Hello, EconLog Readers

In addition to nicely providing a link to my blog, here's what Bryan Caplan says about my recent Campus Progress profile of him:

I've long enjoyed negative-but-fair reviews of my work, but this negative-but-fair review of me personally is even better:

This George Mason economist favors free market biases over legitimate democracy, and has more ears in Washington than you might think.

Given the number and diversity of the links, it's clear that the author, Steven White, is an avid Econlog reader. (Hi, Steven!) Almost everything he says is accurate, though perhaps he should have also told his readers at Campus Progress about my views on immigration, religion, terrorism, and Columbus.

Come on, Steven, even a "right-wing ideologue" is left twice a day.

A commenter on my blog asks how Caplan can be seen as "right-wing." Caplan also seems confused by the company Campus Progress puts him in. And to be fair, I actually did include information about his atheism and distinctly non-right-wing views on immigration, the war, and Columbus in the initial draft, but this got dropped during editing to help in sticking to the point. Also: the article was placed in the "Know Your Right-Wing Speakers" series after it was written, not before. But to the critics in the comment section, Caplan admits the article's characterization is "fair." The difference between us is not a question of facts, but rather a question of what these facts mean. It's telling, of course, that simply explaining Caplan's arguments to the average person (or, in this case, an audience of college liberals) makes them recoil in horror (though Caplan, no doubt, would see as a sort of anti-intellectualism or irrationality). So yeah, Caplan isn't a typical "right-winger." But his economic views -- pretty much unfiltered free trade, deregulation, and so on -- are right-wing, even if some of his other views aren't. And since Caplan is an economist, this is what he focuses on and what he is most known for -- not those other things.

Anyway, to those EconLog readers: Thanks for coming. I hope at least a couple of you stick around.

Comments

[Mireille]

My favorite comment: It's unfortunate Mr. White sees democracy as an end to itself, and not a means to the goal of maximizing individual liberty.

At least they're calling you Mister.

[stuart]

Caplan's example show exactly what’s wrong with left/right labels. Do you think the others included in the right winger series would embrace Caplan as an ally?

Also, those on the right don’t make the most consistent free-traders.

[Steve Miller]

I don't see how you think Caplan's views on immigration or terrorism, for example, aren't economic views. His basic argument is that people underestimate the benefits of immigration and overestimate the costs of both. If your reference to his graphic novel survived the edit, then it seems a strange move (hmm... a biased one?) for your editor(s) to leave out his more left-friendly economic views.

[Alex J.]

The article claims that Caplan thinks "we’d all be better off if you didn’t participate in economic decision-making." That's not true. Caplan thinks everybody should make all the economic decisions regarding themselves and their own property.

Caplan would say we'd all be better off if you (and everybody else too) didn't participate in political decision making.