Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict said, "Just think how a permanent government shutdown would allow so many Americans to regain the blessings of liberty.
"Education would blossom as the Department of Education ended its War on Learning, no longer wasting our money and preventing educational innovation with one-size-fits-all centralized mandates.
"Job opportunities at companies big and small would multiply, providing opportunity and choice for American workers.
"The world would enjoy peace as we withdrew our forces from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. Our government spends almost as much on the military as the rest of the world combined. Millions of industrious men and women who work for the military and its contractors could be focusing on building up our economy, rather than tearing down others'.
"Crime would plummet as the government's War on Drugs ended, no longer sustaining a giant violent black market and overfilling our prisons.
"The life of many poorer Americans would improve as welfare programs stopped, no longer trapping low-income families in an endless cycle of government dependency.
"All Americans would feel a huge burden lifted every April, as they were no longer required to wrestle with a byzantine and oppressive IRS.
"But most importantly, Americans would once again be free of unjust and unconstitutional violations of their unalienable rights."
From Press Release, Libertarians call for permanent government shutdown
As much as I think the libertarian party is full of shit on many, many things, this is something I can find common ground with them on.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the capitalist system itself must also be abolished. Abolish the state and not the capitalist system and the capitalists and landlords will just re-create the state. That's what's currently happening in Somalia.
I don't understand the obsession with getting rid of the state... there is no state, only corporations and the governments they own.
ReplyDeletethere is no state
ReplyDeleteLet's see, corporations were created by the state (they're a legal fiction, "persons" with rights like you and I) and government is the instrument of the state for enforcing its claims of a legal monopoly on the initiation of force, and yet, the state does not exist! Good to know I'm only dreaming and the nightmare will end when I wake up in a few hours.
By the way, great comment Julia. (Real) anarchists are opposed to ALL hierarchy, so must oppose both the state and capitalism.
ReplyDeleteBret is the anti-anarchist. He opposes the abolition of the state and supports a (restrained by regulation -haha!) capitalist economic system.
I think you're missing the overall point, Nikk. Excessive wealth isn't because of the state, nor is economic disparity. The state in its current form is a direct result of the financial control the wealthy have. The state didn't create corporations, corporations got the state to recognize and protect them after they already held the purse strings.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you're obsessed with the use of force and the myth that force is held in their monopoly. Since you have the right to defend yourself, I'm perplexed... unless you mean that there are people you want to be able to just arbitrarily use force against. What a non-claim that whole idea is.
Since you have the right to defend yourself, I'm perplexed... unless you mean that there are people you want to be able to just arbitrarily use force against. What a non-claim that whole idea is.
ReplyDeleteCan you ever argue with creating a strawman?
I said the "initiation" of force. The state has a legal monopoly on such use. If I knock down someone's door and kidnapped them when they haven't done anything to me, I'm a criminal, when the police do it in a drug raid, they're "heroes" protecting the community.
Do I have the right to initiate such force on someone who has not threatened me in any way? No, but the state gives itself such a "right".
You really don't see the irony in your own words, do you? "unless you mean that there are people you want to be able to just arbitrarily use force against". That's what the state does everyday. It is what defines its very nature.
The state didn't create corporations, corporations got the state to recognize and protect them after they already held the purse strings.
Without legal recognition, they weren't "persons" with rights and protection through "limited" liability. Even early forms of the corporation ("chartered companies") existed as a product of the state, and with its blessing.
The state in its current form is a direct result of the financial control the wealthy have.
All states, whatever their foundation, exist to keep a ruling class in power. Anarchists, being opposed to some ruling over others, are of necessity against the state.