Comment by M on Science Doesn't Trust Your Rationality · 2008-05-14T16:39:43.000Z · LW · GW

The core argument for libertarianism is historically motivated distrust of lovely theories of "How much better society would be, if we just made a rule that said XYZ." If that sort of trick actually worked, then more regulations would correlate to higher economic growth as society moved from local to global optima.

Only if economic growth was the only indicator of "how good a society is."

But when some person or interest group gets enough power to start doing everything they think is a good idea, history says that what actually happens is Revolutionary France or Soviet Russia.

I invite you to Somalia or Western Sahara. That's what the real world says about libertarianism.