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I have asked the libertarians and anarchist to write an article explaining their systems and why the think it would be a better system for us to live under. Considering that they have not done it yet I thought I'd get the ball rolling and explain why I don't think living in such a system will be a good idea, in fact it will be terrible.
Neoliberalism, the current system we live under,in some degree or another, libertarianism and anarchy all share three things in common. Privatization of the public sphere, deregulation of the corporate sector, and the lowering of income and corporate taxes, paid for with cuts to public spending. It is these three pillars that will make neoliberalism unsustainable and libertarianism and anarchy unworkable and the reason is the same for all three.
The problem that all three face is the same problem that we as a society face, climate change. Yes climate change is real and it is man made. We are responsible and we can fix it, hopefully, but not with those policies.
First and foremost is deregulation. Without regulation the polluters will carry on polluting (I'm taking CO2 and CH4 as pollutants). What is to stop them? Now some will say the markets and self-regulation will be able to do it but they would be wrong.
The markets (voting with your feet and money) have not been able to do anything about it as of now; in fact it has exacerbated the problem. We have known how bad the problem was in '88 and our CO2 emissions have not dropped off since then, in fact they have increased. A steep increase can also be seen once neoliberalism became the flavour of the month. Another problem with the markets is that it is cheaper, and therefore more profitable, to carry on doing what it is doing and that is burning coal.
Self-regulation will also face the profit problem along with the problem that it does not work. The financial problems we are still trying to get out of was a direct result of an unregulated banking industry.
So, regulation is going to be needed to curb and reverse emissions. Governments will need to take back the public sphere (things like hospitals, disaster relief, and public works to name a few) to mitigate the effect of climate change and to do this it will probably have to raise taxes.
Now I know that in a way I'm preaching to the choir but it is worth a try. The reason I'm facing a uphill battle is that climate change, and what we need to do to fix it, goes directly against these ideologies and instead of changing the ideology people will rather deny that climate change is happening; I suppose I'll see in the comment section if I'm right about that.
Neoliberalism, the current system we live under,in some degree or another, libertarianism and anarchy all share three things in common. Privatization of the public sphere, deregulation of the corporate sector, and the lowering of income and corporate taxes, paid for with cuts to public spending. It is these three pillars that will make neoliberalism unsustainable and libertarianism and anarchy unworkable and the reason is the same for all three.
The problem that all three face is the same problem that we as a society face, climate change. Yes climate change is real and it is man made. We are responsible and we can fix it, hopefully, but not with those policies.
First and foremost is deregulation. Without regulation the polluters will carry on polluting (I'm taking CO2 and CH4 as pollutants). What is to stop them? Now some will say the markets and self-regulation will be able to do it but they would be wrong.
The markets (voting with your feet and money) have not been able to do anything about it as of now; in fact it has exacerbated the problem. We have known how bad the problem was in '88 and our CO2 emissions have not dropped off since then, in fact they have increased. A steep increase can also be seen once neoliberalism became the flavour of the month. Another problem with the markets is that it is cheaper, and therefore more profitable, to carry on doing what it is doing and that is burning coal.
Self-regulation will also face the profit problem along with the problem that it does not work. The financial problems we are still trying to get out of was a direct result of an unregulated banking industry.
So, regulation is going to be needed to curb and reverse emissions. Governments will need to take back the public sphere (things like hospitals, disaster relief, and public works to name a few) to mitigate the effect of climate change and to do this it will probably have to raise taxes.
Now I know that in a way I'm preaching to the choir but it is worth a try. The reason I'm facing a uphill battle is that climate change, and what we need to do to fix it, goes directly against these ideologies and instead of changing the ideology people will rather deny that climate change is happening; I suppose I'll see in the comment section if I'm right about that.
