Comment Re:How about don't even file (Score 0, Offtopic) 710
You're making unwarranted assumptions about my politics. I would have tried like hell to get out of the totalitarian societies too, just like people tried like hell to get out of the horrible feudal societies of Europe to come to the United States. Saying that libertarianism is a utopian fantasy hardly makes one pro-communist or pro-king.
In saying that the US was MORE libertarian than Europe, you're missing the point entirely. Europe was still a collection of class-ridden, largely aristocratic, frankly, largely monarchic societies. To say the United States was more libertarian is technically true, but not the whole story. The United States was less class-ridden, aristocratic, and monarchic than, say, Junker-ruled Saxony.
But your hypothetical of "we coulda got from there to here without government" is just ridiculous. Seriously, business has fought every single law which tried to help workers. You would probably still be slaving away in a coal mine for 16 hours a day, if you hadn't lost an arm working in a mill at 8 years old if it weren't for people who believed that there was a role for government.
For-profit ventures rarely take a long view, and they rarely do anything for the common good. No for profit venture does basic science. They just don't, and with good reason. And if they did do basic science, they wouldn't disseminate the results, again with good reason.
Last, how long do you think it would take before there would be NO education in your libertarian utopia except for those wealthy enough to pay for it? Exactly one generation, is my bet. It's in the best interests of any ruling class (whether economic or hereditary) to maintain a poorly educated subservient underclass, and why would they do any different?
What fascinates me about libertarians is that they start from the premise that all government power is evil because people are evil, and then assume that if there are no checks on the on the aggregation and control of economic power, that somehow, that world would no longer have any evil wielders of power in it. People are evil. You need balances against government, and against private power. It's proper for government to serve its citizens, and try to protect them. Just because you're feeling twisted up about paying your taxes doesn't mean that government is inherently evil, or that "no government" is inherently good.
In saying that the US was MORE libertarian than Europe, you're missing the point entirely. Europe was still a collection of class-ridden, largely aristocratic, frankly, largely monarchic societies. To say the United States was more libertarian is technically true, but not the whole story. The United States was less class-ridden, aristocratic, and monarchic than, say, Junker-ruled Saxony.
But your hypothetical of "we coulda got from there to here without government" is just ridiculous. Seriously, business has fought every single law which tried to help workers. You would probably still be slaving away in a coal mine for 16 hours a day, if you hadn't lost an arm working in a mill at 8 years old if it weren't for people who believed that there was a role for government.
For-profit ventures rarely take a long view, and they rarely do anything for the common good. No for profit venture does basic science. They just don't, and with good reason. And if they did do basic science, they wouldn't disseminate the results, again with good reason.
Last, how long do you think it would take before there would be NO education in your libertarian utopia except for those wealthy enough to pay for it? Exactly one generation, is my bet. It's in the best interests of any ruling class (whether economic or hereditary) to maintain a poorly educated subservient underclass, and why would they do any different?
What fascinates me about libertarians is that they start from the premise that all government power is evil because people are evil, and then assume that if there are no checks on the on the aggregation and control of economic power, that somehow, that world would no longer have any evil wielders of power in it. People are evil. You need balances against government, and against private power. It's proper for government to serve its citizens, and try to protect them. Just because you're feeling twisted up about paying your taxes doesn't mean that government is inherently evil, or that "no government" is inherently good.
