Why am I a Libertarian

Many people ask me why I am a libertarian. It is pretty simple really.

I believe that people are basically good and that they are generally the best people to decide what is best for them and their families. No one has any better incentive to look out for them than themselves.

So while no one is better at looking out for themselves than themselves this also means is that anyone as they should will almost always put themselves or their family before anyone else. The basic rule is the reason why government will almost always fail at everything it tries and why it causes so many problems for normal people everywhere. A more in-depth discussion of this can be found in The pitfalls of Philanthropy.

But what about the community? People always tell me that as a libertarian I must be against the community. Nothing could be further from the truth. Remember what I said above. I believe that people are basically good and decent. My self interest is mostly aligned with the self interest of everyone in my community.

It is in my interest that there is a supermarket in my neighborhood. It is also in the interest of all my neighbors as well as the owners of the supermarket and the people who work there. We don’t need a government agency to tell us that we need a supermarket or to place a food dispensing agency on my block.

This brings on to another common argument I often hear. People often mistakenly think that if there isn’t a strong government people will just start killing and robbing each other. I don’t restrain myself from killing people because the law says I shouldn’t, the reason I don’t go around killing people is because I find it abhorrent and immoral to do so. I don’t need a government sponsored propaganda program either to let me know that “Killing people is bad”.

Next, why I am so against communism…