Are you finding yourself intolerant of all things liberal? Do you hate environmentalists and regard people on welfare as "lazy bums"? Do you use terms like "muscle mystics" and think Ayn Rand walks on water? Do you regard the Koch brothers as national saviors? Then you have, at the least, a rampant case of radical Free Marketitis! For your sake, so you don't waste tons of time as I did pondering libertarian doctrine, and of course for the sake of the country, check out the books below....please!!:
The Cost of Rights: Why Liberty Depends on Taxes, by Stephen Holmes and Cass R. Sunstein.
Great book which effectively challenges the "taxation is theft" doctrine. Also see the excerpt I've included in this blog.
The Myth of Ownership: Taxes and Justice, by Liam Murphy and Thomas Nagel. Another excellent shot across the bow of the libertarian and hard-core conservative view on taxes.
What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, by Michael J. Sandel. A fine antidote to the mindset behind Walter Block's "Defending the Undefendable,"and an effective attack on some key libertarian nostrums.
Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do, by Michael J. Sandel. As with his above work, Justice directly addresses problems with libertarian orthodoxy.
Why Some Things Should Not Be For Sale: the Moral Limits of Markets, by Debra Satz. Wonderful attack on the ideas propping up the lib/conservative movement's faith in the Holy Free Marketplace.
Austerity: the History of a Dangerous Idea, by Mark Blyth. Being against taxation and hating government in general, libertarians (and now I suppose many conservatives) tend to worship at the altar of fiscal austerity, at least rhetorically, all while often following policies to "starve the beast" leading to even greater deficits. Prof. Blyth lays out the many myths surrounding fiscal austerity thinking and how such policies can threaten political freedom.
Our Declaration: a Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality, by Danielle Allen. Shortly after volunteering to work at Libertarian Party Headquarters in the late '70's, the LP Director at the time handed me a copy of Murray Rothbard's "Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature." I inhaled it of course, along with all paranoid libertarian warnings against promoting equality. Libertarians regard the Declaration of Independence as one of the great founding documents of the modern libertarian movement. But, as Prof. Allen beautifully points out, our Declaration is a clarion call for both liberty and equality.
Dark Money: the Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, by Jane Mayer. This is an absolutely excellent history of the rise of the American plutocracy behind a libertarian facade. It's an eye-opening account of the Koch brothers' full scale assault against good government.
Altruism: the Power of Compassion to Change Yourself and the World, by Matthieu Ricard. This should be must reading for the Ayn Rand newbie who is seriously heading towards becoming a total altruism-hating Randroid. A thorough and magnificent work by the esteemed buddhist monk.
American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper,
by Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson. From Ayn Rand to the Koch brothers, one of the central myths pounded into libertarian doctrine is that there is a severe conflict between government and the marketplace, and that the industrial and technological revolutions we are still seeing today flourished in spite of government interference. From aviation to computers this is historical hogwash. There is also the libertarian paranoia that any close relationship between business and government presents the specter of incipient fascism. Not if it's done the American way, argues Hacker and Pierson. An excellent antidote to free market mythology.
