If you enjoy public roads, Libertarianism might not be for you.

(December 31, 2009 at 10:34 am)Meatball Wrote: If you enjoy public roads, Libertarianism might not be for you.

I'm a social libertarian so your presumption is not necessarily true

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(December 30, 2009 at 7:50 pm)Saerules Wrote: Ty, Adrian

So how could that work with Authoritarianism? Or is Neo-Libertarianism/right/(what on earth was it again?) something entirely different than Libertarianism?

Libertarianism is anti authoritarian and favours self-governance or communal consensus.

(December 31, 2009 at 10:34 am)Meatball Wrote: If you enjoy public roads, Libertarianism might not be for you.

Not really true. I've not heard of a Libertarian Party that wants to privatize roads...

(December 31, 2009 at 11:11 am)Tiberius Wrote:

(December 31, 2009 at 10:34 am)Meatball Wrote: If you enjoy public roads, Libertarianism might not be for you.

Not really true. I've not heard of a Libertarian Party that wants to privatize roads...

Have you too found that opponents of libertarianism continually have to misrepresent it to make a point?

I'm only kidding.

But seriously, where do you draw the line of government responsibility? Should they run the military? Should they build and maintain road systems? Should they run our police and fire departments? Should they deliver our mail? Should they run our hospitals? Our schools? Our banks? Our factories? Our 7-Elevens?

If no - should they regulate them? How much? Libertarianism is a very broad term with a very diverse range of proponents, where do you fit?

(December 31, 2009 at 2:15 pm)Meatball Wrote: I'm only kidding.

But seriously, where do you draw the line of government responsibility? Should they run the military? Should they build and maintain road systems? Should they run our police and fire departments? Should they deliver our mail? Should they run our hospitals? Our schools? Our banks? Our factories? Our 7-Elevens?

If no - should they regulate them? How much? Libertarianism is a very broad term with a very diverse range of proponents, where do you fit?

As a social libertarian i would say Law and order, healthcare (public optional), education (public optional), Emergency services and essential infrastructure (roads & power lines (not generation) etc) and simple regulation that focuses solely on fair trade, - Basically only essential social services necessary to guarantee individual liberty and equality.

Anything else from banks to Seven-elevens should be private.

I believe there should be two types of law, individual law as decided by the individual, for example what you do in your own body or in your own home is nobodies business but your own, and social law that regulates (but does not dictate) interaction between individuals and their property ensuring that while it is up to the individuals entirely to define the terms of their relationship there are previsions to prevent exploitation and punish violation of another persons individual liberties.

Most importantly where possible governance should be passed down to local level to allow for meaningful consensus amongst communities, allowing their communities to develop in a commonly agreed manner rather than attempting to govern, for instance, small rural communities by the same mechanism applied to large urban areas.

Generally I see it as a rights vs luxury issue. Anything that is a right (whether for life or liberty) should be protected by the government.

Military is used to defend the lives of the country, ergo it is a public right. Besides, could you imagine a private military force? Google would rule the world

Likewise with police, fire, and healthcare. Yes, I know I differ with most Libertarians on the issue of public healthcare, but we consider the right to Life such a strong right that it stands in the Libertarian motto "Life, Liberty, Prosperity". The state should provide the essentials of medical treatment. Anything else can be provided (and indeed, probably to a higher standard) at a private healthcare facility.

Schools, Banks, Factories, 7-11's...no. All of them are luxury related things (education, money, 'products').

Some of it seems radical, but no state is currently set up for Libertarianism to just "start". There is a lot of work to be done, starting with clearing up civil liberties, and then paving the way for an economic revolution with a genuine free market, encouraging people to create jobs by scrapping progressive tax, VAT, and destroying all boundaries to trade.

Education is paramount to self governance and should be an extremely high priority guaranteed for all, that would at minimum mean state funded education for those children in economic predicaments not able to afford private education, without a population able to critically think and analyse evidence the system would fail.

Umm, it did fail. Remember the GFC? It was very close and will happen again.....Something to look forward too in the future.....

The bare minimum I'd go for would be a voucher system. Schools should be private though; government control of education is a ridiculous idea.