The Conservative Version of "You Didn't Build That" ...

[Occam's Banana]

Audio link: http://www.schiffradio.com/pg/jsp/ve...=310&pid=65782

I'll try to keep an eye out for the 'tube version and post it here (if & when Tom puts one up) ...

"You Didn't Build That," Conservative Version
http://tomwoods.com/blog/you-didnt-b...ative-version/
Tom Woods (23 June 2014)

I did today’s show on my own, and addressed a recent conservative criticism of the idea of self-ownership. It’s worth reading the author’s follow-up remarks in the comments section at that link. He honestly believes that libertarianism views love, gift-giving, etc., as “irrational” and that we libertarians must therefore be”suspicious” of these things. After all, these things do not “maximize economic utility”!

Libertarianism is about the use of violence in society. It has nothing to do with gifts, love, voluntary human relationships, etc. So just because we don’t believe in initiating violence, we must be trying to “maximize economic utility,” extremely narrowly understood? Why do conservatives make this ridiculous leap?

An equally good question is how someone can critique a school of thought without knowing the first thing — and I mean the first thing — about it.

One of his arguments, incidentally, is that you don’t own yourself because you owe a lot of things to other people. No, that doesn’t make sense, but that is what he is saying — and he doubles down on it in the comments.

Here’s the audio of the show. Subscribe to the Tom Woods Show on iTunes or Stitcher so you don’t miss an episode — we’ll hit 200 next month! And get a free Tom Woods Show e-book by clicking here. (It’s really free. No strings.)

[Henry Rogue]

Reminds me of cheapseats.