#2. Anti-Corporate Activists
Usually these people are advocating we “buy local” or boycott things. While voting with you dollars is an effective strategy, the basis of their reasoning is an illogical bias against corporations. They think big corporations hurt local businesses and communities and that local government should keep these parasitic businesses like Walmart out of their communities.
A few points; the first being that buying local does not keep the money local. Usually, even small stores are buying goods from out of town, out of state, and even out of country. Secondly, small stores cost consumers more money, leaving less money in the community. Lastly, big stores like Walmart actually increase foot traffic to small businesses in their communities by attracting out of the area shoppers, and they aid small businesses by carrying their products on their shelves.
From the Occupy Wall St movement to the Buy Local initiatives, self-identified libertarians who are very confused find themselves marching with socialists. That’s because these are socialists movements geared towards hurting corporations. Libertarians are supposed to celebrate and advocate for economic freedom for all, big and small, rich and poor. Bias against big and successful is actually asserting that companies shouldn’t get that big or succeed that much. Those ideas are wholly opposed to libertarianism.
