Re:This American Life & Car Talk (Score 1)

Its no coincidence that the best music, the best news, the best entertainment is being delivered by non-profit and often times government subsidized companies. If libertarians insist on seeing taxation as coerision they must stop calling themselves libertarians and refer to themselves more accurately as anarchists. We live in a democracy so we chosen to be taxed, you are in minority therefore we pay the taxes we do. The majority of Americans see taxes as neccessary and beneficial. Most liberatarians speak as though we don't live in a democracy (minority ideas often do this as a defense mechanism) so when they say things like coercision it is just another way of saying people disagree with my point of view. In my opinion, this is fortunate, but libertarians are more than welcome to change public opinion. This will be a difficult task though, as no modern civilization has attempted a liberatarian government and as far as I know, no ancient civilization either. You have little to no support intellectually, even the father of modern Free Market Adam Smith will read like Karl Marx to the radical, idealistic, utopian libertarian thinkers of the Libertarian Party.

That's the rant, but I will agree that we live in democratic deficit and that there is a real disconnect between public opinion and what the government is doing. In this case however, that is not the case. So 3 cheers for democracy... even if you disagree with where its taken us :) And let's be honest, even libertarians are secretly thankful for NPR because it is the best source of news and entertainment... even if it boils your blood that the free market has failed you.