Matt Zwolinski on Libertarianism

Matt Zwolinski is professor of philosophy at the University of San Diego and the founder and director of USD’s Center for Ethics, Economics, and Public Policy. Zwolinski is the co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Libertarianism, and he is the co-author, with John Tomasi, of The Individualists: Radicals, Reactionaries, and the Struggle for the Soul of Libertarianism (available April 4 and available for preorder).

This is the Self in Society Podcast #30.

TIME MARKERS

00 Intro

0:54 Murray Rothbard, paleo-libertarianism, the “Mises Caucus,” and the meaning of libertarianism

4:06 The “family resemblance” among strains of libertarianism

6:22 Would Mises be in the “Mises Caucus”? Mises’s liberalism

12:57 Baggage with the libertarian label16:46 Locke’s views of property rights

23:24 Henry George’s objections to Locke

26:23 Property rights as the central conundrum of libertarianism

30:18 Limits to Georgism; resources and production

38:45 More on resources and production

44:29 House values, NIMBYism, and rent-seeking

49:35 Strategies to solve “Lockean proviso” problems

52:07 Existing property rights as historically problematic

58:15 Addressing the U.S. Black/white wealth gap

1:00:15 Property generally as making the world a better place

1:05:01 Would reparations solve past injustices better than a basic income?1:10:00 Systemic racism: criminal justice and education

1:13:49 Libertarian individualism and structural racism

1:15:42 Housing policy and structural racism

1:17:48 Methodological individualism and social justice

1:25:20 Emergent racism

1:28:27 The importance of more open immigration; implications for a basic income

1:33:15 A basic income as better than the existing welfare state

1:41:17 Matt’s forthcoming books on the basic income and exploitation

1:42:36 wrap-up

Zwolinski’s professional page offers links to his various books, including The Individualists, which comes out April 4 (available for preorder).

A couple of Zwolinski’s essays on the basic income are available online: “A Moral Case for Universal Basic Income” and “Property Rights, Coercion,and the Welfare State.”

The Routledge Companion to Libertarianism contains the essay mentioned by Zwolinski, “Self-Ownership,” by Daniel C. Russell.

April 4 Update: I published my review of the book.

Music by Jordan Smith.