What Is Libertarianism? A Primer - Definition, Beliefs, Values, Economics (1997)
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Libertarianism (Latin: liber, "free") is a set of related political philosophies that uphold liberty as the highest political end. This includes emphasis on the primacy of individual liberty, political freedom, and voluntary association. It is an antonym of authoritarianism. Although libertarians share a skepticism of governmental authority, they diverge on the extent and character of their opposition. Different schools of libertarianism offer a range of views concerning the legitimate functions of government, while others contend that the state should not exist at all. For instance, minarchists propose a state limited in scope to preventing aggression, theft, breach of contract and fraud, while anarchists advocate its complete elimination as a political system. While some libertarians advocate laissez-faire capitalism and private property rights, such as in land and natural resources, others wish to abolish capitalism and private ownership of the means of production in favor of common or cooperative ownership and management (see libertarian socialism). In the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, libertarianism is defined as the moral view that agents initially fully own themselves and have certain moral powers to acquire property rights in external things.[17] Libertarian philosopher Roderick Long defines libertarianism as "any political position that advocates a radical redistribution of power from the coercive state to voluntary associations of free individuals", whether "voluntary association" takes the form of the free market or of communal co-operatives.[18] In the United States, the term libertarianism is often used as a synonym for combined economic and cultural liberalism while outside that country there is a strong tendency to associate libertarianism with anarchism. Many countries throughout the world have libertarian parties (see list of libertarian political parties). In the United States, polls (circa 2006) find that the views and voting habits of between 10 and 20 percent (and increasing) of voting age Americans may be classified as "fiscally conservative and socially liberal, or libertarian."[31][166] This is based on pollsters and researchers defining libertarian views as fiscally conservative and socially liberal (based on the common US meanings of the terms) and against government intervention in economic affairs, and for expansion of personal freedoms.[31] Through 20 polls on this topic spanning 13 years, Gallup found that voters who are libertarian on the political spectrum ranged from 17--23% of the US electorate.[167] In 2013, The Economist opinion piece held that British youth supported a "minimal 'nightwatchman' state", disliked taxation, and were "deficit-reduction hawks" who wanted government out of their personal lives, and accepted homosexuality. It stated, "Today's distracted libertarians are tomorrow's dependable voter block."[168] In 2012, anti-war presidential candidates (Libertarian Republican Ron Paul and Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson) raised millions of dollars and garnered millions of votes despite opposition to their obtaining ballot access by Democrats and Republicans.[169] The 2012 Libertarian National Convention, which saw Gary Johnson and James P. Gray nominated as the 2012 presidential ticket for the Libertarian Party, resulted in the most successful result for a third-party presidential candidacy since 2000, and the best in the Libertarian Party's history by vote number. Johnson received 1% of the popular vote, amounting to more than 1.2 million votes.[170][171] Johnson has expressed a desire to win at least 5 percent of the vote so that the Libertarian Party candidates could get equal ballot access and federal funding, thus subsequently ending the two-party system. Tea Party activities have declined since 2010.[175][176] According to Harvard professor Theda Skocpol, the number of Tea Party chapters across the country has slipped from about 1,000 to 600, but that this is still "a very good survival rate." A 2011 Reason-Rupe poll found that among those who self-identified as Tea Party supporters, 41 percent leaned libertarian and 59 percent socially conservative.[177] Mostly, Tea Party organizations are said to have shifted away from national demonstrations to local issues.[175] A shift in the operational approach used by the Tea Party has also affected the movement's visibility, with chapters placing more emphasis on the mechanics of policy and getting candidates elected rather than staging public events. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism
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11:09 ... and who decided who is adult and who is not ???... God ?
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This man is the most dangerous kind of liar: one that is 50% correct.
On social issues such as drugs, religious freedom, and personal freedom he's right, however a child could tell you this stuff, yet somehow he gets a round of applause for it.
On economic issues, he's a horrible totalitarian and what he espouses would be the single most destructive attack on american democracy since the war of 1812.
Libertarianism economic theory, is based on Classical economics, which was theorised in a pre-industrial and pre-capitalist world, those who professed it did so under the belief that free markets would lead to perfect equality and that this system would be better than the feudal society that came before it, one of those is right and I don’t think I need point out which one. Adam Smith, James Madison, John Locke, Von Humboldt etc could not have imagined the society of the 21st century in which state involvement in the economy would be an absolute necessity not only to meditate the effects of the vast power gathered by private tyrannies but also in order to prevent the destruction of the environment and to prevent the death/suffering of millions. Private power does not mean the same thing it did in the 1700s or even the 1900s, it has increased to unfathomable levels and many private empires now outweigh countries in terms of wealth and manpower; and as if they weren’t content with this state affairs they now seek to wipe out the only real threat to their existence, democratic governments. For this in short is the aim of all libertarians, the end of public control over society to be replaced by a system of survival of the fittest, private tyrannies, and the commoditisation of everything. They proclaim in the supreme act of double think and double speak, that this system will have no force behind it, everything will be voluntary. Their definition of force is as flawed as a ship without a bottom, who would say there is no force present when the starving man begs for work, degrades himself for substance, and is driven by hunger to do work alien to him just to survive. Sure there may be no tax man or government with a gun to force you to work, but who would need them! Who needs force when you got the threat of destitution to keep people in line and to make obedient workers out of. Who needs the tax man when the huge profits and power reaped from control of everything would allow the rich and powerful to build personal roads like one saw in the soviet Union, reserved for higher ups only, or ability to hire their own mercenary armies. Just as in the 1984 the desperate desire for work would create the high, with all the power, the middle, with less but desperate to hold onto it, and the low with nothing, but distracted, kept stupid and ignorant. Even Adam Smith as early as the 1700s recognised that the slave is better of than the man at the mercy of the free markets, for as property, his master is encouraged to look after him, as a loving owner polishes a car, while the wage worker is like a disposable fork, good only for shovelling food into the mouth until the fork breaks.
A corporate ruling government would be the end of humanity, either by environmental destruction or by the simple fact that whatever people accepted this dystopian world as tolerable would no longer be human, for the object of all humans is free and creative work, this would stop for 90% of the population.
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