The Problem with Leaking From Libertarian Principle

The real interventionists will always bring it up in the form of, "Well so and so was in favor of such and intervention."

Andrew Sullivan did this last week using Hayek's comments on healthcare as a defense of Obamacare. Sullivan writes:

[I]nsurance is an inherently collective endeavor. That’s how it works. It’s one area where going it alone makes very little sense. And, of course, the bigger the insurance pool, the lower the premiums. This is not socialism. It’s a simple insurance principle, used by free countries for centuries. It certainly passed muster with Friedrich Hayek, a man you would think would be an influence on the Tea Party’s political program. I’ve cited this before but it’s worth citing again:

Nor is there any reason why the state should not assist the individuals in providing for those common hazards of life against which, because of their uncertainty, few individuals can make adequate provision. Where, as in the case of sickness and accident, neither the desire to avoid such calamities nor the efforts to overcome their consequences are as a rule weakened by the provision of assistance – where, in short, we deal with genuinely insurable risks – the case for the state’s helping to organize a comprehensive system of social insurance is very strong … Wherever communal action can mitigate disasters against which the individual can neither attempt to guard himself nor make the provision for the consequences, such communal action should undoubtedly be taken.

That’s from The Road To Serfdom, one book of the libertarian and conservative Bible.

Aside from Sullivan butchering the concept of insurance by attempting to force it within the framework of government, rather than keeping it within the framework of free markets, which is the only place where it is not a subsidy, Sullivan is using an appeal to authority of an otherwise hated non-interventionist. He is holding his nose Jesse Benton style and calling on Hayek to advance his cause.

Well, the hell with Hayek. The Road to Serfdom is in many ways a great book, but Hayek is just wrong in his view that government is needed to provide for charity in the case of serious illness. It is an evil argument that politicians use all the time, that is, to claim that charity needs to be run through government. It is an insult to civilized societies. It implies that without coercion the needy wouldn't be taken care of. It is terrible trap that Hayek fell into.

Hayek leaked on liberty and we are getting it smashed in our faces now. Lets' hope Rand Paul will never be considered a serious libertarian, because we will be faced with all kinds of "Well, Rand Paul is in favor of..." Whenever Rand steps away from libertarian principle he should be aggressively called on it, so that the Andrew Sullivan's of the world don't dredge up interventionist quotes of Rand as somehow being a libertarian view.