libertarian argument

Ron has a post up about Abramoff and puerto rico - i dont know the details of this particular story, but it's not surprising that abramoff deals in fringe places - can you see the pattern? marianas, puerto rico, sovereign indian tribes, offshore casinos?

i have a conflicted political perspective - i dont think i've ever said here, but i have an economics degree and an mba - and i ascribe to many of the doctrines that you might expect from someone with such a background. i'm also Very Liberal - and also very libertarian, anti-government like my buddy scott horton. how do i reconcile all of it? well, it's all a bit confused.

when i was younger and acronyms were all the rage, i coined the term PUPPIE - which was a punk-yuppie cross - which is kinda how i described (justified?) myself

the reason that i mention this, in the context of abramoff, is that my tendency is to lean to the anarchic fuck-the-government end of the spectrum. governments make stupid laws (even with the best intentions)- and they are there to be broken/worked-around.

abramoff makes this crystal clear in a bunch of ways - not least when he blackmailed his clients by creating impediments to their business interests - but, for our current purposes, by virtue of the fact that he operated in 'fringe' regions. 'shoulder' regions might be a better descriptor.

when governments say "marianias can stamp stuff 'made in the usa' but dont have to oblige by working conditions regulations" then they are effectively inviting abuse. it doesnt take a genius to find a way to utilize that loophole. similarly, when a government creates a rule where campaign contributions, a la hastert, donations under some artificial $200 limit aren't required to be disclosed, then people will find a way around the law. whenever the government creates an artificial boundary or 'shoulder', smart people will find a way around it.

it was this type of law that gave abramoff the space to do what he did. governments arent smart enough to create laws that are impervious to this type of 'gaming' - and that's why i'm inclined to side with the libertarian argument - despite the bad name they have been getting.