We've all heard it before from libertarian capitalists, raising the minimum wage will hurt workers because businesses will have to lay them off because they certainly can't afford to just pay more!
Gasp, you mean when money is spread out people spend it?!
How can this be? It runs counter to the trickle down theory where you give all your crack to Johnny the crack fiend and plastic baggy hoarder assuming that your crack will trickle down to casual users.
Libertarian Billionaire Plans Artificial Island Utopia – Like That’ll Ever Work
The idea of a “Libertarian nation” has been floated for centuries. Yet, every time it is attempted, the results quickly disintegrate into anarchy or despotism. It does not matter how often they proclaim that it will work, it never does. The real world always hits them over the head with a clue-by-four.
Yet, here comes another attempt, another statement that it will work “this time,” coming from PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel. His solution to making it work now is building artificial living spaces off-shore, in international waters, so as to avoid any pesky regulations. Of course, the idea of owning a residence which is not on dry land is not a new idea, as residential cruise ship MS The World demonstrates. Mr. Thiel’s proposal pushes this to the next level, beyond even the ill-fated Freedom Ship, which has been little more than concept animation for over a decade with no real development underway.
The attraction for libertarians is the perception that they would have no regulation, no laws to restrict them, and what they consider freedom. By the use of technologies derived from oil platforms, the reality is that it is more than technologically doable. But would a libertarian utopia function for long?
The reason why MS The World endures is partially because while at sea, the Captain is an absolute authority, a dictatorship, per the law of the sea. While on port, it has to follow the laws of the nation it is visiting. A floating island nation would have no such safety framework in place. Instead, it would have to set up its own government and organization, just like the failed Galts Gulch Chile did.
A better example would be the ill-fated “Operation Atlantis” of Werner Steifel. His dream of a pure Libertarian paradise sank, literally, after the seagoing vessel he had built, Atlantis 2, failed to be properly maintained or even run with any competence. It capsized several times, kept having issues of icing, and eventually sank after encountering a hurricane. Libertarian values rejected those pesky regulations about ship construction methods, weather maps, or using government services like weather reports.
Then there is Michael J. Oliver’s Republic of Minerva, which was an ambitious plan to convert miles of reefs into an island nation. With absolutely no taxation, it relied upon voluntary donations to operate. This turned out to be a bad idea when Tonga decided on invading, conquering the fledgling nation almost overnight. Being a volunteer state leaves one wanting for military defense it turned out.
The closest which the Libertarians can point to a true “Libertarian Utopia” it turns out can be found in the now torn-down Kowloon Walled City, a small area of Hong Kong which had absolutely no regulations, laws, or rules. Due to the lack of regulations, eventually over 30,000 people called the area home, just under 6.5 acres, with the result being overcrowding, crime, and illicit activity. Opium dens, prostitution, unlicensed medicine, unsafe construction methods, the small city-within-a-city was a death trap just waiting to happen. And that is precisely what Mr. Thiel’s dream will become should it happen.
Without laws and regulations, any concept of safety or security becomes a farce. Activity that civilized society would consider horrid becomes normal. Remember, in 2003 the Libertarian Party platform was in favor of child prostitution, and only removed the reference to children being given open access to “voluntary exchanges of goods, services, or information regarding human sexuality” after a cry of outrage. And that is but one of multiple currently illicit activities which would be permitted in such a Libertarian utopia. Drug use, gambling, prostitution, all a part of Mr. Thiel’s world he aimed to build. All permitted, acceptable, and if anything encouraged, due to the design of the system he hopes to set up.
__________________ In the land of Mordor, where the shadows lie...
Moviegoers have shrugged at the series, and the result is a major market failure. A movie celebrating capitalism failing to be a capitalist success, failing according to the money theory of value.
Atlas Shrugged celebrates the money theory of value, notably in Francisco d'Anconia's "money speech", where he argues that the love of money is the root of all good.
