Topic: "Book club" - page 7. (Read 6482 times)

Read my books, whether you like me or not. They're not snooze-inducing, and they will share with you facts about the world which your ideals do not address.

Why should you have to pay for his ambulance ride? Why should anyone but him? It's his bill, let him pay it.

Oh, and enjoy the book. I'm still trying to work through the "history" part of Political Economy. I sure hope the "theory" part is less snooze-inducing.

Its a cost imposed on society by the careless.  Saying its not "socialised" may mean something to you but all I see is that people are wasting time and money that is not theirs to waste.

I won't reply now until I finish the book or give up.  After a shaky start, he finds his tone in the second chapter and its a good read.

Right, but that is a service, like any other, and there is no need to socialize the cost of any service.

Because you will never leave a injured person die.  Even if they are not covered by insurance, you will always send an ambulance.

Of course. But why do you assume that these costs would be socialized?

Ambulances are not free.  Accident and Emergency wards are not free.  Coroners are not free.  Even if run  by a charity, they must be paid for. 

Aaaaaand thread derailed by our favorite sock puppets before it even began.

How, exactly?

I think you're making an assumption here that you shouldn't be.

Opening of "The Machinery of Freedom" says:

The law compelling people to wear seat belts in backs of cars greatly reduced deaths and injuries.  Since people hurt in car accidents need to be be rescued, failure to wear a seat belt imposes a cost on everyone else. 

Is there any point in carrying on?  The guy clearly thinks society in an infinite money tree to pick up the costs of his carelessness. 

Note to armchair economists, libertarians, etc.: if you can't get a handle on the information that exists in the titles listed above, then you're not in a position to pontificate, speculate, or blow hot air about economic theory. And if you don't understand why, then once again, you're not in a position to spout your pontifications and speculations.

The Dominant Animal - Paul Ehrlich
The Weather Makers - Tim Flannery
The Wolf's Tooth: Keystone Predators, Trophic Cascades, and Biodiversity - Cristina Eisenberg
Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable Development - Herman Daly
The Future of Life - Edward O. Wilson

OK, guys, here's what this thread is about: Over in the NAP thread, niemivh challenged me to read some books to see his point of view. I accepted, contingent on him reading books that I suggest in return. He accepted that, and so we now have struck a deal. His first book for me was The National System of Political Economy, by Friedrich List. My first book for him was The Machinery of Freedom, by David D. Friedman. To facilitate an enjoyable reading experience for myself, I have converted both of these into ePub books. As both books are freely available on the web, I see no harm in sharing these conversions with you. They are DRM free, and can be easily converted into any format of ebook.

The purpose of this thread is both to help me keep track of the reading and discussion, and to allow others to join in on both, if they choose, and make doing so as easy as possible. As such, I am hosting those ePubs I have created, and will include links to them here. If you wish to suggest books for us to read, feel free to do so, though books that are freely available on the internet are preferred. I'd rather not raise an economic barrier to entry to this discussion, if at all possible. I'll continue to host any freely available books, and post the links here.

So with no further ado, I present to you our first two books:
The Machinery of Freedom
and
The National System of Political Economy

My second recommendation is Healing Our World - The Other Piece Of The Puzzle, by Mary J. Ruwart. My third suggestion is The New Libertarian Manifesto, By Samuel E. Konkin, III. As my fourth, and probably final, presentation, I offer up Universally Preferable Behaviour by Stefan Molyneux.

These books present a fairly broad cross-section of how libertarian beliefs have evolved over the years, and a firm basis on understanding my position.

 I will update this post again when I have niemivh's second suggestion.

Update: The discussion over my first book suggestion has gone in an interesting direction. Those of you wishing to do more reading on that subject might want to read The Case for Discrimination and Defending the Undefendable, both by Walter Block. These aren't my next suggestion for the "book club", but some additional reading for those interested in the topic.