this post was submitted on 19 May 2024
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[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Libertarians usually define liberty narrowly as "freedom from government".
Freedom does not mean the ability to do as you please, but rather the ability to not be told what not to do, or to be made to do something you do not wish to do.
A libertarian usually does not object to wage slavery, and would disagree with the concept of wage slavery entirely, on the grounds that you were not forced to work a job you dislike, since you could always choose to starve instead.

What you're looking for is one of the schools of anarchism.
Although usually painted as "anti-government, anti-society", it actually derives from being against hierarchy, and is characterized generally (there are many schools) as being opposed to involuntary power hierarchies.
Sometimes government is the best way to reduce the total amount of coercion in the system, since forcing a lot of people to pay a little can free many, many people from being forced to do stuff they loath to survive.

Libertarians aren't pro-liberty they're anti-government, and anarchists aren't pro-chaos they're anti-coercian. They're both entire political schools of thought, so I've obviously not encapsulated them entirely in two paragraphs.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

This is exactly right.

However, you are on Lemmy where the vast majority of users are from the US which means they have their own weird skew on libertarianism and liberalism, thanks to their media and social media. Somehow it's distinctly Republican, conservative (lol, yes), and pro-capitalism, which obviously isn' correct because of their many, many, many, anti-liberal views.

Only in the US can socialists be mad about a school of thought that values social equality and welfare, because a form of media informed them it's pro-capitalism and the red-cap redneck that cries "Liberty!" with their AR-15 must be liberalism or libertarian.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (12 children)

Because no one should have the rights to someone else's labor. If it's a completely voluntary system, that's a different story

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

So, society as we know it shouldn't even remotely exist. None of it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Because no one should have the rights to someone else's labor. <

They should just lord over the true value whilst paying peanuts to the workers? Cause that's where we're at already.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (6 children)

Because you can only implement universal healthcare through violence/theft. Doctors need a motivation to work, right? So you either

  • Force people to pay tax under threat of violence or find some other way to steal money.
  • Force doctors to work under threat of violence.
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

This is the problem with "ism"s. At whatever point you decide that philosophy X is the answer to everything, you start being wrong about a lot of the world, because whatever it is, there's at least like 30% of situations (and potentially a lot more) that your particular ism actually isn't the answer to.

Libertarianism or anti-imperialism or ACAB or socialism or pro-the-Democrats or anarchist or whatever it is, it's never always the answer. Trying to hold a debate about, well is it philosophy X or philosophy Y that's always right about everything, or any other discussion that feeds into the basic wrong premise, is just compounding the imaginary non-situation-dependent way of looking at it.

Although yes some of them are wrong a lot more of the time than some others.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I'd argue we should give voice to actual libertarians instead of trashing them here.

Like, otherwise you at least don't help people find how actual libertarians respond.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (8 children)

Why the hell do you think that libertarians don't believe in universal healthcare?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Actually, education and health are the 2 things I think the government should take care of in a serious way. That said, I still Believe people should be able to pay for alternative education or health care if they wish, I just think I should never see a bill for either of those two ever. Especially for children. Wtf are we doing if we as a society cannot afford for children to be healthy or educated?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Honestly it's just an ethical stance against forcing one to pay for another, emphasis on force.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (5 children)

We all pay for it when a child with potential gets sick and dies because their parents couldn't afford health care. We all pay in one way or another when health care bankrupts a family. We are all going to pay for it anyways, and if someone in a worse financial position than you needs health care and your taxes can provide that, you're garbage if you feel you're being forced or you're mad cause a poor person got medicine with your taxes.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (157 children)

As an American man I only have a 40% chance of developing cancer in my lifetime, but with universal healthcare there’s 100% chance I will have to pay for it.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Liberty

Universal Healthcare @ gun point.

Can't have both.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

I think before folks downvote this for being a flawed opinion on its face, they should remember what the actual question was, and this statement wasn't lodged in a vacuum.

Now if actual libertarians are downvoting this I'd love to hear their corrections.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Because someone needs to be enslaved to provide universial health care. If even one person wants to opt out, no matter how wrong their reason you if you allow don't allow it they are enslaved. (note that there have been many different systems of slavery, but even the best still remones choice from someone). as such I prefer other options if they exist.

There are other options and so I oppose universial health care. Do not confuse that with approving of the system we have.

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