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Originally Posted by Willravel
I'm not a libertarian. I believe I understand a lot of the broad strokes of libertarianism, but I find myself constantly questioning libertarians about their beliefs and very rarely get answers (as many of them are libertarian in name only).
Tilted libertarians, I hope you'll step forward and explain exactly what it is you believe and possibly take a shot at answering my questions and the questions of others.
What do libertarians do about the environment? It seems that libertarianism largely ignores non-human issues that could eventually have some effect on humans but do not have any short term effects. Things like climate change or pollution often are left to the market, which is more concerned with itself.
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Libertarians believe that well enforced property rights should be a factor in the prevention of environmental degradation.
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Why do you believe rights are inalienable? Obviously it says so in the Constitution, but I've had several discussions on TFP before where it's been plainly established that there is a proportional relationship between how sacred a right is and how powerful proponents of said right are. If only 80,000 people in the US were pro-gun proponents, I suspect that the right to bear arms would be largely ignored despite it's presence in the BOR.
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Many libertarians think inalienable rights are BS. And it says so in the Declaration of Independence not the Constitution. The former is a rhetorical document, the latter is law.
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Where does the idea of privately owned property get it's genesis and why is it an assumed mode in libertarian theory? Mises went on and on about private ownership, but I have yet to encounter a libertarian that can explain why there is a connection between using something and somehow having an exclusive right to said thing. I've argued before that in pre-agrarian societies of humans, most property was collectively owned by the group of humans, and this can be demonstrated in other primates and intelligent animals.
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The naturalistic fallacy? Some libertarians believe in individual sovereignty and that property rights naturally extend from that.
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Why do you believe freedom to be more important than equality? Can you demonstrate that a more "free" society is more successful? More happy? What about people who repeatedly make bad decisions that effect others?
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Happiness is relative. With regard to economics at least countries in the world today that are liberalising their economies have better macroeconomic performances. And what do you mean by equality? Is there any inherent good in economic equality? Freedom in terms of making choices, living unhindered and taking responsibility for one's life is part of the human condition. I doubt thinking that all should be in a similar socio-economic bracket is.
I have more questions, but I think (hope) these are a good jumping off point for discussion.
Thanks for reading and I hope this will be a friendly and fruitful discussion.[/QUOTE]