Libertarianism, like democracy and republicanism are admired principles of government. Libertarianism is the will to live free and let live free. It is about trusting neighbors and friends over government. We were never in favor of a war on drugs or treating families based on sex. Families know who they are better than government.
Historically we have been associated more with Republicans because of our quest for smaller government. Our problems with Republicans, however, are huge. Any problem that can be solved without abridging freedom or costing the taxpayer should be solved in that way.
Huge cutbacks in government we propose would be opposed by Republicans about law and order and the military. We are against the next war and the military industrial complex. Our military should be for our defense. Government should not be involved in personal decisions about sex, marriage, abortion or drugs. The State should not dictate to its citizens how to run their lives.
Democrats are socially liberal as a group, and therefore we naturally gravitate on social issues, but we do not believe in legislating too many issues. Transparency of government is a fundamental issue. Democrats make stupid laws to protect us all from annoying Republicans. Since our founding as a nation the American people have steadily become less and less free.
Optimism. Humanity is doing better than ever before in nearly every front, except our governments. Governments get more complicated and expensive without doing much more to help the governed. Government workers are hobbled in their attempts to effectively help our peoples by laws and policies that help and protect mainly the government workers themselves. Our attempts at saving the environment and providing necessary services to our peoples most often result in abridging liberty without any positive result. Far from their stated purposes, our new laws mainly protect lawmakers, lawyers, insurance companies and government workers who administer and enforce those laws and policies.
There are 25,000,000 government employees and only 2% are elected. Un-elected government workers are lobbyists for higher pay, better benefits and other perks for government employees. Libertarians are the only party who believes government should provide service on a non-profit basis. If the service is necessary taxpayers should have no problem paying for the service and understanding what they get for your money in transparent business transactions.
Government regulations often create industries with laws that require licensed professionals. There are too many government services required by law that force us to hire a class of professionals, like lawyers,, whose jobs are protected by laws, policies and tradition. Doing so makes our government king-makers. We need independent lay people who can help simplify the processes required by government to reduce costs and increase the effectiveness of government. We need fewer licensed professionals whose services are required by law. If government creates such a protected class of professionals the government should also provide a not-for-profit group of such professionals available to hire as well.
Our government was designed and built before the age of instant communication. Our offices and services are administered with policies, regulations and a work ethic that is outdated. Government does not use effective modern work methods that have been tried and proved in business. For example, our government offices keep high paid, educated, well informed service providers in offices during work hours when often a receptionist and email or computer terminal would provide better service and more access to the required expertise in a reasonable period of time, costing much less to the taxpayer.
Outside of government, whatever we put our minds to we accomplish. Polar bear and bee populations are up. We are presently carbon neutral and our rivers, lakes, oceans and bays have less pollution than they did centuries ago. And for centuries we have successfully shaped our environment for our purposes. Thankfully all of the alarmist predictions of doom until now have been wrong.
In many ways human purposes are accomplished in spite of the governments of the world. Although there is a lot of corruption most of us are good people who want to help but we are working in a corrupt system. Adversarial politics and self-serving confidentiality agreements put us at odds with each other and protect the greedy and corrupt. Our system seems designed to confuse and intimidate and keep us from knowing the lies and collusion which harms us all. Examples are limitless. Look at any lawsuit or plea bargain or tax deduction or new law and there is a story of confidential negotiations that helped only the professionals protected by confidentiality and resulted in a decision which costs the tax payer and did little to help the tax payer. Those who benefit are too often those who negotiate in confidence.
World governments serve a necessary purpose, protecting and helping to provide for humanity, but governments try to do much more than that, which is the heart of our political problem. Governments should help humanity solve its problems but in many cases government does little more than ensure that important information is hidden and confused and difficult to access while picking and choosing who is going to get rich when new laws and policies are instituted.
Practically it is not possible to roll back to the simpler days of the libertarian Founding Fathers. Our systems are set but do not address many of the modern the needs of the people. Government audits and regulates the huge profits of monopolies ostensibly because regulating and limiting profit is better because there is so much opposition to the government handling such things without profit. We pay for government regulated monopolies twice. Once for the services of monopoly and another time with tax dollars for the government to watch the monopoly.
Government requires insurances of many kinds thereby facilitating profits for insurance providers. And health care is available to anyone anywhere in the world by just showing up to a hospital or clinic. No provider will refuse to care for you, but in the US the charge for that care is the largest cause of personal debt and bankruptcy. Government must recognize and aid in facilitating reasonable health care, provide public utilities and maintain reasonable public services without creating profits for business at tax payer expense.
Health care and auto insurances are a cases in point. Our government does little more than force people to buy insurance in order to enrich insurers. New regulations on environment force people to buy services from a protected class of Licensed Environmental Professionals who can charge whatever they want and do little more that provide very expensive proof that very expensive cleanup is needed. If the government creates a monopoly or forces us to buy services from a regulated industry the government should then administer that monopoly or industry as a non-profit. Utilities and other monopolies, insurers, and licensed professionals are audited and regulated at the expense of the tax payer, This businesses are required by laws which facilitates the industry’s profits, the industry’s very existence, at the expense of the tax payer. Government forces us to pay whatever price the industry sets.
