My article giving an overview of libertarianism appeared in the July issues of the Fayetteville FEED. I give two thumbs up to the FEED's editor, James Johnson, who wanted to give space for political and philosophical discussion in his magazine to celebrate the spirit of the 4th of July. You can read my portion of the article below, but I highly recommend that you also read the full version HERE at the Fayetteville FEED website to see the introduction by James, and the opposing viewpoint in favor of Big Goverment, written by photographer Albert Stichka. This piece was limited for space, so for the next few months I plan to post a series of articles that will cover the many aspects of libertarianism that couldn't be expounded upon in the FEED. Look for them, and send me feedback. -Ash

Give us Liberty or Give Us …

By Ash Smith

Medicare and social security are going bankrupt, we are involved in two wars with no end in sight, we are facing the worst economy since the 1930s and we can’t control a major oil leak in the gulf because our politicians and major corporations would rather worry about how they look on the evening news than actually work to solve the crisis.

Have I left anything out? Oh yeah, and as a nation we currently owe $54,000,000,000,000 in debt. That’s $175,000 per person.

We’re in bad shape. Yet, republican or democrat, liberal or conservative, the answers given to us by government are always the same: “Give us more power and we can stop that problem,” or “give us more money and we’ll be able to fix or avert that crisis.”

You’d think that we would have wised up by now, instead of electing the same bureaucrats who continually dig us into deeper holes. There is an alternative to this mess and the endless cycle of economic recessions, wars and the loss of your inalienable rights and civil liberties. That alternative is libertarianism.

Libertarianism is more of a philosophy than a political party or political ideology. It’s a way of looking at the world.

Libertarians believe that people are entitled to life and liberty, and that no other person or entity (i.e. the government or a corporation) has a right to take away those things. We know what life is, but what is liberty? To us, liberty is the freedom to live your life in any peaceful way that you choose.
The government, nor your neighbors, should be allowed to tell you how you can live your life if you aren’t harming anyone else. They shouldn’t be able to tell you who you can marry, where you can live, what to do with your own money or property, or whether you can have trees covered in old skateboards outside of your business (cough, cough). Those are personal decisions for the individual.

Libertarians also embrace the idea that you should be able to keep what you create or what you earn, your property. For instance, The FEED sells advertising space in their magazine and online (their property). They hope to make a profit so that they can grow their business, hire more people and provide a service to the community by being a premier hub for artists, musicians and cool stuff about Fayetteville.

Libertarians think that taxes should be kept very low so that businesses like The FEED can have more money to expand and provide those services to the community. We believe that if you take their profits by taxing them ridiculously in the name of creating more government-run programs, that you actually hurt more people than youhelp. Instead of using their profits to hire more employees, The FEED would have to pay taxes to support unemployment benefits for the employees they couldn’t hire because of taxation. Does that make sense?

Yet big-government advocates use that flawed logic continually. They say that if we just give our government more tax dollars or more power, that it could solve all of our problems. They’ve been saying that for years, and look where it’s gotten us. Government is involved in every business in America and every aspect of your life, and yet the problems seem to be getting worse, not better. However we see that industries with very low government involvement, like internet sales, seem to thrive.

That is why libertarians believe that small government is essential to the recovery of both our economic and civil liberties. Besides, do you want the same people who run the post office (which runs continually in the red) or the Department of Motor Vehicles (which makes me want to shoot myself) to make the important decisions about your life for you?

Libertarians are the only group that consistently respects your choices as an individual and that continually opposes war. And they are the only group that has consistently touted small-government. Conservatives and republicans sometimes posture as small-government advocates, but seem to not see a contradiction when they call for bloated military budgets, undeclared wars and bans on personal decisions like gay marriage and recreational drug use.
They’d rather have discipline and security than freedom.

Liberals and democrats don’t want the government to infringe on their civil liberties, but are more than happy to tell people what they can or cannot do with their own property. They are eager to use their “superior” judgment to determine who should get what, and in what fashion. This can be seen in calls for smoking bans in privately-ownedrestaurants and bars, calls for higher taxes, and the constant denigration of the wealthy.

Both liberals and conservatives claim to embrace liberty, but both see fit to exclude certain types of liberty with which they disagree. Libertarians believe that you can’t pick and choose which aspects of liberty that you embrace. You either embrace it as a whole, or not at all.

I encourage FEED readers to do your research, and look at the pros and cons of libertarianism to see if it’s right for you. You can learn more at www.LPNC.org, or feel free to contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .