I think you mistook my comment as an argument against Libertarianism - it was not intended to be such. My point was that people oversimplify both the implementation and the analysis of Libertarian principles. A system with many, many free actors can be amazingly complex, and what I'm suggesting is that for people to see the value of the system they need to recognize and embrace that complexity.
For example, the basic principles of a free market (e.g., supply and demand) are easy to state but result in complex transactions. When things don't "work out" for someone in the real work and they raise an argument against "free markets" (as in the current housing bubble), we need to be ready to point out all the complex ways that the free market worked correctly but where the non-free parts distorted it (government policies encouraging loans to unqualified applicants).
In complex systems with non-linear behavior, we need to be very careful that we understand the full context of an event or we won’t be able to extrapolate the results. That’s why first-order approximations fail so often in mathematics and in real life.
Excellent point. You're right, a basic humility about the human ability to understand and control complicated systems is at the root of libertarian principles.
I think it's somewhat absurd that Obama and Bush even pretend they can do anything about the financial crisis.
For example, the basic principles of a free market (e.g., supply and demand) are easy to state but result in complex transactions. When things don't "work out" for someone in the real work and they raise an argument against "free markets" (as in the current housing bubble), we need to be ready to point out all the complex ways that the free market worked correctly but where the non-free parts distorted it (government policies encouraging loans to unqualified applicants).
In complex systems with non-linear behavior, we need to be very careful that we understand the full context of an event or we won’t be able to extrapolate the results. That’s why first-order approximations fail so often in mathematics and in real life.