RE: Why I'm not a Libertarian
Some people tend to believe governments are the root of all evil.
I can understand their thinking and know how their logic works. They see horrible wars and injustices done by governments - therefore, governments are evil. Problem is: this is too shortsighted. I think a slow shift towards more liberty and less government is the only way a libertarian society can every be achieved.
Any sudden revolutions won't do any good. People need to want these things for themselves or it will fail.
huge public companies are bound to become evil unless they are controlled ... by some kind of government!
Hm. This is something I disagree with on a theoretical level. The current political system protects big companies via tax reliefs, subsidies, minimum wages, etc. I never understood the logic of people who complained about corrupt governments and their liaison with big companies - and then wanted to make said government more powerful.
The more tools of control you provide, the more likely it will be, that someone is searching for opportunities to manipulate said tools to his own advantages. But if these tools are rendered useless, the incentive to do so decreases.
Hayek coined a phrase for that:
"Capitalists don't like capitalism."
Because as soon as you "made it", you like to have a strong government behind you which can protect you against market competition.
Yes, the more laws and regulations, the harder it is for small companies to get established, and it also seems to me that quite many laws and regulations that (allegedly) are in place to prevent corruption only makes corruption more likely.
Still, at least from my point of view, the government here is doing more good than bad. Toxic rivers have been cleaned up, there is generally less pollution, waste is taken better care of, the public transport system works, schools work (even though they're indoctrinating the kids to become good Microsoft users, and still to some extent being used as a tool by the church), there is a positive trend that data produced by tax payers money are released into the public domain (even though a lot of work remains on that field) . Today I'm off from work with a sick leave, though admittedly there is a problem that the social benefits are abused by people whom are simply too lazy to work.
We need more transparency, a better working democracy, accountable politicians, a functional and independent press, functional and independent juridical bodies, but I don't think we need abolition of the government.