(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.
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