Libertarianism is Cynical
Amazingly, one of the most common critiques of libertarianism is that it is Utopian, super-optimistic, and naive. Progressives seem to think that libertarians are saying that people are trustworthy and good, so they don’t need government supervision.
I have always considered this to be bizarre. Libertarians don’t think markets are perfect. Rather, they think that while markets fail sometimes, they have the benefit of forcing people to play positive sum games. Libertarians are cynically saying that people cannot be trusted to play negative-sum games, as they will use these to the point of impoverishing everyone.
Governments (and criminals) play negative and zero sum games. Progressives, socialists, and other left-wingers naively believe that human beings can be trusted to play negative sum games (from a position of asymmetrical power, no less), and still produce positive total utility. I see this perspective as naive and unjustifiably optimistic.
