Something has always irked me about the Libertarian view, and that is how incredibly naive it is. Just like Communism, it works perfectly on paper, but it fails to take into account something basic: Corruption. Libertarians believe that the government should have either a minimal or nonexistent role in regulating the economy, and while there are merits to this view, it ignores the simple fact that people with loads and loads of money tend to spend it to secure their place, they spend it to ensure others cannot threaten their power, and usually the best method of doing so is by attacking methods that allow economic mobility. After all? If you're the only one with money, and you see money as power, then you see yourself as the only one in control, you see yourself on top of the world and completely secure. This unfortunate, and all to human habit, of hoarding and sabotaging the efforts of others, is why Libertarianism cannot work in our world today.
The counter argument of course is that big government, governments that get too heavily involved in regulating the economy, tend to squelch entrepreneurial spirit and prevent growth, which can be true if the government is too heavy handed. But the simple fact of the matter is that the purpose of government is to maintain order and allow tomorrow to be very much like today, which was pretty much like yesterday. The purpose of government is to keep horrible things from happening to us, and the economy is far too big and influential a thing to be allowed to run around without some kind of controls on it. One needs to only look at what happened to Wall Street only a few years ago to see that, quite clearly, when the economy starts to plunge, it takes quite a few people with it, even if they had nothing to do with the cause of the plunge. Something so powerful HAS to be controlled, it can't simply be left in the hands of private interests who do not have what is best for the average Joe on the street at heart. The purpose of governments are to maintain things so that disaster does not strike out of no where at those who are not responsible for such disasters, and to help secure the lives and livelihoods of those who are struck by those disasters that cannot be avoided or slip past the government's guard. Now, this means, obviously, that some freedoms have to be given up, but the question becomes: "Are they the IMPORTANT freedoms?"
The most important freedoms we have are those that permit Self Determination. That is to say, the ones that permit us to actually make our way in life, in the way we choose, so long as it doesn't interfere with others choices at the same time. Libertarianism believes it is defending this, but it fails to do so in actuality. To be able to self determine properly there must be choices, and a world without economic regulation almost always will end with monopolies, a lack of choices, only a few options that are not actually options but really just a bunch of people working together to keep prices high and using their funds to ensure that political maneuvering doesn't undermine their goals. There is no real malevolence in this use of money, I highly doubt the rich and powerful of the world wake up every morning and say "I'm going to go stomp on the throats of the poor so they don't get as rich as I do." I just think it's human nature to use all of one's available resources to defend one's place in the world, and as long as those that suffer for those choices are not visible to you, nor being shoved under your nose, you won't think too much about it. What leads to corruption is not some inherent, deep, evil associated with money, but simple survival instinct combined with a lack of perspective. Self Determination is protected for the few, and to them they see nothing wrong with doing such. They fail to recognize that the purpose of government is to protect everyone that is a citizen under that government, no matter how much in taxes they pay, and no matter what their social class. When an economy becomes deregulated, the government stops being able to control it, and then becomes controlled by it, as wealth is constantly accumulated with those who already have money. The purpose of a regulated economy is NOT to redistribute wealth, as so many Libertarians seem to believe, but to keep money MOVING. When money stops moving, economies halt, and the machine of civilization begins to slowly grind to a halt, and then finally fall apart. As the purpose of government is to make sure this great, vast machine never falls apart, it behooves any sensible government to maintain regulations, but not total control of, all aspects of the world that can harm the machine of civilization. Our right to Self Determination stops exactly where it begins to allow the choice to attack the machine that allows us to Self Determine at all.
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