The Briefing Room
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: libertasbella on July 13, 2022, 06:57:28 pm
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Can libertarians be of the Left?
Many would laugh at such a question. After all, libertarianism tends to be a fervently pro-free market ideology. But all ideologies have their shades of grey. With libertarianism being no exception to the trend.
The left libertarian tradition is one that champions equality and social justice under the framework of a free-market economy. The leftist libertarian political economy stresses a separation of economy and state while championing mutual ownership of resources in a voluntary manner.
Left Libertarians’ Unique Views
A strong skepticism of the prevailing mixed economy defines what is a left libertarian.
Their beliefs on ownership are particularly nuanced. Natural resources such as land, oil, and trees can be subject to collective ownership. While left libertarians respect private property more than most of the prominent forces on the left, they do not fully eschew collective forms of property ownership.
Voluntary co-operatives, communes, and other worker-driven arrangements can be used to empower workers and allow them to enjoy material benefits without having to face capitalist exploitation.
Going back to natural resources, individuals in a leftist libertarian order can still use the aforementioned commonly-owned goods. But there’s a catch: The use of such resources can only occur after society grants these individuals permission. In order to gain permission, individuals must make a payment to society at large.
The Intellectual Basis for Left Libertarian Economic Thought
Such logic is inspired by the thought of 19th century economist Henry George, who pushed for a land tax. George’s views on property rights were somewhat unique by United States standards, which tended to be more rooted in classical liberalism or free-market conservatism. In contrast, George saw land as a commonly-held resource and could not be held exclusively by an individual.
This conception of land ownership stood in contrast to the views of John Locke, who believed that land could be privately owned and homesteaded by individuals. Lockean views of private property tend to be more prevalent among Republicans, right-wing libertarians, and other classical liberal adjacent movements.
The Overlap and Differences Between Leftist Libertarians and Anti-Property Movements
Left-wing libertarians have a lot in common with collectivist and Marxist views on private property, at least in a conceptual sense. Although the similarities have limits. Advocates of collectivism on the authoritarian left are more likely to use state power to achieve their ends at the expense of individual freedom.
At the end of the day, left libertarians come in all shapes. They don’t generally dismiss the insights of Marxism and incorporate some of the anti-property beliefs of the renowned left anarchist thinker Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.
Proudhon is widely viewed as the father of the political philosophy of anarchism and is famous for his quip “property is theft.”
Like libertarian socialists, the libertarians of the left go beyond concepts of self-ownership and stress the need for voluntary institutions that close inequality gaps. Left-wing libertarians sympathize with economic redistribution of resources, albeit in a voluntary manner to correct disparities in inequality.
American philosopher Gary Chartier is a prominent anarchist who blends certain facets of libertarian thought with an anarchist agenda to create a stateless society. Chartier’s brand of anarchism doesn’t take a statist approach to addressing the question of allocating resources, but his vision for a stateless society remains rather unique.
Continue reading Left Libertarian: A Tradition That Champions Equality and Social Justice (https://blog.libertasbella.com/glossary/left-libertarian/) on Libertas Bella (https://blog.libertasbella.com/)
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Nope. Lost me at Equity and Social Justice. All evil stems fro SJW envy. A new color of Democrat.
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Still sounds like some get to be more equal than others.
I thought Liberatarianism centered around the rights and freedoms of individuals, not individual submission to a greater collective? Still sounds like Stalinism.
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Dershowitz and Maher are almost the only and rare examples of this animal. They're pretty much the unicorns in this genre.
Most of our opponents have taken a hard steer left into socialism, otherwise
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:mauslaff:
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Intellectually unsound.
There is no social justice. Invariably that is defined by equitable outcomes. The only way to control outcome in order to project some sort of fairness, that outcome must be devoid of risk. And without risk, the outcome will invariably be the lowest common denominator, which will always be substandard.
There is no collectivist solution to the advantage of property ownership.
On these two points alone, the idea of leftward leaning libertarianism is an absurdity.
Thanks for posting though...
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"George saw land as a commonly-held resource and could not be held exclusively by an individual."
This is the critical point. Without property rights, there can be no individual freedom because all of our other rights derive from our right to do what we want with our property.
This is an argument that goes back to the founding. While I think the Declaration of independence is one pf the greatest documents of political thought ever written, its one flaw is that Jefferson did not say "life, liberty, property" instead of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
The founders did show some respect for property rights by inserting the 4th amendment into the constitution, which limited the government's ability to confiscate property. The 4th amendment has been watered down a great deal over the years, especially by the ratification of the income tax amendment in the early 20th century.
Today's left libertarians have almost nothing in common with classical liberals. They include the ACLU, an organization that once stood up for constitutionalism and now is nothing more than a legal arm of the most radical factions of the Democrat party.
We might have become quite a different country indeed had we paid more attention to property rights.
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Still sounds like some get to be more equal than others.
I thought Liberatarianism centered around the rights and freedoms of individuals, not individual submission to a greater collective? Still sounds like Stalinism.
Stalinism sounds about right. If someone ever actually did set up this kind of government, we'd get a leader who makes Stalin look like Captain Kangaroo.
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While left libertarians respect private property more than most of the prominent forces on the left, they do not fully eschew collective forms of property ownership.
Voluntary co-operatives, communes, and other worker-driven arrangements can be used to empower workers and allow them to enjoy material benefits without having to face capitalist exploitation.
And there the socialists come crawling out of the woodwork...
From "voluntary" to being "volunteered", and the predictable result is that the collective will rely on the work of a few for any success it can claim.
In reality, add in tyrannical ego, and you end up with another Holodomor.
This is just another Communist camel's nose under the tent, using the moniker of being somehow 'libertarian' as a smokescreen.
let people keep the fruits of their labors, have skin in the game, a vested interest, and they will do well. Altruistic motivation for the collective fades rapidly when your calloused hands shake the soft manicured paws of your alleged comrades.