Libertarianism places too much power in the "responsibility" of the people. We've seen how this turns out over the past 8 years with the deregulation of the housing sector, reduction in taxes, etc and what a mess it's put us in. This recession is mainly around because no one working for older brother was watching, and as much as I can't believe I'm saying this, we need Government to watch over things like this, otherwise we risk having things tumble down even further like in the 20's. Then I hear people complaining about the economic stimulus package and how it's "not a free market move", not to step on anyone's toes but the good old "free market" is what got us into this mess, I'm not saying you can't buy what you want or anything, I'm saying that banks shouldn't loan out money to people who can't afford it, and now even more people are complaining that the mortgage relief is rewarding people who jacked up and instead, everyone should get relief. That's all good and dandy but here's the problem, Government debt=10 trillion dollars, Government deficit=1 trillion dollars. Bush's tax cuts alone cost the country an estimated 2 trillion dollars a year and the war in Iraq costs an estimated 10 billion dollars a month, that alone would have prevented the debt and allowed us to pay for all of this crap. My point is, we'd all like some relief in this package, but the Government simply cannot afford it, that's the problem with Libertarianism. It only works when the economy is good, there is no massive amount of spending going out, and things are nice and stable. The reason they were not stable 8 years ago was also the Governments fault, it's pretty simple, the government pumped it's 500 billion dollars surplus left over from the Clinton admin into housing, that lead to the houses popping up over night like hot cakes nation wide, people buying those houses, banks looking to make a quick buck, and bomb, 8 years later the bubble has popped and the US didn't prepare for it.
Fingers..... are...... tired...... sorry so much of this was off topic.