We've been talking about libertarian politics. A nice rule of thumb way of remembering what libertarianism advocates is this: maximum individual freedom and minimum government intervention.
Some libertarians say that the government only has two basic roles to play in our lives. The first role of government is to enforce contractual agreements between people. If we sign a contract and one of us breaks the contract, then the government should step in and determine who is at fault and what compensation needs to be paid and by whom. The second role of government is to provide national defense -- the stress is on defensive capabilities, not offensive war-making capabilities in other countries. Outside of these two basic roles, people should be able to live their lives however they choose to live them and the government should stay out of their business.
What do you think? Should the government have more of a role in our lives? Or is the libertarian notion better -- that the government should only have two basic roles? If the government was limited to enforcing contracts and providing for national defense, how would that change peoples' daily lives? Would those changes be for the better or worse? Do you see any potential problems with giving people this much freedom?
I believe that the government should have that role in our lives. The libertarian notion seems like it should work but as people, we tend to abuse that freedom which we are given, therefore there are higher and stronger restrictions put on us. The government needs to be invilved in our lives in atleast those two ways. If we do break the "contract" the government needs to step in and enforce the law or contract. We need to be reminded constantly whenever we step out of line. The government may need to be involved in more ways for people to learn how to behave correctly. The more the government steps in though, the more the people will try and rebel against the government but if you give the people too much freedom it could lead to harm. If our government now would be limited to only those two basic roles, we would be a complete mess. There would be a lot more violence and there would be no stability. I feel like in the position that we are in now, if we changed it to just those two basic roles, we would be in complete chaos. Once you have more and more strict rules, taking them away would just cause more problems. We have the government in more basic roles because we need the government to keep our stability. Going back on it would just ruin all we have tried to fix. The potential problems giving people this much freedom would be that they would take advantage of it and go behind the governments back and try to get away with a lot of illegal things. There would be more crimes and more violence. I feel like in all, this would change the lives for the worse and not the better.
ReplyDeleteKatlyn Frund
PSCI 100.05
I feel the libertarian government sounds good on paper, but people would grow to dislike the way things run quite quickly if, say, the U.S. went libertarian. People like to talk about how the government is ruining their lives because of this or that policy, while they enjoy the benefits of the government being in their lives. The government is the entity that is responsible for most public institutions and activities. If the government were not involved past contract agreements and defense, things like public schools, road building and maintenance, and many other public institutions and services that we use day to day would be non-existent or in a much poorer state. Like it or hate it, our government plays a very important role in the lives we have grown accustomed to in America.
ReplyDeleteAdam Jordan
PSCI 100.04
I agree with both Katlyn and Adam on this.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of a libertarian government sounds good but in actuality will do more harm than good. Important things, such as public schools, roads, and currency will be in a poor state. Consider also that there may also be even more illegal (now) activities going on as well. We need a government to monitor more than just war and contracts.
-Jessica Ott, PSCI 100:05
I believe that the libertarian notion is better because it allows us to live our lives with out having to jump over government hurdles. The idea of a libertarian government gives the people more responsibility and puts our daily lives into our own control. If we were allowed to settle our own arguments and minor feuds the government would have much more time to deal with more serious and international business. I believe that when people are left to fend for them selves we will find a way to come together. Many of the laws that we see as pointless will gone and life would be more laid back and relaxing.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the best option would have a proportionate amount of both, which would somewhat be like our country today. To answer the question, I think government is too involved with our lives, but without it people would get lost. The libertarian aspect of being able to control your own body is very appealing to me, because it is your own body. You should be allowed to do whatever you fancy with it, even if it is harmful and dumb. If government was only around for the two reasons mentioned, chaos would follow for a certain period of time I believe. People would take advantage of the freedoms they are given, until people arm and defend themselves. This would soon form a system of self governing.
ReplyDeleteAustin Cline Poly Sci 100:04
Nicely put Austin. I agree with having some aspects of both forms of government. It is hard to live a different way when all our lives everything has been regulated or closely monitored. Too much freedom or absence of government would leave them, like you said, lost along with being confused. I agree with some aspects of the totalitarian government but i also like some of the ways the government can regulate certain situations.
