Free Thoughts

This week we’re joined by Michael Shermer to talk about his book The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom (2015).

What exactly is science, and how does a belief in science advance culture? How are natural rights related to science? How does Shermer define human flourishing—and how does science and reason help us achieve it? What’s the difference between science and pseudoscience, and how can we tell? What, if anything, does government have to do with all this? And lastly, how do scientific beliefs change over time?

Show Notes and Further Reading

Michael Shermer, The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom (book)

Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (book)

Benjamin R. Barber, If Mayors Ruled the World: Dysfunctional Nations, Rising Cities (book)

Sam Harris, The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values (book)

Peter T. Leeson, The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates (book)

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This week we’re talking with Mark Calabria about homeownership and federal housing policy in the United States and its role in the 2008 financial crisis. Why does homeownership seem to be so important in the U.S.—or at least so important to our politicians? How do mortgages work, and how has the government been involved in tinkering with the mortgage market? What do Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration do? How do inflation rates and interest rates affect Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s loan guarantees? How do people respond to these incentives? And finally, what caused the 2008 financial crisis and how can we avoid a repeat crisis?

Show Notes and Further Reading

Randal O’Toole, American Nightmare: How Government Undermines the Dream of Homeownership (book)

Peter Wallison, Thomas Stanton, and Bert Ely, Privatizing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks: Why and How (book)

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This week Peter Van Doren joins us to explain the economics of decision making in politics. What is public choice theory and how does it explain what happens in a majority rules democracy? Is public choice a type of macroeconomic theory? How does ordering a series of votes change their outcome? What’s rent-seeking? What does the phrase “concentrated benefits and diffuse costs” mean? What’s the median voter theorem and how does it affect our politics in America?

Show Notes and Further Reading

Kenneth Arrow, Social Choice and Individual Values (book)

Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy (book)

Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups (book)

James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock, The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy (book)

Michael E. Levine and Charles R. Plott, “Agenda Influence and Its Implications” (article)

Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) (Wikipedia article)

Say’s Law (Wikipedia article)

Pareto Efficiency (Wikipedia article)

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This week we invite Timothy Sandefur to talk about the right to earn a living. Is this right to economic activity one that is upheld by the Constitution? Where did this right come from? How is the right to earn a living being violated in the United States today, and what does the legal environment surrounding this right look like?

Show Notes and Further Reading

Timothy Sandefur, The Right to Earn a Living: Economic Freedom and the Law (book)

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (book)

”Slaughter-House Cases” (Wikipedia article)

”Lochner v. New York” (Wikipedia article)

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This week we’re talking about one of the most bestial and savage things the state can do to the individual: torture. Our discussion is especially relevant in light of the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s detention and interrogation programs.

What exactly did the C.I.A. do and why is it being seen as torture? How long has this program been going on? What makes people say that torture is okay in this situation? What happens now? Can we charge specific people with criminal actions? What does it say about us as a nation if we approve of torture?

Show Notes and Further Reading

U.S. Senate Report on the C.I.A.’s Detention and Interrogtion Program (Full text version, hosted on Wikipedia)

Patrick G. Eddington, “Brennan, Torture, and the Accountability Vacuum” (blog post)

Washington Post, “New poll finds majority of Americans think torture was justified after 9/11 attacks” (article)

Pew Research Center, “Americans’ views on use of torture in fighting terrorism have been mixed” (article)

John McCain CIA Torture Report Senate Speech: Torture Was Ineffective, Stained Our National Honor (video)

NBC News, “Cheney on Interrogation Tactics: I Would Do It Again in a Minute” (article/video)

“The United States of America is awesome…this administration wants to have this discussion to show us how we’re not awesome.” Fox News reacts to Senate torture report (video)

The Daily Beast, “The Luxury Homes That Torture and Your Tax Dollars Built” (article)

CIA Director John Brennan defends agency in wake of torture report (video)

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This week we’re joined by Terence Kealey, Vice-Chancellor Emeritus at the University of Buckingham, to talk about the public funding of scientific research.

Many people believe that science and research are public goods and thus need financial support from the government. But is science really a public good? How does government money sway scientific results? If we got rid of public funding, what would happen to scientific research?

Show Notes and Further Reading 

“Does Public Funding of Science Enhance Scientific Progress?” (Cato Policy Forum Video)

Terence Kealey, The Economic Laws of Scientific Research (book)

“The Sources of Economic Growth in OECD Countries” (OECD Study)

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This week we’re talking about energy, and specifically the fossil fuels that power everything in our modern world from electronics to manufacturing to heating to our trains, planes, busses, boats, and cars.

What’s the “secret history of fossil fuels?” What is the moral case for using fossil fuels? Is it possible to eventually get renewable sources of energy to work well? If using fossil fuels is bad for the environment, should we care? Or is that the wrong way of looking at it? How much has fossil fuel use benefited humanity? Can that be quantified?

Show Notes and Further Reading

Alex Epstein, The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels (book)

Indur Goklany, “Reducing Vulnerability to Climate-Sensitive Risks is the Best Insurance Policy” (essay)

The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels (Cato Capitol Hill Briefing video)

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This week we’re talking about Uber, Airbnb, and other business models that are based on “sharing” human and physical resources, often using information technology to facilitate these transactions. In other words, the sharing economy.

How do these new business models work? Are they even all that new?

Are consumer feedback systems effectively replacing the quality-control mechanisms that are ostensibly the reason for government regulation in these markets? Asked another way, how safe are these services without government licensing and regulatory oversight?

What effect have these new business models had on traditionally regulated services like taxicabs and hotels?

Why do libertarians seem to like the sharing economy so much?

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This week we discuss the philosophy of utilitarianism and it’s relationship with libertarianism.

What is utilitarianism? How is utilitarianism related to economics? What makes utilitarianism seem to work so well when applied to economic thinking? And where does it go wrong?

Show Notes and Further Reading

Adam Gurri, “Morality, Economics, and the Problem with Preferences” (column)

Adam Gurri, “Liberty with Dignity, Mutual Respect, and Morality” (column)

Jeremy Bentham and J. S. Mill, Utilitarianism and Other Essays (collection)

Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun (play)

Alfred C. Pigou, The Economics of Welfare (book)

Ronald Coase, The Firm, the Market, and the Law (book)

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