Wolfy Chai

Libertarian ideology presents itself as the philosophy of freedom. At its core is a simple claim: no one is entitled to anything, and freedom consists in non-interference. Individuals are free so long as no one actively stops them. Markets, property, and voluntary exchange are framed as neutral mechanisms through which freedom expresses itself. But when this framework is followed rigorously—without rhetorical shortcuts or selective exceptions—it collapses into something closer to authoritarian control than liberty.

The first contradiction appears in the claim that “no one is owed anything.” This assertion is treated as moral humility, yet it immediately fails once enforcement enters the picture. If no one is owed anything, then no one is owed obedience, compliance, or respect for property claims. Yet libertarian systems demand precisely those obligations: respect ownership, honor contracts, accept exclusion, and comply with enforcement. Obligation is denied downward—toward survival, care, and dignity—while it is enforced upward—toward property, capital, and infrastructure. This asymmetry reveals that entitlement has not been eliminated; it has been monopolized.

Freedom, under this ideology, is no longer inherent. It must be earned, bought, or maintained through usefulness. Survival becomes conditional on market participation. Speech becomes conditional on access to privately owned platforms. Money becomes conditional on acceptable behavior. Even existence itself becomes provisional, something one must continually justify. This is not freedom.

The ideology insists that exchange is voluntary, but this claim only holds for those who already possess something the market values. Voluntariness disappears the moment refusal threatens survival. When declining work means losing healthcare, housing, or food, consent is coerced. A choice made under existential pressure is not a free choice. It is compliance.

This framework cannot account for human dependency without contradiction. Babies, by any market standard, are entirely “useless”: unproductive, dependent, incapable of exchange. Yet every functioning society treats their care as unquestionable. Libertarianism attempts to patch this contradiction by carving out age as a special condition, arguing that the rules apply only once adulthood is reached. But age is merely one variable among many—health, disability, caregiving, trauma, bad luck—that affect market usefulness. Singling out age is arbitrary. It is chosen only because it allows the system to preserve the fiction that worth will eventually be earned, rather than admit that worth exists prior to usefulness. Once usefulness is admitted to operate on a sliding scale, the system becomes a hierarchy of conditional legitimacy, where people must continuously requalify to exist.

Thus, the system really is constructed as an “ideology” rather than structural due to the many assumptions it requires and the subjective accounting of what is considered important. It requires subjective valuation in order to perpetuate itself. Absent these compulsions, the system ceases to exist—babies cease to exist, money ceases to mean anything etc.

The same logic extends beyond humans. Nature and animals are reduced to extractable units of matter. Forests become timber, rivers become resources, animals become protein, ecosystems become externalities. Anything that cannot be commodified is treated as valueless or expendable. This is not an accidental failure of the system—it is its metaphysical core. A worldview that recognizes value only through exchange must deny intrinsic existence everywhere, not just in people.

Libertarianism also fails catastrophically on freedom of thought and speech. While claiming to defend expression, it privatizes the infrastructure through which speech occurs. Books that cannot be published, emails that cannot be sent, texts that do not deliver, calls that are blocked, platforms that cut speakers off mid-sentence—none of this counts as censorship within libertarian logic because it is enacted by private owners. Yet when communication itself depends on privately controlled infrastructure, speech becomes licensed. Disagreement is tolerated only so long as it remains acceptable to those who control access. Speech that can be economically erased is not free speech.

The ideology’s logic culminates in programmable money. If no one is entitled to anything—not even what they earn—then money itself becomes conditional. It can be frozen, restricted, expired, or revoked. At that point, money ceases to function as autonomy or deferred choice and becomes a behavioral control mechanism. Labor is no longer voluntary; earnings are no longer yours; consent becomes fiction. The final escape hatch—money as partial independence—is closed.

Worse still, this ideology gives no consideration to future people. It treats freedom as something to be exercised by the present and the powerful, even if doing so destroys the conditions necessary for future autonomy. Ecological collapse, asset enclosure, debt loading, and irreversible harm are all justified as present choices. But freedom that forecloses future freedom is not liberty; it is temporal domination. A system that binds the unborn without their consent cannot claim moral legitimacy.

This raises the decisive question: by what right does a minority impose this structure on all of humanity, especially when most people would not survive under its rules? The answer cannot be merit, consent, or fairness. It is power. Power over property, infrastructure, platforms, enforcement, and narrative. Libertarianism denies entitlement rhetorically while asserting entitlement structurally—the entitlement to rule, to exclude, to withdraw, to condition existence itself.