DeleteGood insight,
Shelby Pendergraft PSCI 100.04
I believe that in a lot of ways the government oversteps it's boundaries, such as with marriage laws and the school systems. However with that being said the government is over doing it in the military and in instances of foreign affairs. I think if the government did what was outlined in the constitution, such as respecting our basic freedoms and fighting for our rights among other things, we would live in a much happier and possibly safer United States. The government currently controls so much of our lives that they are without a doubt overstepping boundaries between state and foreign affairs; something that most of us do not even take note of.
ReplyDeleteJordan Clark
PSCI 100.05
I think the government has overstepped many of their boundaries, I think the government has become too powerful, and has put its hand in too many issues state and individuals can take care of better.
ReplyDeleteI do not think the government should be eliminated from our lives, however I think its come to a point where it is far to involved. They say their involvement is for safety, but a lot of it, I think is them being nosey and throwing money down the toilet in the process.
I think if the government only played those two roles it COULD work, would it though? ...I'm not sure it would. I think if there was a transition to a government that was not involved in every aspect of everyday life, America would be better, schools would have more freedom to teach, and the economy might even get a bit better.
I really just think the best thing, would be to go back to the constitution and get back to states rights, and what they're meant to be, and take away these institutions that the federal government should have never had in the first place.
Kyla Seaman - PSCI 100.04
I totally agree with Kyla and the fact that our government has overstepped many of their boundaries. Our government over the past few years has only gained more years. Many people have made comments about the government and their over controlling of the people. I believe that the country does need s government however we do not need them to continue to do what they have been in these recent years. I also agree with the fact that the government being too involved has wasted a lot of money. Our country is already I'm trouble when it comes to money and they continuously waste it m non-necessary things. Our country has changed and I do not feel like we will ever get back to what our country was established upon. I feel like our founding fathers would be highly disappointed as to the fact of how our government is now.
Delete- Cassiana Roby PSCI 100.04 -
I think that the government should have a prominent role in making our economy stable and providing services for the population, but have little to no opinion on the personal aspects of everyday life. So, libertarian politics work for me when we're talking about gay marriage, or abortion, or the legalization of marijuana but don't seem reasonable when we're considering transportation, schooling, or even healthcare. With libertarian politics America would lose all public roads, schools, and parks. The government would have no right to tax the population. Monopolies within businesses could exist and the environment could lose all protection. Libertarianism is a nice idea, but I prefer more government intervention than a true libertarian.
ReplyDeleteCassandra Nipe
PSCI 100.05
I think that the government has just enough of a role in our lives because with just the libertarian notion we would have national defense security but not enough security at home. We would not have a police force to protect citizens against other citizens. This change would be for the worse because people may not get a fair trial provided by the government. If the government was giving people this much freedom they would have a lack of order and may not be able to keep its citizens under control.
ReplyDeleteBlake Hoffman
PSCI 100.05
First of all, I think that it is a blurry line that seperates the side of too much much government and not enough. As our governement currently is I think we could do with alittle less government intervention, however I don't think that a libertarian stance is the way to go, that, in my opinion is not enough. One major reason I think that a libertarian system wouldn't work is that people have a tendancy to abuse freedom. Of course this is not everyone, or all the time, but I feel that evyone is capable of doing somthing dumb and if you have a bunch of people doing dumb things (whether intentional or not) the country would fall apart.After that the government would have to step in, this, I believe would cause people to freak out. They freak out now when the government interferes, imagine if the government had minimal interference (like in a libertarian system) then decided to start making decisions on your daily life? In short I think that a libertarian government is just a bad idea.
ReplyDeleteChloe Powers PSCI 100.05
The government has to have a minor impact on our daily lives. We love to have certain rules that we should or must follow. Without them, we wouldn’t have the right mind set and it could lead to anarchy. We often view “rules” as a set of “things” that oppress us. But In reality, they are guidelines that literally guide us in the right direction…most of the time. I know the libertarian notion is little to no government interaction as possible, but face it; we should definitely have a little government in our lives. Also, the government provides security through the police and many other means. Too much freedom would lead to many individuals taking advantage of the government and could lead to chaos.
