Is libertarianism=neoliberalism=anarchism an intelligent political viewpoint?

17 June 2026, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

Libertarianism=neoliberalism=anarchism is the political viewpoint (or “ideology)” that’s based upon the proposition that: Every government is based upon its economy, and therefore only a free-market economy — maximum individual freedom-of-choice — can provide political freedom, because the fundamental freedom is the freedom to trade-and-exchange, and the fundamental right is the right to own and trade private property — this being the right which is basic to the freedom to trade. Therefore, government, which places limits on that right, ITSELF is the cause, the source, of political problems (reduction of personal freedom); and, so, government needs to be minimized, if not entirely eliminated. Government itself is the enemy, according to libertarianism = neoliberalism = anarchism. (And we’ll even discuss here that “=” equals-sign.)

Thus, for example, on 12 February 2019, “The Conversation” bannered “The shutdown: Drowning government in the bathtub”, and the NYU law-professor William E. Nelson opened:

In a Wall Street Journal interview three days after reopening the government, President Trump handicapped the odds of a border wall settlement.

“I personally think it’s less than 50-50,” he said, calling another shutdown “certainly an option.”

Shuttering the government for the third time since Trump took office remains possible, but is less likely now, given Monday’s progress towards a deal in Congressional talks over securing the border. Meanwhile, bipartisan support, including among prominent Republicans like Sens. Chuck Grassley, Lisa Murkowski, Lamar Alexander and Rob Portman, is rising for bills that would prohibit shutdowns.

The president’s observable objective in this political conflict is getting money from Congress to build the border wall.

As legal scholars who have spent much of our careers analyzing the interaction between government and society, including the economy, we believe that intentionally or not, the shutdown also was consistent with a goal long sought by a subset of the Republican Party – not to be confused with traditional, moderate Republicans – that wants to dismantle the government.

Starve the beast

These advocates of limiting government’s size have a traffic cop theory of the state, featuring a minimalist state focused on safety and security.

Many believe that government is at best superfluous and at worst a drag on a free market. It has long been their aim to cut taxes to “starve the beast.”

Grover Norquist, who founded Americans for Tax Reform in 1985 at the urging of President Reagan, declared in 2001: “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”

Trump advocated shrinking the government as early as 2000.

The Statue of Liberty, run by the National Park Service, was kept open for tourists with New York state funds during the shutdown. REUTERS / David Delgado

In his book, “The America We Deserve,” then-businessman Trump observed: “Common sense tell(s) us that the two basic principles of governing should work anywhere they are applied. First: Get government out of skating rinks and any other activities it can’t do well. (A list … of things government doesn’t do well is a very long list.) Second: Get government back in the business of providing for public convenience (transportation, public works) and safety (police and firefighters), and make sure that it does so efficiently.”

So Trump also has a traffic cop theory of the state: The government should protect personal safety and property rights, facilitate transportation and perhaps construct and maintain infrastructure.

Many of Trump’s actions can be seen through this lens: In his first week in office, Trump imposed a hiring freeze on much of the executive branch, exempting the military, national security and public safety. Although the hiring freeze was lifted several months later, the number of federal employees decreased by 17,000 in the first 18 months that Trump was in office.

Ten days after he assumed office, Trump signed Executive Order 13771 on “Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs,” which required eliminating two significant regulations for every new one.

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If there is a difference between anarchism versus libertarianism=neoliberalism, it is a matter of degree instead of a different kind: an anarchist wants government to be eliminated entirely. An anarchist libertarian-neoliberal’s “bathtub” is so small it doesn’t even exist. So: an anarchist is simply an extremist libertarian=neoliberal. Consequently, Trump is no anarchist; he is no purist in his libertarianism=neoliberalism; he is instead like Grover Norquist and Ronald Reagan were: libertarians=neoliberals.

On 9 April 2019, libertarianism dot org headlined “Everything Wrong with the Reagan Administration” and documented that Reagan had claimed to believe in free-market principles and had said that government must be based upon those principles, but that once in office he failed to go far enough in carrying out that (anarchist) program.

My article on June 15th “How Elon Musk Is the World’s Most Powerful Person” argued that Musk is the most powerful person because he skillfully uses his vast personal wealth so as to support the ceaseless expansionist objectives of the U.S. empire. I saw the limitless greed of billionaires as being the poison of democracy and of peace — the poison that is destroying the world. A respondent communicated to me that the only solution is to eliminate national-level (if not all) governments entirely. (He might tolerate local governments, but not national ones.). Here was that exchange:

THE ANARCHIST

The TRUTH is there is no possible way to ‘Fix’ the Dis-united states cartel.

