Re:The Libertarian Case for a Basic Income
by craigyk on Thursday December 05, 2013 @08:35PM
(#6858803)
"The claim is that it's just the right thing to do, that most people will be better off (economically) than under other systems"
There it is, that is the idealistic part.
Re:The Libertarian Case for a Basic Income
by mindcrime on Saturday December 07, 2013 @12:53AM
(#6865640)
Not really. I mean, economics is mostly voodoo science anyway, so it's hard to make a lot of objective statements about any of this, but it's hardly a stretch to suggest that laissez-faire free-market policies are generally better for economic growth.
But, again, none of this is really the point. Every system is flawed in its own ways, and the libertarian approach simply acknowledges that, rather than trying to distort reality and pretend that a "perfect" system is even theoretically possible.
At it's core, libertarianism makes no statement about outcomes, but simply demands that people be free to make their own choices without being subject to force or fraud, and are then responsible for the outcome of their actions. Nobody is making any Pollyanna'ish guarantee that such a system will result in the most possible desirable outcome for everybody involved. The claim is that it's just the right thing to do, that most people will be better off (economically) than under other systems, and that you accept that every system - this one included - has its pathologies. You can't get much less naive than that.