As an Ontario resident it'll be interesting to see if this goes into effect and what the long term results are.
Can we get another province to try a libertarian approach and we can compare notes in about 25 to 50 years?
~"If two libertarians ever find themselves in agreement on a particular issue, they know that one of them has sold out."
This isn't a no true Scotsman fallacy, because parties do have official, stated platforms. And to my knowledge, this is not part of the Libertarian party platform.
Being able to find some members of the party who support an idea is not the same as saying that "many members" support it. And frankly, I'd be very skeptical of the notion that this idea has widespread support within the Libertarian party, given the rest of their platform and values.
The case for it is basically that we should choose something terrible over something awful.
Forced wealth redistribution is antithesis of libertarianism.
If it's not, I have been calling myself a libertarian incorrectly.
The latter is perhaps more ideologically pure, but I think the former tends to lead to much more sensible arguments.
I don't even know what to call the first thing you mentioned. "preferring market solutions to economic problems" Capitalism?
The Supreme Court stated this "rhetorical nonsense" even more strongly: "the power to tax is the power to destroy".
> property rights can be derived from non-aggression
> violent coercion is bad (unless it's used to enforce property rights, that doesn't count)
Property rights aren't a consequence of non-aggression, so much as non-aggression is scoped by the extent of property rights.
https://mises.org/library/what-libertarianism
"...what aggression is depends on what our (property) rights are...One cannot identify an act of aggression without implicitly assigning a corresponding property right to the victim."
For example, driving a car can be aggression, depending on whether I have property rights to that car or not.
I'd need to see the context, but this seems even more ridiculous than calling tax theft. Taxation just moves things around, it doesn't destroy anything. (It might cause destruction due to inefficiency, but that's a separate argument.)
>Property rights aren't a consequence of non-aggression, so much as non-aggression is scoped by the extent of property rights.
Well this is more consistent, but I still consider that a fairly ridiculous definition of aggression. Most people would consider aggression to mean actual violence (or threats thereof) and nothing else. Using resources outside the constraints of society's property system (i.e. theft) might be considered immoral, but I wouldn't call that aggression.
Defining aggression to include theft just seems like a rhetorical trick to avoid explaining the immorality of theft itself (if it's called aggression it must be bad right?)
Your actions after that might depend on your circumstances and need for financial security.. but if there exists a guaranteed net of basic income, a lot of people, especially younger people with no kids or dependants might be more inclined to go back to the drawing board and re-invent their professional lives.
Eventually there comes a need to encourage a culture of ambitiousness and desire for individual progress that is based on more than financial reward.
Maybe your soul crushing job isn't worth it for $20k, but it might be for $30k. Or you might be willing to work half as long for $20k.
Also, since the cost of quitting becomes much lower, there's a much stronger incentive for employers to provide a decent workplace. And that might not even mean any extra costs. They could just treat employees with more respect than they needed to when you were desperate.
Basic Income means you end up with a real market for labour, instead of a bunch of desperate people taking whatever they can get.