| Marks said: This summarizes my views on what the role of Government should be (copied/pasted from the Libertarian Party of Canada website) The only proper functions of government, whose powers must be constitutionally limited are as follows: settling, according to objective laws, disputes among individuals, where private, voluntary arbitration has failed; providing protection from criminals; providing protection from foreign invaders. We don't need social security, welfare, universal healthcare, massive over-regulation, victimless crimes (drugs, prostitution, etc.). Less taxes and more freedom would benefit all. |
I have found that there are several problems with the libertarian philosophy. Namely, the contradictions. Libertarians argue that the free markets are the best way of organising society for 95% of all cases, and not for the last 5% (the things listed in that passage, for example). Libertarians also believe in the primacy of the individual over the state, and yet to fund Government for that final 5% the only logical and consistent means is through taxation... taxes fundamentally assume that the state takes precedent over the individual.
My other issue with Libertarians is that they still monopolize law creation and law enforcement into one institution with the ability to infringe on rights, and assume that they will never abuse this power. This seems a little naive, even the greatest Constitution ever composed by humanity (the US Constitution) was unable to prevent abuse from this power. Hell, even the first few Presidents/Congress' showed evidence of acting outside the authority of the Constitution... and they included the people who wrote the bloody thing.
I can see the allure of the libertarian philosophy... I called myself a libertarian for a long time, however, these very fundamental flaws in the philosophy eventually caused me to reject it.
