I got into an interesting discussion on Facebook.

I’ll take the liberty of quoting it here.

Sean M Stedman Maurice Taylor how can Americans unify in this political climate and is Jill just another one of these liberal politicians who have been using marginalized Americans to gain political momentum?? Help me understand because as a supporter of the libertarian party I am against any candidate who will invite more government regulations into our lives. I want to see welfare and educational reform and individual freedom to make choices about my children’s education and what the government spends my tax dollars on. And as far as I can tell no liberal candidate this far has been in support of less government influence in education and promoting open market for new investment. Except maybe Mr. Sanders. I would have voted Democrat this election if he won the nomination. And I tend to lean more towards conservative. ??

Jonathan Campbell Sean, you misunderstand what Libertarianism is about. Government regulations prevent individuals and corporations from hurting people. The minimum wage (a regulation) tells businesses that they must provide a wage that will allow them to survive. The Glass Steagall Act, removed by Bill and Hillary, restricted banks from getting into the investment business, which had led to the Depression and its removal led to the recession of 2008. The EPA regulations attempt to prevent companies from poisoning you.

Steve Greenberg The problem with libertatrianism is that if you get rid of government regulation, then you leave yourself open to the predations of big corporations and the oligarchs. In Ayn Rand’s world, the rich and powerful were nice people. The real world is quiet different from the worlds she created in her novels. It took me until Sophomore year in college to wake up to these facts.

It would be great if we could live in a world without big government regulation, but as long as we have power concentrated in the hands of big multi-national corporations and their oligarchic owners, I have yet to see how these can be controlled without big government. Small government (or corrupt government) is unable to protect us from forces that are much more powerful than we are.

Sean M Stedman It seems these forces are already at work and doing a fine job of plundering resources and wealth. Making a larger margin between those that have and those that don’t. I am familiar with the platform that governor Johnson has laid out for this election and in theory it sounds like the middle of the road between to much conservative political policies and not way out on the left. That is the type of political structure I would love to see. I just don’t think Americans can let go of the duopoly. I would welcome any change from the current status quo. I truly believe we are heading for disaster

Steve Greenberg Sean M Stedman You’ll have to give us a few hints of how you have a middle ground between predator and prey when the current regulatory structure is already tilted in favor of the predators. It is not too much government regulation that is the problem now. We have already ceded too much power to the predators. I can’t see how easing the burden on the predators is going to help the prey (us).

I think the predator and prey metaphor may be the most succinct way of pointing out the flaw in the Libertarian model.  It was very clever of Ayn Rand to convince those of us who are prey to loosen the controls on the predators and think we are doing this for our own benefit.