The Myth of Utopian Libertarian Economic Liberty

John Scott

Definition from the web site of the Institute of Humane Studies

The libertarian or “classical liberal” perspective is that peace, prosperity, and social harmony are fostered by “as much liberty as possible” and “as little government as necessary.”

According to Libertarianism: A Primer by David Boaz, Free Press, 1997:

Libertarianism is the view that each person has the right to live his life in any way he chooses so long as he respects the equal rights of others. Libertarians defend each person’s right to life, liberty, and property-rights that people have naturally, before governments are created. In the libertarian view, all human relationships should be voluntary; the only actions that should be forbidden by law are those that involve the initiation of force against those who have not themselves used force-actions like murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, and fraud.

Libertarians admire the free market ideology as described by Adam Smith and articulated by Milton Friedman, who was a disciple of F.A. Hayek,

Definition by Wikipedia

In economics by the open market and consumers, in which the laws and forces of supply and demand are free from any intervention by a government, price-setting monopoly, or other authority. Proponents of the concept of free market contrast it with a regulated market, in which a government intervenes in supply and demand through various methods such as tariffs used to restrict trade and protect the economy. In an idealized free market economy, prices for goods and services are set freely by the forces of supply and demand and are allowed to reach their point of equilibrium without intervention by government policy.

In the US in the 1950s, conservative founders of the John Birch Society embraced Libertarian ideas and free market ideology. James McGill Buchanan became a particular darling of this group and later founded the George Mason University which became an intellectual breeding ground for right-wing activists. Nancy MacLean in her book DEMOCRACY IN CHAINS describes in detail the history of a group of wealthy individuals who have organized and funded the rise of an extreme anti-democratic movement. This has been done over a number of decades with determination and stealth.

According to author Nancy MacLean there are a number of traits shared by these wealthy individuals. They do not believe that they should be compelled to contribute to the well-being or welfare of any other group or individual. They do not believe that their economic liberty should be regulated or interfered with by government or any other institution. However, at the same time they refuse to guard the political or civil liberty of any other group or individual. They have been quite willing to use military force and dictatorship in imposing their economic policies on populations around the world. You may refer to the book Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein for an exploration of their methods and the disastrous results. History demonstrates that this economic/social scheme has never been voluntarily accepted by any population. It has only been imposed with violent force.

The Libertarian ideal of the golden age of the US was the period following Reconstruction after the Civil War and ending with the beginning of the Great Depression. This period of history is also referred to as the Robber Baron age. This Libertarianism is a movement against the principles of democracy in favor of control of the population by an oligarchy.

What developed in the late 19th century and the early 20th century were movements that mobilized communities in solidary in collective actions. The labor movement demanded livable wages and safe working conditions. This greatly offended the oligarch masters. How dare workers unite to negotiate their working conditions and wages? This was considered a distortion of the labor market and threatened established power structures. Increased wages created a consumer market for appliances and goods that were previously unaffordable.

The oligarch class desires to see voting rights restricted as in the late 18th century to white men of property. Starting in 1920 women earned the right to vote. In 1965 with the passage of the Voting Rights Act African Americans were finally given the unrestricted right to vote. The expansion of voting rights was the result of people working as a community together to achieve a desired positive result. Democracy is by character a government defined as rule of the majority. The libertarian oligarch class feels extremely offended to be coerced to support with taxation social programs like public schools, social security, medical care and the US Postal Service.

In their utopia all people would solely be responsible to provide for their own education, health care, pension and transportation. With all minimum wage laws and child labor laws abolished how would it be possible for wage slaves to educate their children, provide health care and self-fund pensions? This sounds like the old class system of Europe with an aristocracy that controlled resources while the working classes lived in desperate poverty as serfs. This is liberty for the few and servitude for the many. Like Protestant Calvinists they believe that the wealthy are by grace destined to rule over the rest of humanity.

The Libertarian oligarchs are determined to destroy all aspects of community and collective action. This may be due to their worship of individualism or their knowledge that it is much easier to subdue and control isolated individuals. Charles Koch has organized his own community of billionaires to fund think tanks like the Cato Institute. His organizations have basically taken over the Republican Party by threatening incumbent office holders with funding more extreme primary opponents if they do not support their extreme undemocratic agenda. Their agenda is more authoritarian than the liberty as promised by their Libertarianism.

They state that they wish to go back to a time before governments were created. What would that mean in a modern society? Do they really pine for the days when the man with the biggest stick ruled? If there were no government then how would the people in a society interact? The oligarchs who controlled the resources use police state tactics as they have done in countries such as Chile?

I think that we should all be suspicious of all utopian schemes. Libertarians would claim that their theories would have solved all problems caused by boom and bust business cycles and market corrections if only their theories were employed more completely and purely. We have heard this all before from extreme left leaning and right leaning purists.

James Madison in contributing to the drafting of the US Constitution was concerned about the tyranny of the majority over the minority. The minority have always been the moneyed elite. The extreme radical right’s plan to take this protection way beyond Madison’s checks and balances threatens to destroy all of the democratic gains by the working majority of the last 100 years.