Is Radical Marxist Capitalist Objectivist even possible? The only scenario I could imagine would be a clone spliced from Marx & Rand’s genomes. What has science done!!!
No, it vindicates (natural rights) morality as the supreme form of rationalism.
Sure you can, neoclassical an-caps such as Bryan Caplan or David Friedman do exist. It’s pretty funny though, to see how they argue for an-capitalism with all those indifference curves, equilibrium maximalisation of utility and stuff like that ![]()
Why should a theory of positive economics imply any moral theory, persay?
It doesn’t. Austrian Economics is adhered to by persons ranging from anarcho-capitalist to centre-right conservatives. The Austrian School does have its own political economy/philosophy, though, which is decidedly libertarian, and flows in the natural rights direction.
-Jon
All my life. In between I thought I was a christian fundamentalist, zionist, socialist, liberal, statist, pot smoker, sexist …[put your favorite ..ist in here]
What I want to say with this is, that you find new concepts on your way through life and all of them seem to be kind of attractive and make sense, on the first glance, but basically you find in all of them some contradiction that thrusts you toward another system. This is called life and learning i suppose. Until you start asking one simple question “qui bono”, hence the question is simple but the answer might be very hard to catch.
I became pro free-market about three years ago. Right now I am a minarchist.
I read Ayn Rand back when I was 15 in high school. I wasen’t in the honors class but the same teacher taught both honors AP and the regular college prep classes. She new my political views and my personal views on religion, egoism and such. I had yet to find a philosophy/philosopher that reall spoke to me other than Aristotle. She recommended I read The Fountainhead, the book she was giving the honors students to read. I read it, loved it and picked up everything she wrote. I then discovered the Austrian School when I was about 18 or so, same with Milton Friedman. I go to DC every year for the Model NATO conference in which I participate. I mainly go so I can attend speeches and conferences at the Cato Institute. So I’ve been libertarian/pro-free market since I was about 15 or 16. I’m 22 now.
Cato Institute conferences?!? Nurse, get this man 1 week of Mises U., stat!
I have been more or less a libertarian for my entire life interested in policy. However, I hadn’t really gone into the depths of libertarian thought (i.e. Austrianism, anarcho-capitalism, etc.) until the past year.
Philosophically, I’ve been a libertarian since about the time I took my first course in Microeconomics at GMU, which was heavily Austrian. Politically, I’ve been a libertarian since about a year and a half ago when I learned that there were more political choices possible than just “Republican or Democrat”, even though I really couldn’t tell the difference between the two. I learned about the LvMI about the same time, amongst other things, and started poking around looking at articles and stuff. Got really hooked into it over the summer and fall.
I first discovered libertarianism back in 1990. That’s when I read Ayn Rand’s “For The New Intellectual”. I went Ancap around '97 or '98.
Cato Institute conferences?!? Nurse, get this man 1 week of Mises U., stat!
lol I agree and I would love to go to Mises. However I don’t go down south almost ever and I have a guaranteed trip to DC every year and Cato is all I have. Don’t get me wrong though I know damn well Mises kicks Cato’s ass.