Most laws are done in the name of the individual, but can actually harm the individual in the end by giving a centralized government too much power. For instance, let’s look at environmental laws, which are usually enacted to protect Mother Nature, as well as often done in the name of personal safety– i.e., pollution control laws or laws to not dump chemicals, that sort of thing.

The problem with these laws is that the government allegedly enforces them, but the government doesn’t have to abide by them itself. Our biggest polluter in America is the government, and it’s the one enforcing the pollution control laws! Of course, the EPA never fines the government agencies that are our biggest polluters. In a libertarian society, the government would not be above the law or become so powerful that it was both the worst violator and the enforcer.

The key to a libertarian society is granting more rights to individuals than to the government, which can abuse it more widely and easily than individuals can and rarely gives powers back once they have been attained.

Why hasn’t it been done yet? I’m not sure. The Constitution of the United States is pretty libertarian in and of itself, but Congress doesn’t abide by it. Other places have successfully incorporated aspects of it– many places in Europe have socially liberal laws but don’t promote economic freedom, while Hong Kong is very free economically but not socially liberal. Put those two together and it would work great!

If you want to know why it hasn’t been done yet, just watch the news after any sort of news occurs. Someone was stabbed on a street, and news reporters will say, “What can the government do to stop knife crime?” Someone is a bad parent, and people will say, “What can the government do to make people better parents?” Someone makes bad investments in the stock market, and he will say, “What can the government do for me to bail me out of this?” Often the laws will be done to protect people from themselves and especially in the name of safety or protecting children.

Everyone wants to run to Congress and make a law all the time. Someone, I believe Thomas Jefferson, said that a government will always grow bigger, not smaller. He saw it as a bad thing, but a natural tendency of humans to want someone else to solve their problems for them. Jefferson’s US was very libertarian compared to our society now, but it has grown in power substantially since the Civil War and is now a behemoth.

Libertarian girl – most laws today are for protecting the individual, right? And when you have several hundred years of laws and lots of different individuals you end up with the legal system in the US/Australia today?

If libertarianism is so powerful, why don’t we have a truly libertarian state today? Over the ages these kinds of things tend to get figured out one way or another, don’t you think?

First of all, a libertarian society does not necessitate a “weak police force.” In fact, there would be laws against many of the crimes we experience today– murder and anything less that is bothersome to a neighbor and interferes with his or her rights. You would not be allowed to blast your stereo at all hours, because that would interfere with your neighbor’s right to sleep and peace. There could either be a law against it or you would sue your neighbor for violating your rights. These are pretty much the options most countries have today in that same instance. There may be fewer laws than exist now, but property rights (against your person, your property, your family, etc.) would be stronger and better enforced. In other words, you’d have a better chance of getting your noisy neighbor to stop because your right to a peaceful existence would be better recognized.

No one except yourself would see the DR as a libertarian state. It is not, and a libertarian state would hold the freedom of the individual above any type of societal connection or money. Of course, we are humans so you have to figure that into the equation, but there would be laws and if they weren’t dealt with properly by the police you could sue.

Rory– I don’t see what you mean about moral standards. Most libertarians believe that everyone would be free and more covered under “universal health care” under a libertarian society than they would under a system of mandated insurance (mandated corporatism) as Obama wants to implement.