LibertarianismAndConservatism

ThoughtStorms Wiki

Context : TheRightWing, OnLibertarianism, OnConservatism, LibertarianConservative

Many people find it mysterious that the right wing political parties consistently manage to bring together aparently antithetical views like libertarianism and authoritarian conservatism. (Though see EvangelicalCapitalistResonanceMachine for another take.)

Libertarians and conservatives share the following :

strong support for PropertyRights. Property must be sacrosanct.
a strong belief in PersonalResponsibility, which cannot be compromised. Very little acceptance that people are constrained / constructed by their cultural environment
very weak egalitarian sensibility. If it exists, the desire for equality loses to the requirements of property and personal responsibility.

Maybe 2 and 3 are related. You're less likely to worry about the problem of inequality if you believe more strongly that people are responsible for their own actions. (See also WhatsWrongWithInequality)

Libertarians also tend to look behind inequity to find government-reinforced structures and processes, hoping that the more "unfair" inequities can be solved by making systems more fluid. E.g. tax structures that encourage formation of really big companies, bureaucracies that raise the fixed cost of running a business (creating greater barriers to starting a small one), etc. –BillSeitz

Yes, but they're either naive or dishonest. Because most mainstream economics today seems to accept that real markets in their natural state (ie. without perfect information or competition) don't lead to either optimal efficiency, destruction of monopolies or more equitable distribution. (Need to find a link to support this though :-) – PhilJones

(You'll also need to define "optimal"! –BillSeitz)

(in mainstream economics in this context I think it is commonly believed that (pareto) "efficiency" = "optimality" – DariusSokolov)

You can verify a (toy) example of this yourself, with Optimaes

– PhilJones

It may also be that markets are the worst possible solution, except for all the alternatives. (pardon the cliche) –BillSeitz

Pardoned. Of course, as an aspirant hacker, "this doesn't work too well, but no one's been able to figure out anything better" has a predictable effect on me :-) – PhilJones

(Actually I'm really starting to like this image, more on HackerSocialists)

http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2017/08/rhetoric-libertarians-unfortunate-appeal-alt-right/

Good discussion on whether people are fundamentally good or not plus some MovingToTheRight : http://considerphlebas.blogspot.com/2006/04/whose-is-invisible-hand.html

See also (and maybe some of this should be refactored to) OnMarkets

Conservative argument against libertarianism : http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg121801.shtml

More : http://www.amconmag.com/20050314/article1.html

[This http://armedndangerous.blogspot.com/20030420armedndangerousarchive.html#93053213 This striking article] by EricRaymond, where the libertarian finds sympathy with the fascist Franco, helps show how this alliance works :

Update : this would be fascinating : http://www.mises.org/upcomingstory.asp?control=75

Compare :

What neo-cons have in common : http://www.davidbrin.com//neoromantics.html
Hayek on "Why I am not a conservative" : http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/hayek1.html