Saturday, March 1, 2014

Libertarians and the "Open Borders" argument

One of the reasons that I'm not a libertarian is that they tend to support open borders and free migration.  Sonic Charmer has an example of this in action:
I hear some Russian men have decided to cross the border of Ukraine. That’s nice because, as I’ve been duly instructed that migration is a natural inalienable human right, it would have constituted an initiation of force to have tried to stop them anyway.
LOL.

4 comments:

  1. Ironically this is closely following the plot line of Clancy's last novel, sadly I don't think real life is going to end as much in our favor as the book did... dammit

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  2. Ditto. The LPs stated belief that anyone who wants to walk into our country has every right to do so is one of my biggest objections to their whacky platform. In fact, that's. Where they lost me originally.

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  3. Heres the thing. I nuance the libertarian position a bit.

    I think we need to know who comes in. We dont need to know who leaves, it isnt our business.

    Those that come in need to be not crminals, and capable of supporting themselves, and barred from getting any public assistance. Beyond that, i see no compelling reason to restrict immigration.

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  4. Heh. Yeah, the LP platform (and Ron Paul) seriously falls off the Rational Train once you hit the borders. Domestically, I don't have much of a problem with it, even the parts I don't agreee with. But when it comes to foreign policy, immigration, true free trade (not just "Hey, we'll treat everyone teh same, and they'll love us, and will trade fairly right back, because {Underpants Gnomes}"), or the use of military force against clear and present threats (but not actually launched yet -- yeah, look at the difference between the Six Days War and the Yom Kippur War for why that argument fails!)?

    Nation states are defined by their borders for a reason. And civil rights guaranteed and defended for it's citizens and residents within those borders are not automatically guaranteed and defended for non-citizens outside those borders.

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