Critiques Of Libertarianism
From Critiques Of Libertarianism
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Contents |
Basics
- A Non-Libertarian FAQ [More...]
- A general introduction to discussion with libertarians, with an extensive discussion of arguments commonly used by libertarian evangelists. This is the original FAQ, little changed from when it originated in 1994.
- Libertarianism in One Lesson
- Mike Huben's guide to becoming a libertarian. If you've argued with libertarians, you'll understand them well enough to ROTFL. :-) for the humor-impaired.
- Libertarianism in One Lesson; The Second Lesson
- Why is there a second lesson when the title says one lesson? Libertarianism is so double-plus-good.... :-) for the humor-impaired.
- What Is Libertarianism?
- Twenty views of the big picture of libertarianism.
- Notorious Failures of Libertarianism
- Claims widely adopted by libertarians that are spectacularly wrong.
- What Is Wrong With Libertarianism
- Libertarianism is based on bad arguments. Here's a list of some common problems with libertarian arguments.
- Libertarian Reinvention Of The Wheel
- Libertarians attempt to reinvent under their ideology what we already have.
- Libertarian Propaganda Terms
- Libertarian and conservative think-tanks have labored mightily to make propaganda terms such as free market part of the thinking of ordinary people.
- Libertarian Dismissals of Arguments
- Libertarians have many quick dismissals of counter-arguments that are unconvincing.
- Libertarian Self-Delusions
- Libertarians believe many weird things about themselves compared to others.
- Analyzing Libertarian Arguments
- First steps to analyzing libertarian arguments.
- Claimed Examples Of Libertarianism
- Libertarianism has never been implemented anywhere, but libertarians are armed with many "examples" to show that it could work. Examples such as Hong Kong, Chile and Singapore are uniformly misleading or false.
- Fundamental Libertarian Books
- A few popular books do the heavy lifting for libertarian ideology: bringing the most recruits, popularizing the ideas and providing critiques of mainstream ideas. They are all severely flawed.
- Libertarian Blind Spots
- Libertarians generally cannot admit effectiveness of regulation and government programs in a large number of important fields.
- Why Libertarianism Will Never Succeed
- Libertarianism is doomed to failure for many obvious reasons.
Humor, Quotations, Etc.
- Quotations
- What people say about libertarianism.
- Humor
- Makes an otherwise dry subject more palatable.
- Make Or Break Views Of Libertarianism
- Positions so absolute and extreme as to border on self-ridicule.
Criticism
- Mike Huben's Criticisms
- Developed over roughly 40 years of networked debate with libertarians.
- Christian Criticisms Of Libertarianism
- While some libertarians are Christian, many Christians have strong objections.
- Conservative Criticisms Of Libertarianism
- Libertarian radicalism is repellant to most conservatives, especially for institutions besides markets and the state.
- Economists Criticizing Libertarianism
- Libertarians like to suggest that economics backs their ideology, but numerous economists disagree.
- Left-Libertarian and Anarchist Criticism
- A resounding clash of ideologies!
- Liberal Criticisms Of Libertarianism
- Liberals (in the American sense) understand that government has a useful track record.
- Libertarians Criticizing Each Other
- Libertarianism is full of schisms over numerous philosophical and political points. We hardly need invent criticisms when libertarians create them plentifully to argue with each other.
- Objectivist Critiques Of Libertarianism
- Rand and her followers have always been contemptuous of libertarianism. Those darned libertarians did not see the necessity of her cult's logic!
Issues
- Deregulation
- Libertarians routinely propose deregulating almost everything; mostly because they want to limit government, not because it makes sense.
- Education
- Libertarians strongly oppose public education: they wish to eliminate tax-funding for education, regulation of education, and make education independent of government.
- Free Trade
- The dominance of trade over popular sovereignty. Free trade is a redistributionist policy, because it will cause some local industry to fail in the face of international competition. Libertarians avoid the justice issues of this involuntary redistribution.
- Freedom Through Technology
- Cypherpunks, high-tech libertarians, and various others mistakenly think technology will eliminate the need for government (if not outright eliminate government.) As foolish as the idea that atomic weapons will end war.
- Global Warming
- Libertarians generally align with "climate skeptics" (denialists of global warming) because market regulation by government is needed to reduce global warming..
- Health Care
- Despite superior results from socialized health care in every developed nation, libertarians insist on privatizing.
- Ideas Libertarians Do Not Own
- Some ideas are described as libertarian, but in reality have long been held by innumerable others. Drug legalization, for example.
- Privatization
- There is an enormous history of privatization which shows that while it is sometimes beneficial, often it does not give the results its proponents claim. Privatization is often a form of crony capitalism, and often results in a different and less desirable product.
- Social Security
- Social security is one of the great enemies of libertarians and conservatives. They continually misrepresent it and claim alternatives are better.
