Excuse me for being so graphic, but this is merely to show the ludicrousness of your statement.

Too bad I’m just dreamin’.

I think it could be useful to have someone to say, “Eliminate your central bank. No, don’t go shutting down unlicensed businesses. Don’t you have better things to do than raid organ markets? Wasn’t Social Security a bad enough fiasco the first time arround?” Maybe he wouldn’t have much effect and I certainly think an economist such as Block might have more profitable uses of his time, but I certainly think some good could be done in that situation.

Also, does anyone think the “think tank with a libertarian reputation” could have been the Heritage Foundation? They seem to be more in-touch with the establishment than Cato.

You absolutely have the choice to refuse to pay taxes, just as you absolutely have the choice to join the Iraqi insurgency. It may be a difficult choice, but you still have it.

As I read it, Prof. Block wasn’t given the Hobson’s choice of supporting the American occupation or advising the government on what economic policies Iraq should pursue.

By Block’s rigorous standard, it can be fairly said that by not refusing to pay our taxes and by declining to provide material support to the insurgency, we too are acquiescing in the illegal occupation of Iraq.

I think we should plant seeds wherever we can.

Is a Georgist-anarchist as reluctant to advocate the georgist position as a libertarian-anarchist is reluctant to advocate monarchy? I suspect not by a long shot.

What Dr. Block did was scare off a potential convert by being far too upfront about his views, no different from introducing someone to libertarianism by saying “We want to legalize heroin.” What he should have done, in my opinion is this: avoid mentioning his actual position on what the government should do, and phrase ALL of his advisories in terms of “as long as the US government is going to be ruling Iraq, X is better than Y”. Advocate that the government implement libertarian policies in Iraq, presenting arguments which, if someone were to take them to their logical conclusion, would mean government shouldn’t do much of anything (though don’t, at first, say this explicitly). If your anti-war, anti-intervention position comes up in a negative light and it looks like they’re going to kick you off, point out the benefits of having such a person among them: they could become more popular by having “diverse advisors”. Try to gradually get the band of statists to realize the harms in any economic or social intervention.

I mentioned Leo Tolstoy before. He was a very principled pacifist, and by extension, an anarchist. Yet even he advised his government to continue to intervene, though much less severely than before. He wrote letters to Tsar Nicholas II, begging him to implement (statist) Georgism and even spelling out how it would be done. Did that compromise his ability to preach pacifism?

You had the chance to get back $400/hr worth of your taxes and refused? That’s immoral. You have a positive obligation to suck resources away from the Federal Leviathan. Call the guy back and tell him you have some great ideas for Iraq.

Michael

Would it have been a lie to avoid mentioning this caveat until on the payroll?

No, keeping certain opinions to oneself is not lying. In this case, though, a forthright declaration of principle was called for.

(I)s it lying to avoid discussing the libertarian position on the War on Drugs until you’ve explained other libertarian views to them?

Of course not. Single issues can be treated as such. However, it’s often a good way of bringing your audience around to other libertarian views.

Or should we “on principle” market our ideas poorly?

Of course not. The Advocates for Self-Government is an example of good marketing for libertarian ideas. Admittedly, they soft-sell it somewhat, but few people are ready to hear the unvarnished truth about liberty. The approach taken on this site is hardly the only version.

Should we have denounced the Eastern Bloc reformers, never mind that communism is several orders of magnitude worse than welfare state democracy?

*sigh* Ah, yes, the good ol’ “perfect-is-the-enemy-of-the-good” criticism. All Dr. Block did in this case was tell the gummint what he was willing to do and how much it would cost them (that is, us), and thereby saved everyone a lot of time and money in the process. Three cheers.

Yes: I loved how it promoted Georgist principles, just like Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy. As for your criticism, see my response to RPM.

So are the “pragmatist” critics willing to say that one should write opinions that one believes are false–so long as doing so might move things in the right direction?

I don’t think anyone advocated making false statements. Block could easily have couched any advice he gave them in truthful terms: “The present author believes that the best action the United States government can now take is to leave Iraq. However, as long as it is imposing a tax, it should not tax capital gains.”

Would it have been a lie to avoid mentioning this caveat until on the payroll? I don’t know: is it lying to avoid discussing the libertarian position on the War on Drugs until you’ve explained other libertarian views to them? Or should we “on principle” market our ideas poorly? Should we have denounced the Eastern Bloc reformers, never mind that communism is several orders of magnitude worse than welfare state democracy?

Ludwig von Mises gave advice to the government. So tell me, which beliefs of his [Mises] were false when he advised the government?

“For example, Mises’s position as privatdozent at the University of Vienna was prestigious but unsalaried, so his income from 1909 to 1934 came from his position as economic advisor, and then chief economic advisor, to the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, similar to the U.S. Department of Commerce.”

“Among his duties, he wrote economic analyses of proposed government actions, and he managed almost single-handedly to keep Austria from following Germany into hyperinflation during the early 1920s. He also established the Austrian Institute for Business Cycle Research and hired F.A. Hayek, who later won a Nobel prize for his work on Mises’s trade cycle theory, as the Institute’s first director. Mises’s famous private seminar in these years attracted the best minds in Europe, and produced many outstanding economists.”
http://mises.org/content/mises.asp

This is a particularly ironic response, because that’s exactly what Walter said to me, when I explained that I would not consider teaching economics for a state university. (Although he doesn’t now, I’m pretty sure Walter taught at a state school in the past. He was lecturing me for shooting myself, and the movement, in the foot by not considering such employment options.)

Of course I am proud of Walter’s handling of this incident, but (as some have tried to point out) he didn’t refuse to deal with them on libertarian principle. He told the guy what his suggestions would entail, and the guy wasn’t interested.

So are the “pragmatist” critics willing to say that one should write opinions that one believes are false–so long as doing so might move things in the right direction?

I’ll give a personal example. I once worked at a DOE complex for a private contractor. During the Cold War, this facility built nuclear weapons. I could not have supported this goal. However, during my tenure, the only activity was dismantlement, so I had no problems working there while they were doing the Lord’s work, as it were.

The point is, Dr. Block would have been happy to advise the US Government if its goal was disengagement, and thus meshed with his own. Some say he should have advised them for free. He already has, many times, often on this very website.

Kudos to fancyleprechaun above for noting that the recommendation was likely a practical joke by Cato.

Dr. Block, I’ll be proud to buy you a beer next week! See you all there.

It is interesting to compared the attitude that is found at the Globalization Institute and compare that to the defeatist attitute that can be found here at the Mises institute!

http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/archives/001529.php

“Alex and the GI have made a real mark very rapidly, putting the case for free trade, and against tariffs, quotas and subsidies, and achieving wide media coverage. The case the GI makes is increasingly listened to by governments.”