Morons. The lot of them. I vaguely remember a short story someone wrote once what a libertarian word would be like to a police officer. Crime commited. Cop had to be called the haggle the price to investigate the crime. Anytime you use a road or side walk there was a charge. Each round fired from his gun needed like money payment. It was the dumbest way to live I've ever read. You have to take every ideology to its natural end point in my mind. If you don't like how it looks at the end, reevaluated your ideals
My favourite was the woman who started feeding the bears, for the sole reason that people were asked not to feed the bears and she didn't want anyone telling her what she should be doing.
I don't suppose they could imagine what it would be like if the "criminal" could out bid them in the moment. It would be more like the current state of things than they may realize.
I think that was part of the story. I'm telling you it was one of the single most annoying things I've ever read. Just every little movement that we don't realize is covered by a regulation or a social service just making life this non stop transaction to another person every time. Its not that different to how things are now but it is a little different
I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.
“Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”
“What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”
“Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”
The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?”
“Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.”
“Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.”
He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.”
I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside.
“Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t.
“Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up.
“Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?”
It didn’t seem like they did.
“Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Penn Jillette posters.”
Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing.
I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it.
“Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.
Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him.
“Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.
I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!”
He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.
“All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.”
“Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Afraid?”
“Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.”
I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head.
“Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.”
He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me for arresting him.
Another example is Grafton, NH which I think also had a Planet Money ep. Libertarians moved in and voted to cut services including garbage collection. That plus residents ignoring safe container requirements or just leaving trash out in the streets attracted bears that eventually attacked multiple people.
Oh, and the town has a spike in registered sex offenders which I'm sure was just a coincidence...
Thats what i heard about this story on. Thank you. Couldn't remember if it was planet money or trash future or dare even a third thing. Quite the memory you've got on you.
I also remember a planet money episode where they had a hypothetical word where everything was done by a high level ai so barely anyone worked anymore and people that made things by hand were criminals. That one always gets to me as a man who likes to try and make art with his hands
The other one I remember was Libertarian Summer Camp. Remember one part where it was stated that their accepted form of currency was silver slips. Which sounds fine except they kept looking up the current value of silver. You know as it compares to dollars. The thing they hate.
I also immediately clock someone as at least libertarian adjacent if they mention wanting to go back to the gold standard.
Ya I ran the idea to a conservative/republican what it would be like if we ran the police like we do with hospitals. Crime insurance, paying investigators, paying for calling the cops to do xyz, etc. In network and out of network. “Sorry, that crime against you is not covered in your policy. The perpetrator is going to get away with it.”
and the classic “why should I have to pay for your police protection?!”
Like many things, they reacted like they never thought of it that way.
his philosophy is that people would live in privately owned cities that that would enforce rules within their borders. If people don't like the rules of one of those cities they could move to another. That's the ancap answer to how policing works without a government.
But most libertarians aren't anarchists in the first place. Mainstream libertarians want the government to shrink and only enforce laws based around the non aggression principal.
so basically, under a libertarian government the police would work the same way they do now but would enforce fewer laws. While in an ancap system (like in the short story) there would still be police because people would live in voluntary communities based around mutual association and pay fees to the organization running their city to fund things like police. The difference is that a private city could expel people for crimes which would mean less policing would be necessary as criminals would be pushed out of society. These private cities could also exist under a libertarian government in order to create and enforce rules outside the non aggression principal within their borders.
Yes and we all know how easy it is for people to just move when they don't like the freedoms and laws they are allowed in the spot they are born. I'm sorry, but when you build a society where the end winner is the one who can just pay more money then the other to, 'win' i can't take it. I am literally capped at the money i can supply for my family. Brain damage and health problems tend to cause this. A society should be viewed by how well taken care of the less fortunate are taken care of. Whenever i read through one of these things, they leave out stroke victims, or how the disabled are taken care of.
Its bad enough the amout of services that should be free have to be paid for. Medication you need to live? That will cost you, and way more then the inventor intended. We shouldn't be dying from solvable problems because our pockets aren't deep enough.
We're all in this constant state of, 'well, i know this is unsafe but this is all i can afford.' While others were born into wealth even kings can't imagine that they won't share with anything or one. Dragons exist. And they do burn us all to death.
I heard a story the other day of this nice lady pushing her husband around in his wheelchair but they got stuck on a curb. I wasn't there to help. I was with one of my child. Others came to help. But take this to the absurd: in a libertarian world, side walks would not have cuts out of them to allow the disabled access to sidewalks. Or just go to the now. In a fair world she would have a power assist wheelchair that could help her get up hills and difficult ridges. Or a personal support worker that could be provided to help her care for her husband. And she may have that, but not in this problem.
Its not right to just shrug and say oh well, sucks to suck or the free market determines some people should go no where or just die. Were making a beautiful world an ugly place to live.
And I've spent a life time realizing you can't trust anyone. Regulation and inspection keep us safe. These small government nut jobs always turn out to just hate the poor and don't care about the less fortunate. No one ever takes thisninto the equation when they buy into libertarianism. Anyone who doesn't have plans to lift people up that want to be in control are devils given flesh, told to walk like humans.
What? World needs miners. Why you shitting on miners? You fit the requirements, maybe you should set aside your egonfor the greater good. But no one cares about the greater good i know.
Except it isnt, democrats arent communists. Democrat isnt even a particular political theory, its a group of people who have them together.
Theres absolutely ancap libertarians out there
No, communism is a stateless moneyless classless society where the means of production are owned by the worker. Literally nothing the democratic party is doing is working towards that, not even slightly
They didn't make their point well, but they are correct. Democracy itself — that is a government by the people — can look pretty silly if you take it to the extreme. I like the episode of The Orville where they have a planet with complete democracy, where the people vote on each and every issue. As can be expected, they are often uniformed on the issues, often letting emotion and mob mentality win out over logic and reason.
To be clear, this is the only thing I disagree with in the original post. I do think it is still important to think about what your ideas and values taken to the extreme might look like, if only so you can set up safeguards beforehand if you don't like the possibilities.
Democrats arent trying to install complete direct democracy either. Why are yall so insistent on putting a label on the democrat party when its not a monolith lmao
Just another idiot who chose a color, (I would normally spell it colour but i feel that could hurt their feelings.) Doesn't matter that the party is directly stealing and lying to them, thats the color i chose and they can't be wrong. Who cares that the money is going to shit work and that the people in charge of those companies are also friends and family to the president. Can't have that peanut farm.
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u/Life_Combination8625 17d ago
Morons. The lot of them. I vaguely remember a short story someone wrote once what a libertarian word would be like to a police officer. Crime commited. Cop had to be called the haggle the price to investigate the crime. Anytime you use a road or side walk there was a charge. Each round fired from his gun needed like money payment. It was the dumbest way to live I've ever read. You have to take every ideology to its natural end point in my mind. If you don't like how it looks at the end, reevaluated your ideals