- Unionization
- With anarchist exceptions, libertarians align with their wealthy funders to oppose unions. Supposedly unions have special privileges from government: but these libertarians somehow don't notice that corporations have special privileges from government.
Libertarians
- Peter Boettke
- A Koch-financed Austrian School propagandist at the George Mason University Economics Department and the Mercatus Center.
- Tyler Cowen
- A professional, second-generation libertarian selected by the Kochs as head of the George Mason University Economics Department.
- David Friedman
- Son of Milton Friedman, and perhaps the foremost anarchocapitalist.
- Milton Friedman
- Nobel prizewinner (economics), and one of the foremost propagandists for capitalism. Married to Rose Friedman, son David Friedman.
- Friedrich von Hayek
- Nobel prizewinning (economics) student of Ludwig von Mises, and a major propagandist for libertarianism.
- Hans-Hermann Hoppe
- One of the more bizarre Austrian philosophers.
- Charles and David Koch
- Libertarian billionaires who have founded and funded most libertarian think-tanks.
- Ludwig von Mises
- Austrian economist, mentor of Friedrich von Hayek, and a major right-wing economic crank.
- Robert Nozick
- The foremost libertarian philosopher, who gave up on it a few years later.
- Ron Paul
- A libertarian congressman (and perennial long-shot presidential candidate) renowned for kooky racist, isolationist, goldbug and Austrian beliefs. Not to mention conservative civil and reproductive rights ideas 50 years out of date. Father of senator Rand Paul.
- Ayn Rand
- Ms. Objectivism.
- Murray Rothbard
- A leading Austrian economist, student of Ludwig von Mises. A very scholarly and prolific crank author who takes Austrianism to its logically absurd ends.
Organizations
- Cato Institute
- A "libertarian" quasi-academic think-tank which acts as a mouthpiece for the globalism, corporatism, and neoliberalism of its corporate and conservative funders.
- George Mason University Economics Department
- A Koch-financed libertarian department of an otherwise publicly financed university.
- Libertarian Party
- An experiment in herding cats.
- Mercatus Center
- A Koch-financed libertarian think-tank associated with the Koch-financed George Mason University Economics Department.
Economics
- Austrian Economics
- A pre-scientific, data-free, conservative and blinkered methodology for economics propaganda.
- Chicago Economics
- Milton Friedman's school.
- Ideological Mainstream Economics
- The economics taught in introductory courses generally has a large number of concealed ideological biases. These biases coincide with many libertarian biases.
- Libertarian Economic And Political Experiments
- Chile and New Zealand are often cited by libertarians as sites of successful libertarian economic reform. They tend to cite a few "benefits", but there are many downsides....
Libertarian Philosophy
- Failures Of Libertarian Philosophy
- Libertarian philosophy has some conspicuous failures. The numerous libertarian attempts to demonstrate self-ownership and property rights fail badly. This undermines essentially everything else they attempt.
- Fallacies Of Ideology
- Ideology commonly makes a number of different mistakes than more ordinary philosophy.
- Fallacies Of Philosophy
- A great deal of philosophy is grossly misleading from the very start.
- Objectivism
- Ayn Rand's pathetic excuse of a philosophy.
Fellow Travelers
- Defenders Of The Unsavory
- Prostitution, blackmail, environmental crime, child labor, corruption of many sorts: defenders of these practices often find libertarian allies.
- Extreme Right Wing
- Much libertarianism is a front for very right wing people and organizations.
- Non-Libertarians Supposedly Supporting Libertarian Viewpoints
- Many economists and historical figures are claimed to be supportive of libertarianism or "protolibertarians". US founding fathers, various economists, J. S. Mill, etc.
- Wall Street, Corporatists, Neoliberals And Plutocrats
- There is strong overlap of goals between big wealth and libertarians. These fellow travelers often fund libertarians and their organizations to promote overlapping goals. This is a class war: between the first class citizens (large corporations and the very rich) and ordinary people.
Alternatives
- Alternatives To Current Capitalism
- Pitting "free market capitalism" against "socialism" is a false dichotomy. There are numerous variants and alternatives to study and choose from.
- Capability Approach
- Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum's successor to liberalism. This approach to human well-being emphasizes the importance of freedom of choice, individual heterogeneity and the multi-dimensional nature of welfare.
- Consequentialism And Utilitarianism
- Much libertarianism is deontological, based on moral rules such as "don't kill". This leads to many results that seem illogical or intuitively wrong.
- Credible Sources
- We need credible alternatives to libertarian and conservative propaganda.
- Human Rights and Civil Liberties
- Libertarian talk big about rights and civil liberties, but they actually do extremely little to defend rights. These organizations actually do something!
- Progressivism
- A philosophy that attempts to improve human flourishing through reforms. Successes of progressivism include 8 hour work days, universal enfranchisement, etc.
- Social Contract
- Libertarians misrepresent social contracts as they actually exist, referring instead to philosophical models.
