progressivism, individualism, and the public ... - Telmarc Group

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The Telmarc Group PROGRESSIVISM, INDIVIDUALISM, AND THE PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL "The general point illustrated by the Wilt Chamberlain example and the example of the entrepreneur in a socialist society is that no end-state principle or distributional patterned principle of justice can continuously be realized without continuous interference with people's lives." Indeed, the case of the entrepreneur in a socialist society is in and of itself an oxymoron. There could not be an entrepreneur. Why would anyone want to create a business knowing that the fruits of their labor and money would be expropriated by the state upon successful completion. Further, he also goes on to discussing Sen and the "Jury Theorem" so belabored by Sunstein and clearly shows again that 141 : "Thus Sen's argument leads us again to the result that patterning requires continuous interference with individuals' actions and choices." This is a statement about the individual and it is a statement which clearly reinforces his other remarks that any form of distributive justice is expropriation, interference and one could argue value reducing to society as a whole, 5.4.4 Libertarian vs Individualararian Libertarians are proponents of minimalistic government above all other principles. They all too often are posed as seeking as little government as is necessary to keep them just on the reasonable side of not being an anarchist. In addition as an Ayn Rand advocate may even postulate they seek abject laissez faire and Spencerian survival of the fittest. As we have stated earlier, Individualism takes not stand of this type, it is akin to classic liberalism in the protection of the rights of the individual above all. Wolff provides a critique of Nozick and the libertarians. He states 142 : "From a Rawlsian point of view, the error of libertarianism is to take principles of legitimate expectations from within the structure and claim that the structure should be formed in accord with those principles. That is, all claims of entitlement, are for Rawls, relative to a prior structure. Nothing is "mine absolutely" but only "mine given the rules". Libertarianism forgets this essential relativism of claims of entitlement." If one is a believer in natural law and natural rights then one would shout "Nonsense" at what Wolff had just said. There is for those who believe in natural rights, such as those who wrote the US Constitution, that there is a natural right for freedom, that man is not born to be slave, despite the Jeffersonian schizophrenia that distort so much of our founding fathers efforts. Further as we show, Nozick admits that property is property per 141 Nozick, Anarchy, p. 166. 142 Wolff, Nozick, pp 141-142. Page 130
The Telmarc Group PROGRESSIVISM, INDIVIDUALISM, AND THE PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL the rules, not ex nihilo, Nozick's principles of entitlement expressly state that the rules apply, for indeed they must to be enforced. Further Wolff seems to neglect the third rule, restitution which in and of itself requires rules and enforcement. For this reason and others Nozick set forth a strong philosophical base for both libertarianism and for individualism. I would argue his basis for individualism is even stronger. 5.5 OTHER NEO INDIVIDUALISTS We review here a few other neo-individualists who add to the overall base of ideas. 5.5.1 Joseph Schumpeter Schumpeter was an economist whose expertise was business cycles and his major work entailed examination and analysis of the business cycle in various venues. As McCraw states: "In 1939, Schumpeter published his two-volume, 1,095-page tome, Business Cycles , after more than seven years of concentrated research. He was fifty-six years old at the time and had been a professor at Harvard since 1932. He was well known throughout the world, having published scores of articles, over seventy book reviews, and three books, including the brilliant Theory of Economic Development (1911; English translation, 1934)…. Business Cycles was Joseph Schumpeter’s least successful book, measured by its professed aims and several other yardsticks. Yet the book has two vital aspects that have largely been overlooked. First, the prodigious research that went into its writing caused a significant change in Schumpeter’s thinking about capitalism. It moved him to a more historical and empirical approach that shaped nearly all his subsequent work. And second, much of the book constitutes a preview of modern, rigorous business history. This article explores both of these elements—not in the spirit of rescuing a neglected classic, because the book is not a classic. Instead, Business Cycles is a noble failure that paid unexpected dividends both to the author and to scholarship." McCraw then explains the role the entrepreneur plays in the business model and society in general: "Of all economic systems, capitalism best enables people to create ventures before they possess the necessary funds and other resources to found an enterprise. For any given innovation, the Entrepreneur “may, but need not, be the person who furnishes the capital.” In the end, “it is leadership rather than ownership that matters.” The failure of both the classical economists and Karl Marx “to visualize clearly entrepreneurial activity as a distinct function sui generis”—a distinction Schumpeter Page 131
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progressivism, individualism, and the public ... - Telmarc Group

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