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>Thirdly, the liberal argument for your walmart example would be that if the public-assistance programs didn't exist in the first place, then walmart would have

>Thirdly, the liberal argument for your walmart example would be that if the public-assistance programs didn't exist in the first place, then walmart would have to pay its employees more. This is getting off the main topic, but how do you square that with the large homeless population?

aidenn0 9y ago
Personally, I find that to be a weakness in libertarianism. On the other hand, one argument for it is that we have a lot of regulations; those regulations cost money. Absent those regulations, some of that value would be captured by those who are poor (either directly because fewer regulations would allow more jobs, or indirectly because fewer regulations would reduce the cost of production). At least some regulations exist to prevent businesses from externalizing their costs; different libertarians disagree on the proper way to handle this (torts are one popular suggestion, something like cap-and-trade is another; a surprising number of libertarians are very comfortable with taxes on pollutants, provided the tax is tied to the approximate damages caused by the pollution). [edit] Another way of saying this is that without the various welfare and social justice systems, walmart's workers would either need to be paid more to keep them healthy, or they would have to deal with constant turnover and people showing up to work sick (and thus with reduced productivity). Both situations would impose costs upon walmart without any need of taxation. In addition, most schools of libertarianism are not opposed to workers unions as a contractual, free-market solution to workers rights. Special government protections (e.g. NLRA) or restrictions (e.g. right-to-work) of union tend to be treated with equal suspicion (though there are schools of libertarianism that are more pro- or anti- union).

aidenn0 9y ago

Personally, I find that to be a weakness in libertarianism. On the other hand, one argument for it is that we have a lot of regulations; those regulations cost money. Absent those regulations, some of that value would be captured by those who are poor (either directly because fewer regulations would allow more jobs, or indirectly because fewer regulations would reduce the cost of production). At least some regulations exist to prevent businesses from externalizing their costs; different libertarians disagree on the proper way to handle this (torts are one popular suggestion, something like cap-and-trade is another; a surprising number of libertarians are very comfortable with taxes on pollutants, provided the tax is tied to the approximate damages caused by the pollution). [edit] Another way of saying this is that without the various welfare and social justice systems, walmart's workers would either need to be paid more to keep them healthy, or they would have to deal with constant turnover and people showing up to work sick (and thus with reduced productivity). Both situations would impose costs upon walmart without any need of taxation. In addition, most schools of libertarianism are not opposed to workers unions as a contractual, free-market solution to workers rights. Special government protections (e.g. NLRA) or restrictions (e.g. right-to-work) of union tend to be treated with equal suspicion (though there are schools of libertarianism that are more pro- or anti- union).