Customer Reviews

Libertarianism, from A to Z

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

A to Z provides an acceptable, contemporary introduction to libertarian thinking. I picked it up (Kindle version for Blackberry) after being favorably impressed with the author's speaking ability from listening to a Cato podcast. As a speaker, Mr. Miron is easy to listen to, and as a writer, he's easily read. The book's chief strength is the use of concise, clear language and straightforward reasoning throughout. Its style makes for light reading suitable for that plane ride to the political convention of your choice, and most readers will easily finish it within a few hours. It makes little or no overt effort to proselytize the reader to its libertarian point of view, cites little or no actual evidence in support of its suppositions, draws few contrasts with competing political philosophies, and makes little effort to comment on current events. The "A to Z" organizational principle is not the most effective way to present a political philosophy, but is at least handy for locating topics of interest. Although I skimmed some topics, as a whole the writing remains consistently engaging from start to finish, and reads effortlessly with relatively little repetition. All in all, it is worth reading if your summer reading list includes works on political philosophy and you are interested in a high-level view of libertarianism as it exists today.

Jeffrey Miron is Director of Undergraduate Studies at Harvard's economics department. He's also an outspoken libertarian (see http://www.amazon.com/Drug-War-Crimes-Consequences-Prohibition/dp/0945999909/ ).

This book is not intended as a top-heavy (theoretical) exposition of libertarianism. It's meant to introduce readers to the coherent fundamentals of libertarian thought.

Topics dealt with include everything from abortion and taxpayer subsidized sports stadiums to the sale of human body parts and global warming.

I highly recommend this book, whether you're a libertarian or not, and perhaps especially if you're not, because it provides a very clear, unambiguous looking glass into the mind of the libertarian.

I'm a libertarian and an economics buff, and so I was pretty excited about this book, especially when I saw it being touted by some of my favorite economist bloggers. Well, it's very disappointing.

The book is setup sort of like an encyclopedia, where each entry is a short explanation of the libertarian arguments surrounding an issue. The problem is that the arguments are presented without supporting evidence, and without bothering to rebut the most obvious objections and counter-arguments from the other side (the other side being those who see government intervention to be the ideal tool to solve any societal or economic problem). As a result, even those of us who are already in the libertarian camp will tend to find the book unpersuasive. It certainly will not convert any non-believers.

The most serious drawback to Miron's book is that which may influence its popularity, namely it's size. Admirable, indeed, is Miron's attempt at brevity however the absence of any sort of bibliography, footnotes, endnotes or textual notes is a glaring omission that simply cannot be overlooked in light of some of the astounding claims that the author makes. That he seems to flip flop like a fish out of water is also problematic.

For example, Miron writes that "corruption arises mainly because of laws that impede private profit opportunities or interfere with mutually beneficial exchange (p.49)" Considering the longstanding corruptness of the U.S. government I find this statement nearly as difficult to accept as Miron's belief that politicians, bemoaning corruption, pass laws seeking to curtail it (p.48).

In discussing discrimination Miron believes (p.58) that "discrimination is unlikely to be substantial in market economies because employers, lenders, universities, and others who discriminate put themselves at a competitive disadvantage." One wonders if Miron believes that discrimination would be less rampant than it is today without the institution of anti-discrimination laws.

Concerning campaign finance regulation Miron states (p.30) that "neither theory nor evidence indicates that spending has a large impact on a candidate's electoral success" but then acquiesces that spending is "only one part of winning elections." I'm left wondering what role he really sees campaign finance playing in the election process.

"Laws against violence and theft," he writes, "do not forbid mutually beneficial exchange or interfere with purely voluntary actions, while prohibitions do" (p.61). If this statement is true, are we to assume that robbery, rape, murder and other forms of violent crime are not "purely voluntary actions"? Shockingly, the author goes on to suggest (p.61) that speed limits, for example, are a prime example of policies that encourage disrespect for the law. He then proceeds to champion them in his discussion of externalities ("when the actions of an individual or group impact third parties in ways other than market transactions...") (p.75). Is he, therefore, proposing the enforcement or the elimination of speed limits and does he even know what he believes?

In a final, glaring example of this books' shortfall(s) on page 66 the author writes, in a discussion of employee drug testing and prohibition that "one motivation offered for drug prohibition is that drug use allegedly lowers employee productivity. The evidence does not support this contention..." However, returning to the author's discussion of externalities (p.76), he writes "watching late-night TV means less sleep and lower workplace productivity the next day, which can adversely affect one's co-workers." The absurdity of these two statements when viewed in relation to one another must surely be evident.

