Podcast Episode

The Living Jewishly Podcast

Free to Be: The Ethics of Libertarianism

Feb 01, 2022 Episode 64

Living Jewishly / Jason Kuznicki

“I’m not going to say that ‘greed is good.’ Greed can be made to DO good, but we’ve got to get the institutional designs right.”

— Jason Kuznicki

When people think of freedom, they usually associate it with the idea of being able to do whatever they want… as long as their actions don’t harm others. The political ideology of Libertarianism is particularly concerned with institutional restrictions on freedom, and pushes for the idea of less governmental control.

But what if freedom alone isn’t enough? What if some people in our society NEED government support or regulations in order to thrive?

This week’s episode of Living Jewishly is an instalment of What Would You Do?, a podcast about ethics in the modern world.

In this episode, Dr. Elliot Malamet’s guest is Jason Kuznicki, a senior fellow at The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. Jason is also the editor of Cato Unbound, its online journal of debate and A Free Society, their quarterly journal of opinion.

In this conversation, Elliot and Jason explore the idea of using public v. private provisions for assisting those living in poverty, the role of government in medicine and the market, and whether Libertarian psychology can be considered a little too optimistic.

“I am skeptical that everybody has that sense of social responsibility… I always saw external monitoring as the necessary evil.”

— Dr. Elliot Malamet

This‌ ‌episode discusses:‌ ‌

Whether liberating some people from government interference involves abandoning others
Areas where government intervention has been more harmful or problematic than the issues it sought to alleviate
The risks of exploitation in a capitalist system without government oversight and regulations

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Highlights:‌ ‌

00:51 Intro

03:30 Jason Kuznicki & private provisions

05:13 Role of government in medicine

07:50 Opioid market example

08:58 Libertarian psychology

11:08 Exploitation & capitalism

15:05 American checks of power

17:33 Helping those left behind

20:21 Pandethics & Covid-19

24:34 Necessary evil & airline example