The US commerce clause
In America, like Australia, the federal government has been intentionally mis-interpreting the constitution in order to take ever more powers from the State governments and the people. One of their main tricks is to mis-use the commerce clause. The intent of the clause was to prevent the different states of America from imposing trade restrictions on each other, but it is now used to regulate any activity of business. This extends to regulating growing of wheat on your own property for your own consumption. Reason TV tells the full story…
Changes to the blog
As you may have noticed, there have been a few changes to the ALS blog. I have kept the same template, but now we have (1) an RSS feed from a few libertarian websites; (2) no other links on this page, but a link through to a complete set of Australian libertarian links; (3) only five posts on the front page of the blog; (4) multi-layered comments; and (5) a link so that people can subscribe to the blog.
In addition, I have changed the authority on the blog. There remains four “admins”, which are the three executive positions (Tim Andrews, Terje Petersen, John Humphreys) and the person who set up this website (Sukrit Sabholk). There are two “authors”, who are the regular bloggers Jim Fryar and Fleeced. And all irregular bloggers have been kept on as “contributors”, who will need to have their posts approved before they are posted to the website. When/if contributors become regular posters, they can be upgraded to “authors”.
Comments on the look of the blog, of the structure of the two websites (including the main ALS page), and who else should be added as an “author” or “contributor” are very welcome.
The rise and fall of community welfare
[Cross-posted at my personal blog http://johnhumphreys.com.au]
In the long and complicated debate about welfare systems, there is one element that I think is of particular interest and yet is under-appreciated and unknown to many people: community welfare societies.
By “community welfare” I do not mean private charity, or help from friends, or even social business. All of those are important and positive elements of civil society, but when talking of “community welfare” I mean the coming together of people into mutual societies where everybody contributes and everybody benefits. In effect, I mean a collection of non-government societies that work very much like a mini welfare state.
The federalist argument against the mining tax
[Cross posted at my personal website -- johnhumphreys.com.au]
There are lots of good reasons to be opposed to the proposed new mining tax — because it increases the size of government, because it punishes explorers and innovative businessmen for the “crime” of success, because it will hurt the industry with flow on consequences to jobs and investment funds, and because it increases the political risk of investing in Australia.
But one of my major concerns with this proposed new tax is that it further undermines and damages our federal system of government.
Canberra libertarian dinners
Since April 2002, the Australian Libertarian Society (ALS) has been hosting regular dinners in Canberra where libertarians could socialise, drink & debate. I stopped organising them when I left Canberra at the end of 2004, but thankfully the dinners have continued.
The next dinner will be on Wednesday the 2nd of June in O’Connor, with a guest appearance by the ex-President of the NZ Libertarianz Party Russell Watkins. If you are interested in going, please contact Dr John Fallon (john@economicinsights.com.au, 0419 171 634).
Now that I’m back in Brisbane I’ll be organising occasional libertarian dinner & drinks sessions. If you would like to be involved, please contact me (john.humphreys99@gmail.com, 0404 044561).
The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) also arranges regular libertarian meetings around the country. Coming meetings include Brisbane (1 June), Melbourne (2 June), Adelaide (9 June), and Sydney (17 June). Details on the website.
If you would like to get involved, please feel free to contact an existing group or set up your own. Or if you know of other libertarian meet-ups around Australia, please let us know the details.
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Catallaxy Files- Labor lost the economic debateLenore Taylor in the SMH. One of the first fights inside the ALP will be about why it so comprehensively lost the economic debate during the election campaign. Very senior figures are asking why Labor didn’t talk louder and sooner about its achievements in managing the country through the global economic crisis. With the national [...]
- Open Forum September 4, 2010
- Wots this then?Peter Martin has set out the types of ‘error’ Treasury identified in the Coalition policy costings. The Charter of Budget Honesty sets out guidelines for election costings, in order to make sure they are done on the same basis. One forbids the counting of proceeds from expected ”second-round effects” such as a saving on the [...]
- Labor lost the economic debate
- Andrew Norton
- Graduates three years onGraduate Careers Australia has released Beyond Graduation 2009, a follow-up survey three years on of graduates they first surveyed in 2006. A few points of interest on topics of particular interest to me: * The proportion of their sample who were overseas had doubled from 3.2% to 6.8%, which means that they will not be [...]
- How well-known are think-tanks?I received a letter today from John Roskam, executive director of the Institute of Public Affairs, outlining the organisation’s recent successes (and it has indeed flourished under his leadership). He included with the letter what I think is the first ever survey of think-tank name recognition. Though as John points out in the letter the [...]
- The financial benefits of higher educationThe ABS has an interesting new publication out today on the financial benefits of higher education. ABS anlayst Hui Wei uses data from the 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006 censuses to provide estimates of rates of return for investment in higher education. In the figure below, the rates are based on post-tax earnings [...]
- Graduates three years on
- IPA news
- Government: who needs it? September 2, 2010The election result isn't all bad. If you own shares, you shouldn't be unhappy we don't have a government yet. That's...
- Gillard likely to cop expansive Green agenda August 31, 2010Julia Gillard says that neither party has convinced Australia that it alone has won the right to govern and that "our...
- The cost of fighting the cost of living August 31, 2010Despite both major parties claiming they'll fight to stop increases in the cost of living, neither are likely to deliver...
- Government: who needs it? September 2, 2010
