Our entire economy is like a mining company that steadily mines a gold seam, paying out healthy dividends and executive bonuses all the while and then as soon as the seam is mined out declares bankruptcy leaving toxic waste cleanup and employee pensions for the government to take care of. We don’t just allow ourselves to be exploited by sociopaths, we actively seek it out.
libertarianism for YOU
socialism for ME
If Libertarianism isn’t implemented fully then it will almost for sure devolve into cronyism. It can only work if there is no way to influence government or courts to do things your way. It also can’t really deal with things like pandemics or probably even war. In a pandemic you would have a lot of people die before the truly free market figures out which treatments work and which are scam.
Why would anyone, including other libertarians, be charitable toward them?
Libertarian thinking on antitrust is that it's unnecessary because there is no such thing as a natural monopoly; monopolies are the result of government regulation. Eliminate the regulations that privilege certain businesses over others, and competition will ensure an efficient market.
In reality what we have in the US is a political class which constantly molds regulation to further benefit the shareholders of big businesses. Sometimes they remove regulations to this end, but much more frequently they create or alter them. There's no philosophical bent behind this at all, it's just the strong using government as a tool to oppress the weak (exactly what libertarianism warns us about).
Nobody has ever pandered to libertarians when trying to justify their policies, so I have no idea why people like to blame them.
To me a sign that the libertarians are on to something is that no government has ever dared to try it. Governments are comprised of powerful people and if they did they would lose all that power...
Furthermore, libertarianism ends up being quite left-brained which makes for a quick short circuit to authoritarianism via logical contradiction. The Party entertains these to gain sponsors the same way the reds and blues do, and there is little doubt it would take on the same corrupt role as the other teams if given a whiff of power.
The political class you are talking about serves specific masters. They also mold ideological discourse which is where modern libertarianism comes from in the first place. Go check who's funding all of these libertarian speakers and institutes.
The size and scope of government continues to increase every year, so I don't see how anyone could call that libertarian.
