Aneirin

The FairTax (I am not a proponent, just explaining) has a "prebate", which is a tax refund paid to everyone equivalent to the amount one would spend on the national sales tax at the poverty line. Also, services are included, which mitigates possible regressivity (since wealthy people are more likely to spend on services rather than goods). There are still arguments about whether it would be progressive or regressive.

Although I definitely agree that this would have been helpful in terms of "winning" (for you, that is) and in terms of getting people to understand the debate better, the fact that 42% of people still voted "Yes" after the debate was pretty impressive.

Libertarians can get involved in tax-cut, school choice, term-limits, antiwar, and other social movements and initiatives.

On this note: Do you think single-issue activism is a better means for libertarian activists? It seems like work on single issues has often led to success (on drugs, gay rights, right to carry laws, etc.) while activism related to promoting an entire ideology hasn't been as strong.

I think he's talking about Johan Christian Bach, who did write opera, rather than Johan's father, who did not.

Edit: fixed link.

Professor Caplan,

I know in the past, you have posted on EconLog about making intuitive arguments for propositions that are often not intuitive.

What sorts of intuitive, quick arguments would you recommend making about "democratic fundamentalism" (excessive faith in the policies supported by voters in democratic systems)? I know one has to do with voters not having incentives to make good decisions, but are there any others?

Thanks for doing this AMA, and I will continue to take interest in your blog posts and future work!