Over at Catallarchy, there’s an interesting comment thread. It started from a perfectly reasonable question from Jonathan Wilde:

The blogosphere has been abuzz about Steven Landsburg’s article that claims that studies show that the minimum wage does not really affect unemployment.

My question is this: how would you design a study to determine whether or not the minimum wage affects unemployment?

But, the comment thread has spun into a long discussion that shows some interesting differences among libertarians (about political action, moral theory, and more). Here’s part of a comment of mine:

I think that ideas matter.

Even if most individuals don’t actively investigate issues (rationally), better ideas tend to dominate worse ones in the long run and eventually spread throughout the culture.

…

If we disengage from the battle of ideas because we think the moral case is the only one that matters and what other people care about is “beside the point”, then seductive, bad, ideas will gain support and dominate policy.

I don’t just want to be right. I want things to get better, too.

Check it out!