Left-libertarianism - Criticisms

Criticisms

Criticisms of the different schools of left-libertarianism have come from the right and left alike. Right-libertarians like Robert Nozick, holding that self-ownership and property acquisition need not meet egalitarian standards and that they must merely avoid worsening the situation of others, have rejected left-libertarianism of the Steiner–Vallentyne school. G. A. Cohen extensively criticized the claim, typical of this school, that self-ownership and equality can be realized simultaneously. In Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality, Cohen claims that any system that takes equality and its enforcement seriously is not consistent with the full emphasis on self-ownership and "negative freedom" of market libertarian thought.

Murray Rothbard criticized what amounted to the cultural aspect of left-libertarianism of the Carson-Long school (Left-wing market anarchism), challenging the tendency of proponents of libertarianism to appeal to “‘free spirits,’ to people who don't want to push other people around, and who don't want to be pushed around themselves” in contrast to “the bulk of Americans,” who “might well be tight-assed conformists, who want to stamp out drugs in their vicinity, kick out people with strange dress habits, etc.”