Can anyone name a few countries where libertarian economic systems are currently functioning? The only one I know of is Somalia.
That's probably the biggest knock on Libertarianism -- no country except Somalia has adopted it. A few years ago, I heard about some rich folks who were buying an island or something with the aim of setting up a Libertarian country. I don't know what happened.
Somalia is more of an anarchist state with no government and broken up into regions of different types of law based on local customs or religion. With no real organized government to use force to protect life, liberty, and property people and groups are free to use aggression on one another to enact changes. This goes against the very idea of liberty that Libertarians fight for.
I can think of many countries where socialist economic systems prevail, and many of them are on the verge of collapse, including the US. Not that I consider myself a proponent of capitalism, or any other hierarchical monied system for that matter. I just get sick of people defending socialism with flawed examples of other extremes which are part of the same hydra head.
The Federal Government of Somalia (Somali: Dowladda Federaalka Soomaaliya, Arabic: حكومة الصومال الاتحادية) is the internationally recognised government of the Federal Republic of Somalia. The Federal Government of Somalia is internationally recognized as Somalia's official central government. It occupies the country's seat in the United Nations, the African Union, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The Somali federal government has a Permanent Representative and Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations. It also has embassies in various countries. Have you guys just been watching 'Blood Diamond' a few too many times
I have to do more research but I can't see that the U.S. was ever intended to be a Libertarian nation, nor has it ever been after the writing of the Constitution. The disaster of the Articles of Confederation proved to the founders that a strong central government was needed. Laissez Faire government was not working so the Constitution was written to encourage science and commerce thus producing a strong Union. That is Liberalism, not Libertarianism. Taxation was introduced, the Patent Office, the Office of Standard Weights and Measures, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, various Army expeditions to the west, construction of the early railroads and canals, the First and Second Bank of the United States, and tariffs; all before the Civil War. All governmental interventions and regulatory systems.
