The best explanation of the incongruity of the left and the right I’ve ever seen.
I wish I read Cato Unbound more consistently. About half the time their articles tackle subjects and involve research I have no depth in, and so I am left struggling with a topic I don’t have the background to comprehend in a way to make the reading enjoyable. But when they do hit a topic I at least have a passing grasp on I have found their format to generate truly engaging debate. This month’s lead essay is on whether libertarianism has indeed become the center of the country around which both major parties perform their partisan dance.
I’ve always characterized my struggle in the place of two-party politics as saying that Democrats are appealing with respect to social freedom (social freedom and economic socialism) while Republicans are appealing with respect to economic freedom (although perhaps less so than once upon a time) (economic freedom and social conservatism). However this month’s Cato Unbound essay phrased it perfectly:
This is the blind vs. blind struggle of the culture wars: one side attacked capitalism while rejoicing in its fruits; the other side celebrated capitalism while denouncing its fruits as poisonous.
If you are struggling to find yourself within two party politics and wonder whether you might be a libertarian–ask whether the sentence above makes sense to you. If so, there stands a better-than-even chance you lean libertarian, and should add Cato Unbound to your reading list.
I don’t know that I agree with any of the authors this month so far. I have no faith in the idea that a libertarian core centers our politics, particularly given the rush of each side to satiate their core supporters. Bush, for example, has now affected the core of the Supreme Court by appointing not libertarian-minded justices (although there was certainly some hope among libertarians that either Roberts or Alito would turn out to have such leanings) but more straight Republican-style conservatives. While the incidental effect of such appointments may in limited cases lead to libertarian-style outcomes, the general push is going to be towards social conservatism and more centralized government power.
Nothing I have seen in the current political climate indicates anything resembling a fondness for libertarian values among the political “center”. Were that the case, for example, a Presidential candidate like Ron Paul might be seeing a broader swell of support rather than the (at maximum) 1-2% “wave” he’s riding in most polls. Even in cases where political parties are not appealing to their base, their refuge from their base seems to be in consolidating their security. No matter how much Democratic Congresspersons loathe Bush, and even if their base would favor impeachment, there is still enough of a “club” at that level for everyone to want to preserve the power structure. Sure, a handful of Democrats favor impeachment, but it’s easy to cast your hat into that lot when you know the outcome will be null regardless. Socialized medicine expanded under Bush despite the fact that he recently vetoed a bill that sought to cover more uninsured children. There is an instance where Bush falsely claimed libertarian values–where were those values when the prescription drug benefit legislation was passed? Nowhere to be seen.
No, libertarianism continues to exist solely on the fringe. I hope that will change, but it will take something more than anything I can see on the horizon to change that.
Where are our standards for entering social network information?
A bunch of individual things culminate into this post. First, I recently had to find a new job. That sucked. For real. I’m 34, I’ve got two small kids, and suddenly I’m wondering how much longer I can keep a roof over their head and feed them good, nutritious food. But now I’m negotiating contracts for a software/EDI/networking company. It’s my first time in this industry so I’m learning a lot about standards and how software really makes communication within and between businesses more efficient. Material that is alternatively completely fascinating and excruciatingly boring.
I also realized going through this process that I have been doing shit for real, productive networking. I was scrambling to get back in touch with lost friends and business associates and acquaintances. I don’t know to what extent it would have helped, maybe a lot, maybe not at all, but I am committed in my new job to better build and maintain both my social and professional network.
If you’ve read this far I really feel sorry for you that you have nothing better to read anywhere on the Internet, but here is where it ties together–I’m suddenly getting really, really tired of entering all my data everywhere on the Internet. Contacts are scattered throughout different networks–Plaxo, LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Pownce, a half-dozen different IM programs, and for each one I’m entering and re-entering the same or similar information. It’s ridiculous! Am I a human data-entry machine? Am I just an old curmudgeon destined to be left behind in the online networking revolution?
My one great thought now that I am hip-deep in the networking environment is that some meta-group of developers and programmers should get together and decide on some rudimentary standards for social and professional network data. Make it so that migrating data from one networking service to another . . . obviously it won’t be painless because LinkedIn doesn’t care what movie I saw last and Facebook doesn’t (much) care what I thought of the work performed by current and former colleagues. But my background, education, a lot of my personal information–it would be a significant time saver if these pieces of data could have universal tags that I could import and export from one service to another.
Take the various new online calendar programs. I finally took the plunge and started to get to know Google calendar. I figured that Google is a big enough name that I’m not going to try to log in to some small calendar program site one day only to find that they’ve closed up shop and all my work is vanished in a poof of smoke. There are also tools for synching Google to Outlook, so that’s a nice feature. Now I’m reading from guys like Scoble how awesome some Facebook calendar app is and I’m thinking–”Crap, I just entered Auntie Doug’s birthday along with 100 other relatives into Google calendar, now I’m going to re-enter all that? No f-ing way.” End of story.
It would be like EDI standards, and I’m assuming if you can get some of the best and brightest from the Web 2.0 movement together and by some miracle get them moving on the same page, well, maybe something could be accomplished. Who knows. But think of all the potential applications (or see, for example, my last blog post about online finance programs) . . . how many times you’ve entered data about yourself all over the Internet for different services. I can see elements of this being discussed in various places, but networking is such a jumble these days . . . and hell, I’m a journalism major who went into law, I’m so far out of my depth I can’t even see sunlight. I’m just voicing my opinion as a consumer–if you want my future patronage at a new networking service, you’re going to have to make it easier for me than it’s been so far. This has been ridunkulous.
