Reason Magazine has offered to host an “Ask a Libertarian” Q&A session with editors Gillespie and Welch. In response to this, I have decided to submit a question to root out any possible statism these editors may be harboring.
On Tuesday, from 11AM ET til 4PM ET, Gillespie and Welch will receive questions via Facebook, Twitter, and email, and, with the help of Reason.tv’s crack team of videographers, will post rapid-fire video responses to your most probing and provocative queries.The lines are open, so think up your toughest question and send it our way.
To ask via email, send to letters@reason.com
To ask via Facebook, go to Reason’s Facebook page
To ask via Twitter, send to @reason
To ask via YouTube, comment to this YouTube video
My question to the editors is as follows:
Dear Reason,
I am the editor of LibertarianNews.org and I have a question for the self-proclaimed libertarians on your panel.
As libertarians, I assume you believe that the market will always produce higher quality goods and services more efficiently than the state. My question is whether or not you personally extend this belief to include the production of law and security. If the answer is no, doesn’t that demonstrate cognitive dissonance on your part? As an FYI, the private security market in the U.S. is presently twice as large as the combined money spent on police services, obviously because the police are doing a poor job of protecting property rights.
Thanks,
Michael Suede
For my readers, I refer you to this post if you want to find out more about the production of private law and security.
If you would like to see this question answered by Reason, please follow their submission directions and paste my question in your submission. I suspect that the Reason editors are not as libertarian as they claim to be, although I would be pleasantly surprised if they answered in the affirmative. I suppose there is always hope.
