American libertaranism has a reputation for being another species of that genus known as American conservatism. This is influenced by the American Libertarian’s penchant for lower taxation and less government spending. A position often described as fiscal conservatism. Fiscal conservatism must be understood contextually like any other term or issue. To what extent does the American Libertarian’s affinity for the notion of fiscal conservatism reflect a government centric view of politics? To a great extent.
The term can indeed be narrowly viewed within the context of statecraft. In that specific context, the idea of fiscal conservatism denotes a government’s tendency to make intensive and not extensive use of resources garnered from the general populace through the practice of taxation. In a personalized anarchistic context, it would refer to the practice of an individual choosing to conserve rather than expend their wealth. In a systemic context, radical libertarianism is actually a form of fiscal liberalism. The key to understanding this lies in the radical libertarian view of class analysis and class structure dating back to early 18th-19th century level liberals.
In adopting a dialectical methodology described by Chris Sciabarra, we will discover that a shifting of vantage points allows us to understand that the notion of fiscal conservatism usually adopted by less radical libertarians reflects what organizations, considered parasitical, should do with funds. The libertarian radical wishes to return monies to autonomous individuals and has a theory of class structure that can identify double standards in statist fiscally conservative or austere proposals. An exploitative entity or individual tends to propose conservation, self-discipline, and fiscal sacrifice for others, but not for itself. A testimony to this is the existing state of multi-billion dollar bailouts for major financial entities like Goldman Sachs and cutbacks on welfare programs that the less politically connected are more likely to rely on. What we’re ultimately proposing is that the exploited people in the existing social order retain the product of their labor. In that sense, it’s a form of fiscal liberalism in which people are liberally gaining wealth from the end of an exploitative system.
A genuinely liberal institution of mutual aid makes no collective distinctions, but a conservative program of welfare must reflect an attempt to preserve the structural status quo. As such, it must be congruent with the existing class or social structure. This means it must exclude individuals on an aristocratic basis of not conforming to existing social standards. A radical Promethean break from such structures would signify the end of the status quo. The radical Libertarian proposes a new order in which an aggregate of people achieve a higher standard of living. It inspires rebellion and acquisition rather than conservative self-discipline. This said rebellion and acquisition culminating in the return of monies from corporate or state power structures to free individuals and cooperative organizations.
