The Libertarian Penumbra

I would rather say that libertarians don’t believe (or are skeptical) that global warming is caused by humans, rather than believing that it doesn’t exist. (I personally think it is harder to trick temperature measurement -although feasible- than to manipulate sloppy correlations/econometric brouhaha.)

I would quip to Bryan that an essential tenet of most Libertarians is that they tend to be more skeptical of activist monetary policy and of the virtues of fiscal deficits than the average citizen and even than the average economist. That is orthodox economics more than a belief in freedom, but (classical) liberal economists made the link: Central planning of the monetary sector is a source of enormous power for the State (for instance to finance wars), and so is the ability to throw the taxpayer into debt.

Some I have personally noticed that may or may not be true:

Libertarians have been quick to embrace the internet.

Libertarians are more likely to be smokers then the general population.

Libertarians tend to fall into the NT category of the Myers Briggs typology at a disproportionate rate.

Home schooling also eliminates one of the most important roles of primary education – which is teaching young people how to interact with other human beings.

The most important role of primary education as it exists in the West is to provide eight hours of babysitting five days a week for twelve years on the taxpayer’s dime. Young people learn how to interact with other human beings by playing with friends, neighbors, siblings and parents, as well as any number of voluntary associations like churches and sports teams. The education system just forces young people to interact primarily with other people their age for long stretches of time.

My best guess for why homeschooling makes you cringe is that home schooled kids tend to be a lot like their parents and the median home schooling parent is admittedly a bit off. But I hold that the median home schooling parent has, over the years, come to asymptotically resemble the median white or asian suburban American. And that’s not so off. (The weirdos are definitely still out there, though.)

Full disclosure: I was home schooled for three grades and my wife and I are currently home schooling our children.

I would suggest the following (some repeats, I know):
– Libertarians are skeptical of global warming as a political/statist concept (and unlike Scott, I think there is very little about global warming and climate change that isn’t massively politically biased and heavily statist, hence I’m skeptical of the vast majority of it).
– I once thought that most libertarians would be atheists, given that most libertarians (again an assumption) are skeptics. I’ve since been well schooled that religion and libertarianism is well connected (under the belief that a libertarian society is the best opportunity to freely practice your religion). I’ve changed this stance to be more like, “I’m confused how strong skeptics aren’t generally libertarians.”
– Libertarians are likely less disposed to home schooling than heavily religious types, but more disposed to it than the general population. I realize that I (and I won’t speak for my wife) am not a good (read: patient) enough teacher to keep my kids home and teach them for the 2 hours per day it would take for them to keep up with their public school system peers (leaving 11 other waking hour for socialization). But, I’d take home schooling over the public system in most US metro areas.
– Libertarians are much more likely to hold a belief in gold as a “ideal” currency
– Philosophically cogent libertarians (i.e. those without much logical conflict) are more likely to volunteer than average (based on my observations). (I think I’ve seen stats backing this up).
– Like Scott, I also cringe at a lack of empathy shown for a strong civic culture, and (self funded) non-profit enterprises.
– I’m pretty sure that most libertarians are knee-jerk anti-“government”, missing the point that if government were competitive and non-coercive that many (most?) would be in favour of some kind of voluntary redistribution.

Blackadder wrote;

One wonders how human beings managed to interact with each other during the bulk of human history before the advent of primary education.

They got jobs when they were 10

AMV wrote

The most important role of primary education as it exists in the West is to provide eight hours of babysitting five days a week for twelve years on the taxpayer’s dime.

No, the most important role of primary education is providing a population able to participate at a minimal level within the civic system and is competent enough to be productive at a minimum level in the workforce.

But I hold that the median home schooling parent has, over the years, come to asymptotically resemble the median white or asian suburban American. And that’s not so off.

Only if the median white or asian suburban American has a disagreement with the civic system as to the proper values and courses of education.

And that is certainly not so.

Many libertarians are anti-union. This is not a logically-entailed position, and, given the realization that many antitrust laws favor business, one would think libertarians would be sympathetic of unionization in certain contexts.

Somtimes it’s all how you frame it. A strong preference for gold-backed currency is crazy I suppose. A fundamental mistrust of fiat money? Not so crazy.

I think libertarians are much more likely to be accepting of the right to homeschool but I seriously doubt that libertarians are more likely to homeschool themselves. Public school with vouchers is a pretty mainstream libertarian dream.

Regarding IQ tests, can we accept that they measure something valid without accepting the full Charles Murray IQ = destiny scenario? I’d be cool with that.

Besides Caplan’s core, my libertarian penumbra includes asset forfeiture prior to conviction, bogus occupational licensing laws against things like hair-braiding or jitneys, eminent domain abuse, and to be sure more that I can’t think of at the moment.

