Future Retirement Success
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks

Future Retirement Success

Investing

Libertarian Consistency

by September 3, 2024
September 3, 2024
Libertarian Consistency

Jeffrey Miron

Popular opinion views liberalism and conservatism as radically different perspectives about the proper size and scope of government.

Liberals and conservatives do advocate dramatically different policies regarding abortion, drugs, guns, economic regulation, climate change, criminal justice, and more.

Yet liberal and conservative perspectives are the same in one key respect: both advocate using government to impose particular values. Conservatives want to ban drugs, liberals guns. Conservatives advocate banning abortions, liberals subsidizing them. Conservatives support subsidies for home schooling and religious schools, liberals the same for low-income housing and “clean” energy. Liberals advocate reparations for descendants of slaves, while conservatives want to ban affirmative action. Conservatives propose teaching traditional religious values in school, while liberals support critical race theory and LGBTQ+ themes in school curricula. Thus the goals of favored policies differ, but not the belief that government should promote specific views.

Indeed, liberal and conservative preferred policies—all of which involve government interference with private decisions—are often close to indistinguishable; on immigration and trade restrictions, industrial policies, protecting Social Security and Medicare, lowering drug prices, regulation of social media content, and more, conservative and liberal positions differ in details but not overall thrust.

In a few cases, liberals and conservatives agree on smaller government: land use regulation, federal prisons, government surveillance, civil asset forfeiture, eminent domain, and corporate bailouts. But these are exceptions.

Libertarianism differs fundamentally from both the liberal and conservative perspectives. While accepting that private arrangements are imperfect, libertarianism consistently asks whether government intervention does more harm than good. And it applies this skepticism regardless of the associated “values.”

Thus libertarianism argues against both drug prohibition and gun control; against government protection of unions, but not against unions per se; against government-imposed affirmative action, but not against privately adopted affirmative action; against any government-imposed content moderation of social media, but not against private moderation policies; against all trade and immigration restrictions; against government restrictions on school choice; against government-mandated licenses; and against the government defining marriage.

Perhaps libertarians are wrong about the merits of some government interventions. But applying a consistent lens across policies helps understand the inconsistencies of both liberal and conservative perspectives.

This article appeared on Substack on September 1, 2024. Constantin Wells, a former exchange student at Harvard, co-wrote this post.

0
FacebookTwitterGoogle +Pinterest
previous post
Custom Plastic Components Manufacturer Achieves Full Traceability with MRP Software
next post
The Shift to Online Jewelry Shopping in the UK

You may also like

Why Legal Immigration Is Impossible for Nearly Everyone

June 13, 2023

Polling Shows the President’s Tariffs Are Unpopular, Sentiment...

April 29, 2025

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment

February 13, 2024

St. Louis’ Little Trolley That Couldn’t

November 29, 2023

Should the Government Have the Power to “Turn...

June 26, 2023

I’m Saying Goodbye to the Cato Daily Podcast

April 15, 2025

Tariff Advocates Rarely Talk About Consumers, the Linchpin...

June 18, 2025

Congress’s Shade on Suspended Solar Duties Shines Light...

May 8, 2023

Friday Feature: Classic Learning Test

September 6, 2024

Trump and Vance Have Room to Run on...

November 6, 2024

    Get free access to all of the retirement secrets and income strategies from our experts! or Join The Exclusive Subscription Today And Get the Premium Articles Acess for Free

    By opting in you agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Your information is secure and your privacy is protected.

    Recent Posts

    • Michelle Obama portraitist’s exhibit with trans Statue of Liberty pulled after pressure from Vance

      July 25, 2025
    • Can the White House Denaturalize Domestic Opponents?

      July 25, 2025
    • An Updated Interview with George Selgin on Free Banking and Bitcoin

      July 25, 2025
    • Pentagon freezes out DC think tanks in new move, citing ‘America last’ concerns

      July 25, 2025
    • Pelosi confident about Dems’ chances to win House, predicts Jeffries will be speaker

      July 25, 2025
    • House Freedom Caucus conservative to enter race for South Carolina governor

      July 25, 2025

    Categories

    • Business (8,576)
    • Investing (2,151)
    • Politics (16,201)
    • Stocks (3,228)
    • About us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions

    Disclaimer: futureretirementsuccess.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

    Copyright © 2025 futureretirementsuccess.com | All Rights Reserved