Matt Zwolinski

The Cost of Building Progress - Econlib Book Review of: Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress–and How to Bring It Back by Marc J. Dunkelman,1; and Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson.2 Vera Coking and the Cost of Progress In 1961, V...

Abundance theorists are right to focus on the importance of building things. But by ignoring public choice theory, they miss the risk that state-driven growth will benefit the elite rather than the masses. My review of _Abundance_ and _Why Nothing Works_, at Econlib.
www.econlib.org/library/colu...

On Polycentrism and the New Classical Liberalism. Neoliberalism is dead; Long live Neoliberalism!, pt 1. Fairly or not, neo-liberalism (and its cousin new public management) ended up being associated with monopolistic privatization, the Financial Crisis and the Great Recession, Austerity, and Pinochet.

On Polycentrism and the New Classical Liberalism. Neoliberalism is dead; Long live Neoliberalism!, pt 1.
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
with a shout out to @mattzwolinski.bsky.social @vladtarko.bsky.social, @drnickcowen.bsky.social

Grab your copy today!

t.co/DTAlc8RpfK

Companion website here with sample quizzes, tests, and writing assignments. Plus extensive study questions for every reading in the book.

routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/_a...

Out today! The new and massively revised third edition of Arguing About Political Philosophy, co-edited with the fantastic @mjuarezgarcia_ . Perfect for courses in political philosophy or PPE.

This is a really great interview, Berny. You did a fantastic job of letting her get her point of view out while still really pushing her where she needed to be pushed. 👏👏

Ghoul Stephen Miller warns NYC is what happens when a society “fails to control migration”

Careful guys, if you don’t control migration you might turn out like <checks notes> the greatest, wealthiest city in the world.

Trump channeling his inner Thomas Carlyle for Juneteenth.

“Quashee, if he will not help in bringing out the spices, will get himself made a slave again…and with beneficient whip, since other methods avail not, will be compelled to work.”

Photo from Carlin Stiehl from the LA Times. Dozens of people holding American flags on the streets of LA are in frame, with a massive cloud of tear gas billowing in front of them. One protester holds a sign that reads Immigrants Make Us Great.

Truly wild photos coming in from Los Angeles right now.

Feels like a good time to repost this.

Ya think?

Oh geez. Just noticed the typo! My head hangeth in shame.

To Fight Authoritarianism, Libertarians Need to be More Pro-Liberty, Not Just Anti-State Blogger Noah Smith’s praise for libertarianism comes at an odd time but offers an opportunity to clarify the side that has contributed to human freedom and flourishing

Picking up on a distinction introduced by the late great Steve Horowitz, I argue that libertarians make a mistake when they equate being anti-state with being pro-liberty.

Thank you, Eric!

Arguing About Political Philosophy This Third Edition of Arguing About Political Philosophy is the most complete, up-to-date, and interdisciplinary anthology of its kind. Its selections cover classic philosophical sources such as those...

www.routledge.com/Arguing-Abou...

Page proofs are in! Coming your way this July.

Reading @anneapplebaum.bsky.social's excellent, _Autocracy, Inc._. I can’t recommend it enough as a guide to understanding the rising tide of 21st century authoritarianism. And some of what she describes sounds eerily familiar…

Libertarians Weren’t Always Apologists for the Rich and Powerful A new history of libertarianism challenges the conventional understanding of the tradition by spotlighting its radical currents. Unfortunately, there’s barely a remnant of that history today — most li...

@mattpolprof.bsky.social

jacobin.com/2023/04/libe...

WH has now confirmed: this is insane nypost.com/2025/04/02/u...

If you're uncertain if this book is for you because you're not a socialist, check out this podcast I did with Matt about it. I am not a socialist, and disagree with Matt frequently, but found the book fascinating and worth talking about at length: www.aaronrosspowell.com/p/liberal-so...

Oh, can I get an early copy?

An insane rant by Stephen Miller about immigration from March 29, 2025, 4:44PM UTC. Full text at https://xcancel.com/StephenM/status/1906024686674133371

There is no reason to doubt that this man speaks for the administration. Read it and consider where we are.

I find the second and third of those reasons more compelling than the first.

But we don’t generally get to control our creations in that way. If someone gets an idea from my writing and then uses it in a novel way to create something new, they’re entitled to make money from that creation. They don’t need my consent for that, nor do they owe me any compensation.

Not all differences are relevant differences. So the question is whether it should matter that it’s a machine rather than a human, and why. That’s what I haven’t seen articulated yet.

Well, they *are* learning. Whether they count as “minds” or not seems at least unclear to me, philosophically speaking. But functionally, they certainly behave more and more like minds.

But is consent necessary in such cases? If art is placed in the public sphere, and a human beings observe it, learn from it, and use what they have learned in their own creative work, that's not theft. That's just how culture works. I'm not clear on why it's different in the case of AI.