I just read that Ron Paul's son won the GOP primary for a Senate seat in Kentucky, rather handily, with his dad's Libertarian-style politics. There's a video in there too, in which Rachel Maddow asks him if he really believes, as reported, that business owners should be exempt from the Civil Rights Act because it violates their own First Amendment rights. While he never actually said yes -- he spent a lot of time explaining that he personally found racism abhorrent and bad for business -- it was clear that he did, in fact, believe that if you don't want no blacks in your store, it's your store and should be allowed to make that clear.
The reader comments (yes, I read them, stupidly) indicate that most of the people commenting agreed with him, and believed any business that practiced racism would be boycotted by everyone, black or white, and would be put out of business by the "free market system." How wonderfully naive.
When I was in college I thought Libertarianism sounded great -- mainly because it promised legal pot, but also because personal freedom was very important to me. I'd just left my parents' control, I wanted the world to be my oyster even though I hate oysters, and I wanted to do everything and anything I wanted to do. I even went so far as to vote for Ron Paul for president. (Yes, he was even running way back then.)
As I got older, even though I still very much valued personal freedom, I began to wonder how workable nearly any part of Libertarian policies is. Like, how do we know which company's meat is safe to eat without the FDA? In the "free market system," the only thing preventing companies from selling tainted meat is the fear of boycott, but what if you're Tyson and you know poor people will keep buying your chickens anyway because they're cheap?
And what about schools, utilities, roads, fire and police departments, libraries, and other tax-supported and government-administrated entities? Would each community pool its resources and hire the best company it could afford to receive these services? It seems to me that would only serve to help widen the gulf between the rich and the poor, as tenements burnt down and poor children were taught even more ineffectively than they are now.
And yet, adult people think all of this is a GREAT idea, and if we just didn't have taxes or so much government, everything would be fantastic. Let me ask you this, Libertarians: Which corporation do you trust to count your vote? How about Diebold?
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