Gen X Libertarian

Perhaps one of the most common arguments I hear as a Libertarian goes something like this, “I can get on board with almost everything else Libertarians believe in, but their Open Border policy is completely insane and a deal breaker for me.”  Well, the problem with that argument is that it’s simply not true; at least not in the way it is often portrayed.  Libertarians believe in free immigration and unrestricted free labor market, yes.  But that is not the same as leaving the door open for anyone and everyone to just waltz in unannounced, as most people who vilify the Libertarian stance would have you believe. What Libertarians advocate for, according to the LP platform 3.4 concerning Free Trade and Migration: “Economic freedom demands the unrestricted movement of human as well as financial capital across national borders. However, we support control over the entry into our country of foreign nationals who pose a credible threat to security, health or property.”...

Whether you believe Trump is "Making America Great Again" or "Destroying America", I thought it might be prudent to review the bills he has received and signed from the Republican controlled Congress in his first 140 days.  All 37 of them. 1 TALENT Act of 2017 2 A bill to provide for an exception to a limitation against appointment of persons as Secretary of Defense within seven years of relief from active duty as a regular commissioned officer of the Armed Forces. 3 GAO Access and Oversight Act of 2017 4 Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of a rule submitted by the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to "Disclosure of Payments by Resource Extraction Issuers". 5 Disapproving the rule submitted by the Department of the Interior known as the Stream Protection Rule. 6 Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Soc...

Voluntary Road Funding                 It has become a cliché of the Statist vs Libertarian argument to ask “But who would build the roads?”  One side argues that if you didn’t force people to pay for the roads through mandatory taxation, then no roads would exist.  But the other side argues that roads existed prior to mandatory taxation and that businesses and individuals would voluntarily fund the roads because they are useful.  Then the argument devolves into some form of debate over how everything becomes some version of a toll road and that’s just not fair to poor people, how does such a system prevent freeloading non-payers from “stealing” the roads others have funded, and many more similar examples.  As a Libertarian, I concede that the argument for voluntarily funding the roads desperately needs to be fleshed out.  It needs to be presented in a way that makes sense to the g...

    Let me start by saying, I’m not “qualified” to propose foreign policy.  I’m nobody “important.”  I’m just a regular guy.  I happen to align with the Libertarian Party.  I often find myself having an exchange of ideas with both Republicans and Democrats and I am often asked, “Well, what would Libertarians do about Syria?”  It’s a valid question.  The knee-jerk reaction is that we would “get out.”  Libertarians do not believe in Regime Change or needless foreign intervention.  Those are usually rebutted with “We have to destroy ISIS or else they’re going to get us” or “We’re already in it! Now what do we do?”     These are good questions that deserve answers.  These are questions, honestly, that have not been answered by Republicans or Democrats either.  No one, it seems, has proposed any clear path to “victory” or extraction or peace or whatever.  I’ve not heard anything from any side that is an actual plan....

The first generation to do worse than its parents? Please. Been there. Generation X was told that so many times that it can't even read those words without hearing Winona Ryder's voice in its heads. Or maybe it's Ethan Hawke's. Possibly Bridget Fonda's. Generation X is getting older, and can't remember those movies so well anymore. In retrospect, maybe they weren't very good to begin with. But Generation X is tired of your sense of entitlement. Generation X also graduated during a recession. It had even shittier jobs, and actually had to pay for its own music. (At least, when music mattered most to it.) Generation X is used to being fucked over. It lost its meager savings in the dot-com bust. Then came George Bush, and 9/11, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Generation X bore the brunt of all that. And then came the housing crisis. Generation X wasn't surprised. Generation X kind of expected it. Generation X is a journeyman. It didn't inven...