Politics = Exploitation

As the politically relevant fact of the matter is - plunder is more popular than liberty from where does optimism to foretell our inevitable libertarian society spring!?

Plunder is more popular than liberty. But getting fleeced is not. Just 15% of Americans think the government will bring us to a better future. 59% say the government is the most broken institution. (click here for more)

Therein lies our opportunity.

Caring can't be legislated nor can effort be decreed. Plunder can. Government has become a tool to plunder. Big government is a big tool. The American Dream for a better life did not begin with an alphabet soup of federal agencies. It began without them and is ending because of them. Social Security promised security but delivers insecurity after the money has been spent. Great Society programs delivered decline and dependence instead. Banking regulators are staffed with bankers and regulate by, of, and for bankers. Corruption in government - bribery, theft, graft, kickbacks, political influence peddling, insider trading, criminal cover-ups and more - is as old as government. A once small and limited federal government has greatly expanded powers to dispense favors. It now controls all aspects or our lives and transformed the ‘American Dream’ into America's Decline. Old standards and expectations are increasingly recognized as no longer attainable. For most of us the new normal is ‘decline’ not growth. Evidence of this new reality is all around us.

• Un-payable debt
• An expanding warfare/surveillance/police state
• Loss of production
• Declining middle class
• Rising welfare benefit dependence
• Widening wealth and income gap
• Increasing waste, fraud, abuse, corruption and failure
• Growing political divisions

How do any of these improve The Common Good?! How did this happen?

Our current problems were caused by Democrats and Republicans. Libertarians had nothing to do with creating the awful mess We, the People now find ourselves in. Libertarians need to tell this message because the other political parties can't.

The Tragedy unfolds because government wasted too much of 'our' common money buying votes and selling favors. It's not only taxes levied on productive people but regulation that stifels productive effort. It is sometimes said, "You get more of what is subsidised and less of what is taxed". Waste, fraud, abuse and failure are subsidized.

Libertarians need to explain why a smaller government will provide not only a freer life but also a more prosperous one than another alternative. We need to explain how the government benefit machines fail them. We need to point out specific government failures and emphasize actual costs and give people real examples of The Tragedy Of The Commons. More voters must be persuaded that government costs outweigh benefits. What can the Libertarian Party do to make lives not just more free - but prosperous? This is the challenge - to persuade people that their lives improve with less government even though they now believe the very opposite.

The unfolding Tragedy indicates the likely end of exploitation via authoritarian government and so the beginning of a new cycle of individual liberty, effort and responsibility. This will be both a period of trial and opportunity. The libertarian purpose should be to make voters question their current assumptions and convince them to support a libertarian resistance movement. Show people at all levels and wherever possible the diminishing benefits and increasing costs of government.

Click here for cost examples.
Click here for benefit examples.

This mess presents opportunity for Libertarians to offer small government solutions to the Tragedy Of The Commons.

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