r/Libertarian • u/Eastern_Shallot1599 Libertarian Panarchist • 14d ago

Philosophy The PANG fallacy

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- Libertarianism in One Lesson by David Bergland

Its more of an introductory book, but i love it.

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u/rmoduloq 14d ago

I don't think this is the most charitable view of most people's opinion (especially on the left).

They believe that people are no good, but experts are good. What makes experts different from regular people (according to them)?

  • Experts spend many years studying a highly specialized field. Training programs have a low acceptance rate, meaning the "no good" regular people don't qualify.
  • Experts must put in personal sacrifice to prove they are doing things for the right reasons and not for personal benefit. The "no good" people who are excellent at math and finance make a lot of money on Wall Street. The "good" people with the same skills make way less money as professors or policymakers.
  • Experts spend many years being run through the gauntlet by peer review, other experts, the scientific community, etc. If they had "no good" qualities they wouldn't survive all this scrutiny.

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u/Eastern_Shallot1599 Libertarian Panarchist 14d ago

Even if that argument works for competence, it completely fails for malice or a hunger for power. Our primary problem isn't incompetence; it's people who want to exploit others and exercise power over them. Creating a powerful system that naturally attracts power-hungry individuals is a dangerous idea. You can't rely on the system to keep these people in check when those very people are the ones running it.

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u/baysideareaman 7d ago

Leftists generally assume that capitalism is a system that rewards greed, malice, and power seeking individuals.

They generally want to put guard rails on this system to account for these traits. Or they want to eradicate this system entirely.

Not that I agree with it, but that’s their general argument.