Libertarianism, Patriotism, and Starting Points: How I Apparently Became a Pinko Commie

Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged, my libertarian friends’ second Bible.

I was seventeen when Ayn Rand captured the hearts of my best friend, Sven and his other male friend. “We’re libertarians,” they proclaimed proudly, though I had no idea what that meant. When I asked, they responded that I ought to read Atlas Shrugged, because it would open my eyes to the Way Politics Really Were. They also told me that it was a philosophy based on individual liberty and reduced government interference. I said I supposed I was a libertarian, too, then. But I never read the book.

I didn’t think I was interested in politics at all. After all, watching C-SPAN was not the highlight of my afternoon, the way it was for them. In the no man’s land that is trying to find a job before turning 18, taxes were the furthest thing from my mind. I knew that the government was an evil, parasitic entity that would eventually sell itself to the Pope and commission the army to exterminate True Believers just before the Rapture. But I didn’t seek out that knowledge, or any other knowledge. Somewhere along the way, I’d picked up the idea that politics were a male game that could not possibly be interesting to me, a girl. I also heeded my pastor’s repeated warnings not to get involved in politics, because the secular realm was “Satan’s kingdom” and there was no point trying to change the system.

We were not dominionists. We were premillennialists of the most extreme sort: “The world is going to hell, so let it. We’ll be gone soon enough anyway, and then it will all burn up.”

Despite this, and despite my constant attempts to change the subject, I ended up in lots of conversations with my libertarian friends. And this was how I learned that I wasn’t actually a libertarian or apathetic. The conversations below are paraphrased, because it’s been too long for me to remember them word for word:

Millennial Problems and What to Do About Them: Let’s Talk Economy

A child waves an American flag.

To date, I’ve received loads of (probably rhetorical) questions from readers of my millennial post, asking (in paraphrase) “Watchu gonna do about it?” Since it’s Independence Day in an election year and we’ve all got politics on the brain, I’ve decided to actually answer them. What should we do about the economic plight of young Gen Xers, Millennials and their unemployed parents?

Here’s my short list.

For individuals:

1. Talk about them. (More below the jump.)
2. Vote. (Duh!)
3. Call your senators. (Or, if you prefer, write them letters.)
4. Run for office (when you turn 35).
5. Take to the streets! (Occupy Wall Street.)
6. Quit believing the line that restrictions on massive corporations hamper your “freedom.”

For the government:

1. Let’s expand upon the recent Supreme Court ruling for universal health care to include a public option and single-payer pool. Observe what works and what doesn’t in the UK and Canada, and make necessary adjustments. Regulate the hell out of private insurance companies, because frankly, they’re parasites sucking money out of both sides of the health care system.
2. Forgive student loan debt. (You heard me.) Cap public university administration salaries. Lower state school tuition. Where has all the money gone? Into the pockets of big banks and out of the hands of young graduates who might otherwise start small businesses or support existing ones.
3. End corporate donations to political candidates. Cap campaign budgets for all parties so that elections cease to be a celebrity reality show.
4. Tax the super-rich. If you don’t want to listen to me, listen to Stephen King and Warren Buffett.

For universities:

1. End adjuncting. Start paying teachers real salaries again. Ensure that graduate student workers (not just teachers, but research assistants) have access to basic employment protections. We are supposedly hourly workers. We therefore should have a right to overtime pay, a regular shift, and adequate space to do our work (no, sticking four people in an 8×8 space with two desks is not “adequate,” no matter how you rationalize it).

For large corporate employers:

1. Quit hiring people to work 39 hours so you don’t have to offer them health insurance.
2. Quit brainwashing 18 year olds on their first jobs to think unions are evil.
3. Quit firing people without pension as soon as their hair turns grey.
4. Quit whining about your freedoms whenever someone asks you to treat your employees ethically.
5. Quit outsourcing.
6. Quit lobbying against people trying to protect our environment.
7. Pay your interns. They are doing work for you.

In short, end corporate feudalism.