Libertarianism and the Maximisation of Liberty

       In a similar vein to my previous post on Jevon's paradox I now ask about another seeming paradox. Libertarians often propose an 'objectively' derived system based on the maximisation of liberty. Leaving aside my initial objections with regard to the value judgements in play here, let's examine their claim.
     At first glance, the system libertarians propose does indeed seem to maximise liberty however as we know from Jevon, first glances may be deceptive. It very well may be that the libertarian system is indeed the one that maximises liberty but does follow 'objectively' (even allowing for the nonsenses inherent in that term)? I think not. The libertarian reasoning here is naive.
    To illustrate the point I offer an example. Suppose we wished to reduce alcohol consumption, the most logical method would be to ban alcohol consumption, no? Of course anyone with half an understanding of history or how people work would know that this is perhaps the worst way of going about it. The law of unintended consequences is at work here. Prohibition leads to an explosion of organised crime, murder and doesn't stop alcohol consumption.
   Given that the naive approach does not necassarily work then can we just assume that the naive libertarian approach works? I argue not. It may well be that libertarianism is the system that maximises liberty but the reasoning employed is horribly wrong. To offer a single example I point to how increasing income inequality results in increasing homicide.

Income inequality and homicide rates in Canada and the United States

   These considerations do enter into libertarianism but only lightly. For example, murder is curtailed as the liberty to murder reduces net liberty (for those killed mainly). Do other considerations apply? Does the curtailment of liberty entailed by taxation (and its expenditure on certain items) lead to a net increase or decrease of liberty if this tax is used to prevent muder and the like? These are questions libertarians must answer if they are to escape from their current naive position, and while it may be that they find in the end that their initial position was right then all the better for them. Their first hurdle will be to find a method to compare degrees of liberty, I very much feel this is where they will fall.