system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
The most important function of government is stewardship, and Libertarianism is bankrupt because it doesn't account for this. CMV

It's often stated that the most important function of government is security, but I disagree with this - it's actually *stewardship* that is the most important function. After all, what good is keeping the current generation safe if we use up all of our resources doing so, leaving nothing for the next generation?

Conservation of our natural (and intellectual, industrial, etc.) resources is a task the government is uniquely suited for.  In a free market environment such as the one coveted by Libertarians and AnCaps, everyone is essentially out for themselves, and are encouraged to consume as much of our resources as they can if they feel it can give them some sort of advantage.  No one is tasked with watching out for future generations - no one has the power to make people stop burning oil and burning the rain forests because it doesn't necessarily cause harm to this generation, even though it could devastate our future generations.  

The only incentive, ecologically, for stewardship in a market environment is watching out for your direct descendants, but if everyone is only watching out for themself and theirs, there's still a massive incentive to slash and burn the environment, etc. if it provides wealth.  After all, if your descendants are only paying one ten-billionth of the cost but reaping the entire benefit, you are still incentivized to consume and not conserve.

Governments, because they (at least are intended to) last many generations, have skin in the game on preserving natural, intellectual, industrial, etc. resources for the future.  Additionally, by virtue of being composed of the whole population, they don't have the same "privatized profit, socialized loss" mechanism that individuals have, because they instead balance socialized profit vs. socialized loss.

I can't claim that government always does a perfect job of stewardship, but at least "big government" HAS A MECHANISM IN PLACE that **can** rationally practice stewardship.  Libertarianism, by its very nature, **does not** preserve stewardship and thus cannot form a solid long-term basis for a high-functioning society.

**UPDATE:** Thanks everyone for the great discussion!  Unfortunately, I did not see any posters give any concrete answers for how a libertarian society can protect future generations, so I cannot yet award a delta.  The closest that I came to being swayed is the suggestion that class-action lawsuits could be taken against offenders, HOWEVER, with no proposed way that class-action lawsuits could be taken on behalf of future persons, even this solution fails the test of stewardship.

I feel that the most common response to my post was "current states don't do a good job of stewardship either." While this may be true, it doesn't alter my claim that a libertarian society **cannot** do a good job of stewardship, whereas a state with a relatively forward-thinking leadership could do an effective job. The fact that most current states do a poor job doesn't excuse the fact that a Libertarian government would institutionalize a complete lack of stewardship *as part of its fundamental mechanism, the free market.*  FURTHERMORE, I believe that environmental conservation laws, when they have been passed, have been extremely effective at reducing pollution of rivers, reducing smog, improving efficiency standards, and preserving our natural landscape.  My conclusion is that IF the political will exists, a strong state can do an excellent job of stewardship, so the fundamental problem comes not from the functioning of the state, but from the mobilization of political public sentiment.  Thus, while market-based solutions cannot possibly protect future generations (and I'm still open to being swayed on that claim,) a strong government has a clear way to provide the necessary stewardship, and further efforts should be made at the level of education, organization, and mobilization of citizens concerned with stewardship and sustainability, rather than requiring any sort of overhaul of government.
gpt
Devil's advocate: governments are made up of politicians, who do not have skin in the game long term as they are most concerned with the next election. A President has a significant incentive to exploit resources unsustainably to improve the economy, as they won't be eligible for reelection by the time it becomes a problem.