What we’ve been taught in our schools is that we live in a free country.
But when you stop to think about it we really don’t.
How so?
If we don’t do certain things like pay taxes we’ll be sent to jail.
If we do other certain things that harm no one like smoke weed in the wrong state, guess
what?
We’ll be sent to jail.
This is where the idea of libertarianism comes into play.
But first a quick and simple history.
Like most modern ideas, this one came about around the 17th century and was meant to cure
the unfairness that has plagued our world since the very beginning.
You see during this time people began to get sick of being poor while making rich people
richer.
What I mean by this is that most people at this time were ruled by some sort of lord
and paid their lords with work and taxes in the form of money, food, supplies, or whatever
they were making.
A man named Thomas Paine said for example that “There are two distinct classes of
men in the nation, those who pay taxes, and those who receive and live upon the taxes.”
So the idea of libertarianism really came about just like the ideas of Socialism and
Capitalism.
It was a way to figure out how to make things fairer.
And in a nutshell it’s that you get to keep what you earn instead of giving a portion
of it to others.
Now just like Socialism and Capitalism there are hundreds of different thoughts and ideas
about how to best practice this.
But for the sake of this video we’re going to look at what it means in the U.S.
In fact in most other parts of the world the term is more closely related to Socialism
while here in the U.S. it’s more closely related to the term Free Market Capitalism.
The exact meaning of libertarianism is to liberate or to defend freedom.
And it is based on the assumption that there is a natural harmony between productive people.
And that it’s only when the government intervenes, takes a portion of what we earn, and hands
out rewards where we begin to get into conflict.
Think about it like this.
Libertarians believe in this idea called the Non aggressive principle or NAP for short.
This means that any law that a government makes should not be a law that coerces people
into following its rules if those rules don’t apply to protecting other people’s natural
rights.
An example of a violation of this is taxes.
Why?
If you don’t pay your taxes, you can go to jail.
In other words the government is coercing you to pay up and if you don’t there are
some pretty severe consequences.
Sounds pretty aggressive right?
In terms of economic policy Libertarians favor the freedom of the economy to do what it wants
rather than regulate it with coercive laws.
This means removing all but the most necessary taxes to make a society work.
Libertarians want to get rid of Social Security, welfare, etc. while just having the bare necessities
like a police force, firefighters, and whatever else you need to create a functioning society.
In terms of social policy, it favors the idea that you can do basically whatever it is you
want to do as long as you are not violating another person’s natural rights.
For example the government shouldn’t be able to regulate your choices in life like
smoking weed all day or marrying a person of the same sex.
And as far as who we should punish and put into jail?
Simple.
Anyone who violates the rights of another individual like murderers, rapists, and thieves.
So this all sounds pretty straight forward…
But you may ask yourself why it hasn’t caught on to the mainstream public.
There are a number of reasons.
One simply being that the Democrats and Republicans literally own the Commission on Presidential
Debates . This means that they basically get to choose who gets to debate during a presidential
candidacy.
And why would a republican or democratic want more competition?
But there are other reasons too.
First there has yet to be a country that has tried to implement this idea of libertarianism.
You’d think that if it were such a good idea that at least one country would have
tried it.
Second many critics say that it sounds like a good idea.
But they wonder how it would work practically.
Meaning if businesses were no longer regulated, how would monopolies stop from being formed?
Or when people are too old to work and have little savings or expensive health care bills,
how could they live comfortably in retirement?
Third, Libertarianism in the U.S. is basically founded on this idea of the non-aggressive
principle.
The problem with this is that many economists believe that having a non-regulated free market
economy is a system that creates aggressive coercion by itself.
How?
Simple.
And here’s one example.
It doesn’t address the conflict between property owners and renters.
If there is no governmental regulation of people’s property rights or property owner’s
rights then one day you might wake up and say to yourself that you aren’t going to
pay rent this month because your landlord just raised it 50%.
Of course the property owner isn’t going to allow that and will use some sort of, most
likely, aggressive coercion to get their rent.
Fourth, there is an assumption in Libertarianism that economic growth also grows the happiness
of people.
But this assumption hasn’t been proven with science.
This is called the Easterlin Paradox named after a guy who studied this kind of stuff
and found that during a great period of economic expansion in the U.S. between 1946 and 1970
there was no increase in happiness.
And fifth there are environmental criticisms because if we don’t regulate our businesses
there is no clear way to make sure they make environmentally responsible decisions.
In response, Libertarians say that people wouldn’t purchase products from businesses
that are unethical, but the fact is that we already do.
Libertarianism seems like a great idea.
It’s all about providing the maximum amount of freedom to the individual while protecting
their individual rights.
But the question still remains about how to best implement a system like this in a way
that would protect the freedom and rights of every individual.
Thank you watching.
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