Part 1 has checked out 60 times from my library and part 2 is at 30. It amuses the fuck out of me to see people getting their Libertarian propaganda from one of the few socialist institutions still left in this country.
__________________
"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
"I would like to start off by talking about the subject and the subject is secession and, uh, nullification, the breaking up of government, and the good news is it’s gonna happen. It's happening," Paul, the father of potential Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul, told a gathering at the libertarian Mises Institute in late January. The event Paul was speaking at was titled "Breaking Away: The Case for Secession."
Paul said secession would not be legislated by Congress, but would be de facto, predicting "when conditions break down…there's gonna be an alternative."
"And it's not gonna be because there will be enough people in the U.S. Congress to legislate it. It won't happen. It will be de facto. You know, you’ll have a gold standard when the paper standard fails, and we’re getting awfully close to that. And people will have to resort to taking care of themselves. So when conditions break down, you know, there's gonna be an alternative. And I think that's what we're witnessing."
I know, I know! I figured "hey, it's buzzfeed. I bet it's a bunch of people making stupid joeks!" I was hoping I'd find a hidden gem of an L.O.L., akin to our (of which there obviously no equal). But once the accident started I couldn't look away.
The greatest examples of libertarianism in action are the hundreds of men, women and children standing alongside the roads all over Honduras. The government won’t fix the roads, so these desperate entrepreneurs fill in potholes with shovels of dirt or debris. They then stand next to the filled-in pothole soliciting tips from grateful motorists. That is the wet dream of libertarian private sector innovation.
On the mainland there are two kinds of neighborhoods, slums that seem to go on forever and middle-class neighborhoods where every house is its own citadel. In San Pedro Sula, most houses are surrounded by high stone walls topped with either concertina wire or electric fence at the top. As I strolled past these castle-like fortifications, all I could think about was how great this city would be during a zombie apocalypse.
I have never even studied economics at all, and even I somehow intuited that the necessary consequence of purely free markets is this bunch of private armies protecting individuals or small groups. It's like the dark ages
Quote:
One can dismiss the core of near-sociopathic libertarian ideas with one simple question: What kind of society maximizes freedom while providing the best outcomes for the greatest number of human beings? You cannot start with the assumption that a Russian novel writer from the ’50s is a genius, so therefore all ideas about government and society must fit between the pages of “Atlas Shrugged.” That concept is stupid, and sends you on the opposite course of “good outcomes for human beings.” The closer you get to totally untamed, uncontrolled privatization, the nearer you approach “Lord of the Flies.”
And then Atlas Barfed out Liberland... lol, what is this tiny thing supposed to be other than a tax shelter?
But is it really a lolibertarian effort? I mean, they don't mention Rand, or Galt, or libertarianism, and they talk of having police and judges and constitutions. Yeah, yeah, yeah...I see that they are sacralizing 'Liberty', but I'm still not really sure that they are going down that Randian road, or if they've just chosen some other ridiculous approach.
But is it really a lolibertarian effort? I mean, they don't mention Rand, or Galt, or libertarianism, and they talk of having police and judges and constitutions. Yeah, yeah, yeah...I see that they are sacralizing 'Liberty', but I'm still not really sure that they are going down that Randian road, or if they've just chosen some other ridiculous approach.
Galts Gulch in the Balkans? We'll see.
Haha, I guess when they actually began to contemplate the concrete, as opposed to the theoretical, they had to give a nod to reality and go "Oh yeah, we are gonna need a few police, aren't we?" lol, this reminds me a bit of overgrown kids playing Army or cowboys and indians, going down to the local woods to build clubhouses and tree forts. I am really anxious to see what, if anything, develops.
__________________
Chained out, like a sitting duck just waiting for the fall _Cage the Elephant
Re: Dispatches from Libertopia
Here we thought all our workers were just hoarding it away in Swiss tax dodges. 
@ comments
(of which there obviously no equal). But once the accident started I couldn't look away.
Linear Mode
