The Big Flaw in Libertarianism

[bripat9643]

I don't think so. Higher taxes are honest. If you really want limited government, requiring that we pay for ALL the government we get is a surefire incentive.

And this is why I've always respected you. Even if I don't agree with your view, you always give an honest assessment on the topic.

Dumb statist ideas like that are the reason I don't respect him. No genuine libertarian would ever approve of the idea of automatic tax increases. Why give the bastards what they want without them even having to go through the trouble of voting for it? That's a prescription for spend, spend, spend.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

There's truth in that. It's sort of like insurance, or gambling. As long as we hang on to the hope that 'the other guy' will get screwed and not us, most of us will approve of the confiscating. Call it the 'something for nothing' principle.

yes, there is no free lunch as Milton Friedman said but still it is the very essence of liberalism.

Is an average guy going to know a stimulus cant work, that stealing from the rich cant work, that regulation cant work, that printing money cant work, that Solyndra investing cant work, that corporate taxes don't raise revenue or that welfare doesn't work, or that government jobs aren't real jobs?

Democrats use these issues only to pander to the near perfect ignorance of liberals

Which is why I believe we are at the tipping point. We now have 50% of Americans dependent in some way on government benevolence--some a little bit; others a lot. But whether a little or a lot, once a person becomes dependent, they emotionally and mentally resist giving up what they have and are used to getting. So you rapidly have a mob self-protection mentality building as was demonstrated in the riots in Greece and has been demonstratedin Wisconsin when anybody presumed to start rolling back the freebies.

If we do not reverse that now, there will be too few of us left with the will and instincts to do so. It may already be too late, but all we can do is try.

yes but there is great reason to hope. Thanks to Buckley, mostly, the parties have been purified so now when the MSM causes the normal 50/50 split Republicans will win 50% of the time and that will lead to good things. Moreover, with a little more pressure the tipping point can be in the libertarian direction.

In the old days the 50/50 split got you a slow drift toward liberalism, now it may be reversed.