The Cato Institute, founded by zillionaire Charles Koch, is the High Temple of libertarianism. I agree with some of libertarianism’s ostensible positions, such as when they oppose the bullying tactics of the Border Patrol’s checkpoints INSIDE the U.S., the relentless creep towards a national ID card (via state driver’s licenses, which are MUCH more than that now) and the establishment of a de facto surveillance state, the ridiculous “war on drugs” which has destroyed so many lives, granted vast powers to the government, and done not one bit of good in solving the serious problem of drug addiction.
But these are not the core issues for libertarians. You don’t have to be a libertarian to share those views. What sets libertarians apart is their objection to the government’s playing any part in the organization of society.
Governments should not use their powers to censor speech, conscript the young, prohibit voluntary exchanges, steal or “redistribute” property, or interfere in the lives of individuals who are otherwise minding their own business.
The Original Position.
This sounds admirable, and if we were in the John Rawls “original position”, this might be the way to organize society. (Rawls, no libertarian, drew far different conclusions.) But in the card game of life up until about the 1930s, government always dealt the high hands to favored classes; hence the term “New Deal.”
The libertarian fantasy is that the government never interfered much with business until the evil New Deal came long, and perverted the constitutional order of the visionary slave owners of 1787. These men of 1787 constitution feared to use the word “slave” choosing instead euphemisms such as “persons held to servitude” .
“Stealing and redistributing property”
Most of us fall heirs to the greatest “stealing and redistribution of property” ever undertaken. The conquest of the continent from its original owners ran three hundred years from the Lost Colony in 1585 to the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890.
Along the way the government picked up the French claim to Louisiana in 1803, shortly thereafter organized its claim to the Oregon Country by the government-funded Lewis and Clark expedition, and made war upon Mexico, seizing 2/5ths of its territory.
Once the continent was secured, and the unpleasant distraction from making huge sums of money called the Civil War was concluded, the government then gave to the railroads huge territories from the conquered lands to back up the bonds the railroads issued to get the money to build transcontinental rail lines.
And speaking of the Civil War, let us not forget that for 250 years, the government actively sustained and protected the confiscation of the entire value of the laboring lives of a large portion of its population. (Afterwords, for at least 100 years, the de jure liberated people remained in a de facto state near their previous status of bondage.) In 1865, Lincoln well recognized the huge wealth generated by the government-enforced confiscation of labor:
Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
Falling heir to the stealing of a continent, and the labor and freedom of ten generations of an entire nation, it ill behooves any of us, particularly the richest of us, to complain that taxation is theft.
“Prohibition of voluntary exchanges”
This is code for the abolition of unions, worker safety rules, workers compensation, and wage and hour laws. Even child labor laws must be repealed, according to Sen. Mike Lee of Utah (who has been talked about as being a potential SCOTUS nominee), although to be fair, Lee was only speaking of federal child labor laws: the true libertarian would extend that to the states. Consider the case of child chimney sweeps in the first part of the 1800s:
The ideal age for a chimney sweep to begin working was said to be 6 years old, but sometimes they were used beginning at age 4. The child would shimmy up the flue using his back, elbows, and knees. He would use a brush overhead to knock soot loose; the soot would fall down over him. Once the child reached the top, he would slide down and collect the soot pile for his master, who would sell it. The children received no wages.
Of course various safety measures outside of work, such as on passenger vessels, train crossings etc. would also have to go. “You chose to be a passenger on the General Slocum, so don’t bother us if 1,021 people died due to rotten fire hoses, poorly trained crew, and unfloatable life jackets.”
What it all means.
Libertarians such as the Koch Brothers, who can hardly claim to have been mistreated by our present economic system, object that in the last few decades when the cards of life have been dealt out, the people who were on the losing side for the past 400 years somehow have come up with a better hand than them. Now they want to change the rules of the game. Libertarianism is simply a justification for the maintenance of the wealth and power of those who already have a surfeit of both. Quite a lot of thought and the work of intelligent people have gone into this; but wealth will always have its defenders.
All other superficially attractive positions of libertarianism are like paint on rotten wood, looking good for awhile, but concealing the decay underneath.
Next in part 2: Anarchism, the mirror of Libertarianism.