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"In their writings, Buchanan and other libertarian thinkers lay out a vision for a certain kind of society. It's a society where capitalism has free rein and the rights of the wealthy few are protected, while the many are prevented from exercising countervailing power. It's a society where government is so shrunken as to be unrecognizable. In the country they envision, most protections that benefit average Americans have vanished: Social Security has been abolished, worker and public-health protections are gone, and public schools are shuttered in favor of private education. It's a country where national parks and water supplies are sold to the highest bidder. That's not a country most Americans would recognize. And it's not a country most of us, from any political party, would want to inhabit. "