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I've mentioned I was libertarian to my friends, and one of them said, "Oh you are an anarchist." I was distressed by what he said. I have never tried to burn down buildings or bomb a building. So am I an anarchist?
| Yes. | 1 | |
| No. | 26 | |
| I don't know. | 6 |
The main different between the two is the view on government organisations.
Libertarians - a small government of some form.
Anarchists - no government at all.
I personally believe that Anarchism won't work in such a complicated country like the US, for example, if we were to privatise roads, and let's say the corporation decided it was not profitable to fix a particular road because it's residents are not paying enough. How would these residents be able to address such a problem? There must be a third party independent of the two parties to resolve it.
Yes it does actually. Libertarian used to mean communist-aligned anarchist, I know tons of people won't believe me but you can look that up. So in a way the term does mean that.
However in America only, the term has been co-opted by the ultra-right wing to mean minarchist. I have no idea why they didn't just use the term minarchist since it already existed.
However Libertarian capitalism is a contradiction. As large private property needs a large state to protect it and deregulated capitalism leads to large private property. The original Libertarian Communism at least made sense because in a society without private property there is almost no need for a police force as theft becomes impossible in such a society and the motivation for most crimes disappear.
No being libertarian does not make you an anarchist. But it is possible to be a anarchist and libertarian. Its called Anarcho-Capitalism.
You should look up Murray Rothbard he was an economist who was a libertarian anarchist.
Only a simpleton and imbecile would confuse anarchism with libertarianism or equate the two as belonging in any similar category.
Having spoken for 95% of Americans, yes there are complete major differences.
Anarchism is strictly speaking social Darwinism- meaning no government at any level- people fend for themselves.
Free market Anarchism is a poor way of describing a true Free Market Capitalist- anarchism in this sense means the free market is free from corporate and government interference (subsidy & intervention)- unlike USA and Wall St. USA has not been capitalist since 1913. UK 1750-1850's and US period of greatest wealth production and industrialization- 1850-1913 are better example of true free market economics- though much was left to be desired in the regulation and enforcement of contracts/property rights/law due to extremely corrupt government.
Libertarianism is current society with far less government intrusion- meaning smaller government with a non-interventionist foreign policy (no fake US wars for dollars- see Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria etc) and a conservative fiscal policy of minimal government expenditure and a currency pegged to a commodity not based on fractional Federal Reserve. See Con. (R) Ron Paul as leading US libertarian.
They are both kind of dumb in my view in that they skirt essential and inevitable public needs and interests. Might work if by yourself on a deserted island.