March 15, 2011
Fairnessland and Economic Growth
Update: Some readers are having a surprisingly difficult time understanding this post. So, here is the question I'm interested in: Suppose it turned out, empirically, that improving the income level…
All posts in: Social Justice
March 14, 2011
Values Matter
Fernando Tesón writes, in a thread that has generated some useful discussion, that the disagreement between bleeding heart libertarians and progressives is “exclusively empirical.” Three quick thoughts in response: I…
March 13, 2011
Class Experiment on Helping the Poor
Consider this a follow-up to “Advocating vs. Caring vs. Helping”. I teach Peter Singer’s “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” at least once a year. Here’s a brief, stylized summary of the…
March 13, 2011
Why We Don’t Agree
The remarkable truth of this conversation between bleeding heart libertarians and progressives is that our disagreement is exclusively empirical. If we all agree that political institutions should be arranged to…
March 12, 2011
On Bleeding Hearts and Crocodile Tears
I wasn't quite sure how to react to Art Carden's essay, after first reading it. On the one hand, it wasn't as though I actually disagreed with any of his…
March 11, 2011
Advocating vs. Caring vs. Helping
I recently discussed whether libertarians are “callous”. In my first post, I said I am a neoclassical liberal, not a libertarian, in part because social justice plays a prominent role…