Of Individual Rights
What do you think should be the relationship between the state and the citizen?
Does the state exist for the well-being of the individual? Or does the individual exist for the progress of the state?
Amit Varma is an Indian journalist, podcaster and self reported 1 of 2.5 libertarians in India. Libertarianism apart from being difficult to pronounce and hard to spell is also quite a misunderstood ideology.
Its also called classical liberalism by the academics today because the word “liberal” has become more of a cuss word these days.
Its defined mainly as a system where we value individual freedom and rights above anything else. Amit argues that in its ideal form there should be no need of the state at all. There should only be free prosperous individuals living in perfect harmony fulfilling each others needs.
Yet the paradox of classical liberalism is that you need a basic minimum government with some power to ensure that all individuals rights are protected. For example, the government needs to have a monopoly on violence to ensure the right to life of the entire citizenry.
These principles apply widely to many debates we are having as a society today. Right from our freedom of expression, to our freedom of sexual orientation, our freedom of privacy of our biometric data.
Listen to this podcast from Amit Varma’s show The Seen and the Unseen, he explains that libertarianism ultimately comes down to one word: consent.
Ep. 64: Libertarianism | The Seen and the Unseen — hosted by Amit Varma
These ideas are also applicable to a lot of economic conundrums we face in times of crises such as recessions and depressions.
Almost after every recession we provide bailout packages and stimuluses to protect large corporations. We artificially foster demand by printing more money which ultimately sows the seeds of the next downturn.
As classical liberal thinker FA Hayek would say, we should let organic economies run their course, companies to go bankrupt, that is the right way to weed out inefficiencies in a market and build a sustainable long term system.
Its hard to pick a side when the stakes are so high. To understand the issue better watch these two really cool RAP battles between John Maynard Keynes and FA Hayek. These are produced by the guys at Emergent Order.
Fear the Boom and Bust: Keynes vs. Hayek — The Original Economics Rap Battle!
Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek — Economics Rap Battle Round Two
You are the average of the 5 types of content you consume most online.
Subscribe to The Wisdom Project to receive a curation of the best that the internet has to offer.
We send 1 Email every Sunday.
