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LATE_SHIFT
February 7, 2013
Of late, I think it's fair to say
that there's been a shift in my
attitudes and I think we're seeing You can call this "moving to the
a similar cultural shift throughout left", though that's oversimplified,
the U.S. (certainly in my case, where you'd
have to say I was already with the
Here I'm largely thinking left on many issues).
about a change in attitudes
on economics, moving from
laissez-faire to a more
interventionist approach.
I like to ponder these shifts My attitudes circa
in my attitudes, study the the late 90s:
extent of the changes, and the
apparent reasons for them... RELUCTANT
though I can't say I think
there's much reason you should
care, one way or another.
An attempt at explaining
It's a bit of a tricky libertarians to liberals:
business, trying to remember
what my opinions were and why, WHEN_THE_DEVIL_QUOTES_SCRIPTURES
and trying to track why
they've changed.
I've clearly cooled on libertarian LIBERTY
doctrine -- though I *think* it
would be fair to say I was never
all that hardcore about it. But The other way to take it
then, I'd often take a libertarian is that this is I'm another case
line in arguments, and I've had of someone trying to back up
other people remind me I used to without admitting it.
describe myself as a libertarian,
at least sometimes. In which case,
it's often politic
The way I remember it, it never seemed to me to politely look
that the free market libertarians "had all the other way
the answers", it just seemed to me like the about the editing
most promising line of approach. It never of history.
seemed to me like it was a complete model
that covered all cases, and whenever I found But if you're
myself in a group of libertarians, I would interested in
start arguing with them... the way people
make decisions
It is an interesting possibility then tracking
that the people like me were the back-tracks
trend-setting... I would have are important:
thought that no one was
listening us, but in the long The goal is to
run we were fairly influential find some way
(if anything, too influential). That's something to progress
you might keep in without just
mind when all seems waiting for
bleak... though funerals.
it would be more
By the way: I was never so far encouraging if I
gone as to adopt the likes of were convinced my
Ronald Reagan as my hero... influence was a
Conservatives have always positive one.
struck me as phonies that
adopt a free market line only DARK_HOPE
when convenient.
But on the other hand, maybe there
were Reagan moves-- like his Union I also think I ignored what was
busting-- that I should've been happening outside US borders
upset about, but ignored because (e.g. in Latin America) for too
it seemed in line with the way I long, but that's a common
was thinking. syndrome with Americans and not
any sense the Reagan regime was
the Good Guys.
Some of the changes in my opinions
seem like they match the rational
ideal, persuaded by factual data
and reasoned arguments:
Factual:
Consider Keynesian economics. I've
done some Econ classes, so in the
80s when I'd heard libertarians
reflexively sneer at the idea of
Keynsian fiscal stimulus, I'd point Krugman in general is
out that what Keynes actually very good at arguing
recommended was something like from data, and pointing
inflating when times are bad, but out that things were
deflating when times are good. The best in the US when
actual trouble, it seemed to me, we were doing things
was it was politically impossible worst from the "laissez
to "step on the brakes" when the faire" point of view.
economy was booming.
Paul Krugman's point that Bill Clinton
was actually capable of running surpluses
shoots down this notion very cleanly--
it's remarkable that there are still some
people out there who profess not to get
this point...
Another bit we might call being
persuaded by factual evidence:
In the 80s, I was aware of reports of
an increase in inequality in the US,
but I presumed that they were just a
blip, and the expansion of the middle Back then, I liked the
class we'd seen over the previous conservative argument that
half-century was the real long term this expansion of the middle
trend. class was one of the key
phenomena that Marx had
A few decades later that failed to predict, and was
"blip" is still there, and one of the reasons that Marx
stronger than ever. was irrelevant.
You can't keep The contraction of the US
shrugging off the middle class since Reagan
actual results of does not seem to have
policies without caused any conservatives
your connection to re-evaluate Marx.
with reality
looking weak.
Reasoned arguments:
Under "reasoned
argument" (as Though none of these are actually *new*
opposed to to me though, I've just bumped them up
factual) I'll file from "puzzling and needs attention" to
some philosophical "okay these persuade me".
arguments that I
can claim have The question hovering
persuaded me... throughout is *why* did I
flip on these when I did?
Libertarians want things
simplified, so any compromise
with freedom is "tantamount to
slavery!", but really that's not
true, small compromises are just
that, they may or may not be the Lines like "let the market
first step on a slippery slope. decide" get irritating
after awhile: is the market
Taxation and regulations may be supposed to be some great
evils, but they are not the god, external to humanity?
*ultimate* evils. If you accept
that, then it's a matter of making Really, markets-- any real
tradeoffs between different concerns. markets we're actually
These smaller evils may be accepted familiar with-- are creations
when they can allay greater evils, of law and custom: many
and there are many greater evils. questions boil down to "what
kind of markets do we want?"
Okay, so I can identify some places
where New Evidence might've changed
my mind, and a few places where it
might be Reasoned Debate... LEFTWARD_DRIFT
SOCIALIZED_MEDICNE
But I think it's likely a large part
of the change has to do with what you
might call "social factors":
I don't like the people who've been
using (or abusing, as I would argue)
"free market" doctrine, and I don't
want to be associated with those people.
I want out of that "tribe".
TRIBAL
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