According to "the private society" concept, endorsed by libertarians and self-described "conservatives," the pursuit of each individual for personal gain (principally in "free markets") results in optimal social conditions for all. These desirable consequences, the regressive right would have us believe, occur spontaneously without purposeful human design, and are maintained with no need for government regulation, by what Adam Smith calls "an invisible hand." Thus the legitimate role of government is minimal. "Society" is an aggregate of isolated, "utility maximizing" individuals. There is no "public interest" over and above private interests.
In contrast, the progressive view of "the well-ordered society" insists that in numerous significant and easily identifiable instances, the endeavor of each for advantage can be detrimental to the community – good for each, bad for all; and conversely, that constraints upon each individual can result in advantages to the community in general – bad for each, good for all." It is the function of social institutions, both inside and outside of government, to optimize the "the common good" through mutually agreed upon constraints on each individual.
… The free-market absolutism plus libertarian anarchism proclaimed here by the right wing and accepted with scant criticism by the corporate media, is regarded abroad as somewhat insane. Unfortunately for us all, most Americans are immersed in this insanity.
Why, then, is regressivism dominant in our society, despite its obvious shortcomings?
The answer is, by now, familiar: regressivism is a "master morality" -- an ethos devised and promulgated by, and operating to the advantage of, the wealthy and powerful. Regressivism, with its precepts of "trickle down," "the sin of poverty," taxation as "theft," the unqualified superiority of privatism over government, is essentially an elaborate justification of greed and an institutionalization of privilege. As John Kenneth Galbraith once observed, "the modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
http://gadfly.igc.org/progressive/good-each.htm________________________
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I think the moral and ethical critiques of libertarianism are sufficient to kill it...or at least expose it for the sham that it is.
This excerpt is fully supported by the author with multiple examples, arguments and demonstrations...just follow the link.
