it’s good of you to try to set those two straight, but, it’s a waste of Time. One can tell, from the nature of their Comments, they have no interest in understanding anything other that what they misunderstand..

CTB, for ex., should punch keywords: Ben Franklin, Philadelphia, Union Fire Company into his fave web searcher to see how off-plumb his crack is..

“Libertarians can decry the growth of government all they want, but you cannot allow fraud and destructive and abusive actions to run rampant. . . So, for the self-described Libertarians on here: how would you remedy the wronged parties without government intervention?”

I don’t think anyone has a problem with laws- Libertarian or not- that help all States to conduct commerce across all the States that are part of the United States.

CTB Says-

“Nobody is a libertarian when its *their* house on fire. ”

well- hopefully that would be remedied by the LOCAL fire dept- nice to have community looking out for you- hopefully you wouldn’t expect a squadron of aircraft full of forest service “smoke jumpers” to come to the rescue- would you?

A few years back it was considered hip & trendy for big-government types to temper their public political/economic persona with claims to some libertarian outlook.

Okie lawyer got it right: “Almost all of the laws that are on the books (and the regulatory agencies along with them) came about as a result to someone being defrauded or abused by some other party.”

And this ain’t the only time that sentiment was raised. The people who wrote the Constitution had also experienced the very same sentiments. We really do not need to reinvent the wheel every time someone wonders what would happen if we made something round!

The existence of federal regulatory agencies are merely extensions of the “police powers” inherent in the power of government. Libertarians can decry the growth of government all they want, but you cannot allow fraud and destructive and abusive actions to run rampant. Almost all of the laws that are on the books (and the regulatory agencies along with them) came about as a result to someone being defrauded or abused by some other party.

So, for the self-described Libertarians on here: how would you remedy the wronged parties without government intervention? Should those parties who have been wronged who cannot afford long, drawn out litigation (assuming there is a legal remedy and, further, the ability to collect upon judgment) just have to swallow their losses (and, consequently, the wrongdoer get to keep the ill-gotten gains)?

“Fiscal libertarians are pretty much just people who don’t give a shit about other people, though.”

think small- libertarians think the federal government should be small- nothing wrong with helping people- but isn’t that the purview of the community, local or state government?- the federal government by taking on so many responsibilities ends up becoming too powerful- the States are ultimately responsible for the people in their States- not the federal government.