Politics Plus

Who are Libertarians? They claim to be the party of minimal government. They repeat the old saw that government is best when it governs least. This idea appeals to a lot of people, especially those who have first-hand experience dealing with governmental red tape and sluggish bureaucracies.

On the surface, it looks great – low taxes and minimal governmental interference. However, if you really think about it, a libertarian system would be a nightmare.

Minimal government leaves a power vacuum. And who will fill it? Whoever is large and in charge – namely, big corporations that want no regulations on mergers, pollution, or worker safety. If Libertarians get control, we won’t have utopia, we’ll have Animal Farm. Powerful CEOs will be our new rulers.

To those who don’t like government regulation, I have just a few questions: Do you breathe? Do you eat? Do you drink – that is to say, beverages in general? You (usually) enjoy reasonably clean air thanks to government restrictions on pollution. Ever see pictures of U.S. cities before the Clean Air Act? If you can count on the water coming out of your tap being potable, thank the government regulations in place to make sure it is. If you can count on any food that you buy at a grocery store or a restaurant to be reasonably free of contamination and adulterating substances, thank the people who demanded, and those who passed, the laws to protect you from tainted chow.

Regulations give us the 40-hour work week, overtime pay, minimum wage, job safety, and more. Regulations protect the environment we need to survive, make sure that our buildings and infrastructure are reasonably safe, and guard us from shady business practices. A Libertarian system would remove all of these laws, and once again the Little Guy and Gal would be at the mercy of greedy corporations whose sole interest is raking in the moolah to keep their CEOs and shareholders fat and happy.

China has almost no anti-pollution regulations. The air in its biggest cities is often choked with smog thanks to the Chinese Communist Party’s blatant disregard for the environment. Many of China’s rivers are so contaminated that their water is unsuitable not just for drinking but also for agriculture. More than once I have read that China will run out of fresh water sometime around 2030. Stick that in your bong and smoke it.

Minimum taxes mean a lot less money for police and fire departments, public parks, schools, bridges, roads, public transit – and, wait for it, defense. You want the mighty USA to have an imposing presence worldwide, but how will you pay for all that when the wealthy and mega-corporations enjoy fat tax breaks and corporate welfare, while the working class can barely feed itself?

Libertarians have the idea that government should be run like a business. You can’t do that anymore than you can fly a plane the same way you drive a car. Privatization has proven to be disastrous in the health care sector. Many hospitals put profit ahead of patients, resulting in ridiculous fees, obscene overcharging, and hundreds of thousands of personal bankruptcies every year. Do NOT get me started on how atrocious the USA’s health “care” system is!

Once upon a time, fire departments were privately run affairs. You paid your dues to the local fire station and displayed a plaque showing which brigade you supported. Firefighters not from the firehouse you shelled out to would go right past your house if it was on fire, even if your children and your little dog too were trapped inside. Can you imagine the howling and screaming when somebody came up with the concept of public fire departments?

Police departments would probably become privatized, too. Remember the movie RoboCop, in which an evil corporation takes over Detroit’s police department? Every big corporation would have its own police force, which would not be enforcing the law of the land but the will of the Board of Directors. This country has enough problems with cops already. Now imagine if an officer’s loyalty was to the Mega-Corp that runs the police force rather than the community. So much for Protect and Serve.

What with police in the U.S. being increasingly militarized, it’s no big jump to major corporations having their own armies. Imagine soldiers with logos for Amazon, Disney, Wal-Mart or Nestlé instead of national flags.

So, Libertarians, let’s see how you enjoy breathing smoggy air while walking to your job because you can’t afford a car and there’s no public transit. Let’s see how happy you are working 16 hours a day for slave wages, subsisting on adulterated cheap food, dwelling in a vermin-infested one-room hole in the wall with all the rest of your family, and living in fear of Monsanto’s heavily armed goons, all while hoping you don’t turn an ankle or break an arm because then you won’t be able to work and will wind up homeless. Welcome to the new Guilded Age.

Libertarianism and Communism both promise utopia but deliver dystopia. We have already seen that Communism is a failure; a Libertarian government would be the same, just for different reasons. Communism puts too much in the public sector, while Libertarianism puts too much in the private sector. Government is not best when it governs least, but when it governs where it should govern and does not govern where it should not govern.