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From: mcb%lll-tis-b.ARPA@LLL-TIS-GW.ARPA
Newsgroups: mod.politics
Subject: Re: Question for Libertarians
Message-ID: <12233657062.16.MCGREW@RED.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Mon, 25-Aug-86 12:45:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: RED.12233657062.16.MCGREW
Posted: Mon Aug 25 12:45:20 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 25-Aug-86 21:42:19 EDT
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foy@aerospace.arpa writes:
> 
> It is hard for me to understand some of the Libertarian attitudes
> about rights. Some seem to say that people have a right to do 
> anything they want economically, but also have a right to be free 
> from phyusical agression.  They seem to imply that these are natural
> rights.
> 
> To illustrate my concern with a little story: Suppose;
> 
> [A "libertarian" con man defrauds an illiterate farmer into deeding 
>  away his farm, telling him he is merely signing an installment sale
>  for farm equipment...]
>
> Why do the Libertarians think that one of these individuals has a
> natural right to do what he did and that the other individual does
> not?

Nowhere does libertarianism condone fraud. The essence of fraud is
misrepresentation, which occurred in the scenario Mr. Foy posted.
The aggrieved farmer should have the right to collect damages and 
have his property returned to him. What we DON'T need is a barrage of
regulations that restrict, tax, encumber, and interfere with the
freedom to engage in real estate (or rototiller!) transactions.
The farmer's private right to sue is a sufficient remedy.

The key distinction is between relief from actual fraud versus relief
from having made a bad economic decision. The first is quite
legitimate under both libertarian and statist theory; the second seems
quite prevalent in the US today, but has no place in a libertarian
system.

Michael C. Berch
ARPA: mcb@lll-tis-b.ARPA
UUCP: {ihnp4,dual,sun}!lll-lcc!styx!mcb
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