Naked Capitalism Topic: Journey into a Libertarian Future: Response to Reader Comments

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This is the reflections of Andrew Dittmer, author of a six-part satirical interview, "Journey into a Libertarian Future," published on Yves Smith's "naked capitalism" website. The last part's URL is https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/01/journey-libertarian-future-part-vi-certainty.html , which provides links to the first five in the beginning.. 
Since many of us (most? all?) like discussing each other's comments more than discussing actual articles -- in this case a series of interviews with a made-up person -- I thought that the "Readers' Response" would be an appropriate topic of discussion. Most importantly, imo, are the real world distinctions among those who think in right-libertarian ideological patterns compared and contrasted with those who think in left-libertarian ideological patterns and those who think in socialist-libertarian ideological patterns.
https://www.nakedcapitalism...
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"Journey into a Libertarian Future: Response to Reader Comments"
Posted on January 7, 2019 by Yves Smith
This post was first published on December 12, 2011
By Andrew Dittmer, who recently finished his PhD in mathematics at Harvard and is currently continuing work on his thesis topic. He also taught mathematics at a local elementary school. Andrew enjoys explaining the recent history of the financial sector to a popular audience.
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Many readers wrote in warm and thoughtful comments on the series I wrote interviewing Code Name Cain. I was unfortunately away when the series first posted, and so was not able to respond immediately. Here are some reflections.
The word libertarian originally meant anarchist, or libertarian socialist, in the sense of someone who is wary of authority in general, whether coming from the state or from property rights arrangements. However, libertarian as used today more typically refers to right-libertarians like Robert Nozick, Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, and Murray Rothbard. For a more complete discussion of the different uses of the word libertarian, Karl Widerquist has written a nice essay on the subject.
Widerquist points out that it “is perhaps poetically appropriate that property rights advocates have appropriated a term that was already being used by people who subscribe to the idea that property is theft, and that these property rights [advocates] now accuse anarchists of trying to steal [the term] from them.”
Fairly or not, most people today think of right-libertarians when they hear the word libertarian, and so I will from now on use libertarian to mean right-libertarian. I have personally known many libertarians, and one is a good friend of mine. I became particularly interested in libertarianism when I started to realize how powerful such ideas have become in America today. One major political party is strongly influenced by think tanks like AEI and the Cato Institute, in which libertarian ideas are extremely prominent. Although members of the Tea Party do not fit a single stereotype, they do have a strong penchant for libertarian rhetoric.
Barack Obama frequently expresses his support for the “free market” and talks about the “burden” of taxes; Republican candidates feel no corresponding obligation to express verbally their support for “democracy,” or for the existence of some taxation. If candidates of both parties now talk in ways that are conditioned by libertarian preferences, it is clear that libertarianism has made great strides.
During the series, one reader made a comment about the outlandishness of libertarian thought, to which reader Foppe appropriately replied, “That doesn’t matter – the question is whether they influence policy.”

Read more at https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/01/journey-libertarian-future-response-reader-comments-2.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29


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