The main thing that makes me cringe is libertarian denial of externalities such as pollution.

Libertarianism implies opposition to government population control, but it doesn’t imply another view common among libertarians: that population growth has major economic benefits because people are “the ultimate resource.”

I believe Robert A. Heinlein was an example of a libertarian who was opposed to government population control, but also did believe in Malthusianism.

I’ve noticed that libertarians tend to like science fiction more than the general population. That might come from what Cole wrote earlier about being NT on Myer-Briggs, libertarians like thinking about big ideas, and SF is the best type of fiction for that. Of course, it might also be that libertarianism and SF fandom are both correlated with being smart 🙂

Bryan,
I don’t consider myself a fan of home schooling in the least. In fact, I have a great respect for our public education system. To show my libertarian colors, I’m not sure it’s worth the cost to the tax payer but, in my area, the public education is better than the private.

My child needs education from me to expound upon our shared interests but he absolutely needs professional educators to provide a well balanced education.

In the absence of adequate publicly funded education I would do my best to ensure he received private education (this may be the more typical true libertarian feeling. I don’t know.) But this would not typically be defined as home schooling.

Thank you,
Ed

“I realize that I (and I won’t speak for my wife) am not a good (read: patient) enough teacher to keep my kids home and teach them for the 2 hours per day it would take for them to keep up with their public school system peers (leaving 11 other waking hour for socialization).”

It doesn’t take two hours per day of teaching by a parent or anything close. There are books, the internet, other kids, lots of resources for learning things other than being taught by an adult.

Both of the children of my current marriage were first unschooled in a very small and unconventional private school and then home unschooled—total classroom time or equivalent, at home or at school, close to zero. As best I can tell, they ended up better educated than most of their age peers, despite no curriculum, no homework, no required study, just lots of encouragement, conversation, and the like.

Sort of the way I learn things.

As to socialization, I think making children spend most of their time in age segregated groupings where everyone is a direct competitor and status competition likely to be a primary activity results in less attractive socialization than letting them interact with a range of ages. As they will be doing for the rest of their lives.

Finally, I suggest that some of the patterns of libertarian belief being noticed represent not the presence of libertarian beliefs but the failure to conform to current liberal orthodoxy.

Just checking …

I’m indifferent about the death penalty. Kill the guy or stick him in a cage for the rest of his life. What do I care?

I tend to not agree with much about religious people’s religious beliefs, but I don’t fear them.

I think libertarian presidential candidates should dress better and shave.

I favor legalized marijuana, but not doctors prescribing it for bogus reasons. It seems our drug policy must always taint something.

Global warming? I think that most libertarians wouldn’t mind letting that science cook for a while before we restructure society around it. Good thing all those world government progressives already had the solutions ready!

Carl:
Although I do not necessarily trust teachers to do a legitimate job of imparting lasting knowledge and skills to children, I trust them a hell of a lot more than over-protective parents.

Yikes! That’s straight out of Rousseau’s social contract.

More to the point of the post, and acknowledging that every camp has their fringe element which I will leave out of my generalizations – libertarians are more likely to:

1 – mind their own business. That might sound overly broad, but that is huge and it seems to differentiate solid conservatives from real libertarians. (Good conservatives always seem to have an evil twin appear as soon as they are in a position to impose their will on someone else.)

2 – Be skeptical of public consensus. This includes global warming of course. The criticism of this skepticism on GW seems to stem from others needing to categorize everyone in to two extreme camps that are based solely on political agenda and not an actual desire for the truth. This skepticism applies to other such phenomenon as well – see Russ Roberts’ recent podcasts on the vaccination scare.

3 – They tend to be more open to new information. This is almost by definition since one has to make an effort to be informed and not be part of the two party agenda seeking majority.

Agreement between Free bankers and advocates of 100% banking to remove Legal tender Laws and deposit insurance.

In my experience – and this ties into the IQ thing – libertarians tend to press harder on genetics/personal responsibility and less hard on social factors/indirect incentives to explain human actions. So for example, libertarians seem to disproportionately reject ideas like “crime is caused by poverty.”

Contra Andy Hallman, I don’t think these positions are bad faith, it’s just as likely that causation goes the other way – i.e. if you become convinced that crime causes poverty or that there’s something we can do about global warming, you might stop being a libertarian.

4. Distrust of democracy.

I can’t wrap my head around the amount of doublethink necessary for this statement to come out of the mouth of an economics professor. You cringe when someone is distrustful of democracy? seriously?

