Q: What is a Libertarian?
In the US at least, the word is often misunderstood. Libertariansim was originally synonymous with left anarchism. Most libertarians are socialists, and most are egalitarians.
Right wing Libertarianism is a relatively recent phenomena. For instance, I was born on December 22, 1970, a mere 354 days before the creation of the US Libertarian Party. The party of pro-capitalist libertarianism and I are roughly the same age, and, strangely enough, we both spring from the same city, namely Colorado Springs, CO.
The central questions that distinguish US style Libertarian Capitalism from all other forms of Libertarianism revolves around the high value the capitalist “Libertarian” places on property, and the faith the same places in the system of market capitalism. While “Libertarians” view the right to property at foundational, other libertarians tend to view the question of property and its importance from the opposite perspective. For instance, Proudhon wrote:
” If I were asked to answer the following question: What is slavery? and I should answer in one word, It is murder, my meaning would be understood at once. No extended argument would be required to show that the power to take from a man his thought, his will, his personality, is a power of life and death; and that to enslave a man is to kill him. Why, then, to this other question: What is property! may I not likewise answer, It is robbery, without the certainty of being misunderstood; the second proposition being no other than a transformation of the first?”
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/ProProp.html
To clearly understand what Proudhon is saying one must distinguish between the ownership of personal objects and ownership and control of the means of production. Despite what the advertisers tell us, owning a personal item, this or that trinket, or even a bed, house, microwave, car, doesn’t bestow much power or influence to a person. Only the ownership of the objects, lands, or ideas that are needed to produce and sustain life are at issue here, for the owners of these gain real power.
Libertarians and “Libertarians” have a great deal in common. Both cherish freedom and the rights of the individual, but I agree with Noam Chomsky who wrote that “a consistent libertarian must oppose private ownership of the means of production and the wage slavery which is a component of this system, as incompatible with the principle that labor must be freely undertaken and under the control of the producer.”