Top all-time · #931
David D. Friedman
Personal blog · daviddfriedman.comeconomicspoliticsphilosophy
David D. Friedman's personal blog at daviddfriedman.com covers economics, politics and philosophy. Since 2007, 74 different Hacker News readers have linked it 141 times, most often “The Machinery of Freedom [pdf]”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Most-linked posts?
- The Machinery of Freedom [pdf]12 people · 19 mentions · first linked 2012-02-19
- The Machinery of Freedom (1989) [pdf]10 people · 14 mentions · first linked 2013-10-04
- Legal Systems Different from Ours (Draft) (2019)9 people · 16 mentions · first linked 2018-07-14
- Legal Systems Very Different from Ours9 people · 13 mentions · first linked 2014-12-20
- The Production of Law, Security, and Arbitration in the Free Market6 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2009-08-24
- Price Theory by David Friedman4 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2008-05-04
- A positive account of property rights3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2016-12-14
- Somali Law (2013)2 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2014-05-13
- /Machinery_3d_Edition/Market%20Failure.htm2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-05-25
- /Academic/Order_without_the_state/Order_Without_the_State.htm2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-08-28
What Hacker News says?
> There are no markets without government intervention. David Friedmann (and others) would like to object, I am sure. See eg http://daviddfriedman.com/Legal%20Systems/LegalSystemsConten... for how many legal systems work without (or despite!) government intervention.
Comment linking /Legal%20Systems/LegalSystemsContents.htm
on “Apple mobile processors are now made in America by TSMC”Submitted Legal Systems Very Different from Ours as a story · 131 points
HN discussionYes. David Friedman covers this quite well in "The Machinery of Freedom": http://daviddfriedman.com/The_Machinery_of_Freedom_.pdf (warning: direct PDF link)
Comment linking /The_Machinery_of_Freedom_.pdf
on “Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca leak reveals elite's tax havens”Submitted Somali Law (2013) as a story · 119 points
HN discussionWe could solve this "problem" by simply eliminating taxation, and moving to a stateless society[1] and an across the board model of self-government[2]. [1]: http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/Order_without_the_sta... [2]: https://www.theadvocates.org/
Comment linking /Academic/Order_without_the_state/Order_Without_the_State.htm
on “Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca leak reveals elite's tax havens”Submitted Somali Law as a story · 105 points
HN discussionIn practice, Common Law jurisdictions and Civil Law Jurisdictions are not so different these days. (Democratic) legislation is an intruder to Common Law. And on the other hand, Civil Law systems give some at least informal weight to precedence. I don't quibble with your description of the idealized versions. See also http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Legal%20Systems/LegalSystemsCo... for some alternative systems of law.
Comment linking /Legal%20Systems/LegalSystemsContents.htm
on “US Constitution – A Git repo with history of edits”Submitted The Machinery of Freedom (1989) [pdf] as a story · 62 points
HN discussionFiat isn't saving on transaction costs. It's basically just failure to do due diligence (enough to persuade people to participate voluntarily) and therefore acceptance of high risk. I don't consider proposing emigration as a reasonable response to proposed reforms of our country. I have no particular ideas about changes for dealing with contagious diseases. It's low priority and I haven't thought about it. If you'd…
Comment linking /The_Machinery_of_Freedom_.pdf
on “Every day at my job I helped people just barely survive”Submitted The Production of Law, Security, and Arbitration in the Free Market as a story · 6 points
HN discussionPeople can and do protect what they believe to be their property. Families and tribes can and do protect the territory they believe to belong to their members. I like David Friedman's description of property rights not primarily as moral or legal constructs, but as mutually recognized commitment strategies which discourage trespasses. He points out that territorialism in the animal kingdom is similar to property rig…
Comment linking /Academic/Order_without_the_state/Order_Without_the_State.htm
on “New Zealand bans some software patents”Submitted Unschooling by David D Friedman [pdf] as a story · 4 points
HN discussionNote the ex officio statement in the IP chapter: even if a copyright holder does not want to initiate border measures (e.g. destroy fanzines), this can be enforced by governments, http://www.mfat.govt.nz/downloads/trade-agreement/transpacif... . In 2013, Japanese lawyers warned about the fair use implications, http://japanitlaw.blogspot.com/2013/01/tpps-effect-on-fanzin... & http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/Co…
