of the many myths (and one of the more powerful) is that free markets destroy the environment. Nobody wants to get cancer from the air they breathe, so this argument tends to influence people to support government intervention in industry. I wrote a rebuttal against that argument here (myth #6). Tell me what you think.

Re: myth of the day

ama gi — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 10:00:37 GMT

I made a wiki about myths about libertarianism. You can see it right here:

http://mises.org/Community/wikis/debate/myths-about-libertarianism.aspx

Re: myth of the day

liberty student — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:55:10 GMT

What is worth doing, is refuting them and ranking in the search engines with for the same key words as the original article, so that people can find both.

Re: myth of the day

ama gi — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:33:50 GMT

GilesStratton:

For the most part that site is just a bunch of straw men, I see no point in wasting your time refuting it.

I think they're worth refuting, because so many people seem to believe them.

Re: myth of the day

hayekianxyz — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:33:23 GMT

For the most part that site is just a bunch of straw men, I see no point in wasting your time refuting it.

myth of the day

ama gi — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 09:28:45 GMT

I read that Mike Huban website and was fed up with one myth after another--literally thousands of them. So I started a thread to expose common, dime-a-dozen myths about libertarianism that seem to be repeated like a broken record. Feel free to add myths of your own.

Myth #1

Libertarians are merely shills for unscrupulous corporations and corporate power.

Answer: Corporate power is mainly the result of monetary inflation and artificially-low interest rates caused by--you guessed it--the government's central banks. All the extra dollars drive up prices for goods and services, but also drive up share prices at the same time (see chart). This one-two-punch increases corporate power drastically. Add that to the fact that artificially low interest rates encourage consumption and discourage saving. Corporate power would be greatly reduced under a gold standard. Under a gold standard, corporations and other businesses could only make a profit by creating value. Imagine that.

Of course there are other ways the government increases corporate power (through intellectual property, eminent domain, military contracts, direct bailouts, blocking competition, etc.).

Myth #2

A free market would lead to a enormously disproportionate distribution of wealth. We need governments to fix it.

Answer: See Myth #1.