Issues&Solutions
Topics below apply libertarian principles to social issues; more libertarian views can be accessed on the Home Page, Menu Pages, Archives, and Blogroll links; bios of libertarians are on the Who’sWho page. We hope you’ll enjoy discovering peaceful, innovative solutions with us. Update 6-11-11 INFRASTRUCTURE/ROADS: A contest between the bureaucracy-as-usual half of a city and its free other half; 6-7-11: NATURAL DISASTERS: how bureaucratic roadblocks slow recovery; POVERTY: bureaucracy bars people-to-people help; 6-6-11 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, new article; 6-5-11 EDUCATION/SCHOOLS: Alternatives to federal system; 5-28-11 LEGAL SYSTEM/COURTS: Why the legal system serves up injustice and lawlessness.
Drug Wars & Prohibitions: For two reasons libertarians reject any prohibition of substances for adults: 1. Freedom of every individual to make personal choices that harm no one else; 2. Peaceful pursuit of liberty is breached by force of law to restrain individual choice. This VIDEO covers the issue well; sadly it is produced by Russia Today in the U. S., rather than by an American mainstream broadcast network, so few citizens will see it.
Economy: Libertarians reject the use of government force advocated by other political views. Coerced people do not work as productively as free individuals. This is evident in free economies vs controlled economies; freer societies are more prosperous. Some libertarians advocate voluntary socialism, in localities where homogeneous values can unite and inspire productive common efforts. Many libertarians are influenced by the Austrian School of Economics, which is based on study of real-life human behavior. Other economic systems are based on theoretical models, versions of Keynesian or state-socialism; since they work against natural human nature, they require increasingly authoritarian control in attempts to offset inefficiency and failures. For articles and books on economics, see this site’s Economics and Resources categories; an excellent study course on Austrian Economics is HERE. “An economy with a complex financial system like the present banking system…which depends on the government monopoly of the supply of money, will be prone to cycles and crises even with the best of management. Without a foundation of sound money, cycles are inevitable and destructive of economic well being and of freedom. Joseph T. Salerno’s Money, Sound and Unsound; full review here. And a quick video below shows how government regulations suppress start-ups and job creation:
Education/Schools: Monopoly and bureaucracy have all but killed education in America. Statistically home schooled children outperform public-educated children, and families are strengthened by having children more at home and less influenced by peer pressures. Illiteracy rates have increased each decade since the federal government took charge of public education. HERE is a trailer for the documentary Cartel, that dramatically shows the failures of public education. To offset lack of innovation in government schools, an international wiki open source K-12 curriculum community of educators is generating free resources to empower families and educators with up-to-date methodology and less government bias. Update 6-5-11: The Montessori education method is educationally more successful and compatible with child development than the ossified public system,
Federal Reserve system and Central Banking: Prominent international economist Hans-Hermann Hoppe puts it succinctly in an interview by the Daily Bell: “Central banks are one of the greatest mischief-makers of our time. They…have been responsible for destroying the gold standard…and replacing it, since 1971, with a pure paper money standard (fiat money). Since then central banks can create money virtually out of thin air. More paper money cannot make a society richer, of course – it is just more printed paper. Otherwise, why is it that there are still poor countries and poor people around? But more (fiat paper) money makes its monopolistic producer (the central bank) and its earliest recipients (government, government-connected banks and their major clients) richer at the expense of making the money’s late receivers (all the rest of us –LS editor) poorer.” He further points out: 1. With unlimited power to produce paper fiat money, the central banks can fund unlimited spending on wars and economic boondoggles; 2. It can corrupt economists and money experts by putting them on its unlimited public payroll to serve as propagandists for more spending and centralized power; 3. the banks can force low interest rates that replaces prudent private investment with publicly-funded, least credit-worthy financial adventurism and bubbles; 4. the inevitable result is inflation and risk of hyper-inflation with resulting severe losses to all savers, pensioners, productive producers, and destruction of the economy and money system.
