NationStates Jolt Archive

Okay, there are several dividing issues among the Libertarians and I was wondering where our local Libertarians stand on these issues. If there's any I missed, just tell me to add it. Right now the list is relatively small. You can give both sides of the arguments on the issue if you want...

Abortion
-Fetus is an individual and deserves right to life
-Woman deserves liberty to choose
-Stay out of the issue completely

Death penalty
-Not the state's job to choose who lives or dies
-State has the right to inflict agreed punishments to prevent feuding

Intellectual property rights
- What you make is yours
- What you publish is public

Privatization of police
-

Minimum wage
-Causes more problems than it stops. Ups unemployment.
-Slave wages..
-Prevents abuse

Privatization of education:
-Separation of education and state
-Public education is terrible, private education would handle it better

Democratic Reform
-Representative democracy
-Direct democracy

Okay, I'll post where I stand:

abortion: don't care (personally against, but don't wanna touch it)
death penalt: against
intellectual property rights: undecided
privatization of the police: against
minimum wage: just leave it as it is/undecided

don't forget about the issue of private ownership of the state-backed monstrosities of multinational corporations.

I am libertarian here is how I stand on these issues

Abortion: against except if mothers life is in danger.
death penalty: truthfully undecided might make concession for the worst of criminals but do not feel that death is justice. I am flexible in the issue

Intellectual property rights: Not sure what this is??

Private police: no

minimum wage: abolish

There is one other big issue with libertarians it is education some feel it should be privatized, I happen to think the federal government should cover 2 things the military to protect us and education. I think education should be the primary focus in this country and money should be used from all to educate all which will make the country a better place.

privatize all education:no

Abortion
-Fetus is an individual and deserves right to life
-Woman deserves liberty to choose
-Stay out of the issue completely

Death penalty
-Not the state's job to choose who lives or dies
-State has the right to inflict agreed punishments to prevent feuding

Intellectual property rights
- What you make is yours
- What you publish is public

Privatization of police
- OK but see death penalty above

Minimum wage (?)
-Causes more problems than it stops. Ups unemployment.
-Slave wages..
-Prevents Abuse

Democratic form
- Representative: too expensive an overhead
- Direct democracy across the net, hacking risk (?) Do not use MS

Okay thanks, keep em coming.

I'm a libertarian and here's where I stand.

Abortion:
I reckon it's the mother's right to choose, but only up to a certain point. I think after 7 or 8 months gestation, it's too late to abort. But fetuses a few weeks or months old are just big clumps of cells to my mind.

Death penalty:
I don't think the death penalty is a good idea, since a wrongly accused innocent can't be ressurected. However, I do believe in a system of just exiling anyone who commits a major felony (something like grand larceny or murder), because they don't deserve to be part of the free society that they tried to diminish.

Intellectual property:
Trying to keep the tricks of the trade private doesn't hurt, but I don't think it should be enforced by the government. If producers want their products to be secretive, they can endeavor to make them so - copy-protecting CDs, concealing computer code and so on. I'm a bit undecided on this though, since with things like plagiarism in books, this doesn't apply. You can't conceal book code, or copy protect it like a CD.

Privatization of police:
This idea sucks. The police are the government's only means of stopping crime. A private police force would act according to their own law, and the country would be ruled by mafia and gangsters.

Minimum wage:
Scrap it. The economy is none of the government's business.

Private education:
People know what's best for their kids, not the government.

Democratic Reform:
Direct democracy is impossible to implement. I'm happy in a representative democracy.

Abortion
-Stay out of the issue completely

I don't care enough to really have a position. But I do think it's a rather barbaric practice.

Death penalty
For it

Intellectual property rights
Get rid of them. No one can tell me what I can't make, even if it was your idea first.

Privatization of police
No. They are too easily corrupted as it is.

Minimum wage
-Causes more problems than it stops. Ups unemployment.

Privatization of education:
Post high-school only. Those under 18 can't control their environment and can't be blamed for not being able to afford an education.

Democratic Reform
Rep. Democracy...but the politicians should have very limited ability to change laws...otherwise the altruistic nature of people will cause society to dissolve into what we have now.

Abortion
-Fetus is an individual and deserves right to life
-Woman deserves liberty to choose
-Stay out of the issue completely

The caveat is that someone with a vested interest would have to complain, ie the woman's parents, the baby's father, etc. If she can find a doctor willing to perform the procedure, and the family is supportive, no-one will complain and this "crime" wouldn't be prosecuted. Other busybodies wouldn't have any right to complain (pro-life groups etc).

