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A comment on A Defense of libertarianism (and response to Zed, etc.).

Re:A Defense of libertarianism (and response to Zed, etc.) by Harkins on Sunday January 11, 2009 @09:58AM (#429183)
Can you find any examples where libertarianism has failed, instead of saying that people have failed libertarianism?

If not, it's a religion rather than a political philosophy.

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Re:A Defense of libertarianism (and response to Zed, etc.) by grandalf on Monday January 12, 2009 @02:33AM (#430257)
One example that is often cited is the so-called "deregulation" of energy markets.

There was not actually deregulation. The markets were still highly regulated, so the act of deregulating part of them threw the whole system out of whack and everyone wanted to reinstate regulation.

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Re:A Defense of libertarianism (and response to Zed, etc.) by gravitycop on Monday January 12, 2009 @04:21AM (#430318)
More on this, here:

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf65.html

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Re:A Defense of libertarianism (and response to Zed, etc.) by pushcx on Monday January 12, 2009 @08:51AM (#430450)
So a deregulation failing proved libertarianism right?

Libertarianism is like prayer. If it works, the religion is right. If it doesn't, you did something wrong and it's right.

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Re:A Defense of libertarianism (and response to Zed, etc.) by grandalf on Monday January 12, 2009 @02:04PM (#430921)
Take the passage of Prop 8 in California -- libertarians do not think that marriage should be something that the state meddles in at all.

Examples abound. I just mentioned one deregulation example because such things are often touted as libertarian accomplishments when in fact markets are often still highly regulated and the deregulation was just a handout to one interest or another.

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