Actually, gem quality larger synthetic diamonds are becoming more feasible. My wife has a .79 carat fancy blue synthetic diamond in her engagement ring. And industrial diamonds don't compete with gem diamonds. Most diamond veins are suited for industrial use. Due to flaws, small size, undesired color, etc there are plenty of natural diamonds that won't get used for gems. Any that are of gem quality aren't used for industrial purposes due to cost.

What stops the mega wealthy is competition. What prevents competition is the government. As long as you have freedom of association, you can choose to associate with companies that don't exploit you. There is room for basic labor laws preventing child labor, discrimination, and a few other things.

OSHA should be privatized and made to be a safety standards company similar to how Underwriters Laboratories and other safety industries work. OSHA rules are out of date and often absurd.

The EPA should also be privatized. Let the public see what the environmental rules are and boycott companies that destroy the environment. The EPA as is currently set up is accountable to no one and can effectively ban anything based on if they determine it is a pollutant.

The FCC should regulate what frequencies can be used and regulate interference so jamming is considered the same as blocking speech.

Libertarians don't believe in NO government or a ridiculously tiny government. They believe in a limited government (limited by a document, like say the Constitution), an accountable government (fair elections, unlike what we have now), reasonable and low taxes, and personal freedom. History has shown that free people do a very good (but not perfect job) of advancing society and creating wealth for the entire population even if it is unevenly distributed.

Most libertarians believe the government should do a whole lot for society, but at the smallest level of government. Fire departments, police, schools, etc should be manages by the local government, not the feds. Federal officials aren't accountable over local concerns.

Your view is that we need to keep money out of politics. I see that as dealing with the symptom, not the problem. I want to get politics out of money. The problem is that the government is so large and powerful that they can control large amounts of private sector money. Take away their power, contracts, tax benefits, and straight up handouts and then there isn't an incentive to buy politicians anymore. Why spend a billion dollars to win a position that won't return a billion dollars in "influence"?

Diesel is also a much safer fuel as it's not as highly flammable and explosive as gasoline.

That's right, the surveillance state is a bipartisan effort. They only vote along party lines to show their voters that they don't get along even though they do.

The implicit theoretical side of libertarians is that the wealthy population increases over time. Near 100% of the US population is wealthy by third world standards. You only call it concentrated wealth because it's more than you have. What is stopping the wealthy from taking over is the government in an ideal libertarian world. Yes, contrary to your delusions of what libertarians believe, we do believe in government. A government whose role is to protect the rights of the people.

Now in this system we have now, the rich can buy politicians and they are pretty much taking over. They openly admit that the rules of governance are no longer applicable to them. Tell me again how this is working so much better...

When we cut government down to where there are taxes for just schools, roads, and libraries and things are horrible, give me a call.

Good luck with that voting people out of office thing. Don't like John Dingell? He was first elected in 1955 and has been in congress ever since... Similar stories will all politicians. Incumbents have a huge advantage and are very difficult to replace. Even moreso in a primary. So even if I vote against a candidate that will represent me, I am still stuck with their voting record and decisions...

Meanwhile in corporate crazyland, if I don't like Wal-Mart, I can shop at any number of competitors and choose not to do business with them. You can vote with your dollars and unlike votes, every single one counts. You may not be able to vote for the board of a company (well actually you can if you choose to buy stock which is generally available to the public), but you sure can choose which companies you associate with.

Where is this example of corporations taking control of governance and oppressing the people? Name one country that has resorted to revolution to throw out a monopolistic corporation. Hmm, I can think of several governments that have oppressed the people to the point where only bloodshed can change governance.

It disgusts me that all of these blatant political flamebait posts are getting +5 insightful mods. The sad part is, the metamods will probably agree.

Ahh yes, the Feds take money from the people in the states and then return it to them disproportionately and with strings attached. Federal taxes don't really pay for roads and schools, local money does.

At least that has a shred of truth to it. I'm not on the Republican's side either, but I appreciate honesty when I see it. And all people regardless of political views should agree with your last statement. Obama is a shitty negotiator... It's probably because he goes on TV and insults his opponents all the time.

That's the thing. I believe we would be better off as a nation with more saving and investing and less debt. Sure we'd probably bring in less revenue with a reasonable sales tax rate, but the government is far too large for it's own good. The consumption tax would work really well with the smaller government the libertarians desire.

A blanket tax on consumption would reduce the demand for all products. That's probably not the most horrible thing in the most wasteful society in history...

But school are paid for by local taxes and roads are paid for by state use taxes. What exactly are the Feds collecting for?

Exactly. Now that everyone can see Obamacare is a clusterfuck they try to blame Republicans. They didn't need any Republican votes and they knew it. The Republicans approval was neither needed nor desired. This is all on the Democrats and a precious TWO independents in the Senate.

Yes he really bent hard to get all ZERO Republican votes. The Democrats came up with shit and pushed it through on fucking Christmas Eve.

No, Libertarians do not believe people will place nice without the government. But rather they believe that the government shouldn't support the people who don't play nice and defend the people that do.

Libertarians believe that a bear should protect his cave because if the bear wanders out to spread their bear influence, the cave is left undefended. Having a military stay within the boarders unless provoked isn't hiding.

Basically Libertarians would rather turtle than Zerg rush.

All of these are valid problems with income tax. However, taxing income wasn't done because it was a good system, it was done because it was easy to collect. The Fair Tax and sales tax in general is a far better and more fair system. If you include a prebate or exempt necessities, it has minimal effect on the poor. It also is a system where people can intentionally plan to spend less to avoid paying taxes. Rich people will inherently have higher taxes if they choose to spend more.

The main point is that taxing something reduces its demand. Taxing cigarettes is supposed to decrease cigarette sales, etc. So why would we tax labor? Taxing consumption instead of production would give us more labor and less waste.