The whole point of libertarian ideology is to deny the existence of mutual obligation, or in other words, to protect privilege. Nothing attractive about it. 

Avner Offer

============================================================================
  From Avner Offer, Chichele Professor Emeritus of Economic History, University of Oxford
           All Souls College, High St., Oxford OX1 4AL, tel. +44 (0)7551960880
          email: [log in to unmask]
          personal website: https://sites.google.com/site/avoffer/avneroffer
    Most recent books:
   -The Nobel Factor: The Prize in Economics, Social Democracy and the Market Turn
     (Princeton University Press, 2016).  http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10841.html
    -Burn Mark: A Photographic Memoir of the Six Day War (Lintel Press, 2014). See www.avneroffer.net


________________________________________
From: Societies for the History of Economics <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Ric Holt <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 15 April 2020 05:04
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [SHOE] COVID Virus and LIberty

Of course, with the spread of the COVID virus, I have been thinking of the
libertarian arguments of the constraints of government on liberty. But now the constraint on liberty is not from the government but from nature where one's individual actions can harm others. I would assume that for a responsible libertarian, they would recognize their behavior affects the liberty (health) of another, and change their behavior. Besides having rights, liberty also means individual responsibility to protect the liberty of others from one's actions.
But what if individuals don't and add to the tragedy of the commons?

If one believes ecological economists, individual constraints are going to increase with global warming. It is only by acting collectively to control global warming that we will be able to protect personal liberty from the constraints that nature will force on us. The point I'm getting at is that besides demanding rights, individuals need to act responsibly. If not, then collective action needs to step in to protect the common good. The libertarian argument for me has only made sense if individuals besides demanding rights are also willing to respect and act to protect the rights of others. If not, you get too many tragedies of the commons.
Ric Holt