View source for Comments at Matt Yglesias' "What Is Libertarianism?"/19

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[[Category:Duncan Kinder]]
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| text = The problem with libertarianism is that they tend to conflate liberty with possession of property.

This made sense 200 years ago, when owning a small farm or business meant that you were secure in the means of your livelihood. This enabled you to be yourself. Longfellow’s village smithy, standing tall under the spreading chestnut tree, looking every man in the eye because he owes not a cent to any one, exemplifies this ideal. ( Contrast this with today’s world, where employer’s conduct drug tests; creditors demand credit reports, and everyone generally must be yes-man to the boss and conform to the PC opinion. ) This doctrine was encapsuled in Locke’s “Life, Liberty, and Property.

However, due to economic shifts since then, owning property does not mean you therefore are secure in the means to your livelihood. Indeed, large property holders such as medical insurers are very much in the business of interfering with others’ means to their livelihood.

This means that libertarianism now is, in practice, a misguided and often cranky ideal.
| cite = [[Duncan Kinder]], "{{Link |Comments at Matt Yglesias' "What Is Libertarianism?"}}"
}}