LvMI President Doug French brings us an interesting paean to specialization, cooperation and free markets, Plastic Surgery: A Free Society Is a Beautiful Society, that my cussed and contrary nature balks at.
Says Doug (emphasis added):
Cosmetic physicians don’t necessarily specialize in the procedures that are demanded by people of their own ethnicity, illustrating Ludwig von Mises’s point that the division of labor is a unifying influence. These doctors and their patients are comrades seeking beauty, just one tiny example of the division of labor making “friends out of enemies, peace out of war, society out of individuals.”
Plato couldn’t have fathomed cosmetic surgery or certainly the ability of working-class people being able to afford having their looks altered surgically. However, his insight assures us that, in a free society, the cost of cosmetic surgery would fall to allow everyone to have the body and face they want, making society free and beautiful.
While beauty IS definitely in the eye of the beholder, it ain’t skin deep. Chiselled bodies and naturally attractive faces tell us something about the physical, mental and genetic fitness of the individuals who sport them. There’s reason why we find beauty and being in good physical condition attractive (this is more or less encoded in our genes, though our fashion sense may differ somewhat by culture and era).
As we live in a word of others, it is not surprising that we may make efforts to “look good” – but those efforts that go beyond personal efforts to stay fit, or to be in top physical shape for a particular sport, can pose personal and social problems.
Should we likwise cheer on doping or surgical enhancements in sports, and cheating in school and business, or developments in cooperation and specialization that make smooth-talking and lying easier and harder to detect?
Even as I leave choices on cosmetics and cosmetic surgery to those providing and vending it, and have to say sorry, but I prefer to cheer on honesty and hard work over deceipt, in all its seductive forms.
Judith, a climate scientist friend kindly gave me gave me a head’s up to your post.
I have been blogging and commenting for quite some time on environmental and climate issues from a libertarian perspective, and have also spent considerable time on trying both to help libertarians engage productively on environmental issues and to help leftist-environmentalists understand where libertarians are coming from.
Sadly, it’s largely a messy tale, reflecting how fights over government policy tend toward zero-sum games that blunt cooperation, the success that fossil fuel and other corporate interests have had in gaming the system, and how our tribal human nature leads many to abandon critical thinking in favor of choosing and reflexively defending sides and positions.
I have been highly critical of many libertarians in perpetuating unproductive discord, and have been the resident environmentalist pain-in-the-neck at the Ludwig von Mises Institute (for libertarian economics), which kindly hosts my blog. In particular, even while try to build bridges I have been critical of the Cato Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Heartland Institute and MasterResource, which I view as being skewed by donations toward corporate agendas. There are of course some highly productive libertarians working on environmental and conservation matters; Terry Anderson and others at PERC (Properrty and Environment Research Center) have led the way on fisheries, water and other issues. (And then there are quasi-libertarians like Elinor Ostrom.)
Since you’ve expressed interest, allow me to load you up with a few links, to my exchanges with others such as John Quiggin, to my cajoling and castigating of libertarians, and to some of my views on climate/environment issues :
“Towards a productive libertarian approach on climate, energy and environmental issues ” http://bit.ly/ab3xJB
“John Quiggin plays Pin-the-tail-on-the-Donkey with “Libertarians and delusionism” ” http://bit.ly/8Zv5Y6
“A few more comments to John Quiggin on climate, libertarian principles and the enclosure of the commons ” http://bit.ly/eXaTKI
“A few more “delusional” thoughts to John Quiggin on partisan perceptions & libertarian opposition to collective action”http://bit.ly/f0FQ6K
“To John Quiggin: Reassuring climate “delusions” help us all to avoid engaging with “enemies” in exploring common ground ”http://bit.ly/eIFr4e
“The Cliff Notes version of my stilted enviro-fascist view of corporations and government ” http://bit.ly/9oBkC7
The Road Not Taken II: Austrians strive for a self-comforting irrelevancy on climate change, the greatest commons problem / rent-seeking game of our age http://bit.ly/14n6G0
For climate fever, take two open-air atom bombs & call me in the morning; “serious” libertarian suggestions from Kinsella & Reisman!?http://bit.ly/f2bRUr
Thanks, Dr. Reisman; or, How I Learned to Hate Enviros and Love Tantrums http://bit.ly/h4BI0B
“Escape from Reason: are Austrians conservatives, or neocons, on the environment? ” http://bit.ly/cJhov2
“The Road Not Taken V: Libertarian hatred of misanthropic “watermelons” and the productive love of aloof ad-homs”http://bit.ly/cqFlzh
OMG – those ecofascists hate statist corps, too, and even want to – GASP – end that oh-so-libertarian state grant of limited liability!http://bit.ly/gjJFnv
“Who are the misanthropes – “Malthusians” or those who hate them? Rob Bradley and others resist good faith engagement despite obvious institutional failures/absence of property rights ”http://bit.ly/hbONhd
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/search.aspx?q=ostrom
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/search.aspx?q=bradley
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/search.aspx?q=manzi
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/search.aspx?q=michaels
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/search.aspx?q=lewis
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/search.aspx?q=horner
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/search.aspx?q=penn
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/search.aspx?q=bailey
On non-climate issues:
“Too Many or Too Few People? Does the market provide an answer? ” http://bit.ly/8zlecI
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/search.aspx?q=BP+oil
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/search.aspx?q=Avatar
Sincerely,
Tom