Where are Libertarians on: Abortion Illegal Immigration Piracy Capital Punishment Healthcare I've always considered myself to be somewhat Libertarian, but how can you cut off healthcare like that? Kind of disturbs me. Doesn't everyone have the right to healthcare? And don't Libertarians believe in one national lottery? Should I join the party? Run for political office? Privatization of healthcare: Disastrous. It has cut off millions from healthcare, and isn't that a violation of people's rights? Then again ...: Nationalized healthcare: People say that the Canadian nationalized healthcare is stagnant, and that there's very long waiting lists to even get the smallest of procedures done. I might associate myself with Libertarians, but I think both [if true] is not doing it right. There is a problem. How about the plan they have in NJ? "Charity Care." The government reinburses hospitals for the healthcare it provides the uninsured, but yes, it does mean increasing government, and that's against Libertarian beliefs, right? How can we keep great healthcare, and have it be available to all citizenry?
I'll briefly sum up the first two. Abortion: Whether one chooses to be pro-life or pro-choice is up to the individual and no law should interfere in either scenario. Illegal Immigration: Open borders and freedom to immigrate.
There are a few issues where libertarians differ with each other. Abortion is one of those issues. The majority of libertarian activists feel that the government should have no role in determining this matter and that it should be left up to the woman and her physician. If she should decide to go ahead with this procedure, she should not rely upon the government to finance her decision. If Planned Parenthood, NARAL, the NOW or some other group wish to set aside a fund for poor women to obtain an abortion, let them do it! About one in ten Libertarian Party activists is Anti-Abortion. Libertarians for Life's website is:http://www.l4l.org/ I myself believe that the government should stay out of the abortion issue as much as possible, although I have problems with second an third trimester abortions. If we had all the necessary birth control available and the adoption process could be simplified and if abortion alternatives were readily available, most if not virtually all abortions could be prevented! Other issues where libertarians might differ include youth rights, taxes and capital punishment. I myself am pro-youth rights in most instances. Regarding capital punishment, I personally believe that while I strongly defend the right to defend one's personal well being by virtually any means necessary, I have a problem with the government having the power to execute someone. What if you kill the wrong guy? When you talk about piracy are you talking about music piracy on the internet/radio, piracy on the seas or something else? I'll try to answer as best I can on the two issues which I brought up. Regarding music piracy, if you copy something for yourself and don't sell it to others, I think that this is OK. If you copy material and sell counterfeit copies to the public, that is outright plagiarism, deceit and plunder. It should be subject to prosecution as you have deceived the public as well as openly violated copyright laws. Piracy on the seas is robbery. If the crime occurred in territorial waters, it should be addressed by the courts of that jurisdiction. In international waters, I'm not so sure how to address the issue. In any case if a non-military ship feels it must arm itself to defend against such marauders, it should be allowed to do so. Regarding heallthcare, we have to relize that physicains should not have the sole right to provide healthecare! There are others out there (herbalists, healers, acupuncturists, acupressurists,etc.) who can provide remedies for health concerns, many times if not most, better than physicians. What physicians did have back in the old days was a lobbying organization which did their best to lobby the government into passing laws preventing the 'alternative' practitioners from continuing to provide care for their clients. After the American Medical Association was able to put the healers out of business or send them underground, they did their best to deceive the public into believing that only licensed physicians coul provide 'proper' healthcare. One might then ask 'how did physicians and the AMA get so powerful in the first place?' The answer is that is was considered 'beneath' the rich to go to an 'alternative' or naturopathic healer for their health care needs, hence the ability for physicians to stay in business, get rich and fund their 'activities'. Another thing to consider is that there is much red tape (imposed by teh Food and Drug Administration) which cause medicines to be delayed before they can be available to the public.
