Archive for the ‘Libertarian’ Category

Trump’s Visa Ban Apparent Conflict of Interest – Being Libertarian (blog)

President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order Friday that suspended the entry of refugees into the United States for 120 days, and barred any form of entry from seven predominantly Muslim countries for 90 days.

The seven predominantly Muslim countries are Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

The Order creates an apparent conflict of interest, as none of the countries involved in these executive orders include countries where the Trump Organization does business. The Trump Organization has business in over 20 countriesacross the globe.

This seems to suggest that President Trump could be attempting to avoid making enemies with countries that his organization benefits from, and that he may use the presidency to pursue the advancement of the Trump Organization as opposed to the advancement of free markets.

Trump justified the Order by saying, we want to ensure that we are not admitting into the country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas. We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country, and deeply love our people.

While Trump has officially stepped down fromevery other office he holds, which number over 400, this doesnt separate him completely from the possibility of using his power to protect his business interests, especially since he put his sons Eric and Don Jr. in charge of the Trump Organization.

Libertarians were already suspicious of Trump due to the possibility of discrimination on the basis of religion. Trump hasalsostated that persecuted Christian refugees would get priority in entering the country.

If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible, said Trump in an interviewwith CBN News. And the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians. And I thought it was very, very unfair. So we are going to help them.

Just prior to signing the Order, Trump said that we must never forget the lessons of 9/11, nor the heroes who lost their lives at the Pentagon, yet he is leaving Saudi Arabia, the country that 15 of the 19 9/11 attackers came from, off of the visa ban list. The Trump Organization have sizable business intersets in Saudi Arabia.

Photo Credit: Daniel Huizinga

This post was written by Nicholas Amato.

The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.

Nicholas Amato is the News Editor at Being Libertarian. Hes an undergraduate student at San Jose State University, majoring in political science and minoring in journalism.

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Trump's Visa Ban Apparent Conflict of Interest - Being Libertarian (blog)

Libertarian Morality – The Liberty Conservative

During the Republican presidential primary in 2012, Saturday Night Live, in their parody of the debate, had a questioner ask the actor playing candidate Ron Paul as to whether he would rescue puppies from a burning building; to whit, he replied, No. Its none of my business.

Jokes, as Groucho Marx tells us, are opinions presented entertainingly. The portrayal of a heartless Paul is no doubt how the mainstream media views libertarianismas a kind of reckless freedom without consequences (even right-wingers like Dinesh DSouza have contributed to this perception).

But libertarianism does have a social conscience, as evidenced by its history.

Thomas Jefferson, in many ways the father of libertarianism, formulated an individualist philosophy whose paramount goal was not only protecting citizens from unwarranted state power, but also ensuring that elected officials represent everyone and not for special interests. Thus he argued that farmers should be in office rather than businessmen. For in Jeffersons mind, farmers were truly independent because they owned their own land and thus not in thrall to a landlord and a mortgage as were businessmen. Thus as politicians, farmers could not be bought; businessmen legislators could, especially from businesses they had invested in.

The immediate riposte to Jeffersons theory was that it was designed to protect his own interest as a slave-holder. But he was uncomfortably aware of how individualism-crushing the institution was for blacks and sought to end slavery. As a slaveholder, he was aware of how much the institution needed new territories to surviveand sought to contain it assuring its eventual collapse, by supporting the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 which did not allow slavery to extend west. As President, he added to his containment theory by ending the federal slave trade.

The bible of libertarians was and is F. A Hayeks The Road To Serfdom, published in the collectivist year of 1944. An Austrian economist who fled Hitler, Hayek wrote this defense of laissez-faire economics not to fatten wallets, but out of concerns for individual liberty. Planned economies, he asserted, weakened the desire for liberty and allowed the power-hungry in society government control, the result of which is the concentration camp and the Gulag. Hayeks preoccupation with individual liberty was so apparent that even socialists like George Orwell found value in the economists thesis.

