A little over 230 years ago, the United States of America declared its independence from Great Britain, forming a union that protected the unalienable rights of the individual. An individual human being is sovereign over his/her body, extending to life, liberty and property. Individuals are free to act, granted that they are not initiating force or fraud against the life, liberty, or property of another human being. The US Federal Government was fairly libertarian in that the Constitution was written to restrain or restrict the actions of Governments will against individuals. The personal and economic liberties for voluntary exchange were protected.
However over time the rights of the individual and of the various States were usurped by the Federal Government. Laws now restrained and restricted the actions of individuals rather than the government. Individual rights of voluntary exchange were stricken towards coerced and mandated forms of exchange. Slowly, goods and services that were traditionally exchange voluntarily by freely associating individuals, garnered greater and greater control by the government: money, retirement, food supply, drugs, healthcare, taxes, education, etc...
Two factions emerged, modern day liberals and conservatives, aka Democrats and Republicans. Each, respectively, only supports half of the liberties we had during the founding and childhood of this country. Liberal rhetoric supports personal liberties. Conservatives rhetoric supports economic liberties. While politicians of both ilk talk the rhetoric of personal and economic liberties, their actions suggest otherwise: bigger government further restricting the liberties of the individual.
During the digression in the up and coming posts, I will further develop the libertarian and free exchange concept. I will also detail the violation of our inherent rights as individuals and provide methods of putting the pieces of liberty, supplanted by the factions of politicians, back together. I will provide support for why libertarianism and free exchange appears as the ideal choice in giving individuals the opportunity to live our lives the freest not only for one as the individual, but also with and for our fellow humans beings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism#Principles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revolution:_A_Manifesto
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/mission/
http://mises.org/etexts/classical.pdf
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