Jeffrey Tucker

This was utterly fantastic. The more of Tucker I hear, the more I like Tucker.

For years I've been using the line "if the government weren't making so many damn roads, the free market would have given me a Jetsonmobile by now" so certainly I was interested in this item.

But its not just the roads, and its not just theoretical, we have really overcome the barrier of government in some places, and government actively (attempts) prevents it going the way of the dodo bird in attempts of controlling not only what is on the market, but convincing producers that they need the governments protection. While I good portion of the book is Tucker's review/insight on "Against Intellectual Monopoly" and this certainly made me want to get that book, I think its still great in addition.… (more)

I picked this book because I thought it would be full of examples of "techno optimism" -- instances where the various problems of the day are solved by technological inventions or applications of existing technologies. It does contain some of that. However, it mostly contains libertarian rants against government regulations and red tape. Every chapter is a new rant or outrage. Gets tiring or ridiculous -- especially the chapter that praises the wonders of lard. Not that I like government inefficiencies, but many of the examples are taken out of context or are cherry picked to make our government look as bad as possible.. Also, John Stossel has already written several books on this topic (Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity) and is more entertaining.… (more)