Nor have libertarians been content to sit on the sidelines while great wrongs are occurring. Milton Friedman, an official in the Nixon administration, helped end a draft that was forcing young men into the cauldron of Vietnamso much for not saving puppies. Such moments like this have convinced even leftists like Christopher Hitchens of the value of the libertarian ideal.

One of the few perceptions both social conservatives and liberals share is that libertarianism has no morality. But as shown above, they have one; they just object to forcing it on other people, through laws and policies.

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Libertarian Morality - The Liberty Conservative

Tender For Tender – Being Libertarian (blog)

Taxation is theft is an oft-repeated phrase among libertarians, and one that is met with shock, disdain or ridicule from non-libertarians who have not thought about the subject very thoroughly, or who have never questioned the institutions and systems that govern our lives today. But as libertarians, we firmly and actively question the powers and even the very existence of the institutions that govern our lives and the system that gives them life. In keeping with that libertarian virtue, I would like to present a proposal, an alternative if you will, to the present monetary and financial system. I would like, specifically, to present an alternative proposal to the present system of taxation and public spending, which, of course, requires an alternative to our present system of banking and money creation.

In a truly libertarian society, there would be no taxation of any kind. The main purpose of taxation is to garner public funds for public spending. Of course, most of that public revenue goes to service interest on government borrowings. It may also be noted that it is immoral to take from the earnings of people, stealing from the fruits of their labours or ingenuity for whatever purpose or activity. And at the same time, just as it is ridiculous for a sovereign government to borrow money, I believe it is equally ridiculous for a sovereign government, under a fiat monetary system, to have to rely on taxation for funds to finance public works.

I believe in government issued fiat money; I do not believe gold or the gold standard would allow for mobility and prosperity in todays world because so much gold today is concentrated in so few hands, and central banks have helped to confiscate gold over to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for loans to their respective countries. So, let me present my simple and humble proposal for an alternative to the present monetary system, banking system, taxation and public spending. I hope I can keep it simple and I will do so in the following points:

I believe this is one way to fund public works and circulate money without debt or taxation, and it also provides a healthy way to check inflation and deflation. It also allows normal banking practices such as lending and depositing, but all private business must be transacted on the sole risk of the concerned parties. Hence, interest rates on deposits may even be 0, depending on the creativity and business skill of the concerned bank.

* Kitdor Halari Blah was raised and lives in Shillong, India, and is a graduate in commerce from St. Anthonys College. Presently serving in a Regional Rural Bank as Manager.

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Tender For Tender - Being Libertarian (blog)

COLUMN: Libertarian creates low-cost private schools – Indiana Daily Student

Businessman Bob Luddy has created a system of North Carolina private schools that cost less than the current public school system. We should strive to optimize public schools as efficiently as he has.

Luddy is the libertarian owner of CaptiveAire, The United States largest kitchen ventilation system manufacturer. When speaking with employees of his company, Luddy realized many of them didnt possess basic skills in math and science.

Because these employees werent equipped by their education, advancing through the companys ranks was extremely difficult.

Luddy decided the North Carolina public school system failed to prepare its students for the workforce, so he tried to convince school board officials to do something about the quality of public education.

While these bureaucrats were happy to listen to Luddys ideas, no one in the state government actually planned to do anything he suggested. He realized he couldnt get into the existing establishment when he ran for a school board position and lost in 1997.

After creating a successful charter school, Franklin Academy, Luddy decided the restrictions imposed on public schools would soon be extended to charter schools. These restrictions include mandates to have sports teams, bus transportation and other costs that can be easily avoided.

Realizing charter schools wouldnt be sustainably low-cost either, Luddy founded a system of inexpensive private schools named Thales Academy. It costs $5300 each year for elementary school and $6000 for middle and high school. Thales Academy is nonprofit.

Compared to the $9,300 spent per student in North Carolinas public schools, Luddys system seems like a breath of fresh air.

Were currently wasting money in our school systems on meaningless statistics like student-to-teacher ratios and ridiculous sporting areas tacked onto every new elementary school.

