Libertarianism is a political ideology that upholds liberty as its founding and core principle. This principle promotes freedom of choice, freeform of association, freedom of divergent political inclination, and individualism. Libertarians tend to act and solve issues by facing the reality of the situation and come together to solve a common problem with no coercion since they are compassionate about their work.
Libertarianism has no guiding principles and has a weak foundation since it asserts that every person has free will to do as they wish except that there is no room for violence in the society and it’s morally unacceptable to apply force unless an individual first uses force against you. This principle dictates that a moral government should be limited, small, and act within the consent of the society they govern, and the government should not wield forceful powers to serve their own needs.
The first form of libertarianism ever introduced was anarcho-communism, and it had a basic principle that there were no laws, leaders, public or private property, and no violence. This was theoretical since this principle denied scarcity and assumed that resources were lying around waiting for individuals to utilize them with no effort. Moreover, libertarianism had another principle called anarcho-capitalism, whereby there are no leaders, and its ideology was that it forbids individuals from taking possession of other property without agreeable compensation, and it promotes the accumulation of wealth through trade.
Pros
1. Freedom. Free will to do anything as long as you respect people’s rights. People have unrestricted freedom when making choices, and these actions are not influenced by any internal or external factors that limit them. Libertarianism promotes the free will of an individual to make ethical decisions.
2. Less violence. With libertarianism, there is minimum violence and lower crime rates since the government heavily invests in police, military, and the judicial system to fulfill its mandate of protecting citizens from the harm of others. Libertarianism allows the use of force in the event force is used on you first; hence people tend to avoid engaging in such violent scenarios. The lack of violence creates a compassionate and thriving environment for people to invest in economic resources and ethical decision-making processes.
3. Greater variety of goods and services. Libertarians promote the creation of goods and services since libertarians always aim to solve problems within society. Individuals have the freedom to establish a business, produce goods and offer services to society without any limitation from the government.
4. Low taxes. Lower taxation by the government since most financial resources are redirected for police, military, court, and national defense budgets.
5. Moral Responsibility. It promotes moral responsibility among individuals, and decision-making on the right action solely depends on a person’s level of morality. Individuals’ choices run down to what they decide to do by using their free will and volition. The choices made are undetermined and ethical responsibility solely comes from one’s inner moral self-consciousness, and thus each person is responsible for their action or inaction.
6. Determinism. A society governed by libertarianism tends to be more compassionate to each other, and thus, individuals are more likely to make ethical decisions. People are more considerate of others’ social backgrounds, and there is more mental awareness.
7. Belief in God. Libertarianism gives people the freedom to believe in a God-given soul that allows for freedom.
Cons
1. No safety nets. Libertarianism excludes the government from being responsible for its citizens’ wellbeing apart from when another person infringes on your rights. This translates that if a citizen has no job, money, or food, the government will sit and watch you die without any form of intervention. This principle, in the long run, aims at exterminating individuals who are not economically productive.
2. Free Decisions. People can make wrong decisions since they are not influenced by laws, values, emotions, beliefs, and experiences. The lack of internal and external influences does not affect the ability of an individual to make ethical decisions freely.
3. Some People Cannot Handle Liberty. Liberty means being a realist and being able to see problems and solve them ethically. Since everyone has free will to do what they want, some individuals may capitalize on this principle and extort others by practicing unethical behaviors for their selfish gains since they are not answerable to anyone for their actions.
4. Free Will. Free will does not promote moral responsibility for individuals since they make decisions that deem fit for themselves. An individual’s upbringing mostly influences the decisions in society, parents, and guardians to decide what is morally right and wrong. The factors prevent an individual from being truly free since they are indoctrinated to think about ethical or unethical. Every individual of the society will have a divergent view on what morality is depending on their nature of upbringing, and this will lead them to make decisions and perform actions believing that they are expressing their free will in making moral decisions yet the people who taught them to have a skewed perspective of what is morally or ethically right.
5. Personal Responsibility. People’s actions are not to be explained since libertarianism is built on the argument that moral decisions are independent of previous chains of cause and effect. Libertarianism, therefore, does not create room for individuals to be personally responsible since it ascertains we do not choose what we do based on ethical choices predetermined by prior causes.
6. Expensive living standards. Libertarianism advocates for government spending on police, military, and the judiciary, and this means other infrastructures with the government would be privately owned, such as airports, hospitals, schools, roads, and social amenities, meaning citizens will have to pay for almost all services they seek.
7. Scarcity. Libertarianism denies the fact that at some point, there may be a scarcity of goods and services offered while, in rea, ly, resources are scarce. If people don’t get services and products, they may fight for the few resources present, thus promoting violence and making unethical decisions.
