Libertarians

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Libertarians. They're all over the internet, but seem to mysteriously vanish before election time. Their political ideals are based on the ideas that government intervention is a bad thing by default, social services are evil, and that humans and corporations can be trusted to regulate themselves.

But let's face it, they're never going to get widespread support. Even the stereotypical greedy Republican can probably cite some times when he benefited from tax money... be it something subtle like the government subsizing his state school education or something anyone but a Libertarian would take for granted like firefighters saving his house. Remember Hurricane Katrina? Were there cries of "where is the government? they aren't helping enough!" or was their widespread support to let the city and state take care of it because we wouldn't want them dependent on the federal government?

Abroad, we've seen economic miracles in South Korea and Japan in the mid-20th century. These were achieved by the government taking a guiding hand in business. Not only the US, but the world at large, has evolved beyond small governments. It simply would not work today.

In short, should time machines ever be invented, we need to send the Libertarians back in time to the 1890's to work as factory laborers. There, they'll see their paradise. They'll see first-hand how unnecessary minimum wage, social security, and the FDA are and how well corporate America regulates itself.

Religious wankery follows:

>>1
nigger

>>1
Fascist.

>>2


Hilarious.

>>1
And economical wonder we known as America was born because of goverment control right?

Last I checked, America was an economic backwater until the beginning of the 20th century. I'm guessing it didn't have a government during the 20th century?

Besides, it's easy to be a wonder when you have massive natural resources and your biggest potential competitors are busy taking out loans so they can perfect the art of mass slaughter and wholescale destruction of infrastructure.

The American Government fucked the world over in the 1920s - they took a liberalizing generation and threw it in the mixer by instigating the Great Depression. Boom, we have war, nationalism, regression, religion, statism, fascism, communism and the Cold War - some of the most pathetic, inhuman, divisive frustrating and bloody periods and movements the world has ever seen. Greta Garbo, Jimmy Shields - they were out of the closet and nobody hated them for it. Gender, class and race limits were slowly being blurred, and everybody gave prohibition the finger like every patriot should. And then everything turned to shit in 1929. Goddamit. The problem with government isn't intrinsic, but it all depends on the people and no one should have that much power. The reason I am pro-capitalism is because it is the system that has worked thus far, and if it goes to hell then humanity itself did it. I am pro-capitalism because it gives people what they deserve. To believe in capitalism is to believe in humanity - I don't need some Russian flapper with a penchant for loooooooong speeches given by idealized caucasians to tmake me realize that. Libertarians and Objectivists love to spew at democrats but they really are the parties of discontent, bile and acerbity - and while Americans will never accept the label of socialism, they'll accept it as long as it comes under a different veneer. The rugged, individualist red states take more tax money than statist, elitist blue states, and operational conservatives are outnumbered by socialists identifying themselves as conservatives. By their fruits ye shall know them.

In less than 25 years (1917-1940), the USSR--a nation wholly undeveloped, stricken with poverty, and operating on a agrarian feudal economy of serfdom--turned its economy and military from arguably the weakest in Western civilization into one of the strongest in the history of the world.

Therefore, unlimited government regulation of the economy is clearly the way to go.

>>8
Government control of the "supply of money" was responsible for severely lopsiding the economy. In the stagnant post-war economies of europe inflation was rife, whilst in the US deflation or very low rates of infation. In a market economy private currencies would slow the money supply in europe to retain trust in their currency, whilst increasing the money supply in the US to make a profit. However the state monopolies decided to exactly the opposite, as can be seen most disastrously in Germany which had the combination of both a socialist leaning government and being the debtor to a debtor. From 1918 to around 1923 European debtors saw the value of their money decrease and their debt respectively increase, whilst the US saw a decrease in circulation as people preferred to keep money sitting in banks or investments. Finally european currency manipulators slowed the supply of money and curbed inflation, however in the US the federal reserve only tightenned it's grip on currency.

As the world economy recoverred from ww1, cash poured into investment and companies traded extensively with foreign markets. The investments however were used mainly for development rather than research, as sectors of the economy reached their maximum ability to increase value they had to produce more and sell more to make a profit. As the increase in value of the companies slowed the effects of deflation became more and more apparent. If currency was market controlled, the "money supply" would have balanced to fit demand and as the stock market slowed private currencies would decrease supply so the value of the money they produced was proportionately higher. The federal reserve instead kept inflation very low throughout, well past the point where most segments of the economy were fully developped at around 1928. By this point a stock market crash was inevitable as many economists predicted, however since they did not privately own and run any currency firms they had no control over the situation and come 1929 people were ditching all of their investments rather than just the portion that is not needed.

The majority of businesses at this point had the capacity to produce much more than could ever be demanded and now having to take out loans to cover their losses from the stock market crash had to make a profit, they fired workers and liquidated assets. This process was spread out over the next 2 years and would have otherwise just been a shedding of unnecessary load, except the government made it worse by not only keeping inflation low, but by intervening with excessive tariffs on foreign imports which resulted in foreigners retaliating with their own tariffs, cutting more jobs and business in the US etc..

Long story short they should have privatised currency and the government should have only served to preserve justice.
http://www.libertydollar.org/

>>10 Wow. All the retardedness of the 20th century could have been avoided. I wonder though, FDR imposed the somewhat misdirected adn shortsighted New Deal, but was he responsible for the governmental infliction of the actual depression?

>>9 There are about five million Ukranians and 26-61 million russians who would like to talk to you about governments. And some Africans. And a bunch of Cubans. And a lot of people in South America, although technically the CIA are responsible for those. Still, governments fuck people up, I don't need a system of ethics to tell me that, I have pragmatic, empirical and cumulative proof that they fail in comparison with the market.