Free Republic

Can libertarians be of the Left? Many would laugh at such a question. After all, libertarianism tends to be a fervently pro-free market ideology. But all ideologies have their shades of grey. With libertarianism being no exception to the trend. The left libertarian tradition is one that champions equality and social justice under the framework of a free-market economy. The leftist libertarian political economy stresses a separation of economy and state while championing mutual ownership of resources in a voluntary manner.

Can black markets lead to a libertarian society? According to agorists, interactions in black markets and grey markets can lay the groundwork for a nonviolent revolution against the present-day administrative state. Agorism refers to a political philosophy that advocates for the use of counter-economics and similar ideas to create a libertarian society based on voluntary exchanges and associations.

No political movement is a monolith. Political movements have their own sub-sects and factions within them. Libertarianism has been no exception to this rule. One variety of libertarianism that stands out is paleolibertarianism. The paleolibertarian strand of libertarianism fuses traditional cultural values and philosophical values with the standard libertarian antipathy of government intervention into private affairs.

Statism is nothing more than gang rule. A statist dictatorship is a gang devoted to looting the effort of the productive citizens of its own country.” – Ayn Rand, War and Peace, The Objectivist Newsletter, Oct 1962 What is statism? Merriam-Webster defines it as the “concentration of economic controls and planning in the hands of a highly centralized government often extending to government ownership of industry.” In essence, statism is the belief that the state or government, regardless of its size or the amount of control it exerts over its subjects, is legitimate to at least some extent. In practice,...

Are libertarianism and socialism diametrically opposed? The libertarian socialist would say no. The political philosophy of libertarian socialism categorically rejects state interference in social affairs and instead proposes the abolition of authoritarian institutions that inhibit freedom and justice. The rejection of state socialism and the current mixed economy define libertarian socialism. Instead, the libertarian socialism project calls for decentralized institutions that use direct democracy or voluntary associations to break up centralized institutions and institutions captured by rent-seeking capitalists.

Anarcho Capitalism refers to the philosophy that calls for the abolition of centralized states. In its stead, the state will be replaced by a system of private property which will be maintained by private institutions and civil society. Anarcho-capitalism is truly radical in the sense that it strikes at the root of societal problems and attempts to offer solutions to these problems through market forces. Given the philosophy’s relatively young age, anarcho-capitalist thought merits a proper analysis in order for novices to fully comprehend it.

What is classical liberalism? And what does it mean to be a classically liberal? Classical liberalism refers to the philosophy of individual liberty, property rights, and rule of law that dominated the West from the late 1700s until the mid-1900s. As history shows, however, words can take new meanings over time. The word liberalism has been in the English lexicon for centuries, but its definition has changed over the course of the 20th century. In fact, the changes have been so significant that political scientists have to qualify liberalism prior to the twentieth century as classical liberalism. By contrast, they...

What are “Negative Rights”? We all have rights as human beings in the United States. We have the right to attend school, go to college, work to obtain money, own property, and defend ourselves, but where do these rights start to infringe on others’ freedom? Negative rights define our freedoms and our right to have something without interference from outside forces. To define negative rights in the simplest manner, it’s one person’s right not to have another person interfere with their own liberties.

What are “Positive Rights”? There is much talk regarding “rights” and how they relate to freedom and liberty. If you’re wondering, “what are positive rights,” and why should I care? We’ll explain what they are and some of the fundamental issues that many people have with this ideology. Positive Rights Definition A positive right is one that requires others (namely the government) to provide you with either a good or service. They do so by taking away another individuals’ rights. Positive right issues start to arise when these infringe on the fundamental human rights of others by requiring them to...

What is a Minarchist? A Minarchist is someone who believes that the state should only exist for the purpose of maintaining law and order. Minarchism is a Libertarian political philosophy where the state’s only function is protecting individuals from theft, breach of contract, fraud, and aggression. The government would still maintain the military, police, courts, fire departments, prisons, and legislatures, but the state would have no ability to interfere with the capitalist interactions and transactions of the people. These states are referred to as “Night-watchman states.” One of the biggest supporters of this philosophy was Robert Nozick and he talked...

The goal of socialism is communism. That’s Vladimir Lenin’s famed “socialism leads to communism quote,” a good one to preface any list of socialism quotes. Marxists usually regard socialism as the stepping stone to communism, a state of utopia in which the government controls everything its citizens say and do. Any socialists who don’t believe this are obliviously doing the Marxists’ work for them. How does socialism breed communism? Well, once the government is in charge of redistributing wealth, it becomes increasingly picky about just who can have any. Party officials, whose work is paramount to the continued operations of...

The difference between negative vs positive rights is that one requires action while the other requires inaction. Negative rights are the requirements of someone else not to interfere in your ability to obtain something. Positive rights are a requirement of someone else to provide you with something. You may hear negative rights referred to as “liberties,” and that’s because they are basic human and civil rights stating that no one can interfere with our right to obtain something through trade or bartering. Positive rights are often called “entitlements” because they are things that someone must provide to us, whether we’ve...

"If you buy something like Bitcoin or some cryptocurrency, you don't have anything that is producing anything. You’re just hoping the next guy pays more. And you only feel you'll find the next guy to pay more if he thinks he's going to find someone that's going to pay more." – One of Warren Buffett’s characteristically negative cryptocurrency quotes In 2010, a Florida man paid 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas from a local delivery joint. As of mid-September, 2021, those pizzas would cost the equivalent of $4.8 billion. That’s roughly the gross domestic product of Montenegro. Yikes. The establishment still...

"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." "Our cause is the cause of all mankind…we are fighting for their liberty in defending our own." "From a persuasion that equal liberty was originally the portion, it is still the birthright of all men." "Sell not...liberty to purchase power." "Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." "Every man…is, of common right, and by the laws of God, a freeman, and entitled to the free enjoyment of liberty." "A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats." "Make yourself...

"One and God make a majority." "Without a struggle, there can be no progress." "The soul that is within me no man can degrade." "Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitude." "Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work." "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." "The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion." "At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed." "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." "A gentleman will not insult me, and no...

"Capitalism will continue to eliminate mass poverty in more and more places and to an increasingly marked extent if it is merely permitted to do so." – Henry Hazlitt "The superior freedom of the capitalist system, its superior justice, and its superior productivity are not three superiorities, but one. The justice follows from the freedom and the productivity follows from the freedom and the justice." – Henry Hazlitt "Since the State necessarily lives by the compulsory confiscation of private capital, and since its expansion necessarily involves ever-greater incursions on private individuals and private enterprise, we must assert that the state...

"Each of us has a natural right, from God, to defend his person, his liberty, and his property." "The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." "Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state lives at the expense of everyone." "Slavery, protection, and monopoly find defenders, not only in those who profit by them, but in those who suffer by them." "There are two principles between which there can be no compromise – liberty and coercion." "The most urgent necessity is, not that...

"Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." "He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression." "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it." "Whatever is my right as a man is also the right of another; and it becomes my duty to guarantee as well as to possess." "I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different...

“Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without Freedom of Speech.” – Benjamin Franklin ““In those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything his own. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech; a thing terrible to publick traytors.” – Benjamin Franklin “Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error.” – Thomas Jefferson “For if Men are to be precluded from offering their Sentiments on a matter, which...

"Most people want security in this world, not liberty." "Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods." "Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under." "The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence." "A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers." "I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone." "A national political campaign is better than the...