ARE YOU LIBERTARIAN?
EXPLANATIONS TO QUIZ
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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