Michael B.

Bailouts, subsidies, and tax credits and exemptions are another form of extracting economic rent from people. I know I'm starting to get out into the weeds here, but I just wanting to correct something you said because I find that it's a common misconception. Libertarians aren't against a strong national defense (though I'm sure that there are some who are). Many libertarians like the idea of a strong national defense. They just don't like the idea of a strong national "offense," if you catch my drift. Foreign conflicts aren't the business of the state. Spending taxpayer money on them is viewed as theft (much the same way many conservatives view welfare as theft). On the other hand, if one wanted to donate money to a revolution or go to another country to fight, then that is perfectly fine and in some cases even honorable.

As a member of the open source movement, I have to completely disagree. I'm a free-market libertarian. Libertarians in general are pro-open source (once they know what it is). Some of the more extreme libertarians even want patents entirely abolished. For me, open source is about two things. The first is property rights. A patent or copyright is not true property. They are temporary, legislated monopolies. They generally violate other people's property rights. They should only exist when the violation of property rights is a lesser evil to the violation of other rights or the public interest. The other thing it's about for me is a struggle against rent-seeking. There are three main kinds. The two relevant ones are ones who try to corner a market through anti-competitive business practices (microsoft or apple for instance). The other one is firms who try to get an unfair advantage through legislative means (for instance regulations, licensing requirements, patents/copyrights, etc). In other words, for me open source is a more pure, uncorrupted form of capitalism that hasn't been tainted by rent seeking monopolists or government. On the other hand, the occupy wall street movement seems the opposite. They seem to be for government power and influence, as opposed to freedom and liberty (which is one of the things i thought open source was about) and they seem against capitalism.