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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: libertarianism VS economic reality
Message-ID: <1225@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 26-Nov-84 18:27:33 EST
Article-I.D.: dciem.1225
Posted: Mon Nov 26 18:27:33 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 26-Nov-84 22:14:15 EST
References: <22400047@ea.UUCP>
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 28

> > better.  It could easily fulfill my "modified golden rule" criterion
> > that says that society is best which one would choose if one didn't know
> > which member of that society one was to be.
> 
> Interesting concept. I would still choose a society with minimal government
> interference, because I feel that that would give me the best chance of
> improving my lot if I wound up on the bottom. I suspect you would choose
> something different - which just shows that "best society" varies from
> individual to individual under your criterion.
> 
>         <mike

Libertarians keep making this point, but it seems to me that one of the
main functions of government is to increase the chance of someone at the
bottom making his/her way to the top.  Under "freedom" in the libertarian
sense, those who have the power are free to keep it, AND to ensure that
those who don't can't get it without violence.  Libertarianism implies
liberty for few, not for all; good government implies less liberty for
the powerful, more for most of us.  Totalitarianism and libertarianism
are "opposite" ends of the same circle, in the same way that left-wing
and right-wing extremism lead to the same totalitarian result.

Totalibertarianism forever!
-- 

Martin Taylor
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