ReplyDelete-=[Matthew Tark: PSCI 100.04]=-
I think the view as stated, two basic roles of government, is very unrealistic, almost anarchistic. It also opens up to many variables. How will they enforce contract breakers? What is meant by national defense? The problem here is that we often discuss these concepts from a large macro perspective instead of from an individual micro view. Asking a government to regulate contracts is asking government to create prisons and its giving them permission to tax you wages to pay for their services. This is a small snowball rolling down a big hill in a blizzard. Expecting any government to stop growing is a lugubrious notion.
ReplyDeleteLet’s evaluate the statement, ‘government should have more of a role in our life’s’. This is directly proportional to ‘I have less of a role in controlling my life’. As it applies to the blog if the government has to enforce your contracts then you are not very good at making deals nor are you very good at handling your own mistakes. The government may as well control the rest of your life because you have proven that you don’t care to manage it yourself.
Perhaps, instead of defining what we want the government to be able to do we should define what we don’t want it to do.
Joe Woodburn
PSCI 100.05
I really believe that the idea of having a Libertarian Government will be bad for this country, the notion of it may resonate with many people but the reality of it will not be in the interest of the nation as a whole , people will do what ever they want to do and not care. Can you imagine going to the grocery store with your three year old girl and see a man walking naked in the store because it is his body and he can do what ever he want with it , what message will he sending to that child or the impact that it may have on that little girl, what the Government needs right now is to cut down on defense spending and less involvement on foreign affairs and remove some of the military in most foreign countries, Taxed the rich and big corporations more , have the two major party work together and compromise with each other for the benefit of the people, Remember when you give people an inch they take a yard, too much freedom will be disruptive for the nation
ReplyDeleteSomewhere in the middle would fit the American structure. People need a form of government restriction but the amount of regulation we have now is far too much. The US government is far too large, it's people can not regulate it or control it. The government should help its people not drive it into the ground. The people should control what it does and says and pays. The government controls taxes their pay and how our taxes should be allocated, which always seems to favor ones not contributing to taxes. When they spend too much and need more the government threats it's people with cutting funding to the troops, veterans or our old.. Instead of cutting their funding which is wasteful. We do need internal protection, I want the police to call if someone breaks into my house!!
ReplyDeleteI believe libertarian notion is better because it gives people their space and isn't over powering. I feel if someone is doing something in their private space and not doing no harm then the government should should not step in, unless it is something illegal then they have a right. I think the government should have an overall view of everyone just so they arent excluded. However, a line has to be drawn with freedom because many know if you give some people an inch they will go a mile and then it is too late to step in. So they have to decide what is too much because then it could get out of control.
ReplyDeleteShanan Plunkett
PSCI 100.04
I do agree with aspects of the libertarian notion that people should be able to decide what to do, but I do believe that too much freedom could do more harm than good. People need structure and an agenda to keep them on track and to make them feel accountable. With limited government control in aspects such as military, I feel as if I would fear for my safety.
ReplyDeleteKaitlin Drake
PSCI 100:04
Like others have said, there are aspects of a libertarian government that appeal to me, but I can't see it working very well. I don't trust people enough to say that they don't need to a little more government intervention. The whole idea of no insanity plea really rubbed me the wrong way. I've seen people in their manic state, and in that state they do not think rationally. To say that they made the judgement to commit a crime in that state would be unjust.
ReplyDeleteDanielle Fuhrmann
PSCI 100.05
I think that the amount of government intervention we have now is working fairly well for what it's worth. If there was less government involvement, I don't think people would know what to do with themselves seeing as there has always been some sort of power over the nation to lead it. Therefore, I think that if the United States was more libertarian, yes people would feel more free, but they also would feel that they could do whatever they wanted. For example, any form of drug would be legal, meaning anyone could use them. Take the man with the bath salts. He obviously wasn't a stable person to begin with, and then took drugs leading him to eat someone's face off. There are millions of more unstable people in the nation who would very well be permitted to take any drug they wanted, potentially leading them to do something dangerous. That's why I think government needs to be involved much more than they would be in a libertarian system.
