Showing posts with label Sweden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sweden. Show all posts

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Libertarians Want What Progressives and Liberals Say They Want

(President Gary Johnson and Vice President Bernie Sanders of Earth JW-42017)



When I look at what people actually say and do, the mainstream left, from Bernie to Obama to Hillary, claim to want to make America more like Sweden and Denmark. Both of those countries are more libertarian than the USA by the numbers. If they want Sweden or Denmark, that's not socialism, that's regulated capitalism with a safety net, and more personal freedom than the USA, with higher taxes and a bigger/more comprehensive safety net.


Most conservatives never say what they want, since it's in Cloud Cuckooland of the past or future, but they seem to want Singapore. Free economy with a police state to "win the war on drugs/terror/etc." Or Russia. Russia's right wing, authoritarian federalism....new conservatives seem to like that.

In practical matters, we have a lot in common with liberals. We both want to move society in the same general direction: more liberty overall.
In ideological matters, we THINK we have more in common with conservatives, but I'd say that was a marriage of convenience largely due to the Cold War, and we created a narrative that worked.

If we set aside utopian dreams and ideological rigidity, imagine what we can do. For now, we want the same basic thing: a society with more economic and personal freedom. We can work together to make that happen, and create more liberty, opportunity, and abundance.



Reference: https://www.cato.org/human-freedom-index

Saturday, May 28, 2011

And Then There's THIS.