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Old 10-25-2007, 06:02 AM
AlexM AlexM is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Imaginationland
Posts: 5,200
Default Re: Healthcare, infrastructure, schools and law and order.

This whole post shows an extreme lack of understanding of libertarian values, so I will help you out.

I morally believe that all children should receive a good education regardless of their parents, and I morally believe that society should support those who cannot support themselves, so yes, I would be willing to pay my share in the situation you describe. The problem is, if you could find a way for government to provide these services without corruption, incompetence and general inadequacy, I would still oppose government being involved in these things. Neither the corruption nor the fact that I'm being forced to participate are the primary reasons that I oppose these types of government programs. The reason I oppose them is that if I were to support them, that is equivalent to me endorsing the government forcing those people who don't agree with my morals to follow them, which is equivalent to me forcing them myself. Me forcing other people who don't agree with these morals to abide by my morality and fund it is disgustingly immoral, and the positives gained from these services do not justify the means. It is absolutely no different in my eyes than government mandated religion. Go to church or get shot. Sorry, but no thanks.

Also, libertarians as a whole don't have a ton of problems with city level taxation for infrastructure like roads and stuff. We don't particularly like it and would like to see things done better and more efficiently, but as long as you can direct the payment for these services towards those who actually use the service (higher fees for drivers' licenses perhaps) so that you can make sure you're not charging those who don't use that service, it's not immoral in the same sense as the moral issues above.

As for law and enforcement... if you're talking about violent crimes and theft and generally protecting people from other people, this is basically a part of infrastructure. If you're talking about drug laws, smoking laws, gambling laws, prostitution laws and such, that stuff falls back under the morality section.
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