Posts in "Voluntary Action"

Keep the Love in R 3VOL UTION

Jul 2, 2012 at 8:12 PM

We tout "The R3VOLUTION" -- a revolution of love. But let us remember what that means.

When we offer our solutions to the problems of society, we must first state our opposition to the status quo. If we don't do that then we have no credibility.

Libertarianism is not and should never be an endorsement of the system that exists now.

That means that if people are suffering under the current system, we must acknowledge that suffering. Only once we have done that will they listen.

For someone who is starving, or is sick and dying from lack of proper health care it does not matter how they get food or care -- especially if their suffering is not acknowledged first.

If libertarianism is not an answer to suffering then it is meaningless. Fortunately, it is an answer, but we as a movement often forget to stress this point.

Craigslist: How the founder espouses liberty ideals

Feb 2, 2012 at 12:11 PM

By Benjamin Levine

All of the quotes and information used in the post can be found in Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston.

Craigslist was founded in early 1995 by Craig Newmark; it started as a simple e-mail list that grew exponentially over the next few years. Newmark, who worked in the tech industry, would send an e-mail full of what he considered "cool events" happening in the SF area to a list of friends. They would then send that list to their own friends, who would in turn want to be on the original "list," which became "Craig's List."

When the list of e-mails simply became too long, Newmark decided to put his list on the internet. He wanted to call it "SFEvents" or something simple but his friends insisted that he go a different route: craigslist.com. Why not? The name had already stuck. But that's not what Newmark settled on. Instead, he went for craigslist.org. Why? Because ".org" exudes a feeling of community and trust, something Newmark loves.

The story of how his business progressed is really amazing; after working all day, Newmark would work through the night hours on the website and has said that, "If I was billing for my own hours, it would have been a great deal of money." Essentially, he worked his ass off. It was still more of a hobby at that point but one he took great pride in.

Re: Capitalism Without Guilt

Mar 27, 2010 at 6:22 PM

By Matt Cockerill

Mikayla, I think libertarians justifiably have many disagreements with Ayn Rand. (her famous denunciation of us as "ippes of de racht") was particularly short-sighted) However, her principled argument that -- despite the common cry of American humanities professors -- socialism wasn't "too good for people" but rather, people were "too good for socialism" is the sort of argument we have to take to to our fellow young people.

Let's unapologetically reject the notion of universal health care's humanitarianism. After all, can it really be said that Barack Obama's spending of other people's money is"compassionate"? Money acquired, no less, on the threat of violence?

Authentic generosity has nothing to do with the IRS. It involves individuals voluntarily sacrificing some of their wealth to help other individuals. This is the sort of behavior we need to encourage, rather than promoting more government programs. In addition to the immorality of initiatory violence and the economic consequences of massive state interventions, state programs like "health care reform" discourage personal altruism. After all, if somebody's already being paid to help the government fulfill its "duty" to "care" for us from cradle to grave, why should he personally help?