I was perusing the Twittersphere the other day and I ran across this hot take on libertarianism.

“Near as I can tell libertarianism is demanding the right to own cats but refusing to take responsibility to empty the litter box.”

In other words, libertarians are selfish and irresponsible.

But does this characterization apply exclusively to libertarians?

It seems to me a lot of people act in selfish and irresponsible ways. In fact, I think if we’re honest with ourselves, we must confess that we’ve all been selfish and irresponsible at times. Our intrepid tweeter appears to have stumbled upon a human nature problem, not a libertarian problem.

Irresponsibility and selfishness just play out differently within a libertarian philosophical framework and a statist philosophical framework.

My response to that tweet.

“Near as I can tell, statism is demanding the right to own cats and forcing somebody else to clean out the litter box at gunpoint.”

You’ll notice that neither political philosophy solves the problem of selfishness and irresponsibility. In one system, a certain thing might not get done. The litter box may well remain stinky. In the second system, a certain thing might get done, but only by coercion and the threat of violence.

It’s important to remember a voluntary society doesn’t preclude the possibility of clean litter boxes. People will be motivated to keep that box clean, because, really, who wants to smell cat pee all day?

On the other hand, statism doesn’t guarantee clean litter boxes. If the powers that be (the people with the guns) decide cleaning litter boxes coincide with their best interests, they might create some program to clean them. But even then, government doesn’t have a great track record of getting things done right. More than likely, they’ll do a half-assed job — sometimes.

Then again, the government people might just decide the best way to solve the problem is to take away your cat.

And no matter what the statist system provides, it always entails violence, force and coercion.

Therein lies the rub.

Many people like our intrepid tweeter fancy themselves morally superior because they favor this or that government program to get things done.

I’ve got news for you; you don’t get to take the moral high ground when you’re pointing a gun at somebody else’s head so you can get your way – no matter how great your way might seem.

The bottom line is you can’t solve human nature problems such as selfishness or irresponsibility with a political program.

The question becomes: what philosophical framework provides the best chance at peaceful human flourishing?

Libertarian philosophy may have its shortcomings. Nobody claims it will create a utopia. But its core principles of self-ownership and non-aggression offer a better answer to our question than statism with its guns, billy clubs and coercion.