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I assume you don't like anti-monopoly laws either. That or you're a massive hypocrite, which is fine, but then you can't complain either about Affirmative Action and other policies designed to disadvantage those like you (apologies for assuming you're a standard white person with nothing exceptional going for you) over people with the right skin colour/beliefs.
Do you mean antitrust? I don't see how that's relevant to my comments, and I don't see how it can possibly make me a hypocrite.
I don't want monopolies for the same reason I don't want foreigners: it's bad for me. No hypocrisy needed.
"I support everyone else following principles that benefit me, but I don’t want to follow those principles myself because they dont benefit me" is like the definition of hypocrisy.
What principles? What are you talking about?
I don't want monopolies (i.e. I think that people should be prohibited by law from colluding with other providers to increase the market prices) of goods that I buy, but for I want other people selling the same thing I sell (labor) to be forced by law to collude with me to raise the market prices.
Fair markets for thee but not for me.
I'm not KMC but this objection is farcical.
Monopolies and flooding the labour market with low-skilled workers are both activities that generate significant harmful externalities. That's the principle motivating my support for both positions and I don't see any conflicts or contradictions there at all (it also motivates my support for a lot of environmental regulations like not dumping toxic waste into local drinking supplies even if that would give a moderate boost to GDP). I'm not even against monopolies on an existential basis - some industries lead to natural monopolies, and in those cases I want them regulated to reduce those externalities rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Externalities are a very valid point, and one I am sympathetic to in some cases, if the case is actually made that the externalities exist and are not being addressed. However, KMC's statement was
That does not sound to me like an argument about societal costs and benefits.
I assumed that KMC was actually a member of society and that the "bad for me" part was referring to him taking on his share of the societal consequences, as the pain and externalities aren't evenly distributed (if you're the person who gets to pay slave wages and ignore worker protection laws you don't really notice the costs that you're imposing on other people).
Ah, I read it as "bad for me (personally, because it will lower my wage personally)".
And likewise if you buy products where part of the supply chain of that product involved the labor of people who do not receive the pay or worker protections that American workers receive, you don't notice those costs, but you do benefit from the reduced prices. And if the labor involved was voluntary, I think that's basically fine.
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Protectionism applied to different areas of the economy is going to have different results. It's probably always going to lead to a reduction in total economic growth, but that doesn't mean it won't have other effects. They will have different externalities.
If your goal is something other than total economic growth or strict economic fairness - then I don't see how it's hypocritical to want to put your thumb on some areas and not others. He hasn't stated that his driving principle is maximum economic freedom for everyone.
Pure economic growth and strict fairness are pretty thin "neoliberal" goals. I think there are better things to set your political compass towards.
I think if people choose their preferred policies purely on the basis of whether or not those policies personally benefit them, and choose whether to advocate for those policies based on how much they personally will be helped or hurt by those policies, we'll end up with some pretty bad protectionist policies (e.g. the Jones Act, rent-seeking licensing regimes, and other ways of burning the commons for personal gain).
If that makes me a neoliberal, well then I guess I'm a neoliberal.
Wasn't the example earlier in the thread someone wishing an illegal immigrant well because he personally felt sympathy for the immigrant and immigration personally benefitted the immigrant?
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