Ep. 807 The Thick vs. Thin Libertarianism Debate: Have I Been Wrong All This Time?
The Tom Woods Show
Tom Woods
4.8 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 20 December 2016
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Is libertarianism all about the Nonaggression Principle, or are there supplementary ideas a libertarian must also hold because they uphold the free society? I used to criticize left-libertarians who believed true libertarians had to be feminists, egalitarians, etc. But now I wonder: although someone is indeed a libertarian if he believes in the NAP, might there indeed be other important ingredients in the free society? Entrepreneur and blogger C. Jay Engel joins me to discuss.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Tom Woods Show, episode 807. |
| 0:03.2 | Prepare to set fire to the index card of allowable opinion. |
| 0:07.8 | Your daily dose of liberty education starts here, the Tom Woods Show. |
| 0:14.3 | Folks, if you've resolved to stop buying useless things, as Christmas gifts, I got just the thing for you, |
| 0:20.7 | it's the perfect blend of |
| 0:21.9 | practicality and thoughtfulness. It's a holiday shave set from Harry's. Take $5 off at harries.com |
| 0:28.9 | when you use coupon code Woods. Hi everybody, Tom Woods here. We're talking today about an issue that |
| 0:34.6 | has been a source of controversy among libertarians for quite some time, |
| 0:38.6 | and that's this matter of thick versus thin libertarianism. And if you haven't heard about this |
| 0:44.7 | controversy, well, I think you'll agree with me that it really matters that we get this right. |
| 0:50.3 | This is an important question. And in fact, I'm going to let our guest describe to you exactly what's meant by thick versus thin libertarianism. In fact, I did a show on this relatively early on with Gary Chartier. So you may remember that one if you have an extremely good memory. But we're revisiting it because I'm wondering if maybe I've been wrong about this subject in being a thin libertarian. |
| 1:11.6 | Well, anyway, we're going to talk about that, and I think you're going to like it. |
| 1:14.5 | My guest today is C.J. Engel, who is an entrepreneur and an investment advisor at the Sullivan Group, |
| 1:21.8 | an independent Austrian school-oriented wealth management firm in Northern California. |
| 1:27.3 | You can check out his blog at |
| 1:28.9 | Reformedlibertarian.com. CJ, welcome to the show. I'm glad to be here. All right. You are a member |
| 1:35.9 | of my supporting listeners program as well, Supportinglisteners.com. There was a mini campaign to get you |
| 1:41.3 | on the show, which, by the way, I had been meaning to do, by the way. |
| 1:44.9 | So it's not entirely that, but they almost certainly accelerated it. |
| 1:49.0 | So that's great. |
| 1:50.3 | And here you are, and I'm really glad to talk to you. |
| 1:52.6 | I want to talk about a topic that I covered on the show a long time ago and have not revisited. |
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