Foreign Policy: Most wars are built on lies, forced taxation, debt, and conscription. ”Deciders,” safe in guarded offices and palaces, issue death sentences to expendable soldiers, and to countless innocents. Libertarian writing on foreign policy is extensive: investigative, factual history that differs from “official” history taught by co-opted schools; analysis of militarism; and suggestions for peaceful, mutually beneficial trade and negotiation. An example of historic re-examination is this article by Robert Higgs. A libertarian theory of war is stated HERE, by the grand old theorist Murray Rothbard. Libertarians never wavered during the Bush/Obama wars; for many years, antiwar.com has been the best new source for US foreign policy information. Obama supporters were misled by wishful thinking, but there is new hope for a transpartisan antiwar coalition. Self-described liberal Tom Engelhardt often is published on libertarian websites. The antiwar American Conservative magazine posted a rave review of Englehardt’s new book, The American Way of War, which even-handedly examines the 2-party pro-war establishment.
Governance: natural or hierarchical? This is one of the great debates in libertarian circles, the arguments ranging from variants on small, constitutional government through minarchism, panarchism, competitive but cooperative voluntary governance, to peaceful, responsible strains of anarchy. Throughout LibertarianSavvy, thinkers weigh in from the various factions, and a new Page has been added at the top of the front page for this single topic. Professor Alfred G. Cuzan asks a fundamental question in an essay HERE: no matter what type of governance exists, “Do We Ever Really Get Out of Anarchy?”
Guns/Firearms: Libertarians are among the most peaceful people on the planet because they live by the Non-aggression Principle as a personal and political ethic. Some libertarians choose pacifism even in event of aggression, relying on passive defenses of caution, avoidance, etc. And some add active defense preparedness, martial arts or weapons training, reasoning that police cannot always be on the spot when needed. This article states the case for those in the latter group that choose firearms training for defense.
Health Care: Since every individual is the sole owner of his/her own body, coercive medical procedures and government intrusion into medical care are opposed by libertarians. From licensing of doctors to approval of drugs, government restricts individual choice in types of health care, by creating monopolies and outlawing alternatives to “approved” modalities. Monopolies and regulations raise the cost of health care, reward special interests and industries, and distort medical care in favor of expensive chronic care of diseases that could be avoided by education of people for healthier lifestyle choices. Abortion: Libertarians have diverse personal views of abortion but are united by opposition to federal control, that is both unconstitutional and requires a police state to regulate an entire nation of individuals with conflicting moral views. Some Constitutionalist libertarians suggest that individual state legal systems might determine one unresolved question: the mother’s rights are clear, but at what point is a fetus considered a person with natural rights? Many libertarians think no agency of force can successfully determine moral issues for a diverse populace, instead advocating education, social mores to encourage personal responsibility, and voluntary community support for needy moms rather than abdication of moral responsibility in favor of authoritarian dictates and institutions. FDA Criminalization of Diet Choice: Like all federal bureaucracies, the FDA’s top priority is its own welfare and budget. The agency has swollen and become militarized to the point that it is waging war on small farmers and producers. The revolving door for FDA officials and BigAg/Food Corporations is well documented, widespread poor health is due to dependency on industry “experts” paid to promote profitable processed foods and medicines. Consumers and quality producers of natural products are fighting a grassroots information war with the vast bureaucracy of control. One example is HERE. Psychiatry: Thomas Szasz, Dr. and Professor of psychiatry, has opposed over-medicalization and coerced incarceration of patients for decades. He asserts that much of the profitable industry of psychiatry relies on dubious behavior profiling rather than rigorous scientific analysis of biological brain dysfunction. His books and academic works are listed at http://www.szasz.com/ And Dr. Dan L. Edmonds blogs and works for humane care at danledmunds.blogspot.com
Infrastructure/Roads: The government taxes incomes and inflates the dollar to fund flashy bribes such as a vast highway system (originally built to expedite military traffic) to justify its theft and buy votes. People can see benefits, but the harm accumulates invisibly for decades. Government control distorts the economy and limits innovation and choices. Update 6-11-11: HERE’S is the result when half of an Indian city serviced by government is compared to the half with few government services This ARTICLE explains why most countries enjoy more efficient diesel engine cars while we’re still stuck with combustion engine. Many libertarian theorists and economists have shown that communities and competing investors would fund better and far more diverse transportation systems; HERE’S one example.
