User:Freemarket

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Userboxes This user is an American patriot. This user is proud to be an American. This user is a Libertarian. This user opposes gun control with every fiber of his being. This user believes that gun control is Hitlerian. ' This user supports the National Rifle Association.

This user supports concealed carry laws. This user is male. en This user is a native speaker of English. This user supports the legalization of cannabis. This user is drug-free. This user is against recycling. PC-0 I am politically incorrect. Hence, I will use common sense and speak plainly rather than trip all over myself trying to be inoffensive. PETA This user does not support People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. This user believes that the very notion that animals have "rights" is stupid. This user rejects all forms of Marxist thinking deus This user is interested in deism. life choice This user believes that the pro-life and pro-choice philosophies are not mutually exclusive. This user identifies as straight. This user supports the legalization of same sex marriage. This user does not support the United Nations. This user believes it is every citizen's duty to assess every candidate and abstain from voting if none is found fit for office, unless he or she wants to vote anyway. trek This user is a Trekkie or Trekker. FIRE This user is a fan of Firefly. This user is a fan of Heroes. Ordinary people discovering extraordinary abilities. This user works for CTU. Dr. Who This user has been a Doctor Who fan since the Ninth Doctor. 9th

"The theory of the libertarianism may be summed up in the single sentence: The unwavering belief that the ownership of private property is absolute and an unconditional preference for freedom over equality."

--User:Freemarket

Why I am a libertarian:

The Jeffersonian philosophy that animates me has come to be called "libertarianism". It combines an appreciation for entrepreneurship, the market process, and lower taxes with strict respect for civil liberties and skepticism about the benefits of both the welfare state and foreign military adventurism.

The libertarian vision brings the wisdom of the American Founders to bear on the problems of today. As did the Founders, it looks to the future with optimism and excitement, eager to discover what great things women and men will do in the coming century. Libertarians appreciate the complexity of a great society, they recognize that socialism and government planning are just too clumsy for the modern world. It is--or used to be--the conventional wisdom that a more complex society needs more government, but the truth is just the opposite. The simpler the society, the less damage government planning does. Planning is cumbersome in an agricultural society, costly in an industrial economy, and impossible in the information age. Today collectivism and planning are outmoded and backward, a drag on social progress.

I am a libertarian because I understand a very simple fact of life: Government doesn't work. It can't deliver the mail on time, it doesn't keep our cities safe, it doesn't educate our children properly. But people love to play a gigantic game of "let's pretend": Let's pretend the War on Poverty really does help poor people. Let's pretend the War on Drugs really does reduce drug abuse and crime. Let's pretend the right government program can keep the wrong people out of the country.

Too many people who recognize the terrible threat that government poses to their liberties and to the economic health of the country still act as though government can achieve whatever it sets out to do – just so long as it's trying to achieve something they want.

Rather than pretend government can keep undesirables out, libertarians work to reduce the welfare state – so that only those who are looking for freedom and opportunity will want to get in. Libertarians know that a free country has nothing to fear from anyone coming in or going out – while a welfare state is scared to death of poor people coming in and rich people getting out.

I recognize that wherever you try to enforce victimless-crime laws, you will see an increase in violent crime, an increase in civil-liberties intrusions, and an increase in law-enforcement corruption. Libertarians instead support non-government programs to help addicts shake the drug habit, while recognizing that drugs were far less dangerous when they were completely legal in the U.S.

Thomas Jefferson recognized that when he said, "Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him?"

Because men are not angels, we have a Constitution to limit government strictly to just those functions that most people can't comprehend being handled outside of government.

Government is force, pure and simple. There's no way to sugar-coat that. And because government is force, it will attract the worst elements of society – people who want to use government to avoid having to earn their living and to avoid having to persuade others to accept their ideas voluntarily.

And so libertarians don't want to leave the governing of our morals to society's basest members.

A society in which politicians possess power that could work only if morality, righteousness, and compassion were universal. Until such a culture exists, we need to keep all matters of morality, economics, and business practices away from the politicians.

Libertarians are the only ideological activists I know of whose actions are consistent with their own principles.

They don't say that government is too big and then propose ways to make it bigger.

They don't say our government shouldn't meddle in foreign countries and then demand that it run to the aid of some foreign nation.

They don't criticize government programs on fundamental grounds and then propose that government give them something they want.

And that's why I'm a libertarian.