Patri Friedman on Seasteading

Via Chris Moody of Cato: Patri Friedman will be speaking on seasteading at the Cato Institute Tuesday, April 7.

P2P Foundation Guest Post: Open-Source Healthcare

C4SS: Cost-Plus Markup and Mandatory Overhead

This Week at C4SS: Enemies of What State?

New C4SS Commentary: "Seeds Sprouting in the Rubble"

Thanks to your generous donations: "Seeds Sprouting in the Rubble"

And please keep the contributions coming. We're only $400 away from the $1300 we need to fully fund C4SS for the quarter. The extra money will go to hiring a second news commentator--whose identity, knowing Brad and Roderick, I expect will be a pleasant surprise.

Sean Gabb Remarks on My Org Theory Book

These gracious remarks on my Organization Theory book by Sean Gabb, director of the UK's Libertarian Alliance, appeared on the Libertarian Alliance Forum yahoogroup:

Your book is a masterpiece. It is a great, heavy slab of text. Until you look closely at the cover, it could easily be another of the corporatist manuals written to brainwash students that you find on the shelves in any large bookshop. What it contains is the most radical and complete exposition of true libertarianism that I have ever seen.

I am glad that you have rejected the sectarian approach to these matters. I am not happy with the supposed argument between mutualists and libertarians, or between "left" and "right" libertarians. What you have written is a call to belief for all libertarians. It is a flat challenge to certain kinds of libertarianism. But I think what you have achieved in this book will reshape the libertarian movement into something more in keeping with human spiritual needs than the often arid calls to worship of big business in a world without drug laws.

I do not agree with everything you say. However, I need more time to consider this. There are some things in your book where I think you are wrong. There are many other things where I am not yet in agreement. Since I am not sure what goes under these headings, I cannot write a full review.

Where I do agree with you, however, is your central message that a free society is something utterly different from what we have. The enemy of human contentment is not merely big government, but also big business. Freedom is not Tesco/Wallmart minus the state. It is a world of small, often self-sufficient, communities, in which certain technologies will progress at slower speeds than they do, and in which certain technologies will not exist.

I know that you are a controversial figure within the American movement. Over here, where the libertarian movement is smaller and more homogeneous, and which is often touched by a romantic toryism, I think you have had a tremendous impact.

For me, in particular, your work has remade me as a libertarian. I thought 20 years ago I was a libertarian. I then found myself branching out into all manner of heresies. When Nigel Meek began publishing your works as LA pamphlets, I found all those heresies fully developed. I find that only now am I really able to describe myself as a libertarian.

C4SS Fundraiser: Time Running Out

Things have slowed down quite a bit with the C4SS Fundraiser, so I thought I'd give it another plug. Contributions stalled out at $380 (thanks to the generous contributors!), well short of the $1300 Brad Spangler's trying to collect. Although I have a dog in this fight (part of the money's to fund another quarterly research paper and some weekly commentary), part of it's also to bring in another news commentator. Anyway, if you're considering making a contribution, the time runs out on March 31. Thanks for keeping us in mind!

You can contribute here.