This web site has stopped featuring links (for the time being)...but Stephanie Slade's America article, reposted to Reason.com for online readers' convenience, is important. It's like an important addendum to The Conservative Heart. All who read this blog for the political or religious content must read...yes, it's Catholic, originally written for a Catholic magazine, but this Protestant found it easier to follow than some Catholic readers seem to do.
http://reason.com/blog/2018/08/18/skeptical-of-the-common-good-dont-be?
Basically, libertarian politics work best when they're enlightened by public spirit. Yes, unenlightened people have often exploited the masses with appeals to public spirit that actually work out to "Give me your money in payment for bloviating about poor people," and sometimes "for sustaining a poverty industry, for demanding endless inflation of handouts to increasingly well paid 'needers' just because the money is there, and/or for interfering with poor people who try to improve their lives through honest work." Abusus non tollit usum. (Yes, Protestants remember oddments of Latin too.) Abuse does not take away the (proper) use. Public spirit is a good thing even if bad people have stepped on it. And libertarian policies support it.
Or, if we want to help poor people, even sending them money may do less good than just repealing protectionist policies that keep them from earning money.
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