When all of this is taken seriously, the ideology no longer describes freedom. It describes an authoritarian system where survival, speech, money, and existence are conditional privileges granted by owners. It is hierarchy disguised as choice, domination disguised as neutrality, and control disguised as liberty.

Freedom, properly understood, is not the absence of obligation. It is the absence of domination. It is the condition in which no one has the arbitrary power to decide whether you may exist, survive, speak, or participate in society. Freedom cannot be earned, because anything earned can be revoked. It must be prior to performance, usefulness, or ownership. Freedom begins where survival stops being leverage.

A system that cannot affirm the right to exist without justification is not free. A system that prices speech, commodifies life, ignores the future, and makes money conditional has abandoned liberty entirely. At that point, the word “freedom” remains only as branding—detached from its meaning, emptied of its substance, and used to mask control.

What collapses in the end is not just an ideology, but its legitimacy. When people are taught they are entitled to nothing, they eventually realize that the system itself deserves nothing in return—not belief, not loyalty, not trust. And when belief dissolves, even money loses meaning.

Freedom cannot survive where existence must be earned.
It can only exist where humanity is recognized first. If power is the only source of freedom, none of us our free. Avenues of wealth acquisition like inheritance fall away. Everyone starts off with 0 access to wealth as no one is entitled to any wealth by birth. Dependency is baked in when it is convenient for maintaining existing power structures, but vanishes when it extends anything to anyone else.

When applied fairly and universally, not even your “own” money can save you. If you don’t earn anything, you aren’t entitled to it. Inflation is just one example where what once was valuable can become valueless overnight. There is no escape hatch. Other people are what manufacturers value—not the individual.

Similarly, if this system was followed corporations must cease having protected liability. Individual actors must be held responsible, as individuals, for the actions of a corporation. Unionization rights would also be unlimited under this system. Meaning:

Rebalanced power in labor markets – Employers lose unilateral control; wages and conditions are negotiated rather than imposed.

Higher wages and reduced inequality – Especially for low- and middle-income workers; productivity gains are shared.

More frequent strikes and short-term disruption – Conflict becomes visible instead of hidden in low wages and precarity.

Fewer exploitative business models – Firms that rely on underpaid or coercive labor become unviable.

Shift in “efficiency” definitions – Less burnout and bullshit work; more sustainable, human-centered productivity.

Redirected innovation – Less labor arbitrage, more process improvement and worker-led innovation.

Reduced corporate concentration – Strong unions counter consolidation and expose hollow firms.

Greater political power for workers – Labor gains voice; money loses monopoly influence.

Some capital flight, but bounded – Threats of exit increase, but infrastructure and labor remain sticky.

Cultural shift toward dignity over discipline – Work becomes a negotiated contribution, not a survival threat

Or, under the current system if the ones with power cannot acquire value by being valued by the market, they just STEAL value and wealth by legal institutional immunity, inventing wars, propping up terrorism and drug trafficking. See list:

Regressive taxation structures – Payroll and sales taxes fall hardest on low-income workers, while capital gains and dividends are taxed at lower rates.

Corporate subsidies and tax abatements – Public money and tax breaks are given to corporations and developers, shifting the tax burden onto residents.

Bailouts and “too big to fail” policies – Private losses are absorbed by taxpayers while profits remain private.

Inflated government contracts – Defense, consulting, and infrastructure contracts funnel public money to private firms through overpricing and cost overruns.

Rent extraction from public infrastructure – Public investments raise property values, but private landowners capture the gains.

Legal tax avoidance by the wealthy – Offshore accounts, trusts, carried interest, and step-up in basis drain public revenue.

Interest payments to wealthy bondholders – Taxes are used to pay interest on public debt held disproportionately by the rich.

Privatization of public services – Public funds are redirected into profits for private prisons, healthcare contractors, and for-profit schools.

Fines, fees, and court costs – The legal system functions as a regressive tax on poverty.

Wage suppression through policy – Weak labor protections and union busting lower wages and shift costs onto the public.

Public assistance that subsidizes low wages – Taxpayer-funded benefits replace income employers refuse to pay.

Regulatory capture – Agencies serve industry interests, allowing corporations to avoid penalties while the public absorbs harm.

Environmental cost shifting – Cleanup, healthcare, and disaster response are paid by taxpayers while pollution profits remain private.

Student debt and credential inflation – Government-backed loans and underfunded education extract wealth through lifelong interest payments.

Political influence funded by wealth – Campaign finance and lobbying ensure tax and spending rules favor those already in power.