Income Tax: Many libertarians oppose all involuntary taxation, especially income taxes; but many support pooling of resources for defense, coinage, and constitutional functions. Libertarian socialists advocate local systems of voluntary sharing of resources. All object to forced taxation that funds tyranny, as in domestic wars against peaceful people (marijuana or raw milk users,) aggressive foreign wars, and funding of dictators around the world (UPDATE 2-3-11 this ARTICLE highlights a very few of the dictators funded and armed by the U.S). Michael Rozeff clarifies, HERE, that objecting to involuntary, territorially-based servitude does not require abolishing the government of others…not ending coerced taxation of all persons, but the release of those forced to fund tyrannical policies.
IP/Pirates/OpenSource: Stephen Kinsella is an intellectual property lawyer and libertarian theorist whose Against Intellectual Property argues that intellectual property laws create monopolies and impede innovation and progress. This video gives an overview of the ways internet piracy is both problematic and beneficial. Update 6-6-11: Sheldon Richman hopes to clear up confusion in his new article: Slave Labor and Intellectual Property; Incubate Pirate Conference #1: Matt Mason Keynote from Incubate Festival on Vimeo. 1-30-11: Citizen radio used to be popular, with micro niches and variety for all. Then the government declared itself the gatekeeper; small broadcasters were blocked, and corporates took over the airwaves. This video shows why pirate radio is important for us today:
Internet Freedom: UPDATE 2-3-11: A voluntary coalition of hackers rallied by the human rights and freedom hacktivists Anonymous, are challenging dictators and those complicity with human rights abusers. Can voluntarily, decentralized efforts by private ‘net users effectively counterbalance the armed might and violence of militaristic regimes?
Legal System/Courts: There is a fundamental conflict in the structure of a federal legal system. Originally designed as three branches of government checks-and-balances, federal courts along with Congress have devolved into rubber stamps of the all-powerful administrative branch. Injustice is widespread, the rule of law has been abandoned, centuries of natural rights and law have been lost. It is us to us to either elect Constitutional representatives to mend the damage, or nullify the cancerous spread of government laws and tyranny.
Military: Voluntary contracts can entail periods of enforced obligation, such as military service. The Bradley Manning case today highlights abuse of contract terms by a military elite, argue Andrew Mason and Mark Crovelli: “In essence, then, the document classification system in the United States has warped into an instrument of intimidation against average, conscientious soldiers who might be appalled by their superiors’ words or deeds. Superior officers and civilian bureaucrats can preempt dissent by simply stamping incriminating documents “secret,” and use that tiny word as a threat against conscientious soldiers that they had better keep their mouths shut – or else. This threat is all the more unconscionable while two wars are going on that are killing average American soldiers, not political and military elites, in droves. When lies are used to get American soldiers killed, and soldiers are intimidated to preempt the exposure of those lies, you have a recipe for tragedy on a massive scale.” Full article HERE. Military recruitment personnel often entrap the young with blatant lies, as this important VIDEO shows.
Natural Disasters: Hurricane Katrina, the shoddy levees that flooded New Orleans, and martial law targeting the people were full-scale warnings that federal disaster planning is itself a disaster. The book Zeitoun is a chilling true story of how horrendous the government’s actions were; and this ARTICLE also explains the technical ineptness by the same Army Corps of Engineers today responsible for new flooding of vast stretches of this country. Update 6-7-11: After a recent Minneapolis tornado, the city bureaucracy barred a tree trimmer and volunteers from removing fallen trees blocking driveways and streets for free; then fined him.
