Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The best of the worst...

I wrote this back in January about a Reason Magazine article on Indiana's Asset Forfieture Laws and its relevence in Richmond.

In a follow up article that I discoverd today in Reason Magazine, and subsequently on their website, author Radley Balko points out that only one county in Indiana is even coming close to complying with the law, which requires that the questionably seized assets must be turned over to the school fund.

Our own Wayne County qualifies for that dubious honor.

I'm reminded of the scene from the Paul Newman movie, "Cool Hand Luke", when one of the guards put Luke in "the box" for the night, and apologized that he was only doing his job, to which Luke replied,

"Yeah boss, that don't make it right."

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Under the bus....

Imagine for a moment that you were standing in St. Louis, and wanted to travel to Boston. Checking with the Blue Bus Company, you discovered that their only bus was headed for Seattle at 70 MPH, and checking with the Red Bus Company, you found that their only bus was headed for Seattle at 50 MPH . When you protested that you didn't really want to go to Seattle, the Red Bus driver replied, "Well, at least we won't take you where you don't want to go as fast as the Blue Bus ."

We are approaching another election season, and those who vote will get to help decide which direction our country will be heading in the next few years. Certainly if you approve of the direction we are currently headed, and want to get there as quickly as possible, voting for the philosophy espoused by the Democratic Party is the best way to get there. If you approve of where we are headed, but want to get there a little slower, or just with a different driver, the Republican Party offers that option. (Those who don't believe that should check the growth of government and its debt under the last few Republican administrations.)

If, however, you want to reverse the growth of government instead of simply slowing that growth, and if you want to change the direction of government back to one of personal freedom and personal responsibility, you have the option of voting for the Libertarians. This year the Libertarian Party of Indiana is fielding over 100 candidates, along with the national LP fielding 168 candidates for the U.S. House, and 20 for the U.S. Senate.

Sometimes it's not enough just to take your foot off of the gas. Sometimes you have to turn the wheel.


Thursday, September 02, 2010

Well then, don't do that!!!!...

Last Valentine's Day I bought each of my grandchildren a teddy bear. They were fairly simple teddy bears, claiming to contain no toxic chemicals or choking hazards. And they weren't very expensive, and I thought the kids might enjoy them when they came over to spend the night at Grandma and Papaw's.

When I gave the bears to them, my oldest granddaughter, Hannah, who is 4, said, "Thanks, Papaw. What does it do?" I proceeded to tell her that it was a teddy bear, and that it didn't do anything. She gave me that same look of disbelief that I get when I tell her we're out of popsicles.

I get that same look a lot when somebody asks me about the Libertarian plan for funding some of their favorite existing government programs, and I tell them Libertarians don't have any plans on funding some of their favorite existing government programs.

That's not to say that Libertarians believe that government shouldn't do anything. Libertarians believe that government should protect peoples' rights, and protect them from force and fraud. And if the government is going to collect taxes to build and maintain roads, they think that money ought to be spent building and maintaining roads. And if the government is going to collect taxes for education, then that money ought to spent on education. It's not very good at doing much more than that.

Anytime the government tries to do more than that, it ends up costing the taxpayers a lot of money. The government recently decided it was going to do something to create some jobs. It didn't do very well. It spent about $160 billion to create about 640,000 jobs, or about $250,000.00 per job. It could do better. If it really wanted to help create jobs, the best thing government could do to is to get out of the way of the private sector and let it create the jobs. That's where the real jobs come from anyway, and as long as no one is being subjected to force or fraud, the government should just sit there out of the way, and don't do anything. Kind of like a teddy bear.

I get a lot of questions from people about what Libertarians would have the government do about retirement. I think one of the best things we can do is consider what the government has already done about retirement.

The government, at the federal, state, and local level, has borrowed and spent from Social Security and pension funds, leaving trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities, and is depending on the generosity or submission of future generations of taxpayers to cover the shortfalls and make the payments when they come due. Some of those payments will fund the retirements of government employees who can draw payments for 50 years after working only 30. How much better off would current and future generations be if people looked after their own retirement, instead of expecting the government to do it for them?

Some things the government does ought to last forever. The natural rights government should protect transcend generations. The debt it incurs shouldn't.

We have a lot to do when it comes to fixing how our government operates. Some of those solutions involve getting government to do what it should do, better. And some of those solutions involve getting government to stop doing things it shouldn't.

Over the next couple of months I'll be offering up some ideas on how we can make government do more of what it should do and less of what it shouldn't do.

That's what Libertarians do.