It would be helpful to arrive at agreement about core libertarian beliefs, because we are really discussing something that is very formless if we don't, and I don't think that is a satisfying debate.
General political philosophies tend to be vague. "Libertarianism" is probably less so then "conservatism" or "liberalism" but it is still vauge. That is why people make up sub groups within the broad general categories, like "social democrat", "socialist" and "centre-left"; like "cultural conservative" "fiscal conservative", and "constitutionalist"; and for libertarians you have groups like "minarchist", "anarcho capitalist", "objectivists", "classical liberal", "left-libertarians". You have libertarians for pragmatic reasons (those that believe that less state intervention is good for the country and the world as a whole), and for natural law reasons (those who believe that it is wrong for the government to initate force against those who harm others, or who otherwise think that extensive government intervention in people's lives is wrong).
I believe that eliminating public education and Social Security are basic tenets of libertarianism
Social Security doesn't fit well with libertarian thought IMO. Public Education is probably something that libertarians have a lot of different opinions about. The most extreme would want no government involvement in education at all. Others might allow for some involvement but would see no reason that it had to be in a government system. They would support government assistance to pay for education at least for the poor but they would give such assistance in other forms that in a government run school. Others probably see no way to avoid a public/socialist school system and even if it doesn't perfectly fit with the idealized notion of their ideology they would not fight against such school systems, and instead might seek to maximize local, or parental, or student, control at the expense of an activist school burocracy.
Tim |
