You are viewing a single comment's thread from:

RE: What Is vs What Should Be: My Philosophically Internal Conflict with Libertarianism

in #politics7 years ago

Thanks for offering this perspective.

"We can continue to put this debt burden on the backs of our great-grandchildren, instead of just our grandchildren."

I think the assumption that the path we're on will necessarily lead to high taxation on future generations is unrealistically optimistic. Politicians today rely increasingly on debt because it's easier than cutting spending or raising taxes. That isn't likely to change any time soon, so future politicians are unlikely to suddenly stop being shortsighted and pursue a sustainable path. I think it's much more likely that they'll keep borrowing until it's too late to save the dollar from hyperinflation and a major economic collapse, as has been seen repeatedly in countries with irresponsible spending throughout history.

The most promising solution I see is restoring accountability through competition from other currencies, particularly cryptocurrencies. If we can build up the cryptocurrency ecosystem so that it's a viable alternative by the time the mainstream system reaches its breaking point, we should be able to prevent a lot of suffering.

Welfare spending is a problem. I agree that it's unsustainable to open the border while providing welfare, and that's an argument I've made myself in the past, but at this point I think there are much more urgent priorities. If we could compare welfare spending on illegal immigrants to enforcement costs of immigration law and factor in the economic damage done by those restrictions I doubt we'd end up with much optimism about border restrictions as a way to address the debt problem.

Sort:  

Yeah, this list wasn't necessarily in order of priority, but just addressing the grievances and issues I have with the Libertarian viewpoints in general. I agree that cryptocurrency could potentially hold the government more accountable via competition, though I still maybe think it's too late. As far as immigration goes, it was just on my mind after the interview I saw. I doubt it's a wash between how much we spend on welfare for immigrants and how much it costs to enforce immigration, but I agree that most methods of limiting immigration does not work, ie building a wall. Really, I think many of our immigration problems would be solved if we legalized drugs and got rid of welfare for immigrants (and eventually citizens too). Many of the places Central American immigrants are flocking from, are doing so because drug violence is rampant. Granted, legalizing drugs here wouldn't single-handedly stop that, but it would certainly cut down on it by eliminating one of the biggest customers of illegal drug purchases.

If these ideas interest you, I'd be interested in your thoughts on this as well: https://steemit.com/anarchy/@troglodactyl/aggroed-s-government-challenge-agorist-monetarism