
Socialists and Libertarians – The Great Divide - objectReason
https://medium.com/@J.Palms/socialists-and-libertarians-the-divide-7b5e19f0858a#.52ywb9qhb
======
throwaway420
Bringing up some of these questions is valuable, but I don't see this article
as being a particularly notable one. For starters, the major premise seems a
bit inaccurate.

From a libertarianish/ancap perspective, I don't see the point about
"libertarians believe in the fundamental good of individuals" as a
particularly strong one as you can logically arrive at the same conclusion
about wanting small (or no) government based on believing that humans are both
fundamentally good or evil.

If humans were mostly good, you wouldn't need a strong government (or any
government really).

And if people are not mostly good, why the hell would you want to give the
biggest manipulative assholes and liars (politicians, in case you didn't
guess) a big monopoly of power that's ripe for the best liars to try and
capture and abuse?

You can arrive at the same conclusion regardless of where you fall on this
question.

From a socialist's perspective, I believe you can arrive at the same
conclusion about wanting a more interventionist government from both sides of
this question as well. If humans are mostly good, a socialist could argue that
having the power for the majority to help people is good. And if humans aren't
mostly good, then a socialist would argue that having the power is necessary
to help everybody make the right choices for their own good.

------
Kinnard
Neglects to note libertarian socialism:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_socialism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_socialism)

