Libertarian Q & A

From the Liberator online newsletter:

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ASK DR. RUWART

Dr. Mary Ruwart is a leading expert in libertarian communication. In this column she gives readers "short answers to the tough questions" to real questions libertarians are frequently asked. To submit your questions to Dr. Ruwart, see end of column.

Dr. Ruwart's past Liberator Online answers are archived in searchable form at: http://www.TheAdvocates.org/ruwart/categories_list.php

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What is libertarianism?

Question:

"I'm trying to figure out what libertarianism is. Can you give me a simple, cohesive definition, such as: "Libertarianism is a system of self-government qualified by ___________ " please?"

My short answer:

"Libertarianism is the political philosophy in which everyone rules themselves, as long as they don't physically assault others, steal from them, or defraud them. In a libertarian society, those who violate this "non-aggression" principle or "Good Neighbor Policy" restore their victims as much as humanly possible.

"Other political philosophies reject self-government in favor of rule by the majority (democracy) or rule by a minority (monarchy). Such political philosophies use taxation, regulation, and punishment (rather than restitution) to enforce this rule. The person or group in power changes periodically. People take turns being victims and aggressors. Society is thus eternally at war, with no hope or possibility of peace.

(Editor's note: for other short definitions of libertarianism -- and much more on the topic as well -- please visit our Libertarianism.com Web site: http://www.libertarianism.com )

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Question:

"What do libertarians think about universal health care?"

My short answer:

"The way to make health care universal is to make it affordable. The way to make it affordable is to slash the excess regulations that cause prices to soar without protecting the consumer.

"In 1962, for example, regulations were passed that tripled the development time of new drugs. These regulations haven't made drugs any safer. Most side effects seen in drugs for the past 50-75 years are ones that can't be predicted from animal studies or the small number of people exposed to the drug during clinical testing. Thus, these regulations kill about 100 times as many people as they save. In addition, they've driven drug prices up 700%. (For details, see: http://www.ruwart.com/AAPS.pdf )

"I conservatively estimate that we could slash 80-90% off our health care bill without such wasteful regulations. Almost everyone could then afford to pay for their medical care. The few who couldn't would be easily covered by private charity.

"If we keep excessive and expensive regulation in place and make the taxpayer foot the bill, we'll have to ration health care as other nations with universal health care do. In practice, this usually means that the elderly are denied care in favor of children and adults of working age. In Britain, for example, people over 55 years of age are often denied kidney dialysis. Thus, universal health care, as proposed by our politicians, is even less universal than the current bloated system in the U.S."

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