Utter bullshit.
Libertarianism is a set of formulas that work great in the minds of (sheltered) geeks, but when it comes to reality... there's this easily observable gradient... and it's easy to see that the societies that do best (by far) are socialist democracies and the ones that do worst are the ones with the most "Libertarian" approach to managing society.
The reason the democracy you're living in is corrupted is because corporate money has gotten into campaign financing. These same corporations have spent fucking billions on a 30 year propaganda war... and created this mini-army of warped ideologues convinced (in their minds) that the path to freedom is by getting rid of all corporate regulation and letting corporations run society. The reason that the US now has as many people in prison as the soviets did in the Gulag era is not because you have democracy, it's because you are losing it.
Just because it works in your mind, doesn't mean it works.
Ever noticed that The Austrian school is willfully, by definition, empirical-evidence-agnostic? Think that there might be a reason for that? It's because it only works in theory.
Democracy is not "Cheap", people died for it... and are still dying for it (all over the middle-east) now. In the 20th Century, non-democratic governments rounded up and murdered 160 million of their own people. And you sit there in the comfort of the freedom that has been provided to you by the blood of of those that went before, and theorise that some system where people with the most money have the most power might be best.
The purpose of democracy is to provide a democratically accountable means of controlling a monopoly on violence. Anything else is a type of protection-racket. Anyone who thinks that they can dispense with this just isn't thinking. We've seen what happens when societies fall apart - local protection rackets spring up. What are you going to do when a local gang moves into your house? Ostracise them?
Shoot at them? Organise a rival gang?
I can't believe the stupidity... the ignorance, of people who look at the plutocracy that they've found themselves in and decide "democracy isn't working. What we need is a system where there are no constraints on capital".
Oh, and by the way,
"Responsibility" is not "looking after yourself". Only fucking children think this. "Personal-Responsibility" is an infantile concept.
Dude I think you've been sucking on the government teat too long. I'm betting you went to some government endorsed institution for school too. The USA is
the most powerful nation in the world for a reason, because it's (was) the land of the free. It's those
socialist ideas that are killing it today.
This was long back in the discussion but I have to comment this. You are the one who needs education thats not infested with propaganda. Only part of the US prosperity comes from the past freedom. Much more dominant reason for the status of the US are 1) Not having to fight 2 world wars on your soil like the Europe. 2)Dominance of US higher education as European academics fled to US during the war 3) Bretton Woods system where all currencies were pegged to gold
and US Dollar thus resulting in US Dollar world reserve currency status. This happened by scamming John Maynard Keynes.
Second US could hardly be described endorsing socialist ideas. It's all about corporate welfare and has been long time. Socialism is just term slapped all around where is government involment no matter what it had to do with.
