Alien Bookreader’s Reviews > Libertarianism For Beginners > Status Update

This is the most common sense political viewpoint I've encountered thus far in my life.. and it's nothing like what I expected based off how non-libertarians describe Libertarianism.

But, there's theory and practice are not the same.

“Rather than a world in which there is a fixed quantity of already-distributed goods—and a fixed, unchanging amount of happiness—the possibility of mutually beneficial exchange posits a world in which constant trading between billions of ever-changing pairs of individuals or parties can make everyone better off than they were the moment before the trade.”

"It is not because of government that most people clean their apartments rather than try to set them on fire on a regular basis.”

This book has so many good quotes

“Luckily, of course, there is another way to pay for things. It is the same method we use to pay for most everything in life—voluntarily [...] Keep in mind, however, that all of these services are already being paid for by users, just in an involuntary, haphazard way in which there is little correlation between how much any given taxpayer pays for a particular service and how much use she gets out of it.”

A guy hols a gun to your head, threatening to kill you and demanding money. You have a gun, you shoot the person. Then you find out his gun didn't have bullets. Do you feel like a monster?

I had this discussion in a hostel this summer, and I was the only one who said no, I am not a monster. The minute someone violates my basic right to my body, threatens to take my life, whatever consequences he reaps are HIS.