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I know the Kochs contribute to Cato, but it's a stretch to call them "libertarian" these days. I think they're opportunistic oligarchs. They meddle with their
by turk73 7y ago
I know the Kochs contribute to Cato, but it's a stretch to call them "libertarian" these days. I think they're opportunistic oligarchs. They meddle with their money. I wish they wouldn't.
Running things in a democratic fashion would require the rich to have far less influence than they currently do. Buying elections and policies is not democratic.
I have never understood US interventionism. It seems to have more to do with corporations making money than it does anything else. It's corporo-colonialism. Ugly, ugly business where intelligence agencies go in and destabilize countries in order to pave the way for higher levels of intervention and then the soft, undeclared wars start with Hellfire missiles killing off the opposition, and other targeted types of killings.
- protomyth 7y agoThey meddle with their money. Yes, they do, and that doesn't disqualify them as Libertarian. I assume by using "libertarian" in quotes and lower case, you have some meaning beyond the actual Libertarian Party. They fund the Libertarian magazine Reason. Spending money to influence people is not a conflict.
- archgoon 7y agoLibertarians support individual liberty and constrained government; they don't necessarily support democracy (though this does not necessarily imply supporting dictatorship). https://reason.com/2018/11/10/libertarian-critiques-of-democracy-cant/ https://reason.com/2018/11/10/libertarian-critiques-of-democ... From some libertarians perspective; it's more important to constrain the power of government than to do so in a democratic fashion. The proposed ways of enforcing constrained government vary considerably though. EDIT: Apparently defining terms and explaining view points does not meet the high standards of hacker news comments. If I have misrepresented any perspectives my apologies.
- 0815test 7y agoDemocracy in the absence of individual liberty and constrained government simply doesn't work - it becomes corruption. While admittedly, few non-democratic polities pursue liberal values, the ones that occasionally did throughout history seemed to feature a similar quality of governance to modern liberal democracies. Their main (and quite significant) problem was instability over time, and that's what democratization mostly addresses.
- imglorp 7y agoThe rich have yet more influence than their 1-pct selves: they also direct all of their corporations which lobby heavily as well, as a force multiplier. So an individual citizen's vote has very little influence compared to those gargantuan forces.