Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
No. of Recommendations: 16
How Libertarian Argentina Wrecked Itself...
Libertarians are like house cats: absolutely convinced of their fierce independence while utterly dependent on a system they are too dumb to appreciate or understand.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Libertarians are like house cats: absolutely convinced of their fierce independence while utterly dependent on a system they are too dumb to appreciate or understand.
I'd be interested in whatever story sparked your post.
However, as an anecdote, a former coworker (and sempai in my dojo) is a libertarian. We had some long discussions about it, some of which I posted on the old TMF. He was/is not dumb. He envisioned a different system instead of the one we have, that would work as well (or better) than our current system. I didn't agree with him, but it was an informative discussion. (I would actually relay questions from TMF folks, like AngelMay who was very interested in his viewpoint.
I think you could accuse him of being a bit naive about how his system could work, but he did have it all thought out. Right down to the building of roads. Granted, he may not have been the typical libertarian.
I actually agreed with him on some of the social issues. Like drug use or prostitution. It's none of my business what people do to their own bodies, as long as they aren't harming anyone else, or being coerced. His ideas on libertarian infrastructure were -IMO- completely unworkable.
No. of Recommendations: 1
having read, and agree with much, of the uncle eric series, i find that libertarians are :
- certainly no better, operationally, when running large nations\regions
- certainly no less opportunistic as individuals in tweaking their views to fit circumstances
but i would not disagree they generally have a better starting 'foundation', excepting the rand cultists.
No. of Recommendations: 14
I had breakfast recently with one of my oldest and longest friends who happens to be a staunch gay libertarian married to a much younger Pillipino gentleman.
His belief that the market would make consumer regulations unnecessary befuddles me. He seems to believe that a company that manufactures a product, knowing it's harmful, will go out of business if the product harms people...and that a person who is harmed by the product can seek redress through the justice system.
I've asked him how a person gets satisfaction from a litigious company that can drag out the case past the person's expiration date (a lot of people have expired from cancer before a settlement is paid out) or is killed outright (ford pinto). He also has no idea the impact of millions of lawsuits that do not happen because regulations prevent harm and corporate malfeasance.
And now I wonder what he will do if his marriage is nullified and/or his husband is deemed deportable.
Humans are greedy; many don't stop "eating" when they are full. We are one of the few species that kill anything for fun. Libertarianism is survival of the fittest. Truly regressive.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Sano,
I wonder what the age gap between your breakfast buddy and his much younger Filipino spouse might be? Also when did their relationship start?
A possible way to understand your friends extreme libertarian bent might be that he's a passport bro who groomed his current spouse when said spouse was underage or perhaps barely legal.
Sex tourism is a thing.
People with those preferences might not want government nosing about in their personal business.
Yes ,yes, sano, no friend of yours would ever....
No. of Recommendations: 2
His belief that the market would make consumer regulations unnecessary befuddles me. He seems to believe that a company that manufactures a product, knowing it's harmful, will go out of business if the product harms people...and that a person who is harmed by the product can seek redress through the justice system.
Form a corporation that distributes the product and complies with the laws, and money is funneled out of the corp to another corp in the virgin islands. You have other corps with charges (freight, legal, import, product research) that drain any profit and the money goes to corps in the Caiman Islands. When everything collapses, it looks like there's no money, you can get a judgement but not collect.
He's right, the company that made the product went out of business, but the person who is harmed likely gets no redress.
