Sometimes it helps to just step back and look at the big picture— 5,000 years of human history makes it pretty obvious what elements create prosperity versus poverty.So when you see your government actively embracing extreme deficits, money printing, nationalization of industries, debilitating taxes, and other Marxist principles, ask yourself– are these the principles of prosperity or poverty?Again, history is quite instructive.
This source indicates that the word “libertarian†was used first in 1789, but in the philosophical “free will†sense, as opposed to the more “liberalism†political sense used in the 1802 text noted above. It also indicates the first explicit proposal to use the term for modern free market liberals was Dean Russell, writing in the May 1955 issue of Leonard Read’s FEE journal The Freeman.
Read claims to have popularized the term “libertarian†and also disavows it at the same time given its widely varying connotations and association with “anarchists.â€
It is almost like, in order to have an intelligent political conversation with someone, you have to stop and define terms at the start or you just talk past each other.
