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To: annalex

My big problem with libertarianism is that is still makes too much of an issue out of government. Liberals say govt. is good and libertarians say it is bad; but the simple fact as I see it is that (get ready) good is good and bad is bad. If government laws work for the improvement of soceity, they are good, but if we remove almost all government and let people be as wicked as they please, then that is certainly a bad thing.

Maybe I'm being overly simplistic, and I do believe in subsidiarism as a general principle, but it seems to me that government itself is neither good or bad as to size, but what sort of things it does makes all the difference.


275 posted on 04/05/2005 8:41:11 PM PDT by Guelph4ever (“Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam et tibi dabo claves regni coelorum”)
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To: Guelph4ever

Most libertarians would agree with you. But they would qualify it by saying that a good government only protects individual rights; anything beyond that is bad.

It is not wrong, what they say, but the devil is in the details. What are rights? Is to blaspheme a right? Is to withhold charity a right? Is suicide a right? My answer to all three is No. Virtually all libertarians would answer Yes. Is destruction of culture a right? Is culture property?

The reality is, libertarinism is just as much a cultural creed as anything else, but they like to pretend it is some kind of an objective algebra of rights.


276 posted on 04/05/2005 10:57:51 PM PDT by annalex
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