The Myth of Natural Rights

and other Libertarian errors

And just to show I'm not making this stuff up:
"There can be no tolerance toward democrats and communists in a libertarian social order. They will have to be physically separated and expelled from society"
Hans Hermann Hoppe - Libertarian

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Libertarian
• property
• rights
• coercion
• anarchy
• ancap
• socialism
• morals

[kippyafd]

Being responsible for one's own body and what we do with it has nothing to do with living with other people. Smoking, drugs, alcohol, eating junk food, tatooing, etc. is a person's right. It does not harm anyone else. We should be free to do with what we wish. Also, yes a person has a right to own property. If the person pays for it, it is theirs. can own, therefore, we can control. We are higher than animals. we can own animals, therefore, we can control them.

[billburns2]

@kippyafd

But what happens when these personal "rights" come into conflict with other rules and regulations?

I'd hazard a guess that even in a Libertarian society most employers would prohibit drinking alcohol whilst at work and many landlords would prohibit their tenants from smoking.

If a particular action is dependent on the permission of other people, then how can it be classed as a right?

[N330AA]

I consider Libertarianism to be a direction and not an absolution. I want less government intervention, less wealth redistribution etc. That doesn't mean i want to eliminate it all, i accept some is necessary.

It's things like High Speed 2 that i would like to do away with. If we cut tax and put that 30bn in the pockets of people and companies they can decide for themselves if they want to travel from Brum to London more fancifully or not. Or we could use it to help pay off the deficit.

[billburns2]

@N330AA

I would be the first to agree that many government projects are appallingly ill-conceived and badly executed. Libertarians like to think that nobody else works to fight government waste, or even knows that it exists :)

[swebbie]

Completely wrong when you talk about interdependence. Libertarians don't disparage this fact. Obviously, we realize that the contributions of others are not only desirable, but necessary. You're erected a straw man there. We simply do not want such things to be coerced. We want them to be voluntary. I don't want govt or any other agency to force me to pay for another's housing. Nor vice versa. How the house is physically built (and by whom) is irrelevant to this distinction.

[luvcheney1]

@billburns2 The fact remains that little income will be offered up to be taxed at high rates. Tax policies cause shifting in ways income is taken. Share of total income taxes paid grew as result of lowering taxes under Bush. SOI tax stats, individuals (IRS) 2001, top 1% paid 33.89%, in 2008, it was 38.02%. If goal is actually to put more money into govt, hands, this works. We could always raise tax rates though, and collect less.

[tonyfalca]

It's all about the purest of the pure anarchy. Forget libertarianism and property rights.

[tonyfalca]

@billburns2 I don't think so. Certain animals understand the concept of property just fine, as in the possession of land.