By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
LadyJasmine said:

I think reading this, I have concluded that libertarian socialism is a massive oxymoron. Anyone who has defended the notion has mostly directly or indirectly has can back to the idea of government of enforcing those socialist values on to a society.

I see a lot of theoretical talk on here but pretty much can we skip the bullshit and just realize in todays world....

Progressives require a large big government enforcing progressive values onto society for their vision of society to come to fruition.

Because that is the only realistic way that will ever happen, and I find the justification that it can libertarian in nature turning into sort of theoretical exercise with no correlation to the politics of the current times.

 

Its rather simple, if a progresive governmnet wants me to have public healthcare for the bettr of all, I cannot for example seek private health care in Canada on my own...

If a society wants to put a cap on CEO pay to close the wage gap and be more equal, it is not being libertarian.

Pretty much I think its time to call a spade a spade. 

If you did make a serious attempt to understand what people were saying you wouldn't bring up silly strawmen like government provided health-care or maximum wages. 

Libertarian socialists are not social democrats. They don't support government provisioned goods nor regulated markets. 

 

You have yet to address my explanation of economies of scales vs. diseconomies of scales, for example. You have yet to address the idea that people would freely choose not to work for wages, like millions of self-employed people do today. You instead pretend that libertarian socialists are socio-democrats or state socialists, which is not the case. 

 

Consider the scenario where I and a group of friends decide to collectively till a field, grow a bunch of fruit, and then either use what we've grown or sell it to others and split the income. We all have an equal claim to the field as well as an equal claim to the fruits of our collective labor. That is socialism. Now, instead suppose that my neighbor Joe owns a field, but has a broken back. He wants somebody to take over and will pay them to pick fruit from his field and sell it on the market. That is capitalism. 

 

Both of these relationships can exist without government or with a weak government. As long as nobody forces somebody into one of these relationships, it is voluntary and therefore libertarian. 

 

Libertarian socialists predict that without a strong state people would prefer to work for themselves rather than work for property owners for a wage. That is all it is. No government nor a strong government necessary.