Economic Libertarianism

Economic libertarianism is the doctrine that government should not engage in Economic Interventionism , but only prohibit force and fraud. The Austrian School of economics and the Chicago School of economics are important foundations of the economic libertarianism. Economic libertarians, as well as generalized '' Libertarians '', advocate Laissez-faire Capitalism , where all the means of production are privately owned, economic and financial decisions are made entirely privately, goods and services are exchanged in a Free Market , and there is little or no ''positive'' state intervention in the economy.

Like most mainstream Economists , the Austrian and Chicago schools support the Subjective Theory Of Value , which says that only a buyer and seller, while using information shared and available in the marketplace, can determine how valuable goods or services are ''to them'' and thereby set a mutually agreeable price. Libertarians contend that Supply And Demand , as ordered by the incidence of independent, Subjective valuations in a free market, are the only sensible means of establishing prices. Moreover, they believe that only prices rendered in a free market can synthesize and communicate the preferences and relevant, time-sensitive data to millions of Consumers and Producers alike, and that any attempt to objectify these transactions by a centralized authority will fail. According to them, any government intervention such as Regulation , Trade Barrier s, or Tax es, interfere with this judgement being reflected accurately in the price (though economists often argue that Market Failure s can interfere with pricing as well). Most economists agree that accurate pricing is an important part of efficient markets, and thus important for maximizing economic utility.

Market failures are a tremendous source of controversy amongst libertarians. This is what usually divides the mainstream ones who advocate for continued public ownership of policing, military and so forth and anarcho-capitalists who want full privatisation of goods. For many of the hardline group, the principle of liberty must overcome the goal of wealth. The public good of police, for instance, could be seen as immoral coercion no matter how efficient over private security).

Libertarians do not see unequal gained by redistribution would quickly collapse without coercion because people have different levels of motivation and native abilities, and would make different choices based on their differing values. Those that were more productive or traded more effectively would quickly gain disproportionate wealth, others would waste their resources, and some of those would choose to save for retirement or earn little on their own. Some may choose not to generate wealth, preferring to spend their time in other areas they find more fulfilling like non-commercial Art istic expression or Religious growth — an avenue libertarians do not oppose. However, they do oppose forced subsidization of such unprofitable ventures. Material inequality, they argue, is a necessary outcome of the freedom to choose one's own actions without imposing on others. To the extent that they accept any kind of Welfare , libertarians tend to prefer Milton Friedman 's Negative Income Tax as an alternative (but not a supplement) to the existing system, arguing that it is simpler and has fewer of the " Perverse Incentive s" of " Government Handouts ".

Theft is considered illegitimate regardless of how long ago it occurred, but libertarians tend to oppose should be given back to various American Indians ).

Libertarians tend to believe that minimizing the amount of money citizens pay to government minimizes the ability of the government to fund bad programs and prevents citizens from needing government assistance because they have more of their own money (see " Starve The Beast "). Because they oppose taxes, libertarians also oppose most programs funded by taxes. Many libertarians oppose government run or regulated schools, hospitals, industry, agriculture, and social welfare programs. Others justify public schools on grounds of efficiency, fairness, or both, though most would prefer a school voucher system to the status quo.

Libertarians, especially the Cato Institute have long supported Social Security Privatization as a first step to dismantling Social Security {Link without Title} .

Lastly, many libertarians support the Gold Standard as opposed to Paper Currency because they do not trust the government to restrain itself from over-expanding the money supply which would result in Inflation . Inflation is commonly regarded by libertarians as a surreptitious method of taxation employed to usurp value from privately-held money without levying an apparent tax and demanding physical transfer of money (see '' Chicago School of economics'').

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Economic Libertarianism