It was mentioned above once, but I find sci fi fandom to be very libertarian heavy. I don’t know if this is the chicken, or the egg, but some of the best sci fi is very libertarian.

Libertarians are optimistic about the future, believing that new technologies and human ingenuity will improve the human condition. Libertarians don’t fear the future, they embrace it!

I think that libertarians tend to be more rational and data driven and so are less likely to, for example, fear heath effects of pesticides in food.

Oddly enough I think libertarians tend to be more skeptical consumers.

There seems to be a tremendous amout of prejudice and misinformation attached to the loaded term “home schooling.”

In our experience, families are better understood on a continuum from those who believe that the local school board is better at deciding what constitues a good academic and social education to those parents who believe that they are capable of knowing what is best for their children.

Parents of this second type will often send their children to public or private schools if they believe they are getting a good return on their investment. However, they will also often supplement to fill the gaps between what is provided by the institution and their own idea of a good education.

For many parents they reach a point where the time or money spent in the institution are a worse ROI than that derived from supplementing. At this time they might sever their ties with the institution and become “home schoolers” but this is usually a reversible decision that is re-evaluated constantly.

My experience is that children of this second group of parents are far better socialized and accomplished than children of the first set.

Thinking that individuals are better able to choose and pursue values than government bureaucrats seems perfectly in accord with libertarian thinking and is far more important than getting hung up on fashionable and overly broad terms like “home schooling.”

The non-libertarian belief common amongst libertarians — often, indeed, used by libertarians while arguing for liberty — is that “people are basically good.”

Youths in unconstrained groups of their peers tend to be quite cruel. When these groups are adjunct to the slave society of public schools, they become, perhaps, even more cruel. (See David Henderson’s two excellent posts, above.)

I’ve long pondered: What do libertarians think the origin of anti-liberty social system are? Intellectual mistakes? Sure. But not just that. The impulse to form in-groups and dump on out-groups is quite strong in human beings, as it the love of cruelty while feeling self-righteous. Human beings are, in their political attitudes, often amazingly wicked. The desire to live at others’ expense is often quite integral with human nature, too. All these aspects of human nature are just as core as the forbearance that liberty requires, and justice demands.

I find the notion that “humans are basically good” to be one of the great puzzles of your “libertarian penumbra.”

@Mark Plus:

“Doesn’t the gold standard impose a Malthusian constraint on the human population? “The ultimate resource” invented fractional reserve lending and fiat money to get around that constraint, but many libertarians want to shackle the human mind when it comes to this particular resource.”

No, not at all. The AMOUNT of money doesn’t matter in the long run, remember only shocks in the amount of money or changes in interest rates matter.

@twv:
‘I find the notion that “humans are basically good” to be one of the great puzzles of your “libertarian penumbra.”‘

No we don’t believe that at all.

We believe they are rationally self interested, which can be either good or bad depending on the environment we are in and the ‘rules of the game.’

@Scott Sumner:
“4. Distrust of democracy.”

Have you not read Buchanan, Arrow, etc? There are many, many good reasons to distrust democracy, even if it is on the whole better than autocracy.

I’ve not noticed any libertarian interest in homeopathic medicine, but I think libertarians are more interested than others in non-mainstream approaches to healthy living.

Libertarians seem to be unusually attracted to stuff like paleolithic and low carb eating, crossfit workouts, and sports like Brazillian jujitsu. Maybe it stems from greater willingness to deviate from social norms, but libertarians seem to be involved this stuff with far more frequency than chance would dictate.

Prof. Sumner’s point about individualism confused me:

7. Confusing individualism with libertarianism.

Which of the twenty-odd definitions/meanings of individualism does he object to libertarian conflating with libertarianism?

All of them? One in particular?

Re Democracy:

Libertarians tend to focus much more on what a government does than how it is chosen. All things being equal a libertarian will favor a democratic form, but “all things being equal” is wide enough to fit the entire universe with room to spare.

A libertarian monarchy is preferable to a democratic tyranny, although a libertarian democracy is preferable to a libertarian monarchy.

This game could be a lot of fun. Here are some nominations:

1. Bathing is for sissies.
2. Computer code is the highest form of poetry.
3. Courtesy is a sign of degenerate altruism.
4. If your child walks on my grass and I blow his head off, it’s his own damn fault. Or maybe your own damn fault.
5. Science fiction is the highest form of political philosophy.

As libertarians, we staunchly believe in freedom of association. Therefore, if the owner of a private business wants to refuse to serve certain customers based on race for example, we would have to legally support him on this position. This makes me cringe but I see no other way. Sign me up for the boycott.

(American) libertarians are almost all:

* capitalist

* anti-anti-consumerist