McManigal: Liberty offers better options, rights

When discussing libertarian ideas with non-libertarians, I have discovered one common fear: the fear that libertarians would take away the government services to which people have grown accustomed.

Libertarians, in other words, are seen as trying to force people to be free.

Kent McManigal

That’s not my goal at all.

I support removing the roadblocks that prevent better options from being offered and then let you — the former government supporter — kill off that which you once supported after you see there’s a better way.

If you want.

And you will.

How can this be?

Once you get a taste of private property rights as they truly exist, not just as permitted under government, and see how pointless and harmful those imaginary “national borders” really are, you will be excited to replace borders with property rights.

When you experience the educational choices offered once tax-funded “public” schooling is no longer compulsory to attend or fund, you’ll no longer tolerate what passes for public education today.

When you see how easily real crime is discouraged once “victimless crime” laws are abolished and the natural right of self defense is respected everywhere, you’ll view sticking with the current system as falling backward into the Dark Ages.

You will be eager to replace government roads, government’s health care rationing, government safety, prohibition, and all the rest with the free enterprise options that will result from giving people a choice. You may even be the person with a new solution.

In each case, all libertarians want is to replace coercion with choice, and then stand back and let the chips fall where they may. The next move will be up to you.

The only changes needed are ending the criminalization of opting out of the government monopoly, and ending any laws prohibiting private competition with government services. If those services are so necessary, giving people more options to choose from can only make things better.

Not everyone wants to wear athletic shoes or western boots, after all. The only ethical thing to do is stay out of the way and let people make their own decisions.

This is what I am excited to encourage you to do.

I realize even this is too much for some government supporters. I believe it clearly shows they know how poor the current options are, and realize how easily the free market would replace them with something better. It’s sad when people are so attached to a failed system they outlaw competition.

That doesn’t apply to you, does it?

Farwell’s Kent McManigal champions liberty. Contact him at:

[email protected]