[ExI] Serfdom and libertarian critiques (Was: Call to Libertarians)

[Kelly Anderson]

On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 12:31 PM, J. Stanton <js_exi at gnolls.org> wrote:
> My critique rests on the blindness of the Libertarian Party (and
> libertarians) towards banks and corporations. Both are government-granted
> exceptions to the rules of liability for one's actions and debts ('limited
> liability') and monetary exchange ('fractional reserve banking', i.e. the
> ability to create money from thin air by issuing debt) -- and both produce
> the inevitable result that institutions granted such exceptional powers
> control the world economy.
>
> If libertarians genuinely believed what they said, the first plank on every
> libertarian's political platform would be "abolish corporations and banks".

I have considered eliminating banks, but my question would be what
would you replace them with? There is a necessity for capital
investment, and economies of scale in managing capital are important.
I can see the point that every man is his own bank, and you go make a
loan with another individual, but then you have a problem with the
risk not being disbursed. You would immediately have some kind of
insurance pop up, it would seem.

As for business, do you think the CEO of a business should be
PERSONALLY responsible for the actions of each of his employees?

I like the thought of getting rid of banks, but I don't know how you
could really make it work. I think you could get nearly the results
you want by simply deregulating the banks to an extent. What would you
propose to do with stock exchanges and the like?

The first baby step would be to get rid of the Federal Reserve. That I
would be behind today, immediately. I think that is a fairly common
stand amongst Libertarians, but I could be wrong.

-Kelly