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I spent a lot of my early years as a blogger arguing against libertarianism. Here are some example posts that I reposted on Substack:
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(Here are a few more on my old blog, in case you’re interested.)
My basic criticisms of libertarianism were:
Libertarians’ ideological opposition to public goods provision and state capacity not only makes us poorer, but it also makes us less free in the long run, because poorer societies are less able to resist foreign conquerors. For example, it’s hard to imagine a libertarian government winning World War 2.
By treating all of society as an interaction between a government and the individuals it governs, libertarians tend to ignore the threats to liberty from non-governmental institutions (“local bullies”), and from foreign governments. This led some libertarians to oppose the Civil Rights Act, and to underestimate the threats from illiberal powers like China. And these omissions led to some unsavory people grafting themselves and their oppressive ideas onto the libertarian movement.
Libertarians underrate the importance of non-market mechanisms, which are sometimes superior to markets when transaction costs are high. If friendship, sex, and the right to breathe air were allocated by markets, society would be worse.
Libertarians’ focus on deontological (principles-based) notions of freedom often contradicts humanity’s moral sentiments. For example, some libertarians argue that people should be able to sell themselves into slavery; the proper response to this is “Eww.”
For what it’s worth, I still think these criticisms are all valid and true. And I definitely don’t think libertarianism is the best political-economic philosophy possible, or the best one that exists in the world today. I have not become a libertarian, nor do I expect to.
But I feel like I owe libertarians an apology, for severely underrating their ideology. I was so focused on its theoretical flaws that I ignored its political importance. I concentrated only on the marginal benefits that might be achieved by building on our economic system’s libertarian foundation, ignoring the inframarginal losses that would happen were that foundation to crumble. I had only a hazy, poor understanding of the historical context in which libertarianism emerged, and of the limitations of libertarianism’s most prominent critics.
The most obvious thing that has prompted me to make this apology is Donald Trump’s disastrous tariff policy. While some progressive politicians like Bernie Sanders, Gretchen Whitmer, and Chris Deluzio have equivocated on tariffs — criticizing the implementation but not the basic idea — it has been the libertarian Rand Paul who has come out as one of the tariffs’ strongest rhetorical opponents in Congress:
Many Republican lawmakers lie low when they have differences with President Trump. Sen. Rand Paul has taken the opposit