Topic: Politics
Don’t waste your money on libertarian political campaigns Libertarians believe in free markets. It’s high time we stop wasting money on trying to get people into government and start spending it on free market solutions, don’t you think?by Jeremy West
(libertarian)
Sunday, September 14, 2008
The era of libertarian politics is over. It jumped the shark after Harry Browne's 2000 campaign. The Libertarian Party has been a great source of information and a fantastic way of making the public aware that there is more to political philosophy than left and right.
I believe the Libertarian Party has done its job as far as education is concerned. The message is out there: People know about liberty.
The problem that remains is that people don't believe society would function without governments doing all the things governments currently do.
A recent article by David Nolan, cofounder of the Libertarian Party, urges at the end to not send your money to the Barr campaign where it will inevitably be wasted. He then gives a couple of examples of Libertarian candidates worthy of your donations. Hey, live and let live. I fully support your right to send your money to those candidates.
However, I believe there is a better use for your money. I believe that those who will come to the message through libertarian campaigns have come, for the most part. Now they need to see real life examples.
One great example is the Free State Project, where thousands of people have agreed to move to one state (New Hampshire) to be activists for the cause of freedom, bringing about liberty in our lifetime in one small area of the world.
If you can't (or don't want to) move to New Hampshire, then I believe the best way to support the cause of liberty is to open free market alternatives to those things people believe only government can do.
People believe government is necessary for identification. Open up an identification service that does a better job than government for less money. People believe government is necessary for roads. Open up some great private roads (or better yet, invent some better transportation solutions). People believe only government can provide schools for the poor and middle class. Open up some schools for the poor, and teach them better than government schools (can you imagine that?).
Libertarians believe in free markets. It's high time we stop wasting money on getting people into government and start spending it on free market solutions, don't you think?
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Your free market solutions to compete agaist the government mopnopoly of services are great. However, while the government maintains their monopoly it is a little tougher to implement the free market solutions because our private customers are forced to pay for government schools, roads and identification, whether they use them or not. Therefore, to compete against forced theft versus free market is a little tougher when your client is forced to pay for the service they don't use plus for the service that you are providing them. While the government delivers services that are marginally o.k. but not horrible, then free market people are going to be 'subjected' to the be the customer of the one who is stealing their money by force to get some of that back to them in marginally o.k. or mediocre services.
I support the No State Project. Limited governments never stay limited. Adams passed the Alien and Sedition acts before the ink was dry on the Constitution.
Your free market solutions to compete agaist the government mopnopoly of services are great. However, while the government maintains their monopoly it is a little tougher to implement the free market solutions because our private customers are forced to pay for government schools, roads and identification, whether they use them or not. Therefore, to compete against forced theft versus free market is a little tougher when your client is forced to pay for the service they don't use plus for the service that you are providing them. While the government delivers services that are marginally o.k. but not horrible, then free market people are going to be 'subjected' to the be the customer of the one who is stealing their money by force to get some of that back to them in marginally o.k. or mediocre services.
Only applies to the constructs within the regime of your choice. Escape the regime while you still can...
I think you partly miss the point of the FSP. Folks here are getting involved in local and state government specifically to scale it back. It's hard to do that from the outside without a lot of resources. Sure, many great things have been done like starting scholarship funds and doing trash pickups, but experience has shown that the fastest way to correct government action is to get involved politically. Working the system from both ends will produce the fastest results.
Your concept works in THEORY. Commentor trd was right - how can the majority of Americans, who ultimately would prefer school choice, afford to choose private schools when they are forced to pay for failing public schools?
As for private roads, I disagree with you here. Most Libertarians believe in limited government - to DEFEND us from invasion, and to implement inter-state infrastructure like roads. Do you even know about states like Texas and others (Gov. Corzine of NJ wants this too, but the people are pissed) who are trying to sell their highways to foreigners who will then increase tolls and keep the money as profit? Right now toll fees pay for maintenance. Selling our roads to private foreigners is the WORST solution.
So, my question is: Why are private solutions by FOREIGNERS allowed by our government, but private solutions by Americans are not? Because, our government is deathly afraid of free-thinking Americans. They would rather give away our infrastucture to foreign corporate fascists and make us pay them, than allow us to find new creative free-market solutions.
Our government supports private solutions by foreigners because our government supports a One World Government in which No One is free.
So far the only American who has taken an active stand on this is T. Boone Pickens. He is a free-market capitalist who understands that real energy independence will only happen in the free market. Luckily, he has the money to take the lead. Most Libertarians (and most free-thinking Americans) just do not have the capital to take real action.
Then we have morons like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet who use their money to de-rail any attempts at limiting the power of the federal government. People like these are the real threat to our Liberty, since they cannot be voted out of office. Gates and Buffet give away their money to charities that push the anti-freedom, politically correct, socialist agenda.
And Buffet, the smartest investor in history, is looked to by democrats as an economist. Buffet may be a wise investor, but an economist he is NOT. Buffet complained that his secretary pays more in taxes then he does, and he thinks that is not "fair." Well, that is because Buffet does not pay INCOME taxes; he only pays Capital Gains taxes. If he really cared about his secretary, he would pay her with shares of Berkshire Hathaway and today she'd be a millionaire. Please explain to me how Buffet, who is well-known for extensively analyzing the fundamentals of the companies he invests in, has endorsed Obama, who has never voted for a tax cut, but has voted for every single tax increase bill - bills that would have raised taxes on every single American earning more than $42,00 a year? Obama's speeches are nothing but rhetoric. The fact is, he WILL increase taxes on almost EVERY single American. That is what his voting record proves. I do not listen to words - I look at the facts. Obama's record may be sparse, but when it comes to the economy, his record proves that he will destroy the country. He has voted yes on all but 2 earmark bills, and Biden has voted yes on every earmark bill. McCain voted no on all earmark bills. Obama voted yes on all spending bills (except funding the troops), and no on all tax-cut bills, and yes on all tax-increase bills. Maybe Buffet's secretary makes less than $42,000 a year, so she may be one of the few Americans who will benefit under Obama. If that is the case, I must ask: How many people would actually want to work for Warren Buffet? Maybe in Omaha $40,000 is a lot of money; here in New York you could not survive (my property taxes alone are over $11,000 a year - they've gone up $1,000 every year for the past few years. School spending per pupil just increased from $18,000 per student last year to $23,000 per student for this year).
Buffet claims that raising Capital Gains taxes will not hurt the economy. But, history has already proven that raising Capital Gains taxes actually decreases federal revenue because fewer people invest in the stock market. The fact is, if morons watching this election actually vote for Obama based on Warren Buffet's erroneous logic, the market will immediately tank because all investors will pull out the day after the election because they know that waiting until January will mean that they will be paying more in taxes. A vote for Obama - Buffet is a vote for economic collapse.
Another fact about Buffet - one of his companies (can't recall the name) is an insurer of bank accounts over $100,000. He just pulled out of that - informing those banks and holders of those accounts that they will no longer be insured. Now, that is a very good investment move. Buffet covered his own ass and protected the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. However, he basically screwed all the innocent Americans who were insured by his company. Well, Mr. Buffet, you cannot have it both ways - you cannot cover only your own ass. Obama - Buffet want to protect their own assets, but they want to do it at the taxpayers and ordinary Americans' expense. Go to HELL!
There is no "winning" against the government. If you are doing better than they, they can just take what you\'ve produced, make it their own, and add it to their balance sheet.
It sounds like someone telling his torturer "I can make a better bed than this" as he straps you onto his Rack.
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