Starte Butone | The Libertarian Institute

William McKinley Was One of America’s Worst Presidents

by Starte Butone | Nov 21, 2022 | Featured Articles

When libertarians imagine terrible presidents, a few names may come to mind: Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, George W. Bush, just to name a few. However, there’s one awful president that few libertarians think very much about, and that’s William McKinley. While rarely mentioned in modern discussions about history and politics, McKinley embodies almost everything any true libertarian should dislike. Serving as president from March 1897 until his assassination in September 1901, McKinley was an imperialist warmonger, supporting American colonialist ambitions which were present at the time....

States Don’t Have Rights, People Do

by Starte Butone | Aug 24, 2022 | Featured Articles

Decentralization of power is one of the defining features of the freest societies in the world today. A unitary federal government cannot and should not be attempting to unilaterally impose its will upon millions of people whom it has little to no knowledge of or experience with. As such, ensuring that lower levels of government have their own responsibilities, rule over a smaller geographical area, and administer a smaller population within a larger federal framework can be a key political feature in ensuring that the rights of all people living within a nation are respected. Furthermore,...

This Is Who Will Build the Roads

by Starte Butone | May 19, 2022 | Featured Articles

A common counter-argument to many libertarian principles goes something along the lines of, “Without the government, who will build to roads?" Almost everyone who has tried to debate libertarian ideology will encounter this argument at some point. In the minds of many statists, economic services that are almost ubiquitously provided by the government in the United States and elsewhere could not possibly be provided by the private sector, lest they be riddled with market failures and corruption. More often than not, they only make these arguments because they simply have never lived in a...

Abolish Society Security

by Starte Butone | Apr 12, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles

Social Security is the compulsory government retirement program Americans are required to pay into for as long as they are employed. All revenue which is used to pay for Social Security is acquired through payroll taxes. More specifically, it is acquired through Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes, which also fund Medicare and Social Security disability benefits. A specific portion of these taxes then pay for the benefits received by retired Social Security beneficiaries, currently a pension averaging $1,657 per month which is eligible to individuals over the age of 62. In each...

Death Wish: Fighting a Cold War With China

by Starte Butone | Feb 8, 2022 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Recently, there has been an increased desire among the military establishment in the United States to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Such a push has been made by politicians, public figures, and talking heads from both sides of the political spectrum. Massive spending bills aimed at “countering” China tend to pass through Congress with ease, with the only real opposition coming from congressmen who don’t think they’re strong enough. Promises by the Biden administration to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion have brought tensions with China to their...

A Libertarian Stance on Irredentism

by Starte Butone | Dec 15, 2021 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism

Irredentism is the belief that a group of people has the right to claim land or property which it was in possession of at some point in time, either according to historical fact or myth and legend. A few examples of irredentism are Zionism, the Greater Armenia, and United Ireland movements. Irredentism has been used to justify some of the worst human rights violations in human history. These include ultra-nationalist expansionism during both World Wars, ethnic cleansing during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and the Palestinian expulsion during the 1948 war, just to name a few examples. It is...

Gun Control, By the Numbers

by Starte Butone | Nov 17, 2021 | Featured Articles

For many decades, people have been pushing for gun control as a way to decrease crime. The main purpose of a gun, after all, is to kill and injure people. Therefore, if fewer people have guns, then less crime will occur, as the common logic goes. However, as with most things, the reality of the situation is often more complicated and contradictory to what one might believe at first glance. In reality, gun control has little impact on the actual number of homicides. The following graph shows the murder rate of various U.S. states on the vertical axis and the percentage of gun control...