Thomas Jefferson’s words in the Declaration of Independence should serve to guide us:

“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”

Those in power will not allow significant change. They will as history proves respond violently to any attempt to remove their power or wealth. The CORRECT path forward is also historic.. Americans must Declare Their Independence from the central cartel and it’s fraudulent banking cabal. There are as in 1776 various factions. The common people, the honest businesses vs the Parasitic super rich ruling class with all those who benefit from the corrupt system. The third group, the largest group is a problem as it is those people so indoctrinated and deceived that they worship government or are dependent on the handouts taken from others.

Essentially Tories vs Patriots. These 2 quotes clarify the dilemma.;-Etienne de la Boetie-

“The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude”

“Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces.”,-

“The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots… His public life is an endless series of evasions and false pretences. He is willing to embrace any issue, however idiotic, that will get him votes, and he is willing to sacrifice any principle, however sound, that will lose them for him… He may be, on the one hand, a cross-roads idler striving to get into the State Legislature … or he may be, on the other, the President of the United States.”—H. L. Mencken

For those who worry about ANARCHY I have 2 answers. 1st you presently have at least 4 levels of basically corrupt government. City, county, state, and federal. The federal is unaffected by your wishes. The other 3 you can control.

2nd Anarchy doesn’t wage war, invade countries, loot resources, abduct heads of states, pirate, sanction, Tax, conscript people, or take your stuff to give to others. Only governments do those things. Anarchy simply means NO RULERS, there are rules. Such as the Non Aggression Principle, and self defense. It is government that lies about Anarchy. Whereas Democracy is 2 wolves(Democrats and Republicans) and a sheep (citizenry) discussing what’s for supper.

ERIC ZUESSE

With ONLY local (“City, county, state”) government, there are no national laws, and no international laws; and, so, all of commerce will be only local, and that locality will be, from the perspective of the wider world, not ONLY an “outsider,” but a thoroughly unreliable one, not worth doing business with, and extremely vulnerable to marauders.

THE ANARCHIST

States like California and NY have GDPs as large as many countries. Most US states are as large as European countries and could easily do International trade. Switzerland is only the size of Maryland, completely land locked, imports much of its petroleum yet is in the top 20 wealthy countries.. the agricultural states of the North and south will always have markets for grains. After all theirs is what the US sells. Just cutting out the corrupt middleman. As for Invasions basically only terrorist countries such as Israel are a threat as they are parasites that worm their way into a government then take over the host. Evidence abounds to that Truth. Armed conflict between states would likely be over Western water rights of Phoenix, Las Vegas and other non essential un supportable mistakes. Most US states have commodities and resources to trade with or else the US government never would have become the Fascist Kleptocratic Oligarchical empire of lies it is .

ERIC ZUESSE

California is HIGHLY DEPENDENT UPON the U.S. federal Government. For example, the amount that Los Angeles pays for social services (the homeless, the poor, health-uninsured, etc.) is 107% of (1.07 times) the Los Angeles budget, because that county gets reimbursed almost all of that 107% by the U.S. federal Government.

THE ANARCHIST

As an aside the Apartheid, racist, genocidal ethno State of Zionist Israel was originally supposed to be roughly the size of Connecticut. Before the genocide it was about the size and population of New Jersey. Yet through terrorism, bribery, blackmail, extortion, the acquisition of nuclear weapons and refusal to be be party to any International laws or treaties Israel has managed to play the Victim card for 80 years. Meanwhile infesting and infecting nearly every major government with their poison Zionist terrorist ideology. Yet take away American taxpayer money riped by force and showered on the pariah. without US soldiers forced to protect them, they would be destroyed as any treacherous parasite well should be. Decent people do Not support such corruption.

ERIC ZUESSE

Now you have gone off-point. What is your response to?: California is HIGHLY DEPENDENT UPON the U.S. federal Government. For example, the amount that Los Angeles pays for social services (the homeless, the poor, health-uninsured, etc.) is 107% of (1.07 times) the Los Angeles budget, because that county gets reimbursed almost all of that 107% by the U.S. federal Government.

That fact — what I stated there — displays the utter absurdity of your “anarchist” position.

