The economic Libertarians are an outgrowth of the basic concern for liberty. Even a hard core Libertarian would admit that some structures need to be in place to protect the market (and by extension the people in it) from collapse.

I still think that State ownership of the means of production is a bad idea. It doesn’t improve the system. It undermines it. Those who make a switch in favor of that sort of system are most likely making it for practical reasons. “Feeding the family” does beat out “protecting our liberties” in most cases.

I just hope that we can wrest those liberties from the grasping State fingers when the crisis is stabilized.

You’re welcome to visit my blog too, Matt.

http://www.matteson-on-stilts.blogspot.com/

First, I don’t mean to imply that the economic mess should be blamed on free market ideology. Not at all. I’m no economist, but from what I gather the three leading contributors to our current situation are: a culture of debt (pervading the govt itself), the mortgage crisis, and energy costs. Those three are of course intertwined. I don’t know enough about Wall Street regulations or the lack thereof to say much about that, but at any rate, I’m not blaming everything on capitalism. Capitalism is great, when tempered with healthy regulation, social safety nets, etc.

If you represent the average libertarian, then maybe I’m wrong. You seem to care enough about personal liberty and noninterference to remain loyal through a depression. But your thoughts on the market (that now’s a bad time for widespread deregulation) run contrary to what I have in mind when I think of your average neo-capitalist market-crazy. You know, those guys who think the market will solve EVERYTHING, if just given a chance. That’s who I was thinking of when I wrote the piece. Once the full implications of market “correction” are clear—market boy loses his job, home, insurance, etc—he loses faith in the market, and thus ceases to be a market boy. And of course Barr is at least casting himself as one of those guys, confident that the market would “fix” itself if left alone, apart from wherever his true loyalties may lie.

And last, I’m not speculating that libertarians will swing aaaalllllll the way from the far right, aaaaaallllll the way to communism. Just that as things get worse and worse, joint ownership and control of the means of production will look better and better to more and more people, just as libertarianism was more and more attractive to more and more people back in the good old days (90s). That’s all.

Thanks again for the intelligent comments,
Matt

We’re fans of personal liberty and governmental non-involvement. Barr doesn’t really represent me, and I have a feeling that others feel the same way. That guy just wants to get an office and he’ll run on any platform that is hiring. He used to be about as anti-liberty as they come. I don’t know his whole story, but I’m not a fan so far.

Do you mean to point out the state of the economy as a blow to the libertarian ideal of a free market place? It’s really not a blow at all. I don’t think that there are many thinking Libertarians who would endorse a move from our current situation into a situation of absolute freedom. There are steps in between. A free market isn’t a panacea. It may be an ideal end state, but it isn’t the sort of thing that will (or could) be a good idea in a situation like ours. Massive inequality isn’t the place to fling open a marketplace.

As for the resurgence of communism, I kinda doubt that. As I said, Libertarians care deeply about liberty. Communism isn’t exactly a train that a legitimate Libertarian could get on. Why do you charge us with being opportunistic bandwagon-jumpers?