Thoughts on Freedom

Just came across this post on differing libertarian strategies that I thought some of you might find interesting. Here’s the first part:

Libertarian thinkers can be plotted on many axes. Presently, the axis I am most concerned with is Policy Libertarianism vs. Structural Libertarianism.

Policy Libertarians (PLs) include the vast majority of the most visible organizations and writers in the modern libertarian movement: the Reason Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Ron Paul campaign, the LP, the Constitution Party, most libertarian economists (e.g. Milton Friedman), and single-issue organizations like Students for a Sensible Drug Policy. PLs, as their name suggests, focus their energies on inventing and advocating a list of policies that governments should follow. For example, you can find policy libertarians opposing liberal eminent domain laws, fighting for lower taxes and deregulation, supporting cultural tolerance, opposing invasive police searches, and advocating the rest of the familiar libertarian manifesto.

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Every morning I wake up, check my news feed, and read stories of extreme doom and gloom about the “next generation”. Oh the kids these days! Of course, I usually ignore most of these doomsayer ramblings, yet one story from last week struck a chord with me.

It was a Newsweek piece reporting on a recent study that found that the creativity of American under-18’s, steadily rising throughout history until1 1990, has since then “consistently inched downward”, with the decline most prevalent amongst children of primary school age. The commentariat have been quick to blame “video games” and the educational curriculum for this decline, but I am not so sure. Instead, I propose a different thesis. I suspect that it is our modern culture of isolating and protecting our children from every conceivable risk, any possible danger, anything that might possibly cause them any form of momentary unhappiness, that is to blame. That by “protecting” our children, we have inadvertently killed their souls, and are creating a society not of men, but of zombie drones.

Allow me to explain. We now live in a country that is based upon risk-minimisation to the extreme. It is now viewed as legitimate for our government to do everything to minimise any potential negative effects on our lives, even if we enter them of our free volition (just think of the war on obesity, on smoking, on alcohol and so on). The nanny state rules supreme, and it is only natural that such a protective mindset is applied to the youngest of our society – to an even greater degree in fact. Yet I ask – at what cost? Read more »

Then do the Libertarian Purity Test and see just how hardcore you really are!

Created by Bryan Caplan, it is “intended to measure how libertarian you are. It isn’t intended to be any sort of McCarthyite purging device — just a form of entertainment, hopefully thought-provoking. I like it a lot better than the more famous “World’s Shortest Political Quiz” because I haven’t stated the questions with any intent to give an upward bias to a test-taker’s score, and because it gives a clearer breakdown between hard and soft-core libertarians. Enjoy, suggest your friends try it out, and see how you compare to other test-takers…”

So, just how Libertarian are you?

(I scored an even 100 out of a possible 160)

(With the recent lack of posts, I thought to keep you all occupied I’d repost this, originally published at Americans For Tax Reform)

Since the rising prosperity brought about by economic freedom, with increased growth, increased living standards, and more jobs around the world, didn’t exactly fit the left-wing narrative, some leftist commentators have changed track. Instead of talking about the economy, they talk about ‘happiness’. “Yes” they say “we might be more wealthy, but we’re unhappy“.

Well, we can now happily tell the left to worry no more – because if you want to make people happier, thencut taxes! The fact that high taxes make people unhappy isn’t exactly rocket science. I mean, if the government takes money away from someone who earned it, and gives it to someone who didn’t (taking 20% in bloated perks for itself in the process), the person who earned the money is bound to be annoyed. This is tax refugees are fleeing high-taxing states in droves.

But earlier this week, a new study as proven conclusivly what we have been saying all along – controlling forall other factors, living in a high taxing state makes you statistically significantly more unhappy than living in a low tax state.

Using data from the 2005-2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and a 2003 economics paper examining quality-of-life indicators, economists regressed the subjective measure of well-being (how people rate their satisfaction) against the objective measure (states’ quality-of-life rankings based on compensating differentials).

The findings as to why some people are happy, and some are unhappy?

High taxes seem to be a big reason—ostensibly an even bigger reason than weather given that California is one of the unhappiest states and inclement Louisiana is the happiest. Further, considering how much New York’s crime rate has dropped and schools have improved in the last decade, taxes seem to overwhelm even these two critical factors in the happiness equation. According to the Tax Foundation 2008 analysis, three of the top five unhappiest states—New York, Connecticut and New Jersey—have the highest state-local tax burdens. On the other hand, four of the top five happiest states—Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee and Arizona—are among the states with the lowest state-local tax burdens

As the article concludes, taxes may not be the root of all unhappiness, but they do result in some very sad citizens. So the way to happiness is precisely what we’ve been saying all along – CUT TAXES!