Libert(arianism)y

To most of the people I know, I am considered liberal. In Gov, I'm considered a moderate, or sometimes even a republican. But none of these things is true.

Alright, so maybe "moderate" is a bit better description, but it still doesn't encompass the entirety of my viewpoints. It's too vague.

According to the Libertarian Party website, libertarianism asserts that "support maximum liberty in both personal and economic matters. They advocate a much smaller government; one that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence. Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend civil liberties."

Essentially, being a libertarian means you're fiscally conservative and socially liberal. I support both capitalism and equality of marriage. I support both the free market and pro-choice policies.

I consider the libertarian belief to be based solely in logic. Something is considered logical when, according to Princeton University, it is "marked by an orderly, logical, and aesthetically consistent relation of parts", or when it is reasonable, which, to clarify, is to be fair and showing sound judgment.

The opposite of a free market society, which is something libertarians support, is a socialist society. Socialism is "an economic system that has transcended commodity production and wage labor, where economic activity is carried out to maximize use-value as opposed to exchange-value, including in its definition a corresponding change in social and economic relations; such as the organization of economic institutions and resource allocation;often implying advocacy for a method of compensation based on the amount of labor expended."

Basically, socialism is paying everyone the same amount of money regardless of their skill level or qualifications.

Tell me, how is this a reasonable system? Logically, a business would want the best employees, and a successful CEO deserves the money his hard work has earned. Of course, not everyone in a capitalist or free market society deserves their money, but a lot less people are undeserving under this system than there would be in a socialist or communist system.

Moving on. On the social side, I'll pick gay marriage as my issue. Logically, allowing two men or two women to be legally married hurts no one, changes nothing about the social fabric of the country (since there are gay couples living openly everywhere), and destroys no sanctity of the institution. (My sanctity argument can be paraphrased as such: SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE)

Libertarianism fights for what is logical and reasonable in society, and I hope that someday its political party can make it into the bid presidential debates.