As the 2016 Presidential election draws even closer, and as we seemingly each day hear of reasons why the candidates of both the Democrats and the Republicans do not deserve our votes, a number of people are looking at third-party alternatives. One of those alternatives is the Libertarian Party. So, what is Libertarianism all about?
It is generally wonderful--in a philosophical-sort of way. But practically-speaking it becomes problematic. The general tenet of libertarianism is to allow people the freedom to do what they want as long as the exercise of that freedom does not harm others. That's a GREAT philosophy, but becomes basically impossible to implement because people have varying opinions of what constitutes "causing harm" to another person. For instance, libertarian philosophy generally says that a woman should have the right to terminate a pregnancy, because she is free to do what she wants with her own body. However, there is true disagreement as to whether the pre-born child is actually a human being, and therefore disagreement as to whether terminating the pregnancy causes harm to another person.
Or take the issue of drugs and alcohol. The prevailing libertarian argument is that it should be legal for most people to use certain drugs (such as marijuana) and alcohol if they choose to do so. But at what point is the use of these things considered to be causing "harm" to other people? Is it when a person using these things spends money on them instead of providing a certain standard of living for their children? Who defines what that standard of living should be? What about when someone becomes addicted to one or more substances, and loses his/her employment because of it--negatively affecting his or her family, and possibly creating a situation where the person either has to be dependent on public welfare or even turns to crime (such as theft) to support his/her habit (or even to get food and/or shelter)?
I could go on, but hopefully I've presented the gist of my point with those two examples.
