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Here's what their recommending down at Rattlesnake U. this morning:
<p><A HREF="http://www.urbanlegends.com/">http://www.urbanlegends.com/</A>
<p>According to the Benedum outbuilding department of free advice; any
% you claim or any number that comes off the top of your head is as any
other % or number. Whose going to know the difference anyway as long
as you can keep a straight face.
<p>When Dr. Lester Thurow retires from MIT and takes over down at Rattlesnake
sometime next year all of this will become very clear.
<p><b><font size=+3>X</font></b>
<p>Max Sawicky wrote:
<blockquote TYPE=CITE>>
<br>> Has anyone on the list debated libertarians? What kinds of arguments
<br>> should we expect to encounter from the other participants? What kinds
of
<br>> arguments do libertarians have problems with. Any references to studies
<br>> articles or books would be helpful. Especially regarding privatization
<br>> or government intervention vs libertarian style free markets. I also
<p>My best short, quick answer is there are two basic vulnerabilities:
<p>one is that the L argument against government is diseconomical; most
<br>anything government abandons can and will be done in some fashion by
the
<br>private sector, but the outcome will often be unsatisfactory.
This goes to
<br>the idea of public goods in economics (see any textbook on public finance).
<p>two is an argument usefully recapitulated in Bruce Ackerman's Stakeholder
<br>Society. There is no meaningful freedom in a context of gross
inequality.
<br>the whole bit about the poor and the rich having the same right to
sleep
<br>under bridges. Every runner doesn't begin at the same starting
line.
<p>I've debated Cato types quite often but on relatively wonky policy matters.
<br>We typically don't get much into first principles. I also work
on
<br>privatization, but that's also a bit of a diversion, since true libertarians
<br>are not much taken with contracting out and all the many other halfway
<br>houses between government and totally private (i.e., vouchers, franchising,
<br>public enterprises, regulated utilities, etc.). A good general
piece on
<br>privatization is Paul Starr's report for EPI (<a href="http://epinet.org">http://epinet.org</a>).
A good
<br>book along the same lines is Robert Kuttner's Everything For Sale.
<p>The L's used to enjoy contrasting the socialist countries lurch away
from
<br>central planning versus the U.S., but the bloom is clearly off this
rose,
<br>particularly in Russia. Less spectacular but more relevant to
the U.S. is
<br>the panoply of problems in public enterprise privatization in the U.K.
<br>Another common contrast re: the U.S. and Europe hinges on their higher
<br>unemployment rates, about which "Beware the U.S. Model," an EPI book,
is
<br>useful rebuttal material.
<p>mbs</blockquote>
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