Libertarian Ideas Are About Repealing Government Mandates

Libertarian positions on any issue are about repealing government mandates. They are not about telling other people what they should or should not do.

The essence of the libertarian doctrine

Here are a few libertarian positions:

• Taxation should be repealed.
• Mandatory Education should be repealed.
• Mandatory Health Insurance should be repealed.
• Mandatory service -- military or otherwise -- should be repealed.
• Government funding of any product or service should be repealed.
• Government prohibition on the possession of any product or object or animal or thing should be repealed.
• Government interference in freedom of contract should be repealed.
• Any law telling people what to do in their private lives with other consenting adults should be repealed.

Here are some examples of non-libertarian positions:

• Telling people that they should educate their children.
• Telling people what they may or may not say, write or publish.
• Telling people what religion they may belong to. 
• Telling people how to prepare food.
• Telling people what substances they may imbibe, inhale or eat.
• Telling people how to use their money.
• Telling people what sorts of agreements they can make with other people.
• Telling people that if they are not educated enough or wealthy enough they should not have children.
• Telling people what they may not do for a living. 

This should not be all that hard to understand. And yet I constantly hear people who hold office in the Libertarian Party saying things about what people should do. Just stop it! You are not helping the cause.

Here is a recent discussion about some of these issues that I had with Julia Hanna.