The US government in its first century wasn't the all-powerful government it evolved into.

> libertarian obsession with contract and property law as supreme above all others

Contracts are always superceded by government laws under libertarianism.

Then you've been talking to different libertarians than I have over the last couple of decades.

I'm glad you're finally talking to an actual one. Many people call themselves one who haven't actually thought much or read much about it.

If you want a book written by another actual libertarian, "Free to Choose" by Milton Friedman is a good start.

The neato thing about libertarianism is it doesn't have to be perfect in order to work. Since nothing about human societies can be perfect, this is fine feature. The more libertarian a country is, the better it runs.

This is in stark contrast to the example I gave above, of Grafton NH, which demonstrates in microcosm how libertarianism helps things fall apart.

Largely because when given the freedom to contract with whomever they want for garbage disposal, a lot of people just didn't.