Philosophisn't

Candidate for Governor of North Carolina Mike Ross dispels myths about libertarians on Philosophisnt. The grievances often addressed towards capitalism, according to Mike Ross, are legitimate but entirely misplaced. There is a case to be made that the economic system we have is not capitalism at all. The inequality, monopolization, cyclical crisis and inflation which others blame on the free market, Ross diagnoses as symptoms of regulatory capture. If Ross is right that the economic organization we have today doesn’t reflect liberalism, then this begs the question of how far we should go to find a solution. The 2008 financial crisis, libertarian education reform, private law and even Hans Herman Hoppe, we discuss in the latest episode of Philosophisnt, don’t miss it!

Dana Daughtry talks to Roman Raies of Philosophisnt about what made it possible for him to overcome the extreme adversities of homelessness, a criminal record, being kidnapped, and addiction to hard drugs in Greensboro North Carolina. While his story is a testament to his personal willpower, it is also a testament to the importance of meeting those on the outskirts of society with genuine faith, patience, compassion, and humility. 

  As someone who has been in their situation, Daughtry is now the founder of Gate City 180, a nonprofit organization that serves the city’s homeless through an approach that seems nonbureaucratic. Government officials can fall into a trap of predicting what programs will work to help the homeless based on theories that do not take into account what the homeless themselves know they immediately need. Blanket-approach interventions and reform may fail to consider meeting homeless individuals to find ways to provide them with the specific need that helps find stability. For example, a person who needs to pay for a licensing and training fee to gain a job could have someone consider their unique case so that the payment is made. Programs relying on preset criteria cannot always do this. 

Congressional Candidate Jose Vega joins Roman Riaes on Philosophisnt to his interpretation of Lyndon LaRouche’s political philosophy, his candidacy, and the types of opposition that it faces. As someone who communicates his views fearlessly, Jose Vega is known for his viral confrontations with Kamala Harris, members of the squad, and what one may call “establishment” figures for their unwillingness to acknowledge when international humanitarian disasters are the fault of the U.S. Similar to LaRouche, Jose argues that a spirit of antigrowth, even antinatalist pessimism pervades politics, culture, and economics. Wars held by the imperial serve the function of limiting population growth when more moderate means do not serve the purpose. Jose Vega as a congressperson would seek to build on the leadership tradition of Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy to significantly bolster public investment into development, even and perhaps especially, when this defies convention. What policymakers should easily accept from Jose Vega’s message is that lasting peace can only be followed by economic development. For this reason, Vega proposes to enact Lyndon Larouche’s Oasis Plan for developing the Middle Eastern region and ensuring that the atrocities inflicted on its people cannot continue taking place.

North Carolina Candidate for Lieutenant Governor Shannon Bray is the man to ask when you have questions about the economy, technology, and the future of policymaking. With his background as a Navy veteran and a technology contractor Shannon Bray has a lot of experience with how administrations think, work, and (dis)function. He joined Philosophisnt co-hosts Roman Raies and Mathew Girardin with his how bureaucracy often creates perverse incentives, why he believes restoring the gold standard is needed, and his personal experiences of facing inefficient and unjust court proceedings. 

As a Libertarian, Shannon Bray argues for his conviction that protecting the natural agency held by individuals is the best way to do good for society. His philosophy for governing is to manage affairs the same way a CEO would manage a business and to leverage technology as much as possible to bring voluntary transactions into public affairs. His idea for city coins aims to allow individuals the means to fund the projects they want to see happen in their cities by choice. The implementation of City Coins may also allow governments to lower taxes. Some of Shannon Bray’s ideas such as issuing a State of North Carolina currency separate from the US. dollars would, if implemented, go against the grain of regulatory precedent so much that they may seem impossible or at the very least destined to attract significant opposition from Federal agencies. In a day and age when the right to issue currency has been maintained exclusively through the Federal Reserve charter for over 100 years, a state currency could significantly impact the status quo of the financial system. Yet, nothing seems too difficult to fathom Shannon Bray who exudes optimism and energy when advocating his cause.

United States Presidential candidate Chase Oliver discusses how he came into politics as a police accountability, and "anti-bush war" activist and how this background forms his ideology. Though some of his stances overlap with progressives, he is not a leftist at all, but a gun-loving, American-style libertarian. In this interview, he defends the classical liberal tradition's view of the individual's relationship to society and challenges conventional wisdom on economics regarding trade wars, monetary policy, taxes, and economic planning. As the only major U.S. Presidential candidate to promise an end to the genocide of Palestinians, Chase's thoughts on freedom of speech may be more relevant than ever. However, he qualified his stance on opposition to Israel's war by adding that the Middle East is "complicated".

The world-renowned dermatology expert, relative of Holocaust survivors, and author Dr. Steve Feldman is running for Congress to represent North Carolina’s tenth congressional district as a Libertarian Candidate. 

Feldman believes that the debt burdening the government is unsustainable and that eliminating the deficit is essential to free resources for more useful allocations. Unlike me and other candidates I have interviewed like the former Libertarian Candidate Jeff Scott, he does not see unsustainable debt and unwise policies as a result of deliberate corruption. He instead believes that people in office genuinely mean well but make misinformed decisions due to shortsightedness, biases, and mistakes. As a Congressperson, he promises to focus on achieving his policy goals rather than making enemies. Having interviewed several political candidates, worked for a political campaign as a publicist and recruiter, and worked for a nonprofit social justice-focused organization as a researcher, I find his optimism to be a very rare trait among the politically active. Some of his statements intrigued me and made me wonder how they would be received if he won office. 