9/11: Independents continue investigating the many discrepancies and errors found in the official 9/11 report, at no cost to the taxpayers. Government investigations inevitably cover up official error and hold no one accountable. Aside from continuing questions, 9-11 gave rise to “the mother of all boondoggles,” which continue great harm to America: Full article HERE.
Nonviolence Against Tyranny: The Albert Einstein Institution has compiled a LIST of 24 cases of nonviolent struggles in the last century, and many more have occurred; some have been major successes, while others have failed, and the results of still others may take time before the outcome is known. Nonviolent action is a global phenomenon that cuts across ethnic, cultural divisions; with the recent tool of the internet and social networking, people are strategically empowered and we can hope for additional successes against tyranny.
Patriot Act: This misnamed Act allows unrestrained search, surveillance, seizure of assets, and arrest of citizens and legal immigrants, with no recourse to legal protection. Supported since its inception by the majority of both parties in Congress, the Patriot Act enables police state tyranny. Details HERE.
Personal Choice: Libertarians consider it morally wrong for anyone (including government agents) to coerce peaceful individuals. Marijuana/Drug Wars/Raw Milk/Prohibition: Libertarians oppose prohibitions since they limit the free choice of individuals to decide for themselves what to grow and consume, or to honestly sell or trade. Sellers of fraudulent or contaminated products would be liable for damages. Marriage: Since a marriage is between free individuals, no license or permission is needed. All laws must apply equally to all persons without bias. Sexual/Gender issues: Consenting adults may choose any peaceable lifestyle, and no other person may interfere. Unjust laws may constitutionally be nullified, as is happening in several states that are overturning Federal marijuana laws by refusing to prosecute or convict; this book REVIEW of Tom Woods’ Nullification by is a helpful explanation.
Poverty: Government programs trap many people they are supposed to help, in red tape that blocks their transition to productive employment. Meanwhile the bureaucracy asserts its monopoly and control of aid.
Racial Discrimination: Walter William’s new book is Up From the Projects; in this VIDEO interview he talks of his personal experiences and the greater difficulties faced by black youths after decades of government laws, subsidies, and public schooling weakened the black community and blocked access to gaining skills for entry into good jobs. Rose Wilder Lane, considered a founding mother of libertarianism, wrote books, articles, and a column for the most widely-read American black newspaper, The Pittsburgh Courier, in which she combined antiracism and advocacy of liberty. She compared judging individuals by skin color as similar to Communists who assign guilt or virtue on the basis of class. As in all of libertarianism, people are valued and judged as individuals, not as similar units of collectivized groups, of any type.
Social Security: Like all big government programs, this one too is bankrupt. Not only demographics sunk it, but its collected funds were never kept secure for future recipients. Tom Mullens explains how the people were scammed HERE.
Terrorism: In the 2008 presidential race, preliminary candidate Ron Paul came to national attention by explaining the concept of “Blowback,” but the Republican and Democrat nominees both advocated continued wars of aggression abroad and Patriot Act violations of civil liberties at home. This VIDEO by the leading expert on suicide terrorism explains why the U.S. war on terrorism has failed, exactly for the reason stated by Ron Paul, and how the threats can be effectively ended.
TSA/Homeland Security: Government agencies rely on involuntary taxes, monopoly power that bars individuals from competing to offer better service, and threat of fines, jail, or worse. But is security one case where government monopoly is valid? Libertarians look beyond the status quo and ask: 1. What are root causes of security threats, and how can those be eliminated? Barring deranged perpetrators, attacks have been retaliation for perceived injustices. 9-11 attackers acted to revenge US meddling in Saudi affairs; other attempted attacks echoed similar Blowback. Ending US empire will stop fresh provocations, as historian Robert Higgs shows in this analysis. 2. Is the government the most efficient, reliable safeguard for people’s security? Investigators find repeated patterns of negligence in Security and Intelligence, with anomalies in data prior and after 9-11 and other attempted attacks. This article by Cristian Gherasim explores the alternative of private security rather than Federal one-size-fits-all airport security mandates. More foreign policy solutions can be found in our website’s Foreign Policy, Resources, and Tyranny categories.