Hey, Tina! Thanks for the comments. I guess I am what I’d call a “provisional libertarian”–that view allows me to be comfortable with what I’d call reasonable government regulation and reasonable collective action coordinated by the government.

Generally, I think the government should be hands-off, except where there are what economists call “externalities.” Those are cases where one person’s activities force costs onto other folks (like when my factory pollutes your air) and cases where we can’t do something individually or it’s much more efficient to do it collectively (like when we all pay taxes to pay for police protection). In those cases, I’m comfortable with (reasonable) regulations and (reasonable) taxes/expenditures.

Of course, what’s ‘reasonable’ is where the problems are. You and I, for example, would deeply disagree about the role of free, compulsory primary and secondary education.

My concern is that folks get labeled in the discussions, which focuses others on the labels and not the reasons, data, and options for moving forward. My support for a government program makes me a “socialist”–another person’s opposition to it is just because they are in the “1 percent.” Once that label is applied, the person applying it feels justified in ignoring my ideas not just on that topic, but on all other topics.

OK, well, that’s enough for now…