Markets against Modernity: Ecological Irrationality, Public and Private

230 Pages·2019·4.476 MB·English

by  Ryan H. Murphy

Markets against
Modernity
Capitalist Thought: Studies in Philosophy,
Politics, and Economics
Series Editor: Edward W. Younkins, Wheeling Jesuit University
Mission Statement
This book series is devoted to studying the foundations of capitalism from a number of aca-
demic disciplines including, but not limited to, philosophy, political science, economics,
law, literature, and history. Recognizing the expansion of the boundaries of economics, this
series particularly welcomes proposals for monographs and edited collections that focus
on topics from transdisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary perspectives. Lex-
ington Books will consider a wide range of conceptual, empirical, and methodological sub-
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business people, and others in the debate about the proper role of capitalism, business, and
business people in economic society.
Advisory Board
Doug Bandow Stephen Hicks Aeon J. Skoble
Walter Block Steven Horwitz C. Bradley Thompson
Douglas J. Den Uyl Stephan Kinsella
Richard M. Ebeling James Otteson Thomas E. Woods
Mimi Gladstein Douglas B. Rasmussen
Samuel Gregg Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Books in Series
On the Private and Public Virtues of an Honorable Entrepreneur by Felix R. Livingston
The Ontology and Function of Money: The Philosophical Fundamentals of Monetary
Institutions by Leonidas Zelmanovitz
Andrew Carnegie: An Economic Biography by Samuel Bostaph
Water Capitalism: Privatize Oceans, Rivers, Lakes, and Aquifers Too by Walter E. Block
and Peter Lothian Nelson
Capitalism and Commerce in Imaginative Literature: Perspectives on Business from
Novels and Plays edited by Edward W. Younkins
Pride and Profit: The Intersection of Jane Austen and Adam Smith by Cecil E. Bohanon
and Michelle Albert Vachris
The Seen, the Unseen, and the Unrealized: How Regulations Affect Our Everyday Lives
by Per L. Bylund
Global Economics: A Holistic Approach by Clifford F. Thies
On the Private and Public Virtues of an Honorable Entrepreneur: Preventing a
Separation of the Honorable and the Useful by Felix R. Livingston
Perspectives on Ayn Rand’s Contributions to Economic and Business Thought by Edward
W. Younkins.
The Dialectics of Liberty: Exploring the Context of Human Freedom by Roger E. Bissell,
Chris Matthew Sciabarra and Edward W. Younkins
Markets against Modernity: Ecological Irrationality, Public and Private by Ryan H. Murphy
Markets against
Modernity
Ecological Irrationality, Public
and Private
Ryan H. Murphy
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To populists of all parties,

Contents
List of Figures, Tables, and Text Boxes ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
1 Trade is Good 1
2 “Extreme Voter Stupidity” 15
3 The Obvious and Simple System of Unnatural Liberty 27
4 Ecological Irrationality in the Wild 43
5 Bohemian Status-archy 61
6 Anarchy, State, and Dystopia 77
7 Too Much Social Capital 99
8 The Poverty of DIYism 117
9 Social Luddism 129
10 Whither Expertise? 147
Concluding Remarks 161
Appendix: Trade is Bad? 169
Bibliography 177
Index 207
About the Author 213
vii

List of Figures, Tables, and Text Boxes
FIGURES
Figure 1.1 F reedom to Trade and Logged RGDP per Capita
(PPP adjusted). 5
Figure 1.2 Freedom to Trade and the Human Development Index. 5
Figure 1.3 F reedom to Trade and Infant Mortality Rates
(Per 1,000 Births). 6
Figure 1.4 Freedom to Trade and Life Expectancy. 6
Figure 1.5 Freedom to Trade and Happiness. 7
Figure 1.6 Freedom to Trade and Inequality. 7
Figure 1.7 Freedom to Trade and Extreme Poverty. 8
Figure 1.8 Freedom to Trade and Poverty. 8
Figure 4.1 Demand and Supply, Drawn Conventionally. 45
Figure 4.2 N ear Neoclassical Demand and Conventional
Demand Curves. 46
Figure 6.1 The Irrationality-Risk Tradeoff? 82
Figure 9.1 Taxonomy of Private Anti-Growth Social Action. 130
Figure 10.1 One Drawing of the Expertise Tradeoff. 155
TABLES
Table 4.1 W illingness-to-Pay Implicit in Refusing Vaccinations
of Children 52
Table 5.1 Periods of Conspicuous Consumption 65
ix