All fourth graders dont need immediate access to a hundred sports activities at the cost of their education and our tax dollars.

By creating a network of small schools that minimize superfluous cost, Luddy has managed to maximize the efficiency of education. For example, lets look at class sizes. Most North Carolina elementary schools randomly assign students of the same age to a class and try to keep that class size down to 15 for every teacher.

Luddys plan, however, sorts students into classes of 25 but makes sure that each class has nearly the same grasp on whatever is being taught. This keeps costs much lower than traditional schooling and streamlines the learning for every child.

This is the future of public education, or, at the very least, the beginning of its end. Luddys elegant, libertarian school design costs 57 percent of traditional public education per student. We are wasting tax dollars on a bad education.

dylmoore@umail.iu.edu

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COLUMN: Libertarian creates low-cost private schools - Indiana Daily Student

A libertarian plan to improve our airports – Rare.us

President Trump has promised to add a plan to improve American airports to his infrastructure proposal. Libertarian minded citizens are looking to Washington to both improve our airports by decentralizing control of airports, relying more on user fees and respecting travelers privacy rights.

Time and time again, we as Americans have felt helpless as weve watched the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) physically and clumsily invade our personal privacy at the airport and the privacy of those around us. All while they continue to miss glaring red flags transpiring all around them that are deeply impacting our country.

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Just last month, while in the Fort Lauderdale airport two days before the terrorist attack on the airport, killing five people the TSA stopped me due to the fact that the book in my purse was too thick and needed further inspection. The man behind me in line laughed, as he overheard, and informed me he was carrying fireworks in his bag that the TSA had not detected. The self-righteous libertarian in me nearly imploded. This is not an isolated incident, this is a daily and possible deadly occurrence. The issue of airport security in our country needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later, and this next administration plans to deal with the issue as soon as they are in office.

With TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger stepping down because of the end of President Obamas term, the time has truly come for President Trump to drain the swamp.

Trump has proposed a few ideas that I believe libertarians should be in favor of.

Currently, libertarians are concerned with the amount that taxpayers are going be forced to foot the bill of when it comes to Trumps infrastructure plan to rebuild Americas airports, roads, and bridges. The fiscally-conservative libertarian favors user-fees, as well as devolving the federal responsibilities over the airports and roads to local control.

While of course, the first thing that Congress should undertake to fix when dealing with the airports is fixing the overzealous and egregiously expensive screening administered by TSA. Every day, the TSA violates the privacy of Americans by treating them as if they are presumed terrorists. We stand there as if we are criminals, and not the free men and women our founding fathers had every intention of us being.

Over the last eight years, we have heard time and time again that the TSA is not doing an exemplary job of screening passengers, yet they continue to employ over 44,000 security officers. The TSAs sole job is to intercept items that could cause a security threat, yet the resounding issue continues to be that anybody who has traveled in the past few months feels violated every time they pass through security as attacks on airports continue to occur.

As for the funding of infrastructure improvements, the Cato Institute is promoting the libertarian idea of Privatizing U.S. Airports. Robert W. Poole Jr. and Chris Edwards make the case for a reduction in federal intervention and a push toward a greater reliance on the private sector to fund, own, and operate the nations infrastructure. These are consistent with libertarian ideas that promote safety and peace-of-mind for travelers alike. Libertarians would like to dismantle the high federal taxes imposed on air travel that is used to improve airports; and allow local airports to collect fees to improve infrastructure on their own.

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Libertarians need to look to the members of the House Transportation Committee like Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Mark Sanford (R-SC) who can guide the legislation in the direction of decentralization and to get the federal government out of the business of treating all Americans as if they are terrorists.

Congress will have a once in a lifetime opportunity to shrink government when they consider the infrastructure bill that will touch on air travel. Liberty based ideas that promoted decentralization and a less invasive taxes and security checks could make air travel great again.

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A libertarian plan to improve our airports - Rare.us