The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

THE LAST DITCH

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Factual Free-Market Fairness

Published by Tom

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Factual Free-Market Fairness | Bleeding Heart Libertarians.

I am on the road today, visiting the old haunts of the original and best Tom Paine. I am unlikely to post anything substantial, so I merely recommend you to the linked article described by Cafe Hayek as "The greatest blog post ever written". Almost as much as the post itself, I enjoyed the debate in the comments and particularly this observation by one Terry Mcintyre;

It is not enough to point to "market failure" – the proposed solution must actually be an improvement; it is not logically permissible to wave a wand and say "a miracle happens, and a politician emits the Perfect Solution which Fixes Everything."

Does that remind you of anyone?

5 responses to “Factual Free-Market Fairness”

  1. Cascadian Avatar
    Cascadian

    Does that remind you of anyone?-indeed it does, every Prime Minister since at least 1948 (with the possible exception of Margaret Thatcher)
    Of course this line of thinking is not only pursued by the the UK, perhaps FDR in the USA was the primary culprit, though at least he built useful infrastructure.

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  2. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    True, but I was thinking of Mark. B^)

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  3. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    You called?
    The linked blog post provides us with a litany of problems which have occured in the last 100 odd years and blames people for assuming that th

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  4. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    hmmm… sorry
    e government will always provide a better solution.
    What about the conquest of South America, the Mongol Hordes, the Napoleonic wars, actual slavery… all caused by “statism”, I suppose… the fact is that people have a tendency to do unpleasent things – markets require cooperation, which is good, but isn’t there a danger in assuming that mutual agreement will always provide a better solution? In many cases, it just isn’t feasible.

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  5. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    Two out of three are wicked examples of statism. Abolishing slavery might actually be an example of a state doing something good. A very small state though.

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Your blogger

Tom is a retired international lawyer. He was a partner in a City of London law firm and spent almost twenty years abroad serving clients from all over the world.

Returning to London on retirement in 2011, he was dismayed to discover how much liberty had been lost in the UK while he was away.

He’s a classical liberal (libertarian, if you must) who, like his illustrious namesake, considers that

“…government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.”

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