How should libertarians react to the similarities between statist IP and the statist "climate agenda"?
I wish to make note of a brief comment thread in the blog comments to Stephan Kinsella‘s October 22 Mises Daily post, Rethinking Intellectual Property: History, Theory, and Economics:
“Basically, IP protection schemes favour the large and well resourced over the man of modest means.”
Well said, Sione, and welcome back.
Large industrial firms now use patent IP as a way to erect barriers to entry; while media enterprises use copyright to loot. Meanwhile, the state is happy for help in controlling informal markets.
TT
October 26, 2010 at 5:00 pm
TokyoTom,
Yes indeed. Now extend your line of enquiry some.
Basically, global-warming schemes favour the large and well resourced over the man of modest means. Large well-connected firms now use environmental regulations as a way to erect barriers to entry; while academia uses the politics of “scientific consensus” to loot. Meanwhile, the state is happy for the helpful justifications in controlling all.
Not a great difference from the IP situation really.
Did you realise?
November 7, 2010 at 1:55 am Sione, thanks for your comments; sorry to be so late in responding.
Did I realize?
– that “Large well-connected firms now use environmental regulations as a way to erect barriers to entry”? Sure, it’s been one of my continuing refrains. If we removed environmental barriers to entry+permits, public utility monopolies, limited liability of corporate shareholders, and the role of governments as owners of resources, no doubt we’d see dramatic changes in fossil fuel consumption+technology.
– that “the state is happy for the helpful justifications in controlling all”? Sure, it’s a concern that I have always shared
– that “academia uses the politics of “scientific consensus” to loot”? Academia doesn’t loot so much as it takes advantage of opportunities. Moreover, most researchers believe sincerely that we face a real serious problem; this belief is widely shared in the insurance industries and even in the oil+gas cos. No doubt they and others like Bill Gates would step in to provide funding were governments to stop doing so. http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/archive/2010/02/04/geoengineering-say-it-ain-t-so-bill-world-s-richest-man-revealed-as-sugar-daddy-to-vicious-crackpot-envirofascist-cult-quot-scientists-quot.aspx
TT
By the way, did you realize that there are principled, libertarian approaches that would address climate change risks and concerns?
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/archive/2010/02/10/towards-a-productive-libertarian-approach-on-climate-energy-and-environmental-issues.aspx
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