I’ve been thinking some about libertarianism as much of the political end of the internet has been lately. Before I left my parents’ house and got a life I tended to identify strongly with the libertarian line, but now can’t quite figure out why I ever thought that way. The market that libertarians espouse seems to solve a lot of problems, but I haven’t found anyone willing to take up a discussion on the problems it also seems to expose. I’ve started writing down questions and situations that embody the problems I see.
- Should business owners be shielded from liability? What if the business ends up negligently killing people?
- Is it okay for a doctor to allow me to bleed out because I can’t pay him, or for any reason? Should we as a society allow this if it’s within our power to stop?
- If it is, does that mean the doctor’s right not to help me is more important than my right to live?
- Is a life that’s less than perfectly free worth living? Is there an optimum somewhere?
- What is my recourse if a contract is broken? What if the act of breaking this contract has taken all my resources? What if the act of breaking this contract has killed me (the contract said these toys wouldn’t have cyanide in them)?
- Can the argument that trying to save lives through regulation outweighs the inefficiency that regulations bring?
- Should we grant patents? If patents are handled by an industry cooperative wouldn’t that tend to be an anticompetitive cartel? How is a business with high startup costs ever supposed to get started?
- Should I be allowed to buy the land next to your house and build a chemical plant? Can I buy the land completely surrounding your house and build a cage?
- Can I use my resources to spread damaging lies about someone?
I’m trying to not speak to any particular implementation of libertarianism, feel free in considering these questions to use any theoretical perfect system you can think of. I make no claims on being informed on the issues beyond some mediocre philosophy classes in college, but definitely welcome having these questions torn apart. It would greatly help my understanding of the underlying issues.