ARE  YOU  LIBERTARIAN?

EXPLANATIONS TO QUIZ

  1. Should negative income tax be paid equally to all citizens from land taxes?   The land is the birthright inheritance of all citizens.  This derives from the observation that if there were no civilization, then each individual would as a tribal member own a share of the land as a source of food.  Since there is also a commonly inherited civilization, it follows that those who desire to control land must pay to general revenue a rent that is set at as high as the market will bear. (A formula for maximising revenue from such a rent is probably in the domain of economists)  The rental income should be distributed equally to all citizens & minors as a negative income tax.
  2. Should there be laws controlling free speech?  The torts of nuisance, slander & defamation with a penalty set by a jury of 10 peers should be the only limit on speech.  Their decision would be appellable to 100 peers, and that decision to 10,000 peers, & so on to the total population.
  3. Should there be victimless crimes?  Prohibition of drugs (Alcohol, Cannabis, Opiates, Nicotine) has never worked.  Suitable warnings printed on the container in which the drug is sold should discharge a vendor from tortious liability.  What activities consenting adults choose to do in private is not the concern of government.  Activities that harm the people as a whole such as pollution would be subject to ongoing damages which either made good the damage or added to general revenue.
  4. Should there be laws prohibiting discrimination?    The constitution should prohibit discrimination against any persons on the basis of sex or race or any other quality within the public domain (which would include public corporations).  Individuals have a right to discriminate outside of the public domain (as in choice of friends or servants).
  5. Should government assist commerce with subsidies or tariffs?  National tariffs & subsidies are forms of taxation &/or social security payments.  The community is compelled to pay more for goods or services than the cost of those goods.
  6. Should government regulate wages & workers compensation?  Laws regulating wages & workers compensation increase unemployment.  Market forces & damage actions for negligence should replace government regulation in the determination of wages & compensation.
  7. Should there ever be conscription?  If the realm is not worth defending, then a majority of citizens would not vote to preserve it, and an aggressor could capture it without opposition.  If the citizenry vote to defend the realm, then the libertarian option is to hire suitably qualified mercenaries, preferably from trusted sources.   Pay rates in the military forces should be set to attract sufficient suitably qualified persons.  It is a crime greater than slavery to conscript people who must then risk their lives for pay less than a mercenary would accept.
  8. Should all government services be paid for by the user?  Roads should be paid for by petrol excise, jails paid for from the prisoners share of negative income tax, customs & immigration paid for by travelers, & the military by an equal levy on all citizens from their negative income tax.
  9. Should charity &/or art be publicly funded?  Needy or retired citizens should be able to live on negative income tax.  If that is insufficient, they should live on savings, or help from family or public charity.  Charity should be private & voluntary.  If art needs a subsidy, it is probably bad art.  If people are not motivated to share their bounty as individual charity, then this lack should not be repaired by compulsion.
  10. Should government licensing of lawyers & doctors be abolished?     In most professions (Architecture, painting, photography etc.) the provider is selected because of his word-of-mouth reputation and publicly available record.  If drugs are freely available, why should doctors be different?   Since the law society is known to be virtually useless in bringing recalcitrant lawyers to justice, why should lawyers be licensed?  A license is a permit to an individual for the monopoly supply of a service.


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