krugman on libertarianism
Brilliant Nobel prize winner and NY Times columnist Paul Krugman writes about how libertarianism simply doesn’t work (a multi-part series, it seems).
I often refer to myself as a libertarian, though I’m not extreme on that point. My standpoint is that the spirit of libertarianism—limited government and “freedom by default”—is something worth preserving. On that point, I think Krugman misses the point big time.
He’s not alone though. I think even many libertarians miss that point as well (or perhaps I grossly misunderstand my own convictions). They seem to believe that libertarianism is about federalism; i.e., that to be libertarian, we need only believe in limited central government, meaning that individual states govern themselves w/ limited federal over-sight.
That seems odd to me. Not that there’s not wisdom in some level of self-governance going to individual states. But it seems odd that libertarianism is all about states’ rights. After all, it doesn’t take a federal government to strip us of our personal freedoms. A state can do that as well. So why define libertarianism such that individual states can rule over us rather than the central government?
Anyway, back to Krugman. He’s a smart guy. So smart, in fact, that everyone else is stupid (he won a Nobel after all… that’s gotta count for something). So, I can only assume that my view is wrong and that his view is right. Then again, many a smart individual has been wrong in the past, esp when their own past success blinds them to the wisdom and viewpoints of others. That’s true of Tea Partiers and Nobel laureates alike.