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Originally Posted by barrowaj
I know that you are a hardcore libertarian, so let me put my philosophy in other terms. The success of libertarianism is contingent on people acting in their own rational self interest (within the confines of law). However, people don't always act in their rational self interest. Furthermore, things like drugs and ultra high calorie fatty food (which can be likened to a drug in many ways), cause people to act even more irrationally. Therefore I think that there is an imperitive to try to curb irrational behavior. In the spirit of freedom, I think the best way to do this is generally by creating taxes and tax incentives rather than outright banning certain behaviors. Anyway, sorry for the digression, but I thought I had to let you know the reasoning behind my words. Learning a lot about Biology (especially evolution) really has changed my perspective on the world. You begin to see people not as someone with unbounded free will, but as a variable set of behaviors that respond to their environment.
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Free will is axiomatic, if we don't have it, you can't know anything you claim to know. Saying we have no free will is just as nonsensical as claiming we live in a universe were existence equals non-existence. In other words it is arbitrary, in the face of perceptual & conceptual evidence telling us that free will does exist and that existence means existence.
Of course we do not have unbounded free will, we do not have the power to blow up the Earth on a whim. We do not have the power to change natural law. But within these confines, we do have free will. But let's not go off onto a tangent here with free will.
I'm not a libertarian. If everyone always acted in their own self-interest there would be no need for a Government. I support the existence of a Government, therefore I don't believe all people will always act in their best interest.
Let's examine what you just said here...
"In the spirit of freedom, I think the best way to do this is generally by creating taxes and tax incentives rather then outright banning certain behaviors."
In the spirit of freedom we are going to loot people's private property to discourage certain behaviors, instead of outright banning them.
Wow. Just wow.