Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Libertariansim Is Not Conservative

Many libertarians consider themselves conservatives, but they really shouldn't. The reason why I think they do this is because people who do have some conservative beliefs also tend to believe in a laissez-faire style free market. Advocating this, however, is not conservative.

For a belief or position to be conservative, I think it should stand for the conservation of something, or at least for the resurrection of something that has been abandoned. Advocating laissez-faire economics does neither of these things. Because a completely free market capitalist system has never existed in all of human history, advocating such is actually very radical. It is anti-conservative. Sure, some people who advocate this also advocate the resurrection of traditional social values and, therefore, can rightfully call themselves conservatives, (although not entirely consistent conservatives). Libertarians, however, who want to do away with both traditional economic systems and with traditional morals, cannot.