Liberty Brunch at the Matador

It seems that all my recent posts have been about drinking and anarchy. Oh what a libertine soul I have! When the chance came up for imbibing for brunch, how could I restrain myself? No! Statism is for lazy chumps, while talk of anarchy is for the mentally active!

I showed up on time (10am) which was never a problem for evening gatherings, but proved to be 20 minutes early for this one. It seems the anarchists in my battalion lack discipline in their drinking. Nevertheless, I must concede that brunch is now my favorite of such gatherings, because it features a less crowded environment affording us more attention from the staff and only our own raucous conversation for background interference.

The Matador Cantina graciously served us brunch and booze, and even gave us all the tables in the back room. But that only makes responsible business sense, as we were the largest party in the establishment and required two tables. Unfortunately, the breakup of the party into two subgroups means that I cannot report on all the conversational topics.

A reasonable amount of discussion followed a recurring theme: The pursuit of happiness. We talked of love, relationships, group dynamics, evolution of sexual behaviors, the rough mating rituals of Ayn Rand's characters, and many other various pleasures of life.

Our fellows coming back from Libertopia regaled us with musings of some events and escapades. I really missed out, because they were twice able to breakfast in the esteemed company of the fabulous Jeffery Tucker. Fortunately, I can live vicariously through their tale, because they b(r)ought for me a lovely paisley 100% silk bowtie previously worn by the fashionable author of Burbon for Breakfast. And who said that anarchists don't have a sense of community? I flaunt my new bowtie at you!

I shall never cease to be encouraged by the average self-education level of libertarian groups. In one sense, we strongly self-select. In order to become libertarian one must live in a land of statism and somehow survive the indoctrination camps disconcertingly referred to as "schools of education." It seems that we have all managed to endure this mental handicap and found an inclination to use freely available resources (thar interwebs) to give ourselves knowledge formerly denied us. Each time these meetings have a wonderful sharing of knowledge and wisdom.

Consequently, I've never been to a meeting at without at least one book recommendation. This time I have several.

1. Order Without Law by Robert Ellickson
2. The Beautiful Tree by James Tooley
3. Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Why Being a Great Parent is Less Word and More Fun Than You Think by Bryan Caplan.
4. Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What it Means for Modern Relationships by Christopher Ryan by Cacilda Jetha
5. A Renegade History of the United States by Thaddeus Russell
6. Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It by Gary Taubes
7. Salt by Mark Kurlansky
8. The Beautiful Tree by James Tooley

A civil engineer join our ranks, so I even got to learn who will build the roads! Even more fascinating he told me that raw material industries such as lumber and steel self-organize to form standards of construction. These documents make it easier for construction companies to adopt those materials for building houses and other structures. To mention a specific example: the lumber industries doesn't want wooden houses to collapse, because then people might stop using lumber for that purpose. So they helpfully provide standards of construction.

The state regulation board then takes these standards (already independently created by industry) and then gives it's magical blessing of bureaucratic authority. Clearly government regulation doesn't save us from the "evils" of these corporations. Even more to the point: good regulations require specialized knowledge. Often that knowledge comes directly from the industry being regulated. Individuals within the lumber industry knows how many trees can be cleared out of a forest without permanently damaging its ability to regrow. Government bureaucrats don't, so they rely on industry to inform them.

So I've found that where regulation is necessary and proper, industry has incentives to provide for itself. Government only adds a burden to those pre-existing market mechanisms. Government regulation: IT'S A TAX!

#LiveFreeOC and keep on keeping on.