A Society of Criminals-Libertarianism explained
invite response
2010 Feb 28, 8:12am 22,883 views 250 comments
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Fisk
2011 Apr 1, 10:14am
You can also remind them that the top rate was 90% back in the 1950s, when evil socialist Eisenhower kept the US economy in the doledrums after WW2, LOL.
To be fair, would you please also remind us what income bracket had that 90% top rate applied to, what would that be today in inflation-adjusted terms, and how many people in the whole country had been in that bracket? Somehow those who love to talk about that 90% rate NEVER mention those things.
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By Ben O'Neill
http://mises.org/daily/4125
A short excerpt from the larger article:
"In fact, what is called "the free market" is just the absence of socially sanctioned theft, assault, robbery, etc., in the context of the relevant market. What is called "deregulation" is actually just the removal of policies allowing socially sanctioned trespasses against person and property. What is called "decentralization of power" is actually just the breaking down of one big criminal agency into lots of smaller competing criminal agencies, with the goal of ultimately making them small enough and competitive enough (with each other) for us to escape from their clutches altogether.
At root, the libertarian position is very simple and must be communicated in this way. It holds that people should not be allowed to commit crimes against one another. All of the talk about free markets versus market intervention, capitalism versus socialism, regulation versus deregulation, and so on, is just a disguised way of presenting the basic dichotomy between a society of criminals and a society of law. This is the essence of the battle.
A battle between the free market and its antipodes, when presented in the garb of political philosophy, is an esoteric battle. It is a battle that can be perverted and misrepresented. A straightforward battle between criminality and law is easier to understand and far more powerful. Libertarians should not shy away from presenting "policy issues" in terms of their actual meaning — in terms of criminality versus law.
Many have been cowed into avoiding this approach by the idea that this "strong language" will put people off, or make libertarians seem unreasonable. But it is precisely this confrontation with the basic fact — that libertarianism supports a society of law — that is the most powerful weapon for its advocates. There is nothing wrong with telling people that taxation is robbery, that regulation is trespass, that drug laws are assault and robbery, that politicians are criminals, and that the state is a monstrous criminal agency."
#crime