*Pro-Market and Pro-Business*: The Sheldon Richman Conversation
Or, "What's right with business and wrong with left-libertarianism?"
I met Sheldon Richman in 1989 at the “Mises University” seminar at Stanford. I was right out of high school. Two years later, I was a Cato Institute summer intern. Since Sheldon ran the program, I got to talk ideas with him every day. He’s a true autodidact and polymath, with deep knowledge of economics, philosophy, history, and much more. And, as you’d expect, a great lover of liberty.
Also, funny.
I was puzzled, then, when Sheldon became a vocal left-libertarian in the early 2000s. I was especially puzzled when he started arguing that libertarians should oppose “capitalism.” In recent years, though, he dropped the left-libertarian and "anti-capitalist” labels. Curiouser and curiouser.
I’ve been wanting to know more about Sheldon’s intellectual evolution for years, and the release of my new Pro-Market and Pro-Business: Essays on Laissez-Faire seemed like a great opportunity for a Caplan-Richman conversation on markets, business, capitalism, lobbying, greed, self-employment, and beyond. I’ve been criticizing left-libertarians for over a decade, but Sheldon is the first one I know who changed his mind. Here’s full video for our dialogue, which I greatly enjoyed. I hope you enjoy it too!
P.S. Pro-Market and Pro-Business, is naturally still on sale. And I’m still available for further interviews on the book; just email me and we’ll work something out.
Was Sam Walton greedy when he had five stores and wanted more? Or was Jeff Bezos greedy when he tried to sell more than books? If so, thank God for greed.
When academics discuss entrepreneurs' ambition and desire to make more money, they often overlook some of the primary motivations. As someone who started and ran a business, I can tell you that there is a game motivation. You want to win. You want to crush your competitors. It is no different from an athlete who wants to beat all the competition. Money is just the way you keep score. There is also a creation aspect. Some people are motivated to create. Artists create art, often with little to no remuneration. Entrepreneurs want to build something new and make it as big and beautiful as possible. Money is the icing on the cake.
Excellent conversation. I was particularly pleased that Sheldon is up on the literature on Gabriel Kolko. I had Robert Bradley and Roger Donway do an article on that issue for Econlib:
https://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2015/BradleyDonwayKolko.html
I liked Sheldon's point about wanting to be an employee. I also thought the discussion of greed was particularly insightful and nuanced.