Like most other little kids, all I wanted to do was eat junk food, play video games and goof around with my friends. I didn't like being made to go to school, going to bed at 9 PM, eating vegetables, doing homework after school, or taking out the garbage. And like most other little kids who don't like abiding by the rules of their parents, I sometimes fantasized about what it would be like to run away from home. But when I packed my backpack full of clothes and individually-wrapped packs of peanut butter crackers from the pantry, I could never go through with my plan. I knew if I ran away, I'd be hungry, cold, lost, and eventually found by the police and returned home.
Libertarian views of government regulation are very similar to how the 6 year-old views the authority exerted by their parents. Ron Paul's every-individual-for-themselves rhetoric appeals to young, radical libertarians with simplistic viewpoints of authority, and an ignorance of why government exists in the first place.
In Ron Paul's ideal America, safety regulations imposed on employers by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would be a thing of the past. Clean air and water regulations imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency would be no more. Taxpayers would save money since Ron Paul would abolish the Department of Education and cut the Food & Drug Administration budget by 40%. Employers would save money by paying workers as little as they wish, since Ron Paul would abolish the Davis-Bacon Act. Corporate giants would be free to monopolize markets, since Ron Paul opposes federal antitrust legislation. And employees would no longer be required to pay into Social Security.
So what would this libertarian utopia look like, if Ron Paul were elected and followed through on his campaign promises?
-Families grieving for loved ones lost due to Massey Energy's negligence in the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion would have to accept that their relatives were casualties of the invisible hand of the unfettered free market. And Massey would've gotten off scot-free for polluting Martin County, Kentucky's drinking water supply with 300 million gallons of coal slurry.
-Millions of college students dependent on Pell grants would be forced to move back home and work minimum-wage jobs, no longer financially able to further their education. Oh wait-- what minimum wage?
-Food recalls would be a regular occurrence when tainted meat and vegetables hit supermarket shelves and cause record outbreaks of e-coli. And risky new drugs will avoid FDA tests and hit the express lane to the pharmacy, endangering the health of millions.
-Too-big-to-fail banks like Wells Fargo, Citi, Chase and Bank of America would be allowed to merge and/or buy out their competitors, as would oil giants like ExxonMobil, and Chevron, as would cell service providers like AT&T and Verizon.
-The Social Security trust fund would become insolvent, making retirement that much harder for those who paid into it all their lives.
Ron Paul and his right-libertarian ideology does espouse a new kind of freedom, just as rebellious children who fantasize about running away from home dream of a new kind of freedom. But as much as we may have rebelled against our parents as little kids, we eventually matured and realized that the rules and regulations our parents imposed on us were meant so we'd grow up to be responsible, functioning adults in society.
An unregulated little kid free to eat junk food and play video games all day won't ever learn the responsibilities of adulthood. And an unregulated society where every individual is out for themselves will quickly collapse.
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The term 'ignorance' ought not be used in your article towards libertarians, but instead towards yourself. An employer could not pay people 'as little as they wanted' because of market forces. An employer would pay someone what they are worth. And too-big-to-fail banks would go out of business, prompting banks to go back to what banks should do -- lend and hold money for clients. Instead of taking on high-risk knowing that they'll get bailed out if they do make incorrect bets.
Portraying the government as my 'parent' is one of the dumbest things I've read. Unless of course you had terrible parents growing up, then I concede to your argument. This government cannot even run the US Postal Service without its going bankrupt. Get a clue bud.
Under libertarianism, property rights are strictly enforced instead of regulatory agencies. In other words, instead of regulatory agencies charging fees that only large corporations can afford, pollution is fought at an individual level, with community courts and property rights. With libertarianism, no individual or corporation can pollute your land, water or air.
With regulation, the agencies in charge are always captured and then exist to serve the very corporations they are supposed to regulate.
Here Carl, educate yourself before you post nonsense:
Libertarianism In One Lesson:
http://thedailybell.com/3350/Tibor-Machan-Machans-Archives-Essay-on-Libertarianism-in-One-Lesson
You're not going to convince me to see myself as a child. I'm an adult, you child.
