The Humble Libertarian original

This is intense: Let me tell you a little about the truck driver you just flipped off because he was passing another truck, and you had to cancel the cruise control and slow down until he completed the pass and moved back over. His truck is governed to 68 miles an hour, because the company he leases it from believes it keeps him and the public and the equipment safer. The truck he passed was probably running under 65 mph to conserve fuel. You see, the best these trucks do for fuel economy is about 8 miles per gallon. With fuel at almost $4 per gallon -- well, you do the math. And, yes, that driver pays for his own fuel. He needs to be 1,014 miles from where he loaded in two days. And he can't fudge his federally mandated driver log, because he no longer does it on paper; he is logged electronically. He can drive 11 hours in a 14-hour period; then he must take a 10-hour break. And considering that the shipper where he loaded held him up for five hours because it is underst...

So I'm going to do a new regular feature here at HumbleLibertarian.com: "Signs of the Aynpocalypse." Any time there's a news story that seems like it could have come to us right from the pages of Ayn Rand's novel, Atlas Shrugged , I'll post it as part of this feature. Yeah, I know-- this could keep me very busy. It's probably ultimately unnecessary, because pretty much all news these days feels like it could have come from Atlas Shrugged . I've considered multiple names for this feature: Aynmageddon, The Ayn Rapture, Randpocalypse, Shruggedpocalypse, Atlaspocalypse, but figured I'd stick with Aynpocalypse unless a clever commentator can come up with something better. Randpocalypse is out because there's another Rand these days that dominates news and libertarian news headlines, so I don't want anyone to get confused. Then to be technically somewhat correct, a portmanteau using the word "Armageddon" doesn't make much sense...

Although critics on the left are very astute in describing the evils of present-day society, they usually fail to understand either the root of those problems (government intervention) or their solution (the operation of a freed market). In Progressive commentary on energy, pollution, and so on—otherwise often quite insightful—calls for government intervention are quite common. George Monbiot, for instance, has written that “[t]he only rational response to both the impending end of the Oil Age and the menace of global warming is to redesign our cities, our farming and our lives. But this cannot happen without massive political pressure.” But this is precisely backward. Existing problems of excess energy consumption, pollution, big-box stores, the car culture, and suburban sprawl result from the “massive political pressure” that has already been applied, over the past several decades, to “redesign our cities, our farming, and our lives.” The root of all the problems Monbiot finds so ob...

Over at my post, " When Libertarians Like Big Government ," reader Alexander left the following thoughts and concerns : The reason why most people think libertarians are a bunch or cranks and cooks is exactly this: most libertarians suffer a complete inability to see reality and to find practical ways of doing things... not really (laughs) it is just that a good idea is sometimes an unpopular one. Although it would be nice to live in a world where charities could manage parks and other non-revenue generating activities most people are not behind us. It would require a fundamental change in the way everybody thinks about parks and would be a lengthy transition. The good news is that it is practicable for parks to be privately managed because there is more than one. However, when it comes to the transportation system that is an issue so complicated that it would take a book (thank you Wes, for the recommendation) to fully understand how such a system would work. I have not done...