It's a bit complex. Libertarianism has an ethical component that's essentially Deontology. It's duty based in regards to some system of rights. Libertarian philosophy is also political, but their ethical paradigm influences their political positions.

Utilitarianism is both an ethical theory (primarily) and secondly political theory. But Utilitarian ethics has different core values than the Deontological ethics that make up Libertarianism, although some people defend Libertarianism on Utilitarian grounds. Utilitarianism was instrumental in both the development of Liberal (as in libertarian) politics as well as Socialism.

People who are just economic libertarians are just being inconsistent due to political convenience. Libertarian ethics wouldn't support modern Conservative social policy.

I don't have a problem with components of rights-base philosophy. I just have a problem with their one-track minds and attempt to build a society exclusively on their narrow set of principles. A balanced ethics that tries to reach reflective equilibrium is what's necessary, not a society based on the values of a single ethical system.

That behaviour above would be that of a sociopath, but sadly, it's not actually violating anyone's right to anything. It's a flaw of hard-core Libertarianism. Libertarian deontological ethics I don't think is entirely wrong. I think it's an incomplete picture. I also think these flaws, especially the more extreme the adherence is to the philosophy, the easier it is for people who are already powerful, wealthy to manipulate the system to their advantage. This is really one reason why the mass movements toward deregulation and non-interference is so well received by big businesses. They stand to benefit from a "free market" system where they don't need to worry about worker protections, consumer protections, anti-monopoly laws, or environmental laws. They can do whatever they want within a very broad range of actions that are incredibly harmful and cruel, yet aren't actually violating anyone's rights.

It is not the case that ALL Libertarians are rich and powerful, but it is the case that it's highly popular and promoted by those who are and stand to benefit from the free for all it creates. Do you think, for example, John D. Rockefeller wanted regulations? You know what he said? Competition is sin. If he were allowed, he, and others like him, wouldn't hesitate to gobble up competition and jack up prices, establish barriers to entry, and generally screw you over in the absence of regulation.

Let's look at China. Ironically, a lot of China's problems today are the result of such VAST and quick liberalization of the economy. It's counterintuitive, but China, in some areas, always had fewer or poorly enforced regulations than the United States (even when China was Communist). This creates problems for workers, consumer safety, and the ecosystem, because businesses don't give a crap as long as they meet the bottom line. If there's no adult to reign in the kids on the playground, they will do bad things. The lack of regulations gives them the ability to make more money at the expense of others, while using the idea of "rights" and "freedom" to disguise what they are doing.

A Libertarian system would not worker compensation laws, it wouldn't have environmental regulations, it wouldn't have consumer safety laws, unions could be de facto outlawed as businesses would be fully allowed to exercize "free association" and fire union employees, just as they did in the 19th century, the last time libertarianism was applied, it wouldn't have anti-monopoly laws, it wouldn't have min wage laws, it wouldn't have welfare, social programmes, or public spending on scientific research. There would bee no FDA, there would be no peace corps. ALl you would have is Military, Law, and Administration. It would be the law of the jungle. Consumer beware.

Government would be so small, they could drown it in a bathtub, and hence, it would be so small as to be useless to do anything on any large scale if needed. Kinda like the original government was, which is why indeed it was abandoned. It didn't work for what people actually wanted. The Libertarian platform would regress society back to the 18th-19th century.

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