Comments on: Please Stop Taking Libertarianism Seriously

By: Sarah Gillespie

Sarah Gillespie — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 18:12:39 +0000

The IRS is just a collection system. While Libertarians would like to see the IRS abolished, they would impose a less costly system. Instead of collecting money from your paycheck all year long and then adjusting the balance every april, they would monitor all year how much you owe and then collect it all in one lump sum. That’s the nuts and bolts of it, anyway. Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) explains it a lot better than I do.

By: Cris

Cris — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 21:24:05 +0000

Gunther says: I respectfully disagree and think Democrats/Progressives should support libertarian values.

Fine, but I agree more with what Greg is saying: Democrats should support Democratic values. It happens that those values include a strong respect for the civil liberties and personal freedom of the individual, which overlaps with libertarianism. What I want is for Democrats to have a clear set of values and a clear set of policies in pursuing those values, and stop worrying about who else's values they should pretend to adopt in order to get their votes.

By: Cris

Cris — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 20:54:47 +0000

Libertarians just don’t want to pay for shit.

Which is why “libertarianism” is so popular among avid internet users. The internet is full of free shit, but in general it’s free because you just don’t know who’s paying the bill, and much of the time the original bill was paid by the public sector (government or universities). Libertarians love it because it looks like it’s driven by free market capitalism, when in reality it has much more in common with socialism, or maybe collectivist anarchism.

By: Gunther

Gunther — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 19:35:13 +0000

I respectfully disagree and think Democrats/Progressives should support libertarian values. We’ve all read the facts that more tax dollars go to Washington from blue states while more federal aid flows to the red states. Democrats should embrace and become the federalist party. Here’s an old article which changed my mind:

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=19813

What will happen to the fly-over states when federal aid is abandoned and Washington has very little power? It certainly runs contrary to Cheney’s notion of a unitary executive.

By: Ross

Ross — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 18:56:08 +0000

Word Greg. Seriously.

By: joe

joe — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 18:26:18 +0000

Huzzah! Yes, the Democrats would accomplish a lot by giving up on the Pay-Less Party, but certain libertarian ideas are very important components of American political and economic liberties. So one must be careful. But in general, Greg, you have hit the nail on the head. Social liberty matters less to organized Libertarianism than rollback of taxes and government regulations. In the real world, that translates into Enron writ large, which is exactly what the Bush people have given us.

P.S. Is anybody else doing the MoveOn.org phone call thing? I would love it if someone (Greg) would write about that.

By: Kage no Kami

Kage no Kami — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 18:09:51 +0000

Are we confusing Libertarians (big L) with libertarians as a whole? Not all libertarians go all gung-ho about laissez-faire economics…libertarian socilaists and principled Anarchists (not the psuedo/free market anarchists) come to mind.

libertarianism is far apart from what you seem to be describing.

Or did you mean only that sort of self described libertarianism that pervades this nation?