Libertarians?

Ohe of the leading libertarian thinkers, Ed Crane, is CEO of the think tank Cato Institute which has 105 employees and that, as Crane says, puts the libertarian idea on the table in the US. Thanks to BigThink.com it is possible to find out a little of how he views the world.

Libertarians stand up for the dignity of the individual. Freedom is the goal of mankind. Egality isn't, says Crane. I have objections on the equality question. I believe strongly that civilized man should provide healthcare, schooling, and aid to the poor for all people. "All men are created equal". As I pointed out earlier human goodness is a biological trait. The reward center in the brain responds on good deeds and gives us happiness. I agree with Crane on the pursuit of happiness clause in the Declaration of Independence. It is grand.

I don't understand why freedom and the by me prescribed amount of egality cannot coexist. Freedom ought to be created when the peace of mind comes due to knowing no one suffers unnecessarily. If one considers the amount of unemployed in the welfare states of Europe, the question is where the percentage of unemployed is going to land when globalization is complete. How many will need provisions of a given population? What I have understood from between the lines of President Obamas work so far is that he aims to turn the US into Europe in this respect, the equalities I mentioned. I believe many Europeans like that about him. The important thing to realize is that there is a certain amount of people that is going to need help.

However, the comparison between the US and Europe ends there. I believe that there is too much community in Europe. Crane believes one third of Americans are libertarians. The party, however, has only some 226,000 members. One third of Americans might have that free spirit that David Brooks talked about yesterday from the Western movies, and which is the essence of man, but for modern reasons they crave more and end up conservatives or liberals instead.

The libertarians are noninterventionists internationally also. Crane said they show humility towards other nations. Thus they stand out against both Republicans and Democrats. I am for the Iraq war and I believe that interventions can be motivated but that this motivation has to be understandable. AfPak is not understandable which might make me a libertarian on that one at present but I'm probably not a libertarian at heart on the issue.

I'm for limited government though. For example, I used to think that the state should take care of basic research. I'm not sure anymore. In the US it is both in government and private care. This might be optimal because there are different kinds of scientists. A lot is performed in corporations also. President Jefferson is supposed to have said that science is too important to be subject to political trickery. He might be right.