We used to have a government which was within spitting distance of the libertarian ideal. Business could do what it wanted-- and it did. The result was robber barons, monopolistic gouging, management thugs attacking union organizers, filth in our food, a punishing business cycle, slavery and racial oppression, starvation among the elderly, gunboat diplomacy in support of business interests.Rosenfelder conflates libertarianism, conservatism, Republicanism, and whatever it was Pinochet had going in Chile. He thinks that, somehow, the economy has become a zero-sum game in which the rich gain only at the expense of the poor. He thinks that it's hypocritical to "enjoy" government services and, at the same time, to complain about "high taxes" -- as if those of us who "enjoy" government services have much recourse to alternatives after government has taxed away a big chunk of our discretionary income.
He has no conception of the degree to which "robber barons" have, through their "rapaciousness", helped to lift people out of poverty. He has no idea of the high cost of unionism to the workers it supposedly benefits. He has no idea of heavy burden of "protective" regulations, which kill more people than they protect. Well, you get the idea.
Rosenfelder's rant is just a long, illiterate, redistributionist, revisionist, ignorant whine. And I've saved you the trouble of reading it.
