libertarianism
30 Oct 2021 - 29 Aug 2026
- I used to spend a good deal of time arguing with libertarians on the internet. For instance, I spent a whole summer in a flaming discussion with Eric Raymond, the canonical internet libertarian blowhard, on the long-defunct anarchy-list email group. I suppose I got something out of this. At minimum, it gave me some practice investigating my own beliefs and the reasoning and emotions behind them. There's also plenty of that sort of thing at my old blog.
- At one point I got so tired of focusing on that that I started.a new microblog with a politically-incorrect name to contain my mockery. I am not proud of this. I'm not the only one with this hobby; Mike Huben has been arguing with libertarians for at least as long as me and with a lot more thoroughness and has a large website devoted to it.
- And now there's an excelling writer Mike Brock on this beat. What's with all the antilibertarian Mikes?
- In the Trump era, all of this stuff looks positively quaint. There is no longer any question that libertarianism is usually a thin veneer over the standard Republicans, which is in turn a thin veneer over outright fascism. ESR has gone full fash to nobody's surprise. Libertarianism is just fascism for nerds, and always has been.
- Rationalism tends toward libertarianism, although it's not universal. And I really do think that their libertarianism is motivated more by a fondness for elegant distributed mechanisms than by a desire to slaughter leftists. Whatever the motivation, the ideas are deeply intertwined, and probably my objections to them are intertwined as well.
- I explore these connections a bit more in Three Forms of Antipolitics.
Incoming
- One of the standard dumb arguments for libertarianism and untrammeled capitalism is that we owe them for our technological marvels like the iPhone and internet. This is nonsense to anybody who knows anything, but if you don't, watch this:
Ancient
A random question
- Inspired by Jubilee research – what is the libertarian position on bankruptcy law, particularly debt relief?
- Ask Claude
- There are actually several distinct libertarian positions on bankruptcy and debt relief, ranging from outright opposition to qualified support. Here's a breakdown:
1. The Hard (Anti-Interventionist) Position: Bankruptcy Law is Illegitimate
- The strictest libertarian view, articulated in the Journal of Libertarian Studies, is that
- bankruptcy law is "a system of interventionary legislation which interferes with the ability of individuals freely to establish the terms of loan contracts." It benefits less prudent and less scrupulous borrowers — and may encourage their conduct — while making loans costlier for the honest and conscientious.
- From this perspective,
- bankruptcy is defined as a system by which an insolvent debtor surrenders property to a court, which distributes proceeds proportionately among creditors and usually declares the debts discharged — in other words, "a system which provides for the coercive elimination of contractual obligations."
- Some libertarians draw on this principle to argue that
- it is wrong to force someone to cancel any debts owed to them, which is why bankruptcy laws are not compatible with libertarianism.
2. The Economic Critique: Bankruptcy Harms the People It Claims to Help
- A second, more consequentialist libertarian critique accepts the existence of bankruptcy law but argues it backfires. William Meckling of Libertarianism.org argues that
- bankruptcy is a legal device by which the state intervenes to absolve insolvent debtors from their full financial obligations. By releasing debtors from their contractual obligations, bankruptcy gives the illusion of benefiting debtors at the expense of creditors — but at best this benefit is only short-run. In practice, creditors take the risk of bankruptcy into account as a cost of extending credit, and borrowers will ultimately bear these costs in the form of higher interest rates or less available credit.
- The conclusion:
- bankruptcy statutes are only nominally "pro-debtor" and actually transfer wealth
- from borrowers who do repay (or are denied loans) to those who get loans but do not repay.
3. The Voluntary Debt Forgiveness Distinction
- Libertarians draw a sharp line between state-compelled discharge and voluntary forgiveness.
- Voluntary debt forgiveness is perfectly compatible with libertarian principles — if a lender says the borrower doesn't have to pay back, there is nothing wrong with this.
- The objection is specifically to the state compelling creditors to accept discharge.
4. The Libertarian Party's Practical Position
- The official Libertarian Party platform takes a more targeted reform stance rather than abolishing bankruptcy law outright.
- The LP platform emphasizes the importance of free-market banking with unrestricted competition, states that markets are not free unless fraud is combated, that those who enjoy profits must not impose risks of losses on others through government guarantees or bailouts, and specifically supports ending federal student loan guarantees and special treatment of student loan debt in bankruptcy proceedings.
- This is echoed by some libertarian candidates who argue that
- student loan debt should be treated like any other debt — subject to discharge in bankruptcy like credit card debt or medical debt
- — rather than having its uniquely protected status.
Summary Table
- | Position | View |
|
|
| | Hard libertarian / Rothbardian | Bankruptcy law is illegitimate state coercion; contracts should be fully enforced | | Economic / consequentialist | Bankruptcy harms debtors long-term by raising credit costs | | Voluntary forgiveness | Fine if creditor agrees; wrong if state-compelled | | LP / pragmatic reform | End special protections (e.g., student loans); level the playing field |
- The connecting thread across all these positions is contract sanctity and opposition to state intervention in private credit arrangements. The disagreement is over whether bankruptcy law can be reformed to be less distorting, or whether it should be abolished entirely in favor of purely voluntary debt resolution.