Death penalty
-Not the state's job to choose who lives or dies
-State has the right to inflict agreed punishments to prevent feuding

As mentioned before, you can't fix a mistake if the person is dead. There are a few major cases of someone wrongly convicted for murder and then subsequently found innocent.

Intellectual property rights
- What you make is yours
- What you publish is public

Not 100% clear in my mind on this issue. Common decency suggests you cite your sources.

Privatization of police

Yes. A well-armed citizenry should be able to prevent at least the most obvious abuses.

Minimum wage
-Causes more problems than it stops. Ups unemployment.
-Slave wages..
-Prevents abuse

Also increases the basic cost of living, skews the economy, prevents businesspeople from hiring, etc. Not the government's business to mess about with the economy.

Privatization of education:
-Separation of education and state
-Public education is terrible, private education would handle it better

It isn't the government's business to educate people, because it invariably becomes pro-state indoctrination rather than education. Many charitable organisations would love for you to spend your education dollar with them rather than paying the state to keep everybody thinking uniformly.

Democratic Reform
-Representative democracy
-Direct democracy

Base "democracy" on Bastiat's "The Law" (http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html) , the Zero Aggression Principle (http://0ap.org/), F. Paul Wilson's LaNague Charter (http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385154224/qid=1107464902/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_0_1/702-6055718-0599236) , etc. preventing government from doing more than the bare minimum, and it doesn't matter anymore whether the government is representative or direct. Either way, I won't be able to create laws to govern you.

Abortion: I'm against it but we should just stay out of the issue, there's enough bickering done about it

Death penalty: against

Intellectual property rights: *needs more info*
Privatization of police

Minimum wage: Leave as is

Privatization of education: We're in need of a reform; simply throwing $ at it won't necessarily help, though I'm not sure privatizing it would be better

Democratic Reform: I'd like to see the Supreme Court Justices be directly elected . . .

privatization of the police: against

I am a small 'L' libertarian. (Meaning I am not a member of the party, or follow the party lines, but would consider them the closest to me in ideal.) I would call myself a Jefferson Democrat, but that would just confuse most people, so I generally call myself libertarian.

As to your issues In the order you presented them, my own opinion.

Abortion:
-Woman deserves liberty to choose
-Stay out of the issue completely

I feel that an individuals freedom is sacred. Since I would be greatly opposed to acting as a blood/tissue donor against my will I cannot justify forcing that same role on another. I oppose this forced organ slavery even if the person being forced is the reason the need arose in the first place.

Death penalty
-State has the right to inflict agreed punishments to prevent feuding

It is my opinion that government has two primary goals. To protect the rights and freedoms of its citizenry (from threats foreign and domestic) and to act as an impartial 3rd party in disputes between them (both civil and criminal). If it can best protect those rights by eliminating (extreme) threats to them, then so be it. In addition, I feel that removing someone's freedom is more inhumane than removing their life. If given the option between life imprisonment with no possibility of parole or a quick and painless death, I would greatly prefer the later. I cannot take that option away from someone else, no matter how heinous their crime.

Intellectual property rights
- What you make is yours
- What you publish is public

I believe in both, sort of. A person should have some level of ownership for the ideas that they create. However, for a market to remain truly free one cannot allow that ownership to trump everyone else's freedom. I would say that in general patents and copyrights should last no more than 5 years (maybe 10), unrenewable, at which point everyone in the market is legally able to capitalize on the creation. Trademarks can last longer, AFAIAC, and be renewable. Information tries to be free, there is no sense in trying to cage it for too long.

Privatization of police

See above in regards to government responsibility. Police protect the rights and freedoms of the citizenry, and are part of the act as 3rd party in disputes between them. This is the responsibility of the government, I feel.

Minimum wage
-Causes more problems than it stops. Ups unemployment.

Abolish it. Causes problems for everyone. Workers have rights, including the right to form unions and demand what they think they are worth. They don't need a mandatory minimum, it just encourages pushing jobs off somewhere else.

Privatization of education:
-Neither

This is probably one area where I most disagree with the party line. I want the market, as a whole (just like I want the state as a whole, and the electorate as a whole) to be as free as it can be. Without the majority of the population receiving a GOOD education and the opportunity to use it, the market drifts to oligarchy, monopoly, or feudalism. Everyone has to have a relatively equal opportunity to get into the market to keep the people at the top from owning exclusive rights to the market.

Democratic Reform
-Representative democracy

Direct (simple) democracy always leads to tyranny of the majority and mob rule. See Socrates for reference.