Why I'm a libertarian

It is very easy for me to be a libertarian but was very hard for me to become one. There are a wide range of Liberals and Conservatives. There are people that will refer to themselves as conservative because their Baptists. And therefore they are against Gay Marriage and Abortion. Very few other issues matter. Now they will come out and protest when people try to take "under God" out of our pledge. They will come out when bills to allow more evolution to be taught are being considered. There are also many intelligent conservatives that follow issues and are wise.

There is also a wide range of liberals. Some liberals are liberals because they are anti-Christian and want to be against anything Christian Conservatives are for. They believe in equal rights for all people and make up the fact that these rights exist in our Constitution although no rights are given to us in our Constitution. Some are liberals because they, in a simplistic way support helping the poor. So if someone says "program to help poor people" they go running and support it regardless of the unintended consequences. Then there are some educated liberals that have studied and have come to the conclusion that capitalism helps the rich but does not help the poor. They truly want a just society and they feel that America is not a superior nation and we have flaws and government needs to fix those flaws.

But there are very few if any self-proclaimed libertarians that are not very smart and educated on the ideas. This is because it is hard to become a libertarian. It requires a different way to look at the world and an understanding that there are costs and benefits and the policy that needs to be taken is the best when taking into consideration both costs and benefits. This is far more complex way of thinking but one that never contradicts itself. Thus it is hard to become a libertarian but not hard remaining one. One of these new ways of viewing issues is through "opportunity costs".

A common simple and quite frankly normal human being would not object to spending 20 Billion dollars on Aids research. And I understand this. I would never be against this myself... until I became a libertarian. When I wised up I realized I was wrong. A libertarian knows that there are costs and benefits to any and everything. Let me explain what I mean:

I am against spending 20 Billion dollars on Aids research because that is 20 billion dollars that could be spent in a more valuable area such as CANCER research. Now before mentioning that many would have called me heartless because I just said I was against Aids research. But when you understanding that the opportunity costs of something is whatever you give up in order to pursue something then you understand that 20 billion spent there is 20 billion not spent researching something that affects far more people.

This is why I am against governments running programs. Not because I believe government is evil. But a free market allocates resources (including money) to the most valuable uses. Since there is more money to be made in curing or improving cancer conditions, more and most money will be spent on Cancer research if left to the free market. This guarantees the most people's lives to benefited.

And that principal is why I have become a libertarian.