it occurs to me that we might not be in disagreement at all. could you clarify that the claim this comment is making is that “free-market loving libertarians” specifically are against collusion, including collective bargaining as unions?
if this is rather a personal political opinion, then i will say that you may very well be right! i simply do not understand the issue enough to have an opinion either way. my initial claim was narrowly about what a principled libertarian would say, and not at all intended on behalf of any specific policy.
The grandparent comment is stating my opinion. I can’t speak for all libertarians. There are some libertarians who say all government intervention is bad. My position (which I think is a popular position on LW, and popular among economists) is that governments should support free markets, which de facto looks like libertarianism most of the time because most government intervention makes markets worse, not better. But there are some circumstances where government intervention is justified, like breaking up monopolies and regulating externalities.
I don’t have a strong opinion on whether the econ 101 arguments are the strongest consideration, but I weakly believe the government should ban labor unions in the same way it bans price-fixing collusion in general.
it occurs to me that we might not be in disagreement at all. could you clarify that the claim this comment is making is that “free-market loving libertarians” specifically are against collusion, including collective bargaining as unions?
if this is rather a personal political opinion, then i will say that you may very well be right! i simply do not understand the issue enough to have an opinion either way. my initial claim was narrowly about what a principled libertarian would say, and not at all intended on behalf of any specific policy.
The grandparent comment is stating my opinion. I can’t speak for all libertarians. There are some libertarians who say all government intervention is bad. My position (which I think is a popular position on LW, and popular among economists) is that governments should support free markets, which de facto looks like libertarianism most of the time because most government intervention makes markets worse, not better. But there are some circumstances where government intervention is justified, like breaking up monopolies and regulating externalities.
thanks. that all seems reasonable.
regarding labor unions, do you think the government should regulate their formation, since they involve price-fixing collusion?
I don’t have a strong opinion on whether the econ 101 arguments are the strongest consideration, but I weakly believe the government should ban labor unions in the same way it bans price-fixing collusion in general.
i see. so if the union obtains monopoly pricing power (according to some definition), it should be broken up then?