Suchergebnisse

Property -- Morality and the state -- Libertarianism : a classic argument revisited -- Property as a moral phenomenon -- Property as a constraint on the state -- Property and the creation of value -- Aid -- Markets -- Morality and markets -- Luck and opportunity -- Wealth, disability and happiness -- The epistemology of popularity and incentives -- History -- Justice and the wealth of nations I -- Justice and the wealth of nations II -- Reparations, history and Nietzsche -- Theory and practice -- Dilemmas of political correctness -- Utopia and the real world

Abstract:Debates about libertarianism and redistribution often revolve around self-ownership. There are two main reasons for this: first, self-ownership is often featured in Lockean accounts of property that endow us with a claim to the resources that are up for redistribution. Second, self-ownership has sometimes been mustered as a way of resisting the additional labor that is said to be required by redistributive schemes. In this essay, I argue that these appeals to self-ownership are misguided. However, unlike most critics of these appeals, I don't wish to claim that redistribution is therefore vindicated. On the contrary, my main goal is to show that there are alternatives to invoking self-ownership that are more effective and that better capture the core intuition behind libertarian objections to redistribution.

Debates about political correctness often proceed as if proponents see nothing to fear in erecting norms that inhibit expression on the one side, and opponents see nothing but misguided efforts to silence political enemies on the other.1 Both views are mistaken. Political correctness, as I argue, is an important attempt to advance the legitimate interests of certain groups in the public sphere. However, this type of norm comes with costs that mustn't be neglected–sometimes in the form of conflict with other values we hold dear, but often by creating an internal schism that threatens us with collective irrationality. Political correctness thus sets up dilemmas I wish to set out (but not, alas, resolve). The cliché is that political correctness tramples on rights to free-speech, as if the potential loss were merely expressive; the real issue is that in filtering public discourse, political correctness may defeat our own substantive aims.

Liberalizing trade has proven highly challenging for some low-income countries, as a large share of their tax extraction derives from trade taxation. After significant drops in tariff levels over the last 30 years, the recovery of lost revenues by other sources of taxation has been highly uneven among these countries. This study demonstrates that recovery has been significantly stronger in countries that have simultaneously initiated a process of democratization. An analysis of 35 low-income countries between 1975 and 2006 is presented. For each dollar lost in trade taxation, democratizing countries have been able to regain approximately 45 cents from other sources in the long run; however autocratic countries show no sign of recouping tax losses.