corporations – Gus diZerega

The DDT Lie

Posted on June 11, 2020June 11, 2020 by Gus

When I was invited a few years ago to attend a meeting of the once classical liberal Mt. Pelerin Society in Salt Lake City I was surprised to hear little in the way of informed conversation about markets and ecologies. … Read more

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Hayekian Insights on Capitalism Part II: Capitalism and labor

Posted on March 19, 2015April 19, 2015 by Gus

Introduction

I am drawing a critical distinction between the role played by the market in coordinating human plans and the institutional forms people adopted in pursuing those plans. Market advocates usually assume because the market is formally voluntary, institutions arising … Read more

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What’s in a Name? Capitalism, Crony Capitalism, and Corporatism: Why Terminology Matters

Posted on March 6, 2015March 7, 2015 by Gus

A number of classical liberals to whom I sent my paper on capitalism and civil society replied there is much with which they agree, but think I should use the term “crony capitalism” rather than “capitalism.” They point out my … Read more

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Hayekian Insights on Capitalism and Civil Society

Posted on February 28, 2015April 20, 2015 by Gus

This is the first of a series of essays on capitalism. This, the first, is a very theoretical discussion, one relatively light on examples. However those that follow will have examples aplenty. But the theoretical framework is needed to make … Read more

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Paradoxes of Freedom: Civil Society and the Market Order

Posted on November 9, 2014September 21, 2019 by Gus

Published in Cosmos and Taxis, Vol. 2, Issue 1, 2014.

Abstract

Civil society maximizes individual freedom. Spontaneous orders emerge from principles expressed more completely within civil society and enable cooperation to take more complex forms than in their absence. … Read more

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Antibiotics and the Market: One more example of the bankruptcy of libertarian ideology

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Gus

Libertarians and ‘free market’ advocates in general claim that markets reflect people’s decisions and values better than any other social institution, and so ‘freedom’ is maximized when markets are ‘unfettered.’ The New Scientist for May 24 has an important example … Read more

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Private prisons as an example of the bankruptcy of libertarian ideology

Posted on April 17, 2014April 19, 2014 by Gus

As a young man I was a libertarian. In time the accumulated problems with the ideology led me to abandon it. But I remain a believer in its most fundamental moral insights (and argue libertarians haven’t any real understanding of … Read more

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Powerful TED talk on health, food, and what corporate agriculture is doing to us

Posted on July 19, 2013July 19, 2013 by Gus

I am linking to a powerful TED talk about the state of American food and health. It is particularly revealing at showing the absolute contradiction between putting profit ahead of everything and the complex moral relationships that make up human … Read more

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Capitalism vs. the Market II: re-integrating markets into civil society

Posted on February 27, 2013February 27, 2013 by Gus

The solution to ending capitalism’s dominance over human beings and human values has two dimensions. First, capitalist enterprises must be subordinated to the larger ethical standards of civil society. The “capitalist ecosystem” I described in Part I must be reabsorbed … Read more

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Pagan Spirituality and the Future of America

Posted on October 6, 2012 by Gus

A new post of mine is now up at Patheos.… Read more

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