To: Nosterrex; rabscuttle385
Neoconservativism is what political sciences would call classical Liberalism...of Libertarianism today is closer to Anarchism than classical Liberalism.
You've actually got it 100% backwards there FRiend. Classical liberal (and Libertarian) philosophies put the value of laissez-faire policy above other methods of state interventionism. This not only includes internal economic policy...but especially foreign policy.
When goods cannot cross borders, armies will. --Frederic Bastiat
Both Batsiat and Adam Smith pretty much laid out the cornerstones of classical liberal foreign policy, from an economists point of view. Both believed that any form of state interventionism, whether based on trade, economic, or even security concerns (they did not really differentiate) were bad news for a nation's prosperity...especially wars.
But war, although the greatest of consumers, not only produces nothing in return, but, by abstracting labour from productive employment and interrupting the course of trade, it impedes, in a variety of indirect ways, the creation of wealth --Adam Smith
Although Neoconservatives will argue that our current interventionist policy is more toward our security than economics....Smith's predicted result is the same. This is where Neoconservatism and classical liberalism part ways completely. Free trade is the way to prosperity, not anarchism...this is the mainstream libertarian belief:
Something you should check out:
FEDERALISM AND INDIVIDUAL SOVEREIGNTY
37 posted on
04/08/2010 10:11:24 AM PDT by
bamahead
(Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master. -- Sallust)
To: bamahead
I am trying to figure out how we can discuss this matter without me having to quote long passages from my books on political philosophy. I do not know if it is beneficial to get into a debate over definitions. Classical Liberalism is more concerned about INDIVIDUAL freedoms than international affairs. Would you agree with that? I am trying to find some common ground between us.
To: bamahead
What happens if other countries in the world do not share your beliefs in free trade and laissez faire? 19th-cent. Britain was able to become enormously wealthy and to spread the gospel of free trade over most of the world solely because it had the world's best navy and could keep trade routes open. The young United States had to build a navy to keep its merchant sailors safe from Islamic pirates. Today we engage in so-called free trade with nations which are really mercantilist, like Red China, which does not simply peacefully buy what it wants; it steals technology and sends its agents around the world to gain exclusive control of critical raw materials like rare earths, and builds up its offensive warmaking capability.
Too many libertarians are ideologues who spout abstract dogma and ignore the lessons of history.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson