Issue 172 Libertarians part 2 September 27, 2013

Even libertarians have their disagreements. There are in fact two major disagreements in the libertarian club. They are the entitlements and abortion. These issues have and will continue to divide libertarians into the Democrat and Republican Party's. So let us go over these big disagreements.

The Entitlements: Many libertarians want a smaller government. For members of the libertarian crowd that means eliminating Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (and in many cases all other welfare as well). The reason libertarians feel that the entitlements can be removed is because charities would take up the mantel left behind to help these people. And this is true, charities used to do this job back before the existence of welfare or any of the entitlements. Charities later shrank due to their job being taken over by welfare. Whenever welfare and entitlements fail, then charities are there to pick up the pieces. At one point, charities had a system that kind of acted like an insurance policy. You would donate every month to the charity (usually a church or temple) and then if you ever fell into poverty that money would be used to help you. These charities also were able to distinguish between those who needed the most help and those who needed none (or needed to be cut off). Government cannot make such distinctions as it can only follow a one size fits all approach. If it were not for the fact that approximately 75% of welfare helps the rich, then libertarians would probably have a different opinion.

As to those who fear losing the entitlements. They are those libertarians who feel that it is needed. They are willing to break with the libertarian ideology to protect what they see as an essential safety net. For them, charities are welcome, but are not seen as having the ability to save everyone, let alone help everyone. It comes down to morality, do I cut off an imperfect system that is working, or do I go back to a system that I never grew up with or know how to operate. As such it is also part fear. Thankfully, this debate between libertarians is largely respectful and if proof can be provided as to a viable alternative that would ease their fears, and then they would embrace it.

Abortion: This is a major issue for everyone. Debates on this issue date back to before the founding of the United States. For libertarians who believe that people have the right to do what they want to do with their own body they generally are in favor of abortion. If a woman carrying a child wants to abort during the legal length of time (the first trimester) then they embrace it. However, libertarians like Ron Paul want abortion aborted. They want a society free of abortion if possible. The reason is because the pro-lifers in the libertarian circles view that killing a child at any stage of development as infringing upon the right to life of another human being. As such they share the Church's and Conservative scientist’s point of view that life begins the moment the egg is fertilized. This debate will of course always be heated, because it is the rights of one human being having to be put up against another’s (the as yet to be born). As such, when it comes to coming to common ground, they will agree on abortions in the cases of rape, incest and the mother’s life being in danger. But this is only the case when cooler heads prevail. As such, this debate is usually kept on the back burner until the issue comes to the forefront of politics once again. I personally do not believe in abortion. I will accept it in the case of a mother’s life being in danger so long as all other options have been exhausted. I will also regrettably accept it in the case of rape, but I would prefer the rapist getting aborted first (I know four victims of rape so please understand where I am coming from). Incest I'm iffy about even though the whole child born of two relatives is more than likely to end up with some sort of genetic defect. It is still a life in my eyes. Well as I said, the libertarians are as divided on this issue as anyone else. Everyone has an opinion; I just hope everyone is willing to listen to each others.

Conclusion: These are the two prime disagreements in the libertarian club. Those who share the ideology also face a few other disagreements like the right to die, or if the department for environmental protection should even exist. However, those others usually pale in comparison to debates on entitlements and abortion. All I can do now is thank you for reading and I hope you get something out of today’s issue. So thank you for keeping an open mind and reading my blog. Thank you for hearing me out.