Libertarianism as a Way of Life

There is definitely something to be said about growing up and knowing who you are and what you stand for. As a child of Generation X, I grew up with knowledge of only what my parents, my teachers, the TV, and the newspaper told me. It wasn’t until the mid-90s came along and blasted us all with the internet. In addition, talk radio has become commonplace, outside of Gospel radio. I have really started to get a lot of information outside of traditional sources, which is great for everyone, because learning is a great tool for life, even outside of school. I have formed some very strong bonds to what I believe in the last few years for a variety of reasons. In addition to that, I have recently read (of course in the new-tech way, known as an audiobook on the iPod) a book that I really believe could help a lot of people.

We all need to read a book called Libertarianism: A Primer, by David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute. I have excerpted some very key concepts of the idea and the book, here.

The key concepts of libertarianism have developed over many centuries. The first inklings of them can be found in ancient China, Greece, and Israel; they began to be developed into something resembling modern libertarian philosophy in the work of such seventeenth- and eighteenth-century thinkers as John Locke, David Hume, Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine.

Individualism. Libertarians see the individual as the basic unit of social analysis. Only individuals make choices and are responsible for their actions. Libertarian (ideology) emphasizes the dignity of each individual, which entails both rights and responsibility(ies). The progressive extension of dignity to more people -- to women, to people of different religions and different races -- is one of the great libertarian triumphs of the Western world.

Individual Rights. Because individuals are moral agents, they have a right to be secure in their life, liberty, and property. These rights are not granted by government or by society; they are inherent in the nature of human beings. It is intuitively right that individuals enjoy the security of such rights; the burden of explanation should lie with those who would take rights away.

Spontaneous Order. A great degree of order in society is necessary for individuals to survive and flourish. It is easy to assume that order must be imposed by a central authority, the way we impose order on a stamp collection or a football team. The great insight of libertarian social analysis is that order in society arises spontaneously, out of the actions of thousands or millions of individuals who coordinate their actions with those of others in order to achieve their purposes. Over human history, we have gradually opted for more freedom and yet managed to develop a complex society with intricate organization. The most important institutions in human society -- language, law, money, and markets -- all developed spontaneously, without central direction. Civil society -- the complex network of associations and connections among people -- is another example of spontaneous order; the associations within civil society are formed for a purpose, but civil society itself is not an organization and does not have a purpose of its own.

The Rule of Law. Libertarianism is not libertinism or hedonism. It is not a claim that "people can do anything they want to, and nobody else can say anything." Rather, libertarianism proposes a society of liberty under law, in which individuals are free to pursue their own lives so long as they respect the equal rights of others. The rule of law means that individuals are governed by generally applicable and spontaneously developed legal rules, not by arbitrary commands; and that those rules should protect the freedom of individuals to pursue happiness in their own ways, not aim at any particular result or outcome.

Limited Government. To protect rights, individuals form governments. But government is a dangerous institution. Libertarians have a great antipathy to concentrated power, for as Lord Acton said, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Thus they want to divide and limit power, and that means especially to limit government, generally through a written constitution enumerating and limiting the powers that the people delegate to government. Limited government is the basic political implication of libertarianism, and libertarians point to the historical fact that it was the dispersion of power in Europe -- more than other parts of the world -- that led to individual liberty and sustained economic growth.

Free Markets. To survive and to flourish, individuals need to engage in economic activity. The right to property entails the right to exchange property by mutual agreement. Free markets are the economic system of free individuals, and they are necessary to create wealth. Libertarians believe that people will be both freer and more prosperous if government intervention in people's economic choices is minimized.

The Virtue of Production. Much of the impetus for libertarianism in the seventeenth century was a reaction against monarchs and aristocrats who lived off the productive labor of other people. Libertarians defended the right of people to keep the fruits of their labor. This effort developed into a respect for the dignity of work and production and especially for the growing middle class, who were looked down upon by aristocrats. Libertarians developed a pre-Marxist class analysis that divided society into two basic classes: those who produced wealth and those who took it by force from others. Thomas Paine, for instance, wrote, "There are two distinct classes of men in the nation, those who pay taxes, and those who receive and live upon the taxes." Similarly, Jefferson wrote in 1824, "We have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious." Modern libertarians defend the right of productive people to keep what they earn, against a new class of politicians and bureaucrats who would seize their earnings to transfer them to nonproducers.

Natural Harmony of Interests. Libertarians believe that there is a natural harmony of interests among peaceful, productive people in a just society. One person's individual plans -- which may involve getting a job, starting a business, buying a house, and so on -- may conflict with the plans of others, so the market makes many of us change our plans. But we all prosper from the operation of the free market, and there are no necessary conflicts between farmers and merchants, manufacturers and importers. Only when government begins to hand out rewards on the basis of political pressure do we find ourselves involved in group conflict, pushed to organize and contend with other groups for a piece of political power.

Peace. Libertarians have always battled the age-old scourge of war. They understood that war brought death and destruction on a grand scale, disrupted family and economic life, and put more power in the hands of the ruling class -- which might explain why the rulers did not always share the popular sentiment for peace. Free men and women, of course, have often had to defend their own societies against foreign threats; but throughout history, war has usually been the common enemy of peaceful, productive people on all sides of the conflict.

That was from Chapter 1, "The Coming Libertarian Age," Libertarianism: A Primer, by David Boaz (New York: The Free Press, 1998). See also www.libertarianism.org.

With this in mind, I have gained staunch opinions about the government and how they interact with the people. As a Libertarian, I believe in capitalism, individualism, private property rights, very low taxes, very low government spending, and a basic belief that we need much less government in our lives. This would include the privatization of education, social security, transportation, and marriage. In addition, because of the rule of law, illegal immigration should be more strictly enforced for the well-being of legal citizens. We also need fewer regulations for businesses and outlaw mandatory worker’s unions, a minimum wage, affirmative action, and mandatory health insurance benefits. Businesses need to be free to make the most of their money and time, including efficiently hiring the most effective people and firing the weak links on a team. Furthermore, the legalization of private drug use would help solve many problems, including lower crime. I’ll explain it later, but don’t jump to conclusions about that unless you do your own research.

As the late Benjamin Franklin once said: "[T]he more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."

As you might discover by reading this, neither Republicans nor Democrats do it for me. The Democrats like to tax the hell out of you, and then spend it on social welfare, all with much force from an organization known as the IRS. But, the Republicans like to spend all your money on different issues, but equally damaging, and borrow it all, with an organization known as the Federal Reserve. However, with that borrowing, not only are we digging a hole that we will eventually need to get out of, we are digging into the pockets of potentially enemy nations.

For most of my writing from now on, I will be shouting my views from the mountaintop, about basic Libertarian principles. Sit back and enjoy.