Libertarians, particularly the ones who actively chose to appropriate that relatively previously unknown phrase in the U.S., saw the issue, as related to econom

Libertarians, particularly the ones who actively chose to appropriate that relatively previously unknown phrase in the U.S., saw the issue, as related to economics, as being a question of under what circumstances is it just to grant another person or group of persons power to decide who gets what. Opposition to the position of anyone having such power over anyone else is in the direction of individual liberty. IOW, they argued that there cannot be a just system where everyone is truly equal when some of the people have the power to apply force (government) that, when applied by those not chosen to have such powers (citizens), is "illegal." (E.g., taxes, war, imprisonment, drafting of laws, etc.) The restriction of rights to non-whites was a policy created and enforced by governments. Also enforced by governments were the Jim Crow and other eugenics-based laws (including forced sterilizations, which disproportionately affected racial minorities). The 13th amendment was written to only ban private ownership of slaves - governments can and do still own slaves (prisoners perform forced labor that profits the state and other entities, not the harmed parties). Access to opportunity is most heavily curtailed by governments, who make massive laws that heavily increase the cost to open new or even maintain existing smaller businesses. In Silicon Valley, we see an extreme version of a common problem created by governments where the governments act to restrict the building of housing, resulting in housing only being available to the extremely wealthy.