Quote from: The Script on June 24, 2011, 06:26:09 PM

Quote from: dannickherpderp on June 24, 2011, 03:54:07 PM

Once upon a time I was a social democrat. I believed in making programs to help the less fortunate because I believed the "system" in place inherently kept them down. This system was a collection of private corporations and greedy individuals who did not care for those below them. I believed that drugs were a harmful evil inflicted on society and should be stopped. I believe a whole lot of things in which I believed there was moral backing for them, but these beliefs were founded entirely on emotional response and I had no real educational backing behind them but I fundamentally felt that it was the duty of the strong to protect the weak and the duty of the wealthy to protect the poor.

I began to get into debates with a friend of mine on facebook who is quite forcefully Anarchist-Capitalist and at the same time Ron Paul began to get a bit of press during the 2008 republican primaries. I read a book called Economics in One lesson. From then I began to see that the government caused more problems than it solved and while I still believe it is the duty of the strong to protect the weak the question is now should they be FORCED to do it against their will?

I now answer emphatically NO.

I now self-identify as a libertarian. I believe a free market in all goods is the best way to ensure prosperity because of my academic study on the matter, not because of some emotional reaction. I read works by Friedman, Von Mises, Hazlitt, Hayek and Ron Paul. I even read the arguments by Keyenes and his ilk and found I disagreed with it. And that leads me where I am today, a lone libertarian in California, where most people only think there are two schools of political thought: Democrat and Republican.

People like you are my heroes. Stay strong, my friend.

Maybe you could kick a few bitcoins my way for being so heroic! I'll put my wallet in my sig when I get home LOL