“. Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron.”

Peter Thiel at Cato Unbound.

My Comment

Thiel’s essay is one of several at Cato Unbound  on sea-steading, the Free State project in New Hampshire and cyberspace communities as possible routes of escape from statist interventions. I liked the piece because it captures my own sense that genuine libertarianism is still quite foreign to the masses of people who make up any democracy.

Thiel finds two constituencies particularly difficult –  women and welfare beneficiaries. (Am I misreading something here?).

Really? I’ll wager that the majority of the beneficiaries of  the recent government bail-out of the financial sector are male fund managers. I’d also say that most of the beneficiaries of defense subsidies are companies run by men, not women.

However, I’ll take his broader point that the more people depend on government, the less open they’re going to be to libertarian arguments.

As for women, I’d wager that they’d be very open to libertarianism if  it didn’t come wrapped up in psychologically obtuse language.

More for another blog post.