Re: [pf] Cyberselfish Redux

by Donald Merkes

05 December 2000 23:16 UTC

I think that Molly's comment that Libertarians belive the "fewer laws the
better" is quite accurate.  Libertarianism is all about the freedom to do
as you choose as long as it doesn't harm others.  Granted most of what
Libertarians shout about is taxation, but most of what I am concerned
with is privacy and personal freedoms.

Now most Libertarians believe that if we get the government out of the
way the free market will solve all our problems.  Now this is rather
nieve, but so is the current solution that if there is a law that the
citizens will blindly follow it.  There has to be some middle ground
where children don't starve but the federal government doesn't regulate
the size of the holes in Swiss cheese (there really are federal
regulations for the sizes of the holes in Swiss cheese).  It seems to me
that local control would be much more effective in most cases.

As far as taxes and the IRS are concerned, Harry Browne the 2000
candidate for president believed that there would no longer be any need
for the federal income tax, because the size of government would be so
reduced.  A more likely scenario would be the implication of the
"postcard tax form system" where there would be no loopholes, no
charitable deductions, and everyone paid their fair share.  This could be
a graduated system or a flat tax, but what would be important is the fact
that the congress would no longer legislate through the tax system. 
Basically your tax form would say how much do you make, and multiply by
this amount, this is your tax.  Legislation through the tax system isn't
a Libertarian principal.

Libertarians are big fans of the User Fee System, this could be a plus in
the fight against urban sprawl.  Right now we tax property based on a
arcane system of municipalities and rates based on property value, with a
user fee based system the taxes would be determined by the cost to the
municipality to service the property.  Therefore it would in most cases
be cheaper to service a compact urban community than a suburban sprawl
community leaving the consumer to choose if the extra cost of living in
the "burbs" is worth it.  Right now farmers often pay several times the
cost of servicing their properties as property taxes but many "starter
castles" in the country side don't even pay the costs of the services
they receive from the municipality.  Driving would suffer the same fate
(although some Libertarians believe that the entire road system should be
privatized), the gas tax could be used to build 100% of the road system
not just a portion of the highway system.  With gas prices now at least
$3-$4 a gallon public transit would become a real option as would living
close to work, entertainment, and friends.  In short Libertarians don't
believe that one person should subsidize anothers desires, but they don't
believe that things such as living on a 10 acre lot in the county side
should be illegal either.

Health care is a good example of government meddling making a mess of
things.  By providing a tax benefit for business but not individuals the
federal government has effectively handed over all decisions about health
care to one's employer.  This seems absurd that one of the most personal
and important things in our life is in the hands of our employer and we
can do nothing about it.

As far as the environment, I part ways with the Libertarians.  The party
feels that owners will treat their property with respect and not pollute,
history has shown this not to be true.  This might not be a problem if
people only polluted their own property, but pollution doesn't know about
property lines and therefore national and global regulations must be in
acted to protect the entire population.

The Libertarians fought the "Know your Customer Law" which would have
required banks to keep a profile of each of their customers and report
any unusual activity to the federal government.  Now these unusual
activities could be something as small as a customer depositing twice as
much as usual one week.  This was mainly to ensure that no one was
dealing drugs.

Libertarians are fiercely against the war on drugs and have spoken out on
the subject for years.  It is not so much the actual arrests of drug
dealers that concern most libertarians its the loss of personal freedoms
for everyone as the federal government fights the war on drugs.  Property
seizures, armed raids, taps of emails, searches of personal property. 
The biggie though is the proposed release of a fungus in Columbia that
would kill the plants that are used to manufacture marijuana and cocaine.
 This fungus could have huge environmental effects both in Columbia and
worldwide.  The prison population also troubles many of us due to the
fact that many people have longer sentences for non violent drug crimes
than murder.

I guess that I could go on for days but I'll stop here for now.  It seems
that on some levels that Libertarianism would further widen the gap
between the rich and poor, but would it really? as much of what is
creating this gap is government give always.  There are some flaws to
Libertarianism but there are flaws to all systems.

It all comes back to "Do you really think that the government can solve
all problems?"


Don
Doty Island