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WELCOME to the Liberator Online!
In This Issue
FROM ME TO YOU
Why Are Libertarians Different? Intent Vs. Outcome
NEWS YOU CAN USE
The Federal Government is Subsidizing Wealthy Families Who Live in Public Housing
Really, Almost Everyone in Congress Should be Thrown Out of Office
#BigGovernmentStrikesAgain
#FreedomPrevails
QUOTABLE
See what John Stuart Mill, Justin Amash, Alex Kozinski, Chris Christie, Wesley Clark, and Lawrence Reed had to say about eliminating the middleman, internment camps, getting high, police power, corporate welfare, and despotism.
ASK DR. RUWART
Do Libertarian Ideas Go Too Far?
WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH THE ADVOCATES
Find out how to get a FREE OPH KIT for your libertarian student group
See what SPECIAL THANK-YOU GIFTS we've reserved for supporters just like you
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From Me To You
by Brett Bittner
Why Are Libertarians Different? Intent Vs. Outcome
Libertarians... We are certainly a different breed.
We may look the same. We may use the same language. We put our pants on one leg at a time... Most of us, anyway.
We certainly have a unique way of thinking though.
Of course, our first instinct is not to suggest that "there ought to be a law." That is the beginning of how we differ from non-libertarians.
The basis of not defaulting to government intervention lies a bit deeper than instinct. We want a lot of the same outcomes: a well-educated society, an end to homelessness, peace with our neighbors, and the freedom to live our lives.
We also like to point out unintended consequences of policy decisions. Inevitably, every government policy idea devised sought to solve a problem, but not everyone follows where that policy idea takes us beyond the policymaker's intent.
Libertarians recognize intent for what it is. We recognize that someone, somewhere intended their idea to fix an existing problem, prevent a future problem, or make lives better. We also see past intent to look at what happens when this intended solution gets implemented. We see whether it, or something similar, worked in the past. We also examine what we describe as unintended consequences that are likely to occur if the policymakers enact the proposed solution.
We focus on outcome.
We look at policies beyond intent, by focusing looking deeper than the surface, talking points, and smooth sales pitches. We look at people individually, rather than as statistics and metrics that can be manipulated. We examine individual decisions on their own, rather than as part of the aggregate. Put simply, we are looking out for the smallest minority there is... The individual.
Central planners will never be able to do so, because people are just data points. To them, they believe that they can predict what MOST of us will do when faced with a specific decision. The rest do not matter. Those individuals are statistically insignificant.
Are you insignificant?
Libertarians do not believe that you are, and we look at the unintended consequences, incentives, and individual decision-making to fully examine the outcome of a proposed policy or idea, rather than sweeping you, the individual, aside because you do not fit the model they prepared.
Today, ideas are judged by their intent, rather than their outcome. All too often, that means that the "solution" makes a larger or different problem.
To whom is that insignificant?
Walk the walk,
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News You Can Use
Written & Compiled by Advocates Staff
Do you have a story you'd like to see shared here? Send us a link.
The Federal Government is Subsidizing Wealthy Families Who Live in Public Housing
The U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) spends $104.4 million annually to subsidize wealthy families who live in public housing, according to Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY.
Over the past several weeks, Paul’s office has published unusual examples of misguided spending by federal agencies. The Kentucky Republican calls it The Waste Report. The latest edition focuses on a recent report from the HUD inspector general that uncovered more than 25,000 families make too much money to live in public housing. Rep. David Roe, R-TN, requested the report.
“Public housing authorities provided public housing assistance to as many as 25,226 families whose income exceeded HUD’s 2014 eligibility income limits. Of these 25,226 families, 17,761 had earned more than the qualifying amount for more than 1 year,†David Kasperowicz, HUD’s regional inspector general in Philadelphia, wrote in his findings. “HUD regulations require families to meet eligibility income limits only when they are admitted to the public housing program. The regulations do not limit the length of time that families may reside in public housing.â€
Read more about your tax dollars going to subsidize some pretty wealthy government housing residents here...
Really, Almost Everyone in Congress Should be Thrown Out of Office
On Tuesday, surprisingly, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., filed a resolution to declare the office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives vacant, which, he said, is meant to serve an expression of dissatisfaction with Republican leadership in the lower chamber.
“It’s really more about trying to have a conversation about making this place work,†Meadows said, “where everybody’s voice matters, where it’s not a punitive culture.â€
H. Res. 385, which is non-privileged, has absolutely no chance of passage in the normal legislative process. It would never get out of committee, for example. Republican leaders would never allow that to happen. Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, against whom the resolution is directed, dismissed the tactic at a press conference on Wednesday.
Read more about who should be thrown out of office here...
#BigGovernmentStrikesAgain
Florida man told he must contain all BBQ smell on his property or else stop BBQing - The Week
Turf War - Reason
Oklahoma Official Used Asset Forfeiture to Pay Back His Student Loans - Reason
#FreedomPrevails
Why Uber Drives the Left Crazy - The Wall Street Journal
Majority Of Americans Now See Guns As The Solution To Mass Shootings - Zero Hedge
Who Is Building the Private, Peer-to-Peer Marketplace? - FEE.org
In The News is written and compiled by staff at the Advocates for Self-Government.
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Quotable
Bits and Bytes From Across the Spectrum
CORPORATE WELFARE: "If a man swipes your wallet, he’s a thief. We don’t ask whether the pickpocket ultimately spent the cash on a worthy cause. Yet, supporters of corporate welfare would have you believe that as long as the companies receiving welfare prosper, you shouldn’t care that the government snatched your money to make it happen.†— Justin Amash, Congressman (R-MI), July 26, 2015
POLICE POWER: "Police investigators have vast discretion about what leads to pursue, which witnesses to interview, what forensic tests to conduct and countless other aspects of the investigation. Police also have a unique opportunity to manufacture or destroy evidence, influence witnesses, extract confessions and otherwise direct the investigation so as to stack the deck against people they believe should be convicted."" — Alex Kozinski, Federal Court of Appeals judge, June 2015
GETTING HIGH: "If you're getting high in Colorado today, enjoy it. As of January 2017, I will enforce the federal laws." — Chris Christie, Governor (R-NJ) and Candidate for President, July 28, 2015
BRING BACK INTERNMENT CAMPS?: "We didn't say that was freedom of speech. We put them in a camp. They were prisoners of war... It's our right and our obligation to segregate them from the normal community for the duration of the conflict." — Wesley Clark (comments at 5:31), former NATO Commander General, July 17, 2015
"Quotable" is compiled by members of the Advocates staff.
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Ask Dr. Ruwart
By Mary Ruwart
Do Libertarian Ideas Go too Far?
Question:
I am coming around to libertarian ideas, but so many libertarian policies, while moving in the right direction, seem to go way too far. For instance, the idea of no taxation, only user fees, seems great. But it seems that some taxation would be necessary to pay government workers, maintain ambassadors and embassies to other nations, host state visits from other nations, and (a necessary evil) pay lawyers to defend the government against lawsuits, as well as a host of other little things that there couldn't be a user fee for. Can zero taxation really stand up to reason?
Read Dr. Ruwart's answer about how government would be funded in a libertarian society here...
Dr. Mary Ruwart is a leading expert in libertarian communication and author of the international bestseller Healing Our World. She is also author of Short Answers to Tough Questions, in which you will find a collection of her answers from this column. In this column she provides Liberator Online readers with answers to questions libertarians are often asked. Dr. Ruwart is a research scientist, ethicist, and a libertarian author/activist.
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