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A Good, Brief Refutation of Libertarianism…

neurontin 600mg Edward Glaeser, via Andrew Sullivan:

http://justmusing.net/2008/09/12/can-we-get-one-please/ Consider the purely hypothetical case of a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The traditional libertarian would argue that regulation is unnecessary because the tort system will hold the driller liable for any damage. But what if the leak is so vast that the driller doesn’t have the resources to pay? The libertarian would respond that the driller should have been forced to post a bond or pay for sufficient insurance to cover any conceivable spill. Perhaps, but then the government needs to regulate the insurance contract and the resources of the insurer.

Libertarianism cannot handle the imbalance of modern life: that man’s powers of destruction now vastly outweigh his capacity to make restitution.

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