His message on foreign policy rests on ending what he sees as a politics of aggression that creates immoral military actions, unjustified blockages and sanctions, and unnecessary rivalries.  unnecessary death. Despite initially facing pushback from his community, he is adamant about publicly voicing opposition to the maintaining of Israel’s apartheid, which he explained is a legacy of ethnic cleansing rather than a security necessity. His worldview might be best expressed by his historical fiction novel Bent Towards Justice, which I still have yet to read, that tells the story of a Polish Holocaust who confronts his mistaken belief that Palestinians are bound to be enemies of the Jewish people. Altogether, this is a fascinating discussion that I hope you will listen to, and if you live in North Carolina’s tenth congressional district, that you vote for Steve Feldman.

Until the 1940s, Argentina’s political economy was an archetypal example of agro-export model capitalism. Politics existed to serve Argentina’s elite landowning oligarchy whose interests were tied to foreign interests, particularly those of the British empire. Electoral politics was tolerated only so far as it did not interfere with the business of extraction. Argentina’s markets were never laissez-faire, but rather, cronyist. Monopolies like CADE supported politicians in return for capturing Argentina’s markets and state support. At one point, British shippers had the rights to transport 80% of Argentine beef exports and a British company became the beneficiary of loans borrowed from Britain by the Argentine state.

 Argentina’s historical trajectory underwent a reversal just as dramatic as its inception. The elites of today's Argentina are antithetical to those of earlier eras. Populist support gives statist and tight control of Argentina’s finances, industry, trade, and distribution of social services. Instead of using this power for good, Argentina’s politicians exploit it to enrich themselves and their cronies. 

Since that time I have found that almost all of the English language news media is missing crucial context about why Argentina, a country whose economic model involves heavy subsidization of economic and political activity, public industries, and the strongest labor unions in the world would suddenly inaugurate a libertarian “revolutionary” as president. 

Since Milei’s election, it has become very clear that ‘shock therapy’ a mix of currency devaluation and austerity will cause severe economic pain for the average Argentine and even Argentine businesses in the short run. But Juan Ignacio Castellini, former Head of the Justice of the Sarmiento Group, believes that setting Argentina down with a new path of economic development is worth it. Check it out.

Alex Darlington, Chair of the Stair Party argues his wide-ranging, yet poignant critique of the American Political-Economic system. The American government has liberal democratic institutions, but the ways by which society is ruled more closely resemble kleptocratic ones. Rather than giving voters authentic choices to change the status quo, in his view, the two major electoral parties wield power the same way monopolies usurp competition in markets.  The systematic gatekeeping by the Republicans and Democrats drives away dark horse challenger candidates and scares voters into submission by constantly resorting to fearful “Vote for the lesser of two evils” rhetoric. Meanwhile, the government continues to devalue the currency to finance the public debt and America’s chronic trade deficit. During the pandemic, it lavished subsidies on multinational conglomerates that have outsourced production while neglecting the developmental potential of local communities. The Stair Party has a platform to reverse all these trends by spearheading development and industrialization along local lines. Though I challenged Alex on some of his assumptions about the American voter and repercussions in international politics,  I agree with many of his economic beliefs and critiques of corruption, at least in the spirit of devolving power to make it closer and more accountable. This was the single most challenging Philosophisnt conversation I have had so far. He has given me much to think about, and I hope listening to this episode does for you too. 

I speak with Ray Nothstine of the John Locke Foundation about first principles thinking, economic policy ideas, and complicated trends in American politics. He explains the key ideological premises driving tensions between different variations of conservatism within the Republican party and the broader conservative movement.

He is a fascinating thinker whose work I would recommend for thought-provoking insights. 

His key links can be found here in the link

https://www.johnlocke.org/about/team/ray-nothstine/

Matt Torrijos is a construction worker and Marxist who spends his free time researching politics, and reading Marxist theory. In this episode, he gives one of the clearest and most thought-provoking explanations of the Marxist view of history that I have ever heard. Many textbook explanations will emphasize the historical context of Marx's thoughts, but Matt Torrijos takes things a step further; he argues that automation and other technologies Marx only could have speculated about make the progression of stages of history, inevitable.

Matt is also a Christian who believes not only that Marxism is compatible with Christian ethics, but that his ethics as a Christian impel him to support Marxism. He clears up a major misconception about Marx's often-quoted remark about religion as an opiate for the masses and makes a clear case from the Christian tradition why a socialist or communist view is imperative.

We also briefly discuss Matt's relation to Omar Torrijos, the Panamanian leader responsible for gaining control of his country's canal which was a U.S.-held territory until the Torrijos-Carter Treaty of 1977. Matt did not know he was related to Omar Torrijos until after he had become a Marxist and the relationship is more distant than I initially believed. Matt's views on his distant relative are not his area of expertise, but it was very interesting for me to hear what he had to say based on his familiarity with Panamanians.