What Potential Does Libertarianism Still Hold?

Has old-style libertarianism bit the dust? Tyler Cowen suspects that changing times have made previous interpretations of libertarianism less relevant, hence debates whether state capacity libertarianism might be its most logical replacement. How to think about this?

In a post titled "(Adjective) Libertarianism", John Cochrane responds. Granted, he agrees with Cowen that many State activities are necessary for obvious reasons. Citizens need states that are capable of performing crucial tasks "competently and effectively".  However,

Libertarianism consists of many different ideas, and is clearly in need of some adjectives.

Cochrane also asks why Cowen assigns most blame to Democrats instead of taking a more bipartisan approach. All too often, we observe how support for individual liberties evaporates among Republicans, should that support become inconvenient for any reason. Cochrane notes some other (minor) differences in perspective, then adds,

While I like the basic idea, I think "State Capacity" is a poor adjective because it isn't that self-explanatory. Libertarians have awful marketing skills, as evidenced by the fact that such demonstrably correct ideas have such little traction.

Still, no other explanatory choices are obvious as a descriptive update. While adjectives such as constitutional, conservative, rule-of-law, empirical, and globalist have their uses, "...adjectives like these just define a set of ideas as antithesis of their opposites."

After considering John Cochrane's reply, I wondered whether "pattern" as an adjective might be useful. For example, what kinds of overall economic patterns either promote or possibly deter economic freedom, depending on how resources are utilized within participating groups? Plus, it's the non tradable sector patterns of our modern economy which now cause so many problems for lower income groups. New non tradable sector patterns could give a more important role to time value in particular. By clarifying resource use patterns and making them more recognizable, citizens could better coordinate resources already at their disposal. Large governments often stumble in this regard, by assuming responsibility for activities which citizens lack the ability to support via resources they can personally manage.

Alas, I found Tyler Cowen's referenced Cato essay from 2007 (in his above linked post) a bit problematic, since he could not visualize libertarian roles for intellectual property. For me, that lack of imagination tends to translate into a lack of libertarian context for applied knowledge at the level of economic freedom. But why should the State bear such responsibility for intellectual property, when doing so creates budgetary discrepancies that only accumulate and leave citizens ever more indebted? What's more, this leave it to the experts approach only further reduces individual rights in what is essentially a knowledge based economy.

Why can't libertarianism help to restore production rights to individuals, instead of leaving the bulk of those privileges to states and experts? Why can't libertarianism take part, in what would ultimately be a reduction of political struggle over excessive subsidies re skilled services? What if libertarians could just be getting started on a brighter future, instead of calling it a day when it comes to individual liberties? If libertarians appear to have somehow gotten cold feet, or are otherwise being disregarded, perhaps it is because some of them have not yet taken seriously, the dramatic transitions of a services dominant economy. Yet libertarians could still meet this challenge, by reducing the dependent market status of time based services, in a quest to make them more direct sources of wealth. Libertarians could take applied economic solution sets more seriously, which would help others take libertarian concepts more seriously as well.

If libertarian ideas are to escape theoretical abstraction, the contexts of economic freedom will need more direct application in the real world - especially for countless communities which don't want to be left behind. Libertarians could encourage economic patterns that create greater freedom for people of all income levels - not just individuals who already enjoy considerable wealth and liberty. Libertarian ideas could become a viable part of future supply and demand for time based services markets. Such an approach to individual liberty would be relevant for millions, who previously might not have imagined libertarianism as a true pragmatic source of greater economic freedom and prosperity.