Perhaps there are libertarians on the left
Roaming the blogs, I came across a link to a surprising and encouraging document. It's an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal arguing against state restrictions on what sort of health insurance consumers can buy and from where and, more generally, against paternalistic restrictions on freedom of choice. It reads like something that might have been written by a libertarian economist. It ends with:
"Why do we think we are helping adult consumers by taking away their options? We don't take away cars because we don't like some people speeding. We allow state lotteries despite knowing some people are betting their grocery money. Everyone is exposed to economic risks of some kind. But we don't operate mindlessly in trying to smooth out every theoretical wrinkle in life.
The nature of freedom of choice is that some people will misuse their responsibility and hurt themselves in the process. We should do our best to educate them, but without diminishing choice for everyone else."
The author is George McGovern.