Health care is a complex issue and the Libertarian solution goes beyond just dropping everyone from government assistance. Before that can really happen government regulations need to be removed as they are part of what inflates the price of health care. Another part of it is the relationship between jobs and health insurance. Most people that have health insurance do so because of their job. When they change jobs they change health insurance, no job no insurance. People don’t shop around for insurance so insurance is not as subject to the laws of the free market. And like insurance people don’t shop around for health care much either. They go where ever their insurance says they can go and they use their insurance to pay for everything it will. So health care is no longer in the free market, where doctors and hospitals try to provide the best care at the best price. Price is no longer that important since people don’t pay much attention to it as they see it as something they don’t pay for, though they do whether directly or indirectly. I think Tennessee actually has a good, new plan that deals with this. You can read about it here: http://fmnn.com/Analysis/136/7041/healthcare.asp?wid=136&nid=7041 The problem with government health care is, from a Libertarian point of view, that governments are very inefficient. Is it hard to see why? Plus, I think most people view government health care as free health care, which it is not at all. Someone has to pay, namely each and every one of us through taxes. Every one of us will see our taxes greatly increase while the government tries to pay for this system. Since we are all paying for it anyway, why not just go to the doctor for every little ache and pain, right? When the government gets involved in things it does not like to sit by and just hand out checks. It likes to get its hands in there and be involved, so you could expect the government to tell you where and when you can go to the doctor and what you can and should have done. All choice in your health care will be gone. If you are really interested in Libertarian views on health care you should do a search as it is more complicated than I can really write about here. Abortion, why should the government have any say in medical decisions between you and your doctor? I am very much against abortion in my life, but I don’t know everyone’s situation nor would I pretend to know what is best for everyone. It should be each person’s choice to decide what is best for their situation. I assume by piracy you mean downloading music and movies? Who owns the music and movies? Did they say it was ok for you to download them? To distribute them? Libertarians are pretty big on property rights but I have not heard anything about their views on this. I would assume if it is considered stealing, don’t do it. Libertarians believe in open immigration. Read more here: http://www.lp.org/issues/immigration.shtml Sorry I don’t feel like typing out a lot of what is already available. Maybe you should explore the Libertarians ideas on crime in general as I don’t think there is a stand on capital punishment: http://www.lp.org/issues/lp-oss.shtml
Abortion: a fetus is not a person, it is the mother's property. Abortion shouldn't be illegal, but it shouldn't be subsidized or enforced in anyway by the state. Illegal Immigration: one aspect of the free market. If things get too crowded or you can't compete to keep "your job" then immigrate. Piracy: Aargh! Plundering my booty and sinkin' my ships be wrong, matey! Capital Punishment: Revenge is just another word for justice, but I don't know if I want to trust my revenge in teh hands of the state. Healthcare: if there wasn't so much government intervention maybe more entrepreneurs would be willing to take the risk into private medicine. The more competition there is the lower the prices and better the services in order to compete. State healthcare has no incentive to lower taxes or provide better services. State ownership and/or planning is the only true monopoly and no competition to make them want to improve.
No where in the constitution or the bill of rights is there a guarantee to health care. Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and those are not guaranteed. Libertarians and Classical Liberals are not that far apart on issues. Less government, more personal freedom, opposition to a welfare state. Social Liberals differ in that they feel the people can only be truly free if the government steps in and guarantees health care, education and freedom from poverty. Paid for with your tax dollars. Libertarians, according to their party website, believe that respect for individual rights is essential, a precondition for a free world, that force and fraud must be banished from human relationships. They would defend any individuals right to engage in any activity that is peaceful and honest, without any interference from government or authoritarian power. Do your own search, they have much more to say and it doesn't sound unreasonable. ~Peace
Most people for national health care will give you some astronomical number of people in the US with out health care. That number includes illegal immigrants, people who can get health care but choose not too and people who have no health insurance but can get health care. Once you've taken all those people out the number is drastically smaller. National health care just won't work. There are people in Canada who cross the border to the US to get a MRI b/c the waiting list is so long there.
We already have national heath care- just let that medical problem reach the point of major organ failure, dial 911, and get treated. Refuse to pay the bill, which could easily top $50,000 so there's no point in even trying to pay it. And ultimately the taxpayers will reimburse the providers. It's a good deal for everyone- well, except the providers of care, the patient, and the paying public. I worked for HMOs most of my adult life (I quit that job to take up a more honest career selling crack and stolen goods to grade school children), and think it's outrageous that we as a nation don't have a working system.
Abortion : well this tosser is not in the business of trying to control what women do with there bodies. Hell I am Gay.
Where are they on war, and the expansion of war I think that's the important question for all candidates. Personal lives belong to the individual.
For more info go to http://www.bobbarr2008.com/issues and click on National Defense. You can also go to http://www.lp.org/issues/current-issues
Wait, I'm confused, what are you views? Or are you just saying so that we know? I've putting in a lot of research myself on Libertarian policies, and I've liked everything I've seen so far. Naturally that's sort of where I started (referring to the links lol) thanks for the info.
