Capitalism and human nature tell us that lobbying and corruption will be a consequence of regulation. Libertarians simply realize that regulations are not just the "grand vision" that they are presented as... they create winners and losers, beneficiaries and those who are made worse off. As such libertarians constantly re-evaluate how effectively regulations accomplish the grand vision in the environment of the perverse incentives that are often created and grow over time.

At a very basic level this is simply a scientific, non-political world view. It's evidence-based. If you read through many of the threads on HN you can feel the deep sentimentality that people feel about things like Social Security, etc. It's an emotional, irrational, unscientific response.

Why are you critical of libertarianism? Do you support some special interest group that stands to lose simply from smaller government? Or are you sentimentally attached to the grand vision presented as the persuasive argument for some piece of historical regulation? Or are you a career burocrat :)