Yeah. Me too, Mufasa. And probably every Libertarian-minded person you’ll ever meet IRL, too. And pretty much everybody who isn’t on the far, far, way far left. Or who accepts some fiscal realities and isn’t motivated by getting elected,
General to the thread, not just to you @Mufasa, or your response to @H_factor.
I’ve never met a single person who planned a Libertopia or who wanted ZERO government, as fun as that is to pretend that imaginary islands and anarchists are out there getting in the way of… well, anything really.
The reality is that we’ve long had programs for the elderly and the poor. And we have a country where indigent people aren’t turned away from the ER or the county health dept. We could have started with trying to make those programs better, and extend them to the working poor who were falling through the cracks. I would strongly support that. Maybe consider the affluent elderly people who can certainly afford to buy health insurance on their own, but WILL have a coronary if we touch their government entitlements. That’s the reality. Not some BS about stupid Anarchists and wacko Libertopians building imaginary islands on reddit.
As for the hypothetical with the doctor who wants your home before he’ll treat your kid? That guy would have to keep his wife and kids behind a walled fortress, and arrive at the hospital in an armored car, because his neighbors would soon decide that he didn’t need to be alive. Most guys who are smart enough to be surgeons could figure that out.
Mostly people are concerned with the size and effectiveness of the FOURTH branch, or the sense that regulatory over-reach and government inefficiency has become really burdensome, and is sometimes getting in our way. We see unelected bureaucrats writing "regulations,"that can effect HUGE parts of our economy, and carrying out sentences on violators which include fines and jail time. No legislative branch or judiciary required. Neither of the major parties has been effective at all with cutting out PORK, or with tort reform, which is badly needed at every level of society.
Libertarian-minded people actually care about these kinds of things. Really.
That’s it.
@thunderbolt23, I did read the Reason link you put up. Thanks. And of course, that’s true to an extent. We could look at Adams and Hamilton supporting centralized government, in particular. The founders weren’t all of one mind all the time. Otherwise, I won’t go off on why we can see our Constitution as a document that limits government power, or with the motives behind our revolution. You know all of that. If many modern libertarians like me are inspired by Classic Liberal thinkers of the Enlightenment, or by people like Thomas Paine, then… that is what it is. Religious toleration, freedom of speech, the freedom of the individual, and the freedom to property… All Classic Liberal ideas from that time.
From a recent poll I put up in the Stupid Thread.
More than one in three people (37%) could not name a single right protected by the First Amendment. THE FIRST AMENDMENT.
Only one in four (26%) can name all three branches of the government. (In 2011, 38% could name all three branches.)
One in three (33%) can’t name any branch of government. None. Not even one.
Ya’ll should be more worried about those facts. Way bigger problem than your imaginary island builders.