Henry Ford demonstrated what a fallacy minimum wage is. In the early 1900's, Henry decided to pay good money to get the help he needed, other manufacturers followed. The same would be true today.
OSHA came to my shop, at my request for an inspection, and then told me; "We don't care about you, you only have 10 employees." Obviously, with only 10 employees, no one could ever get hurt... My tax dollars at work.
Whether we agree with you or not, and I see that almost all do not [ one would think that this alone might encourage you to educate yourself], our government is crumbling under its own bureaucratic, corrupt, war mongering weight.
educate yourself.
So thank you for this wonderful analogy. In the real world, the parents go out and work and then the children don't have to work. As you literally explained in this article, children trade freedom of choice for not having to go out into the real world and take care of themselves. They stay with their parents and follow their parents' rules so they don't have to work like their parents do.
The childish fantasy is thinking a few bureaucrats in Washington can do the whole country's work for them in exchange for giving up freedom of choice. It is a childish fantasy to run away from reality and personal responsibility and hope that, as long as you just do what you are told, you will get everything you want.
Ron Paul 2012
In case you hadn't noticed, food recalls happen regularly even WITH the FDA wasting our tax dollars, so what do we really have to lose by firing them, and letting the market develop the inspection industry, similar to UL and Consumer Reports?
TBTF banks HAVE been allowed to buy up their competitors, AND they have been given bailouts at taxpayer expense, by the govt you expect to protect you from their predations. You seem to fear a market monopoly, while ignoring govt-protected monopolies, which are far more powerful and dangerous.
The Social Security trust fund IS insolvent: It can't BECOME what it ALREADY is. The real question then, is how do we transition to something that actually is solvent? Are the 'status-quo' politicians getting us there, or are they just patching the holes til they can escape with their plunder, while placating you with feel-good do-nothing legislation?
As adults, shouldn't we enjoy similar freedom in our lives?
How did those safety regs become laws, anyway? Typically, because someone was sued first. Lawsuits that punish negligence discourage the unsafe environments targeted by 'preventative' regulations, but make improvements a voluntary undertaking, rather than something to be done under the threat of govt sanction.
Do minimum wages raise wages for poor people, or just outlaw the entry-level jobs they'd otherwise able to find, and which have been shipped overseas? Think about it. If the price of gas doubles, does that change your consumption habits? Same goes for the price of labor. We like to imagine that raising the minimum wage raises overall wages. What if we legislate a minimum driving experience, which outlaws any car of lesser quality than a Mercedes Benz. Will that mean that suddenly, everyone will be driving new Benzo's? Or that a few people who can will upgrade, while millions of people who used to drive will no longer be able to?
As business grows and the economy grows people can spend more money on safety. When they are starving, safety is not as important. OSHA loves to say that it decreased workplace accidents by X percent. That is true. But, if you look at the years before OSHA, workplace accidents were decreasing by the same percentage. Workplace safety got better because we as a nation moved out of poverty and we could turn our attention to making working conditions better. No business WANTS to hurt its employees.
Let's not forget the COST of OSHA. When people talk about how grand gov is, they forget it costs money. Lots of YOUR money. The people who don't talk about the things we could have spent that money on are the real children. Those silly kids think gov just happens....poof....like magic. They never stop to think of all that's lost because of those sunk costs. Only a child thinks that if you can't see it, it isn't there.
Seeking more gov is like the chicken begging for the protection of the big strong fox. It is pretty childish.
Liberty = being a responsible adult and taking care of yourself.
I felt really weird after reading this, I'm sure a part of him wanted everyone to read this and fixate on it. When I read it, I read something like "I wasn't explained things using principles as a child. I didn't like to initiate actions to take care of myself. Many times I felt that it would be more valuable for me to leave my home than to stay, and the reason I didn't is because I would inevitably be forced back here. I didn't want to give my parents would have the explicit knowledge that I didn't want to be here."