Weed legalized in Cali and age to buy Tobacco is raised to 21. Seems weird to celebrate both.

[DanTex]

57. So you're totally ignoring the arguments I'm making.

And I wish you wouldn't because I'm curious what you have to say about them.

Seriously, with your libertarian philosophy, how do you justify social security, which gives the government control over people's savings and retirement strategy. Please explain: if I have the right to abuse heroin and hospital-grade anesthetics, how on earth do I not have the right to blow all my money on lottery tickets and live my old age in destitute poverty? Do you have anything at all?

Social security is a MUCH bigger infringement on individual freedom that the drug war will ever be. Not even close. We're talking trillions of dollars of government coercion, hundreds of millions of people affected. The fact that you can't take heroin is a tiny footnote in the book on government intrusion into the right of citizens to fuck themselves; social security is the biggest chapter.

It satisfies all the criteria. It is enforced with threat of imprisonment. It affects nobody but the individual -- if I don't save for retirement, I suffer, nobody else does. It's actually worse than the drug war, because the drug war targets dealers and traffickers. But social security targets individuals. If you don't pay into social security, then you will be prosecuted for tax evasion, not the people trying to profit off of your poor financial planning decisions.

What gives? Let's have the philosophical argument.

This is the problem with libertarians. They never own up to the implications of their philosophy. At least I have to give Milton Friedman credit, because he did own up to it. Not only did he want social security abolished, he wanted to get rid of medical licenses and food inspections and FDA approval for prescription drugs and everything else. It's crazy, but at least it's consistent. Hey, it's my body, why should the FDA have to approve drugs before I take them? Why should the government decide who I let perform surgery on me? Why can't I decide the risk of eating contaminated foods?

Own it.