Voice For Liberty

Tag: Role of government

  • Articles of Interest

    Obama’s volunteer corps, Kansas cigarette taxes, U.S. Auto industry, Austrian economics

    The Rise of ObamaCorps (Americans for Limited Government) “Unless the Blue Dogs can muster enough support to halt Speaker Pelosi’s march to madness, the American taxpayer will have to pony up another $5 billion for paid ‘volunteers’ (an oxymoron if there ever was one) to politically-oriented organizations, the aims of many of which they will invariably oppose.”

    Study documents historic trend of decreased state tax revenues following cigarette tax increases “This study clearly shows that raising cigarette taxes simply drives Kansas consumers to other states to purchase tobacco products,” said AFP-Kansas state director Derrick Sontag. “It clearly results in lower cigarette tax revenues, not because more people are quitting, but because people go elsewhere to avoid paying those higher per-pack taxes. … We hope this document will show to lawmakers that raising cigarette taxes is an ineffective deterrent to smoking and that it is simply unwise to fund government programs with revenue that is likely to dwindle once the new tax takes effect.”

    Detroit’s Fate Sealed in West Wing (Wall Street Journal) Describes President Obama and his team’s involvement in the remaking of General Motors. “Mr. Rattner broke the news to [General Motors CEO] Mr. Wagoner at his office at the Treasury, according to an administration official. Afterward, Mr. Rattner met with Mr. Henderson, and told him he would take over as GM’s CEO.” The president plans to put some of his own staff into the auto companies. We can be sure that as the president and his team assert more control over GM and Chrysler, Congress will want to get in on the act too.

    The Obama Autoworks: At GM and Chrysler, politics is now Job One (Wall Street Journal) More analysis of just how bad things are likely to get now that the American automobile industry — at least GM and Chrysler — is on the road to nationalization. “Bankruptcy or not, the larger problem here is Washington’s industrial policy. Even if Chrysler merges and GM restructures, Mr. Obama wants the companies to make the kind of cars the political class favors, whether or not consumers want to buy them. ‘The United States of America will lead the world in building the next generation of clean cars,’ the President said yesterday. He didn’t mention a goal of profitability. … Mr. Obama’s industrial policy vision runs directly counter to a strategy that would get the companies back to profitability as soon as possible. … All of which is to say that the taxpayer commitment to the Obama autoworks is only getting started.”

    Austrians Can Explain the Boom and the Bust (Robert P. Murphy at the Ludwig von Mises Institute) An Austrian explanation of the recent boom and bust cycle, including the Austrian model of the structure of capital. Interest rates, as it turns out, are very important.

  • Welcome to Washington

    I am not entirely sure it is not, but my personal impression is that nothing makes people more cynical about government than working for it. I have never heard a libertarian speak about the futility of most government departments the way American and foreign officials often do in restaurants or bars on Capitol Hill, on K Street — the center of the lobbying industry — in Georgetown or even at the Fish Wharf.

    From Welcome to Washington, by Alvaro Vargas Llosa of the Center on Global Prosperity at The Independent Institute.

  • I Tested My Politics

    I came across a test designed to place you and your political thoughts on a map of political ideologies. The test I took is here.

    These tests can be fun, but in the case of this particular example, I wondered how some questions had any relevance to politics. In these tests I also find that some questions are leading and seem to be designed to get people to answer a certain way.

    On this test, here are the results reported for me: “You are a Social Liberal (76% permissive) and an Economic Conservative (93% permissive). You are best described as a Libertarian.”

    When my results were compared to those of famous people, I’m right alongside Thomas Jefferson, which is pretty good company. Plotted on a map of political ideologies, I’m in the libertarian area, but right near the border of anarchist.

    Interestingly, whose photo do you suppose appears squarely in the socialist region? Barack Obama.

    Advocates for Self-Government has a short quiz that has been cited as reliable. A quiz I would encourage everyone to take is the Are You an Austrian quiz (really an examination) at the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

  • Applying For Food Stamps: American Duty?

    A television news story from yesterday in Wichita went like this:

    Television news anchor: “Some may think that using food stamps is a drain on the economy, but the truth is that’s really not right. Local organizers say using food assistance can help boost the economy during these tough times. One dollar of food assistance relief equals about three dollars. Kansas is only using about half of the money assigned to it by the federal government. Using this money helps to pay everyone: from truckers and farmers, to workers in the grocery stores.”