Government becomes the instrument of marketing and selling services whereby a favored class of people get richer and the tax payer pays. If government creates a monopoly government can also provide a not-for-profit provider of the services of the monopoly. There can be no fair competition if the government chooses who is going to get rich. If the government requires auto or heath insurance the government can provide auto or health insurance, for example. If private industry can do it more efficiently, good.
The entire Justice Industry is outmoded and unjust, reliant on bullying and intimidation and lying in order to settle disputes. Transparency is what is needed, a re-vamping and simplifying of a system where one might reasonably go to prison without ever having harmed or endangered another human being. Arcane rules of plea bargaining and adversaries arguing law and procedure over justice are at the root of the shocking costs of law enforcement to all of us in resources, well-being and insecurity.
If what I have said so far is not what you thought a Libertarian believes: Good.
We all know of stupid laws and we are all afraid that whatever we want to do might be illegal, or we have to overcome silly challenges by our government .to accomplish anything. Libertarians, like all people, recognize rules are needed, but whatever rules will solve a problem while allowing the people to keep the most rights and freedoms is the libertarian solution. Our test is whether a rule, policy or law will solve a problem while preserving human liberty and dignity. I venture to say not many of our laws can be characterized as such a rule, policy or law.
One well know trick of government is to add a layer of uncertainty to every service. Famous example: We don’t pay taxes on the value of our property, but rather we pay a mill rate. There is no reason for a mill rate, which is a tool to remove us one step from knowing the tax rate we are paying. The owner of a house worth $100,000 or a car worth $10,000 pays a percentage of the value, but that percentage is hidden behind the useless mill rate which only serves to confuse.
And much of all government is designed to protect Lawyers, Insurance Companies, Utilities and Banks. Simply everyone says “I can’t give you legal advice…” Why not? As if you will sue me if I tell you what I would do. And the law requires us to buy insurance. If we are required by law to pay it, we should be allowed to buy it from those who require it. The government should sell insurance if the government requires insurance. Otherwise the government is king-making, creating industries and rich businessmen that provide a government mandated service.
Look at all the monopolies: utilities, broadcasting, trash removal, aspects of banking, insurances, just about anything except not health care providers. They are not a monopoly so they can charge whaterver they want/ I don’t care if I pay the only government allowed monopoly or if I pay the government directly for those services. It seems to me reducing the regulation of monopolies is more efficient than regulating and auditing the monopoly for what services they must provide and then how much profit they can make doing it.
Require transparency to reduce government. There are thousands of untold examples of unethical but legal behavior in our businesses, and government, and especially the courts. Our law enforcement and civil justice industry relies for a large part on bullying and lies to settle disputes. We have the means without new laws to publicly sanction those who deliberately behave unethically for profit. We don’t need tax payer money, but civilian watch-dogs who can discover and publish the truth aided with government transparency.
We are so afraid someone will sue us or we are breaking a law when all we want is the truth. Lawyers lie, politicians lie, we expect the lies. So let’s keep a record of lies, of unethical business behavior, courtroom trickery, of fighting dirty. Maybe the people of the world want the unethical and the slimy captains of industry to lead us, but some of us think our government should be honest.
Let us see the confidential workings, the bullying and procedural tactics that impede justice in the justice industry. I would like to read and understand why a hospital charges me $590 for an office visit but accepts $183 from my insurance company as payment in full. If I did not have insurance I would have to pay three times the accepted fee and would have to go through bankruptcy to avoid paying it. Create a list of reasonable and customary rates the uninsured will be charged for health care and prescription drugs.
The same with vaccines. Sure small pox and measles and polio and all the well known vaccines are good for everyone. But whenever a new vaccine comes out like HPV or Shingles or even the annual flu vaccine government agencies effectively market these drugs with tax payer money. The government convinces a group of people who just believe that since it is a vaccine it must be good for everyone. It is a medicine, and many vaccines are not very effective medicines but the pharmaceutical industry which charges many times more for such medicines in the unregulated US market than they do in every other country is the most profitable industry in the world. And whether or not your vaccine is covered by your insurance you can bet your insurance company is not losing money either.
Public health, environmental issues, utilities and other monopolies all enjoy a special partnership with the government. The government spends tax payer money to recommend the services of these for-profit businesses. Perhaps the businesses are not mentioned by name, but our money advertises the benefits of buying things from these industries. They make a profit because of our tax dollars advertising their products. Prohibit government marketing of private industry concerns such as environment, utilities, health care, financial concerns, insurance, and broadcasting. Taxpayers should not pay to enrich business.
I am libertarian for the people, not libertarian for business and government. People should be free to be naked if they want to without having “predator” attached to their names for the rest of their lives. To climb on the roof and howl at the moon occasionally without going to prison. To be managed by their families and friends and neighbors and not put in the System, which only benefits the justice industry, lawyers, guards and insurances.
To make a bad situation worse, call the police. Involving the government is necessary by law, which is ironic, since involving the government is almost never the best choice to solve a problem.
The biggest monopoly in our country is the Justice Industry. Police, Judicial, Immigration, Intelligence, Prisons and involving Insurance, Education, Health Care, the Military… Judicial concerns touch every single aspect of our lives. Whether or not we are free is directly dependent upon whether or not the Judicial Industry is going to mess with us. If we are going to better manage and become a freer society our laws have to be simpler.
Health Care – Immigration – Education –