[ExI] Call To Libertarians

[Samantha Atkins]

On 02/23/2011 02:08 PM, Jeff Davis wrote:
> 2011/2/22 Darren Greer<darren.greer3 at gmail.com>:
>
>>> Quoting Samantha Atkins<sjatkins at mac.com>:
>>>> The essential element of libertarianism is the Non-Agression Principle.   No one has the right to initiate force against another.  This is equivalent to total freedom to do anything that does not harm, physically force, threaten physical force or defraud another.
>> I like that principle Samantha. Very much. I am personally committed to it.  But I wonder how does one go about establishing system where the principle non-aggression is paramount, when natural aggression, both tribal and individual, seems to be a dominant feature of the human psyche nurtured by millions of years of evolutionary development?
> Me:
>
> Ah, yes, the question of the transition from where we are "here" to
> the glorious Llibertarian utopia "there".  This is my problem with
> libertarians -- particularly zealots-slash-purists.  They say our
> current system is crappy.  (I agree).  They say life  would be perfect
> in the Llibertarian utopia "over there".  But they .rarely seem
> willing to propose a reality-based plan for getting from "here" to
> "there"-- a plan for the transition.

Here is mine.  Give up on the USA.  Start a new country fresh by roughly 
Rothbardian principles.  Now, who has a 10-20 million for our starter 
island and set up costs?  :)

On the here to there, the first utterly critical thing is to agree on 
what should be sufficiently to take the necessary actions.

Saying that without a detailed plan it is all more or less bullshit is 
grossly unfair.  The first question is what is right, what should be the 
case.  The problem of unravelling the current mess and replacing it is a 
secondary endeavor.  Very important of course and I agree we need to 
think a lot about this.  But to just dismiss the discussion in lieu of 
such a detailed plan is not reasonable.

Here is my partial sketch of an incremental approach to a few aspects:

1) remove all non-violent, non-fraud "victimless" crimes from the books 
by executive order;

2) release all imprisoned for such crimes immediately (also by XO);

3) get Constitutional amendments passed to limit severely what new 
things government can do, starting with absolute limit that it cannot 
borrow money except perhaps in rigrorously limited wartime conditions;

4) sell almost all government held assets outside its operational assets 
as quickly as possible with proceeds applied to its debts;

5) on programs like Social Security, allow everyone below some cut-off, 
say 40, to opt out if they desire immediately.  Those over some cutoff 
get the benefits they have paid into.  Optionally allow everyone that 
desires to to opt out and pay the benefits accrued out of general 
accounts (where the money has ended up being spent anyway) until some 
cutoff date that is say 20 years or so out;

6) roughly same idea on many other entitlement programs.  The point is 
not the leave people hanging but to have a planned phase out over time 
with no new promises.  The end goal being to get government out of these 
areas entirely;

7) on education any parent can opt out of the public school system and 
spend the equivalent amount for schooling by the school of their 
choice.  This amount to be provided out of the same government accounts 
in the beginning but over some period of time moving gradually to total 
private market transactions.  Government gets out of determining 
curriculum much earlier.

8) No more sort of maybe wars and troops posted all over the globe just 
because we can or want to brag that the Navy is all over the world or 
whatever.  We cannot remotely afford this.

There are many more and the problem solution cannot simply be written 
down in one go.

- samantha