ReplyDeleteOlivia Amorati
PSCI 100.04
I think a libertarian government sounds like a great idea and many people will be happy. But as the years go by, people will start complaining about how they want even MORE individual freedom and even LESS government intervention. As much as Americans like to talk about politics and government, not many of those Americans really know what they are talking about. They just like to regurgitate things they have heard. I feel if the government was limited to enforcing contracts and providing for national defense, people would underestimate the roles and responsibilities they have to take because the government won't do it for the people anymore.
ReplyDelete--Keani Chinn 100.05
I believe that the best policy would be a mixture of both of what we have today and the libertarian think. I believe that a little less governmental intervention would be good because there would be less governmental hurdles people would have to jump. I believe that too much government involvement begins to infringe upon some the freedoms that we are granted by living in this country. But also I believe that if we went to a complete libertarian way of living that people would begin to take advantage of having too many freedoms. But I believe that freeing up the government a little bit would give them more resources to focus on national defense and contractual agreements between people.
ReplyDeleteKayla Walker PSCI 100.05
I believe there should be a healthy mixture of the both. I believe it’s necessary for the US to have a military influence in other countries, such as bases. I feel if they weren’t there to just have a presence some third world nations would get out of control. Also if people had too much libertarian freedom, I feel like that could be bad as well. A government that sets up rules and defense but without crossing the line is what is best.
ReplyDeleteMatt Santmier
PSCI 100.05
I agree that a libertarian notion is important to allow people to make their own decisions and have complete control over their body, however, I think too much freedom and an absence of government can do more harm than good. Government is what keeps people secure and in line, so without it people would get out of line and be completely unstructured. I believe it would cause more violence and crime and would be more negative to our country than it would be positive.
ReplyDeleteGeorgia Karr PSCI 100.04
The 'two-role'theory of the libertarian system seems ideal and highly beneficial to citizens. It seems as if very few (in favor of a democratic system)would object to minimal intrusion of the government, in theory. Even current Democrats could not object to theoretical less personal restriction. The two-role theory seems only feasible in a low population nation however.
ReplyDeleteIt arguably would be impossible to maintain a democratic nation, all the while protecting each individuals rights and freedoms and 'happiness', while maintaining a strictly 'judicial' role pertaining to contracts. The advocacy for greater governmental control only arises due to the almost pragmatic conclusion that as a nation of 300 million people, some greater form of regulation is needed in order to maintain growth and equality.
Severin Condon PSCI 100.05
The idea of a libertarian system is good in theory, but could go wrong if actually used in our country. The government should play a role in the two ways stated but if people were given that much freedom they would most likely abuse it. Then people would complain that the government should have more responsibility. People don't like how much the government is involved in everyday life now but take that away and many would be lost. I feel there should be a medium in between what we have now and a libertarian government. The government has too much power and control but should not be completely cut out.
ReplyDeleteShannon Knipple PSCI 100.5
I agree with all of your points. I think that the libertarian system is a good theory as well, but I think that if the libertarian system was used in our country people would definitely take advantage of it. I would like to live in my own little libertarian world and let people basically do and go as they please, but its unrealistic in this country. If we would a system like that people would just go crazy, have not a clue what to do with themselves, and it would most likely end badly.
DeleteNFrancesconi PSCI 100.04
I see many potential problems with meow giving too much freedom to the United States. I think it meow would be extremely chaotic. There would be people causing riots and hurting people. I believe a mild form of meow anarchy would break out. I feel the changes would definitely be for the worse and the power the government has over us now is maybe a meow little too much. But only minor changes should be made, nothing meow drastic. I believe the libertarien notion sounds nice, having that much freedom would be great but giving it to every single person in the United States would just be an invitation to disaster. There needs to be more than just those two roles in the government. They need to have more control over us. It may not sound great meow but in the end more control is only helping us and keeping us safe.
ReplyDeleteAlexandria Tost PSCI 100.05