Gigs Shrugged

I’ve been a libertarian for a while.  Mostly small L, but the party guys don’t bother me too much, even if I do think they are a little extreme.  It used to be the case that libertarians would tend to defend the idea of “intellectual property rights”, after all, something with “property rights” in its name surely is something worthy of libertarian defense.

In recent years though, it seems there has been a shift.  Increasingly, libertarians are recognizing that “intellectual property” is largely government tinkering with the free market, similar to price controls or anti-gouging laws.  It’s not a clear cut case either way, however.  Creative output is the fruit of someone’s labor, after all.

I noticed this shift a while back, and it seems that others have too.  Today I got the Mises Daily email, and it included a book review for “Against Intellectual Property” by David K. Levine and Michele Boldrin.  Being good capitalists, mises.org themselves are offering the book for sale.  I have not yet read the book, but its existance in the bookstore of mises.org is a strong sign of the times:  “Intellectual Property” has lost yet another former ally.

For the first time ever, the Second Life Peak Monthly Cash Flow economic statistic has shrunk in seven out of nine income categories.  In the two other categories, it remained nearly flat.  Residents with significant L$ income of over $200 per month dropped from 4377 to 4277, a loss of 2.2%.  The November data indicates continuation of the slowdown that was first seen in October’s data.

Linden Lab has also censored the data regarding islands lost per month, claiming that it wasn’t an accurate reflection.   The massive loss of islands is a direct result of Linden Lab’s disasterous price increase on Openspaces.  December data will likely be worse, continuing the Second Life recession.