So fix it
Figured you'd say that.
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The following may or may not reflect my actual views (indeed it's more extreme than I would comfortably endorse nowadays), but I am trying in this post to come as close to mainstream libertarianism as possible. Informed more by Friedman/Hayek than Mises, if that makes sense. I don't have
Capitalism and Freedom or
The Constitution of Liberty on hand so consider this a sketch.
For the record, I'd consider myself a mild libertarian on average, and a strong libertarian on the margin.
I'm a Republican and curious about what Liberatarians believe about the government, the economy, etc.
here are my questions:
what do you think about the role government
The government's primary role is the definition, protection, and enforcement of property rights. Specifically, the government acts to:
1. Maintain law and order
2. Define property rights
3. Serve as a means by which we modify property rights and other rules of the economic game
4. Adjudicate disputes about the interpretation of the rules
5. Enforce contracts
6. Promote competition
7. Provide a monetary framework
8. Engage in activities to counter technical monopolies
9. Engage in activities to counter neighborhood effects widely regarded as sufficiently important to justify government intervention
10. Supplement private charity and the private family in protecting the irresponsible
(Source: Friedman,
Capitalism and Freedom. Copy-pasted this from one of my ooold posts from mid-2007.)
You will notice that most of these concern economics; this is typical of libertarian priorities. There is also a careful concern for property rights, which becomes even more pronounced as one goes in the more extreme directions.
More extreme libertarians would omit 10, 7, 8, 9, and 6, in that order.
Notice that there's little in the list concerning the so-called positive liberties. This is a feature and not a bug.
what do you think about the economy
Most libertarians are comfortable with the standard economic role of government: identifying and correcting market failures, internalizing externalities, providing the so-called 'public goods', regulation of monopolistic industries, and providing a minimal regulatory framework.
Libertarians view markets as an efficient method of organizing economic activity. Most think that serious (i.e., worth government intervention) externalities are small in extent and few in number; they also see large deadweight losses from taxation. Most think that monopoly is more often a product of government interference in the economy than the product of market forces. Neither of the previous two sentences mitigates the need for government intervention when it is truly needed; but one must also be careful of the costs of government intervention.
While many on the left emphasize the costs of market failure, libertarians focus on the costs of government failure -- over-regulation, improper regulation, regulatory capture, political rent-seeking, etc. There's a whole literature out of Chicago on this; the most important work being by Knight, Director, Coase, Stigler, and Becker.
what do you think about social issues (abortion, etc.)
Traditionally libertarians have been for gay rights, for abortion (though this varies considerably across individual libertarians), in favor of drug legalization, etc.
what do you think about the Tea Party
I think that most of them are a bit extreme, but that's just me. I'm fascinated by the rise of the movement, if put off by their views.
And I don't wnat to see people commenting to talk about how you think Liberatarians are stupid, that's just your opinion, this is an attempt to understand what their Party is all about
Note that the Libertarian Party is distinct from libertarianism or libertarians in general. There's a lot of diversity of views in this bunch.
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There is also a whole faux-Lockean 'philosophy' underlying the more serious libertarian arguments about property rights, but I'm not familiar enough with it to do it justice without coming off as really sarcastic and ill-intentioned.
Left-libertarianism is hugs and kisses for all!