    Dr. Anita Raghavan, Campaign to End Childhood Hunger: “It’s kind of saying ‘Hey, do your American duty. Apply for food stamps.’”

    The notion that government spending can stimulate the economy is erroneous and dangerous. Here’s what the economist Walter E. Williams had to say earlier this year in his article Stimulus Package Nonsense:

    There are three ways government can get the money for a stimulus package. It can tax, borrow or inflate the currency by printing money. If government taxes to hand out money, one person is stimulated at the expense of another who pays the tax, who is unstimulated and has less money to spend. If government borrows the money, it’s the same story. This time the unstimulated person is the lender who has less money to spend. If government prints money, creditors, and then everyone else, are unstimulated. As my colleague Russell Roberts said in a NPR broadcast, “It’s like taking a bucket of water from the deep end of a pool and dumping it into the shallow end. Funny thing — the water in the shallow end doesn’t get any deeper.”

    If people are hungry — and no doubt many families are — there are better ways than government welfare to help them. There are many private charities that are much more efficient than government in helping people. Plus, since people donate to these charities voluntarily, it’s an example of free people cooperating voluntarily in free markets. That’s how wealth is created.

    It turns out that this is how happiness is created, too. Arthur C. Brooks has done research into economics and happiness. I quote him in my post How Government Makes Us Unhappy: “Givers of charity earn substantial mental and physical health rewards, even more than do the recipients of charity — empirical evidence that it is indeed more blessed to give than to receive.”

  • Do We Have Too Little Regulation?

    One of the things we’re being told by the mainstream media is that deregulation is the cause of our current economic crisis. If only Bush hadn’t torn up so many regulations, we wouldn’t be in this trouble. Only adding more regulation will save the economy. Free markets — as if our economy is based on anything like that concept — are also blamed.

    The most recent Cato Policy Report has an article Are We Ailing from Too Much Deregulation? that shows why these beliefs are incorrect.

  • I’m Glad I Won’t Be Reading This Book

    At Reason Magazine, Jesse Walker contributes an excellent review of Thomas Frank’s latest book The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule.

    I say it’s an excellent review, but since I haven’t read the subject book, I’m not really qualified to make that judgment independently. But having suffered through some of Frank’s recent columns in the Wall Street Journal, I’m not exactly eager to spend money and time reading this book. This review gives me confidence that my decision is correct.

    Read the review at What’s the Matter With Libertarians?

  • John Stossel’s Politically Incorrect Guide to Politics

    Be sure to view all four parts. It’s very good. Click here for part one.

  • Earmarks are (not) OK

    In a Wichita Eagle letter, writer Prem N. Bajaj of Wichita makes the case that Earmarks are OK. But only by tortured reasoning, in my opinion.

    First, he states: “Earmarks finance local projects that the community is unable to support.” I ask Mr. Bajaj this question: Where, if not from community, does money for earmarks come from? If you consider just two parties — your local community and the federal government — earmarks may seem like a great thing. Free money! Who doesn’t want that? But communities across the country lobby for and get earmarks too, and they may be represented by congressmen more skilled at obtaining earmarks than ours.

    At best, earmarks might be a wash, where each community receives earmarks equal to what it sends to Washington. But even if this were the case, why have Washington involved at all? Each community could keep its own money and spend it as it sees fit, without subjecting itself to the waste and corruption inherent in the present earmark process.

    Then he writes this: “The money comes from the taxpayers, and they are the beneficiaries.” Mr. Bajaj writes as though relying on government, rather than markets and the private sector, leads to greater wealth. In fact, the opposite is true. The incentives that government faces and responds to are not the same as the private sector, where waste and inefficiency are punished. Not to mention failing to supply what consumers really want to buy.

    A few quotes from economist Thomas Sowell seem appropriate at this time:

    “This was all before politicians gave us the idea that the things we could not afford individually we could somehow afford collectively through the magic of government.”

    “If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else’s expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves.”

    “Mystical references to ‘society’ and its programs to ‘help’ may warm the hearts of the gullible but what it really means is putting more power in the hands of bureaucrats.”

    “The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.”

  • Free market economists weigh in on Paulson’s plan

    Reason Magazine asks free-market economists their opinion of the proposed bailout plan, and collects their results. Click here to read this excellent article.