patrick.net

Remember, problems are manmade concepts. Many things deemed "problems" can be and should be ignored.

Regarding tobacco, nobody forced consumers to smoke. One must try to make informed choices and/or educated guesses. It is just a fact of life.

If God had not been a libertarian we would still have to live with those pesky dinosaurs.

In the '90s I was peripherally involved with the Libertarian Party in Orange County, CA. They were a bunch of VERY intelligent and interesting people, to be sure.

As far as running the country, though, they seemed to forget that not all Americans are upper middle class management types. They could NEVER give a straight answer regarding how their system would account for avarice and greed in human behavior. They sanctimoniously spoke of "stewardship" preventing owners from (for ex) clearcutting forests for a fast buck today, or motivating them to pay what it costs to collect and dispose of wastes rather than just letting them flow into the river or up the smokestack.

Politically, I consider myself most like a Libertarian, but as a political party in the USA general population, I don't see them getting far out of the 1-2% of the vote niche any time soon.

Some Big-L libertarians I have met tend to be quite fat.

I am definitely more neoliberal than libertarian, even though I am also fat.

There's a lot of the "Whitey" types over at Mises, if you include Confederate Apologists.

Automan Empire says

As far as running the country, though, they seemed to forget that not all Americans are upper middle class management types. They could NEVER give a straight answer regarding how their system would account for avarice and greed in human behavior

If you let the corrections brought on by the "management types" play out, then salaries and jobs will naturally adjust and shift towards the makers. There is no reason why so much money is being made in the parasitic sectors except for that they are being supported by the Fed and the government and that they have amassed quite a powerful lobby. In 2008 some people lost their jobs, but it was 4 managers for one maker (developer) if not more because the makers that directly produce for their salary were still needed. The ratio was even higher for wall-street employees. You don't need middle-men for house purchases, for asset management, to find the right doctor for you etc. Cities would find their natural balance between old folks and newcomers without being overrun and sold to the highest bidder by the politician making the most promises with other people's money - rents and house prices would be affordable. It really only takes a brief look to spot a distorted economy that has lost its balance, and to see, that a city like SF is already suffocating again under the choke-hold of the next bubble.