Brad DeLong posted this article about libertarianism. The Cato Institute is probably the best funded think tank on libertarianism. Much of the funding came from the Koch family when it was founded. Its easy to see why the Koch family would like to promote libertarianism. For them it protects their wealth from the IRS and it protects their fossil fuel businesses from government regulation. Its harder to understand the fascination that the tea partier's have with libertarianism. Most of them have more to gain and much to lose from closing government programs. Of course some of them do not know that their Medicare comes from government. Moreover, they are very susceptible to conspiracy theories that involve government complicity. Ron Paul has been the leader that attracts most of that crowd.
In any case, this article goes to the root of libertarianism. It is utopian much like communism. The end state of communism is the withering away of the state. In libertarianism the object is to accelerate the withering away of the state prior to the preparations needed for the functioning of a stateless society. This primarily benefits those who have no interest in protecting the commons. For them it is utopia achieved.
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