Comment linking /Academic/Course_Pages/IP_Theory_13/Papers2Discuss/Kaneko_Japanese_fair_use.htm
on “Text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership”Submitted Somali Law as a story · 4 points
HN discussionRobin Hanson has some similar ideas. See eg http://www.overcomingbias.com/2011/12/em-cities-by-combo-auc... and a few others. But he starts from a different angle: he's interested in economic efficiency. So he wants a system that moves economic goods into the hands of people who value it most (and compensate the previous owner fairly at market prices). He proposes a system where people declare the value of their var…
Comment linking /Academic/Course_Pages/legal_systems_very_different_12/LegalSystemsDraft.html
on “American Equity”Submitted The Machinery of Freedom [pdf] as a story · 3 points
HN discussionIn terms of illegally obtained content, the Democrats had no problem claiming higher ethical ground in releasing a tapped cell phone conversation of Newt Gingrich http://www.daviddfriedman.com/CCP_97/Gingrich%252fMartin%252... And if you want to focus on foreign (illegal) involvement in U.S. elections, look no further than the alleged Chinese involvement in the 1996 presidential election https://en.wikipedia.org/wik…
Comment linking /CCP_97/Gingrich%252fMartin%252fMcDerm.html
on “Technical report on DNC hack [pdf]”Submitted Legal Systems Very Different from Ours (Draft) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionFor some ideas, see http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Legal%20Systems/LegalSystemsCo...
Comment linking /Legal%20Systems/LegalSystemsContents.htm
on “PayPal is currently blocking all transactions containing the word “tardigrade””Submitted The Machinery of Freedom [pdf] as a story · 2 points
HN discussionYou're missing the point of marginal utility. Because the price of water is so low, the marginal use of water is not for purposes vital to survival. People water their lawns, fill swimming pools, wash cars, etc. In other words, they use water for things whose utility is equal to its current price, because there's plenty of water left over at that price after all the vital-to-survival needs are met. If the price of w…
Comment linking /Academic/Price_Theory/PThy_Chapter_4/PThy_Chapter_4.html
on “Send Them Your Money: A Campaign to Send The RIAA/MPAA Billions”Submitted The Machinery of Freedom [pdf] as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> I mean, isn't this obvious? The market itself is not going to enforce contracts, [...] Contrast and compare 'Legal Systems Very Different from Ours' at eg http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Legal%20Systems/LegalSystemsCo...
Comment linking /Legal%20Systems/LegalSystemsContents.htm
on “Wall Street Begins Trading Water Futures as a Commodity”Submitted Legal Systems Different from Ours (Draft) (2019) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionAny Economics textbook. Here are two good, free, technically demanding ones. Friedman’s is less demanding in terms of Mathematics than McCloskey’s. https://www.deirdremccloskey.com/docs/price.pdf http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/Price_Theory/Price%20...
Comment linking /Academic/Price_Theory/Price%20Theory-%20D.%20Friedman.pdf
on ““Location-Based Pay” – Who are we to complain?”Submitted Legal Systems Different from Ours (Draft) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionWasn't something like it actually done in classical Athens? http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/Course_Pages/legal_sy... bottom of page: "The solution was simple. I offer to exchange everything I own for everything you own. If you refuse, you have admitted that you are richer than I am, and so you get to do the liturgy that was to be imposed on me."
Comment linking /Academic/Course_Pages/legal_systems_very_different_12/Book_Draft/Systems/AthenianChapter.html
on “San Francisco's zoning makes it illegal to build apartments in 73.5% of the city”Submitted Legal Systems Different from Ours (Draft) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionActually basing the legal system on money might not be the worst. Certainly better than basing it on influence and connections. About your question: you might like this paper https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?arti... It doesn't offer any answers, and it's about criminal justice; but it's good food for thought about unintended consequences. See also the excellent http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Le…
Comment linking /Legal%20Systems/LegalSystemsContents.htm
on “What3Words sends legal threat to security researcher for sharing an alternative”Submitted Legal Systems Very Different from Ours (Draft) as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
