re limiting govt was re employment was re why not concentrate steveh thor isc br com steve hendricks writes let me try to drag this discussion back to the original issues as i ve noted before i m not necessarily disputing the benefits of eliminating anti competitive legislation with regard to auto dealers barbers etc one need not however swallow the entire libertarian agenda to accomplish this end just because one grants the benefits of allowing anyone who wishes to cut hair to sell his her services without regulation does not mean that the same unregulated barbers should be free to bleed people as a medical service without government intervention as some many libertarians would argue on a case by case basis the cost benefit ratio of government regulation is obviously worthwhile the libertarian agenda however does not call for this assessment it assumes that the costs of regulation of any kind always outweigh its benefits this approach avoids all sorts of difficult analysis but it strikes many of the rest of us as dogmatic to say the least i have no objection to an analysis of medical care education national defense or local police that suggests a free market can provide a more effective efficient means of accomplishing social objectives than is provided through statist approaches with some notable exceptions however i do not see such nitty gritty worthwhile analysis being carried out by self professed libertarians excellently put even as a libertarian i have to admit government does do some things i like there is a beautiful performing arts complex in ft lauderdale that was partially built with tax dollars i don t know how much was private and how much was stolen i mean public but it is beautiful and i enjoy it keep in mind though most of the people in the city will never attend a single performance there so they might feel differently about having to help pay for it however i have to disagree about it being desireable or efficient to give government intervention power on a case by case basis in fact we have a lot better luck maintaining our freedom of speech precisely because it is not decided on a case by case basis as much as other issues judges decide whether political speech is allowed on the sidewalk in front of the post office they do not try to decide just whether pro nazi pro choice pro life or pro tax political speech should be allowed on the sidewalk in front of the post office you can imagine the result if right to free speech was decided by the majority on a case by case basis not so with economic issues government does tell taxi drivers exactly what they can charge but not the bus lines or the lawyers just as it is not desireable to decide rights of free speech on a case by case basis we should not decide rights to free enterprise on a case by case basis there is hope that a government can be restricted from interferring with free enterprise but there is no hope in my opinion of having a government that interferes with free enterprise in an efficient manner i call it political market failure thus if you value freedom and the abundance it produces you have to swallow the whole libertarian agenda roger collins
