Sometimes I can't believe what I'm hearing/seeing. I'm sure this happens to some of you.
So, in order to vent some frustrations, why not have a thread consisting of the most ridiculous claims of libertarianism?
I'll begin:
If a thread like this exists/has existed already...Oh well lol
A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin. - H.L. Mencken
If the United States had a free market, many Americans would starve to death.
Related ridiculous claims are:
Mises Community Natural Rights Discussion Group
If it weren't for government, there'd be no roads!
The appeal to "charity" is a truly ironic one. First, it is hardly "charity" to take wealth by force and hand it over to someone else. -Rothbard
If it were not for the government, many things would not have been accomplished, like getting phone lines out to the boonies.
At most, 5% of the population would need to stop complying to bring down the government.
That the current economic situation proves that "free markets" (and therefore libertarianism) have been proven not to work!
The Fed is a free market institution.
Ron Paul is a neoliberal.
Government shrank from Reagan till Bush II.
We're all equal.
My favorite online shop: www.cafepress.com/libertyphile
If the government didn't get involved in the Progressive era, we would all be crawling around in the mud while the capitalists exploited us with ever decreasing wages.
'It is difficult to imagine any normal person wishing to meet Marx for a third time.' - Alexander Gray, The Socialist Tradition
The separation of powers in the constitution provides a system of checks and balances on government.
If you legalized drugs, everyone would do them all the time and society would collapse.That mainstream news is not an oxymoron.
"It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit and the emperor remains an emperor." ~Dream
That Wikipedia is a bad source for your college papers. Just ignore the all the references at the bottom of the Wiki page.
That government stats are reliable.
Daniel:Government shrank from Reagan till Bush II.
I've had teachers state, as an absolute fact, that the US has been moving towards limited government and deregulation since Reagan.
Here's a few:
Government builds and maintains the interwebs. Without them we couldn't Google!
Statism is a religion.
If government did not monopolize utility provision (electricity, gas, water, landline and cable service), we would suffer from monopoly utility providers.
"I am a sinner who does not expect forgiveness - but I am not a government official." - Francis Wolcott, Deadwood
Zach_the_Lizard:The economic crisis is now over
I'm firmly convinced swine flu was a story deliberately blown up to distract people from the failure of Keynesian economics. It came at an awfully convenient time and went away a few months later, despite people screaming it would be the Apocalypse.
As for ridiculous claims..
People can't be trusted to run their own lives, but politicians and bureaucrats can be trusted to run those lives for them.
Aggression is necessary in order to protect rights and property.
Without IP no one would create anything.
Democracy is freedom.
"I am a libertarian, but I think we need some sort of government"
Objective law
If you find something evil that wobbles, push it. - Gary North
And the sister claim: People are inherently stupid and irrational (and/or violent), therefore we need the state. Which is run by people...
^ I find that one especially annoying: "People are irrational, so we need the state." But the state is run by irrational people who can impose their irrational rules on everyone, including the rational, thereby forcing the rational to be irrational.
India is a poor country, 60 years after independence, because the British looted all our wealth before granting us independence.
Banks can't lend money under 100% reserve banking.
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