James Payne on Six Political Illusions

"The first thing [children] think about of government is that it is like a super parent," says author and Reason Magazine contributor James Payne. Payne points out that seeing government as having the virtues of a parent - wisdom, responsibility, money, unlimited funds for whatever you need - has lead to illusions about what role the government should be playing in our lives.

Payne sat down to talk with Reason TV at Libertopia 2012 in San Diego, Calif. to discuss his book, Six Political Illusions: A Primer on Government for Idealists Fed Up with History Repeating Itself.

Approximately 4:36 minutes. Interview by Zach Weissmueller. Camera by Alex Manning and Zach Weissmueller. Edited by Weissmueller.

Visit http://www.reason.com/reasontv for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason TV's YouTube channel to receive automatic notifications when new material goes live.

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  News & Politics

[TheOmnipotentChurro]

How do you suggest we solve this problem?

A higher minimum wage that will tempt companies to replace low wage jobs with computers?

[TheOmnipotentChurro]

12 years of public "education" + college and a horribly biased media

[gilver4sold]

True

[Julian Dale]

Minus slavery

[CallToWings]

I believe Payne to be overly optimistic - violence at the "retail" level declines only with state monopoly of force. That implicit threat is behind every law in peaceful lands. Where the state can't or won't act (inner cities, black markets) violence remains much higher.

That said, given that states massacred tens of millions in the 20th c, devolving back state monopoly of force might prove a good trade.But to think violence has gone away because "we're getting smarter" is dangerous hubris.

[gilver4sold]

There aren't any third world countries that follow libertarian ideologies.

The first 140 years of US history is the best and closest example of a country

following the basics of libertarian ideology.

[asphyxiafeeling]

As I stated in my previous comment, I am not playing a "blame game". It's a fact that when a company isn't doing so well, one way to save on costs & please shareholders is to downsize, lay off workers and/or replace workers with machines. Your minimum wage argument was a bit silly, that's why I took it upon myself to provide an alternative explanation.

Libertarian economics have been tried in many countries before. I'll send you a video in a message, it's pretty interesting!

[Jesus Silves]

These people have rights, all people have natural rights. It is the fact that their rights are being suppressed and the question is, by whom?

[Jess Winter]

The title of this video was promising.. unfortunately 'Zach Weissmueller likes to talk' would have been more fitting.

[saberur66]

anyone else cry when he talked about force, and how it hurts?  putting it in a humanist way is the best way to talk to people about the initiation of force.

[robhdg]

this guy's a clown. we're passed that? yeah right!

[PrimeConsciousness]

No. Raising wages doesn't do anything other than eliminate jobs.  There needs to be more quality industrial production in the U.S. rather than better wages for shitty service sector jobs. Better wages for vital industrial production is my view. If widespread American industry is not possible in the marketplace, then we're majorly fucked. A people can't indefinitely consume without producing enough to offset their consumption.