@jennifermarie618,
jennifermarie618 wrote:Actually, roads are built through gas taxes not income taxes. The citizens of this nation can and should organize and pay private companies to build our roads. All programs payed for through taxation CAN be privatized and that will be your argument from any libertarian. The privatization of these government "services" will produce the same (and I believe better) results than being forced regulations upon. Private charities replacing welfare is a good example. I personally believe income taxes are theft. They assume the government knows how to allocate your own money better than you. On the other hand I believe consumption taxes can be necessary and good for the economic welfare of a nation. For example, the legalization of marijuana will produce huge profits by taxation. There are libertarians who believe all taxes are theft and immoral, to each their own. Government regulates how we drive--for me that would go under the Governments role in protection of its citizens. If the regulations are to protect the lives of my fellow citizens and I then so be it. I don't know if a libertarian has told you differently on the issue of traffic regulations or if that is just your assumption based on our general principles. Lastly, what do you expect us libertarians to do exactly? Yes, we don't appreciate government regulations in every part of our lives but we do have to feed our families right? It isn't like we xan set up some quasi government of our own. We are for the Liberty of the United States of America and aren't out to create a subgroup. Libertarians view this country as our forefathers did.
I didn't say a thing about what taxes pay for highways. You're using a straw man. I see no reason to assume that the "privatization" of services currently provided by the government, especially something as expensive and complex as a highway system would be more efficient, and especially scorn the idea that it would be cost efficient. Private enterprise is out to make a profit. Furthermore, if you eliminate government regulation, a cherished libertarian ideal, the private companies who would be called upon to build and maintain highways would rob us blind, and we would have no recourse to rectify the abuse.
I have never seen any example of private charity meeting even a significant fraction of the needs which ADC type programs provide. This is just more self-deluding propaganda. The stock market in 1929 was overvalued and under-capitalized and unregulated. Private charities were overwhelmed in a matter of weeks. Americans simply don't donate enough money to charities for them to step into the breech. It is a matter of indifference to me how you regard income taxes--you benefit from their collection and the subsequent disbursement of the funds while you sit back and whine about them.
There is absolutely no basis upon which to claim that contemporary libertarians view this country as did our "forefathers." That's just more self-congratulatory propaganda. Quite apart from the inability of those who rant about liberty to distinguish between freedom and license, the founders of this nation attempted to create a framework which would be flexible enough to endure and sustain the nation without being so foolish as to think that their experience of society would still be valid two hundred years later.
