My only problem with Libertarians is that most of them don't understand what it means to be a Libertarian.
I definitely agree with a lot of what Libertarians have to say, especially in relation to social policy on gambling, drug use, abortion, and other social issues such as those, but I think that needs to be tempered with an understanding that a Libertarian approach to the economy is really not possible without severe repercussions these days.
A good example is how this description quotes the principles of Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson has a lot of profound things to say, many of which we can still learn from today, but to act like we can copy and paste his attitudes to our current situation removed over two centuries from his own is very naive. Our economy is way too complex and the power over it is centered in the hands of too few people.
For instance, people who need insulin to survive are probably willing to pay a lot for it since they will die without it. By that logic, the companies making insulin should charge as much as they possibly could because their clients are willing to pay for it, otherwise they will die. If we had a completely hands off approach to government regulation, then they probably would.
Another example is the sub-prime mortgage fiasco. Part of the problem the whole thing erupted was because there wasn't enough government regulation on unscrupulous lending practices, which in turn HURT the economy much more than it helped it.
Our current policy makers could learn a lot from libertarians, ESPECIALLY about fiscal responsibility, but the government has to act as a referee in society and in the economy whether people like it or not. Otherwise, things would simply fall apart in a society this multifaceted and complex.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
