(1) The centrality of markets to libertarian thinking. Anyone who knows enough economics to even bother identifying as a libertarian should be fairly unlikely to get questions like this wrong—questions that don’t go at all beyond an Econ 101 grasp of supply-and-demand and marginal utility.
(2) The lack of an explicitly libertarian option as a major party in US politics. Because of that, not many people really default to self-identifying as libertarian. Thus, libertarians are self-selected for relatively high levels of political and economic knowledge.
(I’ve done my best to phrase these as neutral statements and not arguments on the merits of any political position—thus as “LW-appropriate answers”!)
Anyone who knows enough economics to even bother identifying as a libertarian
I don’t find that self identification as a libertarian demands any degree of economic fluency, any more than social conservatism demands familiarity with the contents of the Bible.
I think you’re missing a large component of libertarians: People who want to be outsiders or contrarians. If you watch the documentary The Most Hated Family in America about the Westboro clan, you’ll find that one of the converts proudly declares that he foolishly used to believe libertarianism, until he found the teachings of Fred Phelps. He’s now in one of the most outside groups in American culture. I think this is a big draw for some people, and it attracts them to cults, conspiracy theories, and unpopular political/philisophical theories.
I don’t know what percentage of libertarians they make up, but I’m sure they exist. 30% wouldn’t surprise me.
I think these are good ideas. But still, it’s “the third largest and fastest growing political party in the United States” (according to ’Kipedia)! As such, I’d be surprised if libertarians in general could apply econ-101-level reasoning across the board, even in support of “enemy soldiers”.
A couple of ideas:
(1) The centrality of markets to libertarian thinking. Anyone who knows enough economics to even bother identifying as a libertarian should be fairly unlikely to get questions like this wrong—questions that don’t go at all beyond an Econ 101 grasp of supply-and-demand and marginal utility.
(2) The lack of an explicitly libertarian option as a major party in US politics. Because of that, not many people really default to self-identifying as libertarian. Thus, libertarians are self-selected for relatively high levels of political and economic knowledge.
(I’ve done my best to phrase these as neutral statements and not arguments on the merits of any political position—thus as “LW-appropriate answers”!)
I don’t find that self identification as a libertarian demands any degree of economic fluency, any more than social conservatism demands familiarity with the contents of the Bible.
I think you’re missing a large component of libertarians: People who want to be outsiders or contrarians. If you watch the documentary The Most Hated Family in America about the Westboro clan, you’ll find that one of the converts proudly declares that he foolishly used to believe libertarianism, until he found the teachings of Fred Phelps. He’s now in one of the most outside groups in American culture. I think this is a big draw for some people, and it attracts them to cults, conspiracy theories, and unpopular political/philisophical theories.
I don’t know what percentage of libertarians they make up, but I’m sure they exist. 30% wouldn’t surprise me.
I think these are good ideas. But still, it’s “the third largest and fastest growing political party in the United States” (according to ’Kipedia)! As such, I’d be surprised if libertarians in general could apply econ-101-level reasoning across the board, even in support of “enemy soldiers”.