Had this been the first book on Libertarianism that I'd read I can assure you that it would have also been the last. Fortunately, I've read a good number of books on Libertarian ideology and might suggest, instead, The Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary Writings from Lao Tzu to Milton Friedman or Libertarianism: A Primer- both excellent books by David Boaz and available from Amazon.com. It is possible that, had the author fleshed out some of his ideas and been (presumably) more concerned with content than format and size, this book might be a worthy contribution to Libertarian belief. As it stands, however, I've found that it sadly misrepresents the ideology of Libertarianism and offers little in the way of furthering what I believe is it's very worthwhile agenda.

I came to this book with high hopes, but was soon disappointed. Author Jeffrey Miron states that the essence of his approach, which he calls "consequential libertarianism," is a careful examination of the effects of individual public policies on the economy and society. Yet the book is organized as a series of very brief essays on a wide variety of topics, each of which contains virtually no factual evidence or argument. Each essay consists essentially of a series of assertions by proponents and opponents of a given policy point of view, with little or no evidence, reasoning or discussion presented. While Miron says he has limited the number of essays, in fact the book would have benefited from far fewer essays containing much more depth of evidence and argument. Such a book would have provided a much better basis for a reader to evaluate the libertarian approach. This book, unfortunately, leaves the reader with the impression that libertarianism is primarily based upon assertions.

Libertarian solutions to policy problems are often so different from the boilerplate

of liberals and conservatives that those unfamiliar with the philosophy have

a hard time understanding just what libertarianism is. To remedy this confusion,

Cato senior fellow Jeffrey A. Miron offers his new book, Libertarianism, from A to Z.

Covering everything from "arbitrary redistribution" to "zoos," Miron's chapters

bring brevity and clarity to often complicated topics. For example, in an entry on the

somewhat daunting subject of "asymmetric information and adverse selection," Miron

writes: "If health insurers cannot tell who is likely to remain healthy and who is not, they

must charge everyone the same premium. If this premium reflects the average health of

the population, only unhealthy persons find the insurance worth purchasing. In

economics lingo, the insurer ends up with an adverse selection of insurees, so the insurance

company goes broke."

Later, addressing a question surely familiar to most libertarians, Miron explains what

the difference is between his political philosophy and conservatism. After saying that

"conservatism and libertarianism tend to overlap regarding economic issues but not

on social or foreign policy issues," Miron further distances himself from the conservative

camp by showing how "the conservative desire for government intervention regarding

a broad range of social issues suggests that conservatives do not believe people can

make good choices on their own and that government should intervene to improve

those choices." Conservatism thus differs from libertarianism in its willingness to

embrace paternalism.

Several more letters into the alphabet, Miron draws a related comparison, this

time between liberalism and libertarianism. "Roughly, liberalism and libertarianism

tend to overlap regarding social and foreign policy issues," Miron writes, "but not economic

issues." Like conservatism, liberalism differs from libertarianism in its support

for paternalism, for liberals "assume government knows better than the people

being governed."

The publication of Libertarianism, from A to Z by Basic Books, a major publisher,

shows a growing awareness of, and interest in, the ideas and politics of liberty. Jeffrey

Miron has written a concise and accessible introduction to many of the issues most

important to libertarians.

With the current political climate being what it is, the author makes a strong statement for smaller government. The format is easy to follow and is informative reading for anyone wanting an over-view of the libertarian's perspective of government. It provides food for thought and can also be used to create meaningful dialogue about the role of government in our society today.

The author, Jeffrey A. Miron, is the Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Harvard economics department and has appeared on major television stations. His writings have also been published in the New York Times and Forbes.

A journey accross a number of issues from a libertarian viewpoint. Some are thought through with greater clarity and depth than others. if you are a grandparent - this is an invaluable gift for the 18 year old starting to more critically assess their political beliefs and philosophy. And a good primer in any library

Miron's encylopedic-format book on Libertarianism is a decent introduction to the philosophy but, as other reviewers have written, is certainly not perfect. I, too, was bothered by the lack of an index and a bibliography. I was also bothered by the fact that there was not an entry concerning monopolies, and that the author supports school vouchers (Socialism at its zenith), and that he was seemingly blind to the fact that Capitalism (like Socialism) CAN lead to slavery (to wit: USA slavery of Blacks up through the US Civil War). One thing is certain, however, Miron's Libertarianism is better than any crap the Democrats and Republicans love to feed us.

Libertarianism from A to Z offers a fine survey of how to think of all aspects of government from the libertarian perspective, offering a different view and analytical approach than the traditional left and right. It offers insights on both specific political and social acts and concepts, showing how federal involvement should be advocated if the consequences are better than those of laissez-faire. High school to college-level holdings will welcome this discussion.