And maybe all I’m thinking of is a more robust OpenID program; you’ve got to start somewhere. But I can tell you this–the “next big thing” in social networking is going to have to have something like this to draw users away from their existing networks, and new networking programs and services are going to start facing greater startup obstacles because people are going to be so entrenched in their existing networks that switching over is just going to be too much work. Maybe it’s already too late for new services such as Pownce, we’ll see, but the consolidation and semi-solidification of the market is going to have to happen at some point. That’s my prediction. Go market forces! Bring your bounty of efficiency upon this mess!
Holy crap I hope you’re reading this because you skipped to the end after the first paragraph.
libertarians, the new web (including Web 2.0), and privacy–what’s our framework?
I tend to think of libertarians (myself included) as being a pretty private bunch. Freedom-lovers, distrustful not just of government but just generally skeptical of other people holding, or potentially holding, power over them of any kind. I do, however, appreciate efficiency in operation. So it is with a mixed heart that I approach the new movement in web applications, including Web 2.0.
Is there any doubt of the utility of a tool such as Google Docs? The easy ability to access and manipulate documents from almost anywhere with an Internet connection is quite seductive from an efficiency standpoint. Google’s privacy policy states:
Content. Google Docs & Spreadsheets stores, processes and maintains your documents and previous versions of those documents in order to provide the service to you.
Ouch. In an age when the government may have more access to Google than it does to your home PC, how safe does Google’s Privacy Policy make you feel? On the one hand I feel safer providing my information to a market participant than the government–if the government started a “Google Docs” service, you wouldn’t see me using it. On the other hand, I have a lot more control over documents that stay on my home computer–if I want to erase them in a secure fashion I can do the research to obtain the proper software tools for the job, and feel more comfortable that it is done than I am hearing the word of anyone from Google.
But maybe you just keep your sensitive documents off Google and find other mechanisms, or maybe for what you would use Google Docs for there really isn’t a substantial personal privacy concern. But the trend is growing, so let’s up the ante . . . what about the next generation of online applications that will take on programs such as MS Money and Quicken? Mint.com, Yodlee, Wesabe, or even a good old-fashioned spreadsheet you maintain on . . . Google Docs. For a nice blog post on such services, try 6 Great Free Alternatives to Quicken & MS Money at Zen Habits.
So, wait, they want me to import my financial data into their servers? On the one hand–Yippee! The chance to see what young, innovative entrepreneurs can do in programming for personal financial software is I believe going to bring great competition to this field. For example, Wesabe takes your financial data and integrates it into some social-networking-style components (from Zen Habits):
Even more interesting is the social part: based on your tags, you can see how others spend on similar tags, and see their best tips for that type of tag.
The next generation in comparative shopping? As I said, the application of the best and brightest minds in new and innovative ways is exciting.
But, uh, wait, you want me to upload my financial data and you have the tools to analyze and data mine it? That is quite a trade-off. On one hand, unlike my documents I know that the government has, legally or otherwise, access to all my financial data no matter where it is, so if I am afraid for the privacy of my financial data for the government my options are limited as it seems there is no legitimate option for avoiding their prying eyes. So I don’t know that it heightens my concern in that area any if I am also storing my data with a third party. On the other hand there are dangers other than the government. If I store my financial data on my computer I can secure it to the extent I deem necessary within the limits of my expertise and that of the programs I install. But these services have experts in computer security whose tools and capabilities far outstrip my own. No one is as motivated to keep my financial data secure and private as I am, but keeping one’s job and reputation can be a decent motivator itself–I imagine these services go the extra mile to address the security of data from both internal and external threats.
Beyond that, the type of breach that seems most likely to occur is one of mass theft rather than individually-targeted intrusions. In other words, I admit that I have never felt particularly unsettled upon hearing that a thief has stolen 3 million records that include personal confidential information that may include my information. On the one hand, sure, that’s bad, but on the other hand the chance that it will affect me is statistically less than perhaps other types of concerns towards which it would be more productive to direct my energies.
Maybe it’s just a generational thing–it took my parents years before they would even make a single purchase online, and the concept that they would entrust their financial data to an online personal finance company? PREPOSTEROUS! The generations after me? It’s second nature. I don’t even know that 99% of them give the first thought to this type of online privacy and security. It’s the only society they’ve ever known, and so it integrates seamlessly. I suppose a challenge for some of these new services is finding ways to reach the older crowd.
And these are just a couple of areas of the new Web world–these applications will soon be everywhere, touching every part of our lives, and I’m not even hitting the big ones such as MySpace and Facebook (whose privacy concerns have been covered significantly more completely elsewhere). I don’t know that I’ve come to a satisfactory answer yet, at least not one rooted in a consistent principle. I use Facebook, but I also use Open Office or MS Office rather than Google Docs despite the fact that for my personal use I could probably use any. I am intrigued by services such as Wesabe and Mint, but not enough to try them yet, despite the fact that I use a Kroger Plus card and a variety of other electronic services that already track my purchases.
I put all this up because I do, at least in the abstract, value my personal privacy, but as time goes on I find that efficiency tends to win out–and this from a person whose identity has been stolen once. The police actually caught the guy, too, because, strangely enough, although this was several years ago our bank did offer online banking. We knew someone was using my debit card because we could see the purchases posting online, and my wife was calling these places giving them hell for not checking signatures. Finally we saw a new one posted and she said “Here, I’m tired of calling, you call this place.” So I call and speak with the manager and he says “That guy just left the store, I think he’s still in the mall, hang on.” It’s quiet for a minute, but when the manager gets back on the line he says he’s put mall security on the individual and they end up catching and prosecuting him! Technology is enabling, and efficient, and scary, and I have no developed framework for categorizing risk vs. efficiency in these areas. Feel free to help me out with your ideas in the comments section.