ERIC ZUESSE

Furthermore: your reply ignored the fact that all commerce depends upon there being reliable and enforced governmental LAWS — and that means the OPPOSITE of what you propose, “anarchy.” In anarchy, there cannot function an economy, at all.

THE ANARCHIST

One of my replies has disappeared. So I will try to recreate it.

I agree California depends greatly on the US government. So much of its income is derived from Military industrial surveillance complex. This same sector has also created 6 massive EPA super sites. Millions of jobs in the ‘Public’ sector. This is part of the problem as well ..money collected countrywide directed to certain states in larger proportion than their real contribution. The size and scope of the Federal governments unaudited largesse is based on wealth transfers from bottom to top.

. “The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.” – H L Mencken

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” H.L. Mencken

Every state in America has resources and commodities with markets the US government just plays middle man. 

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Perhaps at the most basic level, this disagreement comes down to whether a system — a government, an economy, a person, any animal, any plant, any entity that has interdependent parts — is simply its parts; or whether, instead, it is something more than the sum of its parts. I know my answer to that question, but, after decades of my discussions with libertarians = neoliberals = anarchists, I have not yet run into any who seemed to me to have ever even thought about this question, much less been willing to discuss it with me.

The libertarian = neoliberal = anarchist philosophy says that a person’s worth is his/her net worth; that wealth is its own ‘justification’ — that only property (wealth) counts. Consequently, they believe that the money-power — what billionaires have in excess, and paupers and debtors don’t have at all — SHOULD rule over governments. This follows from the basic libertarian, neoliberal, anarchist, belief, that the world should be ruled by property not persons — that every dollar is equal but persons are not; that personal rights reduce to property rights and therefore wealth not persons should rule the world; governments should represent wealth not citizens. Therefore, if a government exists, it should be run like a corporation: one share, one vote, except that the shares are the nation’s currency. Consequently, one-person-one-vote (democracy — the population rule) must be replaced by one-dollar-one-vote (aristocracy — the wealth rule).

There are two masterful 25-minute history-videos posted to youtube recently that describe (with 100% accuracy, as I can verify because I’ve myself read the sources on each of them) how the money-power controlled and shaped the world throughout the Twentieth Century. One of them (“Britain Sold Palestine to Pay Its WWI Debt. The Balfour Declaration Was a Banking Deal!”) focuses on WW1 and its aftermath; and the other (“The Bankers Who Funded Hitler — And Were Never Punished ( WWII )”) focuses on WW2 and its aftermath. Both documentaries succinctly demonstrate the historical fact that wealth, and not at all democracy, has been shaping the world ever since around 1900. Both of them should therefore be shown and discussed in every school. If a libertarian = neoliberal = anarchist is intelligent, then that person would recognize that the values of the money-power (as is documented in each of the two videos) are the values of libertarians, neoliberals, and anarchists. They are not my values, for two reasons: (1) In any system, the whole is more than just the sum of its parts; and, (2) A person’s value is more than just the person’s net worth (the value of that person’s property).

I therefore assert, simply as a matter of empirical and logical fact, that Libertarianism = neoliberalism = anarchism, is a false ideology, though it is the ideology of the Collective West and of the American empire. And I am happy to discuss this assertion with anyone.

People of enormous wealth such as Elon Musk and Bill Gates, tend to believe that they have earned it, that it measures in some real way how good they are, and this belief is consistent with the views of libertarians = neoliberals = anarchists, that wealth measures merit. A corollary of this belief is that they have a right to get tax-breaks for their ‘philanthropies’ because they know better than the government does how to spend money for the benefit of the public. (This belief feeds into their contempt of government — that it’s wasteful, more than they themselves are.) They delude themselves with their own deceits, because they have shaped their culture so as to promote these deceits; and so it is all around them — they live in a world that they themselves have shaped, and it tells them that they are terrific instead of horrible. After all: their net worth is their ‘real’ worth. They have ‘earned’ it. Plenty of their fellow libertarians = neoliberals = anarchists tell them so. Consequently, by means of this deceit (which they finance), against the masses, this is how they turn a one-person-one-vote democracy, where the population rule, into a one-dollar-one-vote rule, an aristocracy, where instead the wealth actually rules (but under the cover of a ‘democracy’). It is done by their making sure that ONLY politicians who adhere to their private promises to their political-campaign megadonors, instead of to their public promises to their voters, will they be able to win the political nomination from any of the billionaires’ political Parties. The voters will then be left to select from amongst ONLY representatives of billionaires — NOT of the public.

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.