Consider these political ideas and then read up on Libertarianism...
Libertarianism is a political philosophy maintaining that every person is the absolute owner of his or her own life and should be free to do whatever he or she wishes with his or her person or property, as long as he or she respects the liberty of others. The central tenet of libertarianism is the principle of self-ownership. To libertarians, an individual human being is sovereign over their body, extending to their life, liberty and property. As such, libertarians define liberty as being completely free in action, whilst not initiating force or fraud against the life, liberty or property of another human being.
In the current political arena, this translates to a position that roughly equates to being economically conservative and socially liberal. That is, libertarians tend to agree with liberals on such social issues as same-sex marriage, the protection of civil liberties, the abolition of any restrictions of personal or consenual behavior, and the freedom to lead alternate lifestyles. Libertarians also tend to agree with traditional conservatives on economic issues: that government size and scope should be reduced, restrictions on trade lifted and taxes repealed. Essentially, libertarians accept the philosophy that government should limited to only a few select functions, pertaining to protecting the life, liberty and property of its citizens. An important distinction is libertarians believe that government has no right to "protect" the individual from their own actions. That is, providing a national health care system would not be considered protecting "life" while providing a court mechanism to collect damages when one person assaults another would be. They also tend to oppose legal prohibitions on recreational drug use, gambling, and prostitution. They believe that citizens should be free to take risks, even to the point of actual harm to themselves.
This does not by any means imply libertarians are selfish, risk-loving, unopinionated or otherwise out of the ordinary people. The important distinction is that while an individual may have strong opinions on an issue, they realize they have no right to force those beliefs on others. For example, while most libertarians may personally agree with the majority who favor the use of seatbelts, libertarians reject mandating their use as paternalistic. Similarly, many believe that the United States Food and Drug Administration (and other similar bodies in other countries like Health Canada in Canada) shouldn't ban unproven medical treatments, that any decisions on treatment be left between patient and doctor, and that government should, at most, be limited to passing non-binding judgments about efficiency or safety.
Libertarians believe such freedoms are a universal birthright, and they accept any material inequalities or wanton behavior, as long as it harms no one else, likely to result from such a policy of governmental non-intervention. They see economic inequality as an outcome of people's freedom to choose their own actions, which may or may not be profitable.
Resources:
YouTube Video: The Philosophy of Liberty | LP.org | Libertarianism.com | Issues2000.org |
CATO Institute | Center for Consumer Freedom
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