The problem with Libertarians is that they never seem to grasp that people *ARE* harming others.
I can't tell you how many pot heads I know who aren't taking care of their children, and who leave the rest of us taxpayers on the hook for THEIR BILLS.
Are these children being harmed by their parents drug use? YES!
Are innocent taxpayers being harmed by their parents drug use? YES!
How about promiscuity? How about paying for out of wedlock births? Are these children harmed by being born out of wedlock? YES!
Are the taxpayers being harmed by those children being born out of wedlock? YES!
How about Homosexuality? Do you have any idea how many nasty diseases are kept alive by the constant swapping of bodily fluids which take place amongst the homosexual community? They serve as the largest repository of sexually transmitted diseases in the nation.
Does this behavior harm people other than themselves? YES! (Ask Ryan White, Arthur Ashe, and Magic Johnson.)
Does this behavior harm taxpayers? Yes!
Again, the problem with Libertarians is that they refuse to recognize the damage done to others by people following their political philosophy. They have no ability to see the negative longer term consequences of the ideas they advocate.
Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites, — in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity, — in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption, — in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.
-Edmund Burke- 1791
You raise good points, all of which are valid. OTOH, criminalization causes crime, I.e., drug gang violence. The question is, Which is worse?
I believe the right road to take is the road we’ve taken with cigarettes: legalize, control, prohibit advertising, and anti-pot PR campaigns.
You’re as good at your straw man arguments as liberals are when dumping on conservatives. Maybe you’re really a liberal /progressive.
Dear DiogenesLamp:
No Libertarian would deny that many human behaviors - e.g., smoking tobacco, smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol, watching too much t.v., drinking 32-oz. sugared drinks, not getting enough exercise, etc. - are unwise and, ultimately, a detriment to society, and thus may represent a direct or indirect burden to the public coffers (even in the totally welfare-less state which Libertarians call for), due to, e.g., lost tax revenues, higher rates of absenteeism, etc.
The question is: What is your solution to these detrimental behaviors? Would you criminalize promiscuity? Would you re-instate Prohibition? Would you ban super-sized fries? And how would you suggest enforcing such laws without making a mockery of the Bill of Rights?
Regards,
Moral Absolutes bump.
(I’m outta town)