Wednesday, August 16, 2023

QUORA: ‘If libertarians believe in freedom, why don't they accept the right of people to not believe in unlimited free market capitalism?’

 QUORA: ‘If libertarians believe in freedom, why don't they accept the right of people to not believe in unlimited free market capitalism?


I posted this answer:


First of all, I don’t know what is meant by “unlimited free market capitalism.” There is no such thing. Capitalism features the rule of objective law by a government charged with protecting and securing individual rights. Under such a government, individuals are limited to exercising their own rights to freedom of action to pursue their own ends—a freedom that ends where the same rights of others begin. As Thomas Jefferson put it, expressing the common understanding of the Founding generation, "Rightful liberty is unobstructed action, according to our will, within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others." That is Capitalism. Your freedom is limited by the equal rights of others.


By “unlimited free market capitalism,” the question may refer to so-called anarcho-capitalism, which is not Capitalism at all. It is anarchy. That’s all. Anarcho-capitalism should not be confused with laissez-faire Capitalism, in which each individual is left free—“allowed to do”—as one chooses within the context of the rights of others and the rule of objective law.


As to what “libertarians” believe, you’d have to ask one. But as a believer in a free society, which encompasses Capitalism, I certainly accept the right of anyone to believe in, or not believe in, anything they want. But no one has the right to impose their beliefs on others, whether through private violence or organized government legal coercion. A socialist, for example, is free to organize their own voluntary association of like-minded individuals. Under Capitalism, they have that freedom. Some self-described anti-Capitalists did just that in Toronto. American history is chock full of voluntary socialisms. Of course, many people who don’t believe in free market laissez-faire Capitalism are not full-blown socialists, believing instead in a mixed economy of socialist and capitalist elements, also known as the welfare state. But whether socialist, semi-socialist, or statist of any persuasion, no one may legitimately impose their statism on unwilling others. A government in a Capitalist society would not have the constitutional power to allow it. 


No one has to accept beliefs they don’t agree with. But freedom-loving people should always accept the rights of others to their beliefs, even if they don’t agree. People are free to believe what they want. But no one has the “right” to act on their beliefs in a way that violates the rights of others to their beliefs. Violating the rights of others; that’s what I don’t accept.


Related Reading:


The Capitalism Tour


The Capitalist Manifesto by Andrew Bernstein


QUORA *: ‘Does laissez-faire capitalism want to abolish social programs, etc.?'


QUORA: "Is having an 'Anarcho-capitalist' society possible?"


QUORA: ‘Is capitalism voluntary?’


QUORA: ‘What were those new ideas from which led to the rise of capitalism?’


Criminal Socialism vs. a Free Society


2 comments:

Mike Kevitt said...

‘If libertarians believe in freedom, why don't they accept the right of people to not believe in unlimited free market capitalism?’

Because they choose to contradict themselves. "Freedom" implies no initiatory physical force, thus, unalienable individual rights. That entails the right to believe or not believe anything. It's just that, in your actions, you can't initiate physical force. So, your actions WILL, whether you like it or not, conform to unlimited free market capitalism.

Under capitalism, libertarians can and must make your actions conform to unlimited free market capitalism. That would be law, actual and real law. But, by that same law, you can think whatever you want to. If libertarians deny you the right to think what you want to, that's initiated physical force, just like a punch in the face. That's denying unalienable individual rights and, thus, freedom. So, libertarians choose to contradict themselves.

anynameleft said...

Libertarians move to free countries unoppressed by government Haiti and Somalia