Aretae tries to answer the eternal question, What do you do with the people who can’t pay? A commenter named Melanie points out that pro-business libertarians give the impression that their answer to people who can’t afford food or medicine is tough shit, but I suggest another “libertarian” perspective entirely:
In most cases where charity feels right — educating the children of the poor, providing medical care for those who can’t afford it, etc. — we ignore the market’s well-established alternative to outright gifts or grants: financing.We don’t have to tax the rich and give the money — minus substantial administrative costs — to the poor in order to help them. If $1,000 of medical care staves off blindness or amputation, it’s obviously worth far more than $1,000 in future earning power, and a loan will do — if a creditor feels he’ll get his money back.
If anything, the role of government should be to enforce such agreements — via garnishing wages, etc. — so that they can and will be made.
And there’s always private charity — until public programs completely crowd it out.