As a libertarian, we have to give tough answers to tough questions. You realize that 99% of the people you talk to are not on the same wavelength and will summarily dismiss your ideas. Explanations cannot be given in quick sound bites, and even a well thought-out response is routinely accused of being heartless or unworkable. You are accepted by neither conservatives nor liberals. It’s a true uphill battle.
On the other hand, liberals have easy answers. The solution to any given problem lies in simply restating a question as an answer. It’s like a child talking to Santa Claus. He can just ask for whatever he wants. Any questions as to how it happens is answered with “magic”. The kid is satisfied. Asking a libertarian is more like a child asking a parent for something. The parent reminds the child of trade-offs, expenses, limits. The child might be asked to sacrifice, and sometimes after some calculation the child decides the sacrifice is too much.
The “magic” for liberals is the government. The government in the liberal mind is similar to Santa. There are no trade-offs, no expenses, nothing to consider except for the fact that you want something. For example:
Problem: People want education, education is too expensive.
Solution: Government should provide free education because education is a right.
Problem: Healthcare is really terrible. Wait times are extremely long, there are too few doctors, drugs are too expensive, etc.
Solution: Hire more doctors, spend more money.
Problem: Parents find daycare expensive
Solution: Government will pay for it instead!
Problem: I have a pet project that no one wants to pay for.
Solution: We’ll tax people and give you some of the money!
Problem: We want 35 hour workweeks, 5 weeks vacation, a living wage, and plenty of other perks!
Solution: Government will make those all mandatory!
The list goes on and on and you can surely imagine thousands of similar circumstances. It’s an easy Problem-Solution way of thinking. The problem with this thinking is it’s not real. It assumes an omnipotent government that creates laws of the universe, rather than seeing the government as simply one factor in an overall set of factors which can have either positive or negative influences. Trade-offs are rarely considered, and several fallacies are employed, especially the seen vs. the unseen fallacy.
Liberals have solutions which can be spray-painted on placards and chanted at a rally. A libertarian enjoys no such luxury. Going back to the Santa Claus analogy, liberals sit on Santa’s lap and ask for all the stuff they want and Santa, a god-like figure, simply grants them. The libertarian attempts to explain to these children that although what they want *sounds*good, there are other factors they must consider. A person asks for a puppy and the liberal simply says “Sure!” A person asks a libertarian and the response is more like “Well, you must walk the dog every day, you must feed him, clean him, take care of him. You can’t always go on vacation, and you must pay all the expenses. Is it still worth it?” Which one do you think fits on a placard.
Liberals have bought into the idea that far from being a necessary evil, the government is the main actor in an economy. Businesses are pesky toys of the rich, but serve little utility. All good emanates from the government. All action of consequence is a government action. In Newfoundland, this is the dominate view. On open line radio shows, almost invariably the caller will present a problem with the inevitable solution that the government must do something. The absolute dependence on the government is sometimes so shocking it borders on comical, if not sad.
One person wrote into a newspaper about her brother who recently took his own life. After admitting that she thought about contacting him to see how he was, she decided against it. But who did she end up blaming? The government of course. It was the government’s fault there weren’t more people looking after veterans.
This attitude is extremely common. For instance, instead of bemoaning how bad of a son or daughter they are for not providing for their elderly parent, people will get all up in arms about how the government doesn’t have enough retirement homes. Instead of working harder to make more money so one spouse can stay at home, citizens complain there are not enough daycares or daycare employees. This whole attitude removes personal responsibility and thrusts it upon a nameless, faceless entity and is very damaging to society.
I know libertarianism is right, but sometimes it would just be simpler to have easy answers like liberals.
No comments:
Post a Comment