For the People, by the People and of the People
LIBERTARIAN PEOPLE:  M.H. Wilson,  Editor and Publisher
            
Support the Bill of Rights:  
Civil Liberties,
Economic Freedom,
Non-Intervention and
Openness in Government.
                A SHOPPING CENTER FOR IDEAS

The purpose of this site is to provide you with information on non government ways to provide services to our
society. Much of the emphasis will be on ways that the government creates barriers for low income people.
Just as a free press is essential for the decimation of ideas and knowledge a free and open market is
essential to the distribution of goods and services.
We don't pretend to know it all and we will not carry information on all issues, but on those that we do list we
will try to provide you with the most recent information that we have access to.  We will offer you facts, ideas
and opinions on non government ways of providing services and examples where possible of those services
being provided outside of the government, or maybe at some reduced level.
We aren't perfect and are always open to comments and criticisms.  Hopefully we can be something of a one
stop shopping center for ideas as we grow.       
Thank you,
M.H. Wilson

         


Overseas Military deployment:

"Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations – entangling alliances with none."  
Thomas Jefferson’s 1st inaugural address, March 4, 1801

        The U.S. government has over 270,000 military personnel stationed on over 750 bases in more than 120
countries. Some estimates place the cost of defending other nations at one-forth our national defense budget,
or roughly $100 billion annually.   
       The political leadership in America has failed to explain the cost of this deployment to the people, nor do
we have an understanding of the consequences of this long term commitment.  

       Libertarians need to explain the cost of these programs as they impact American workers and their
families as well as look at the alternatives uses for the funds.  How many students could have gone to Harvard
if the money had been spent on education?  How many four bedroom houses could have been built?  How
much of our inner cities could have been rebuilt had we not drained our nation of the capital?


Drug War: It is about more than personal use.
         Asset forfeiture
         Judicial and police corruption
         Warrant less home invasion by the police.
         No-knock raids
         Death of innocent people in the course of police actions
        Loss of scientific data
        Medical needs
        Racial origins of the laws
        Incarceration rates of the U.S. are the highest per capita in the world.         
         The financial cost of the Drug War are estimated to be in the range of $50 billion annually.

Corporate Welfare:  Corporate welfare can be defined a number of different ways and includes direct
subsidies to companies to laws that provide them exemption unavailable to the average person. Financial
benefits to corporation range from $75 billion annually to $150 billion.  

To quote an unknown source “We’ve privatized the profits and subsidized the liabilities”.

Inflation:  The hidden tax that is costing us all.  Inflation reduces the dollar in  your pocket everyday.
Increasing prices are simply a symptom of the problem caused by the Federal Reserve banking system.  
               During the period from 1820 to 1940 prices moved up and down, but over the long term they
remained basically stable.  A basket of goods that cost $500 in 1820 cost $452.28 in 1940, but a similar
basket of goods would cost $5991.28 in 2000 due to the declining  value of the dollar.
               Why should the Fed take responsibility for the mismanagement when they can pass the blame off to
others by focusing on the rising prices.

National Debt: Over $8 trillion and rising.  Your share of that is $30,000.
               “If you compare the present value of all projected future government expenditures, including debt
service payments, with the present value of all projected future receipts, the gap is about $66 trillion, …That’s
almost eight times the size of the official gross federal debt.”  (NYT magazine p 48, 6/11/06)  
               Interest on the national debt paid for by the taxpayers increased to $220 billion in 2006 from $184
billion in 2005.
        Of the government debt that is sold in the bond market 40% is held by foreign institutions, i.e. China,
Japan and the Persian Gulf states.
               $77 billion of the interest was paid to foreign inst. in 2005 and will most likely increase in 2006.  
(NYT BU 3 10/01/06).
               
Housing:  Today the average family spends at least 33% of its income on housing.  That is a big increase
over the 23% of income families  spent in the early 1900’s for housing and most of that increase is  due to
government regulations.  In many cases we are protecting   the environment on the backs of the poor.

Transportation:  According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics low income  families may spend as much as
40% of their income on transportation.
               Another a report prepared by the federal government and  published by the National Academy
Press as the Transit Cooperative Research Program Report 49, the government’s own researchers in their
study noted that
                   “The lack of personal mobility has economic, social and human cost, such as higher
unemployment, reduced tax revenue, greater  welfare and medical cost, and limited social potential”.               
                  “almost half of those without an automobile are 65 or older and 81% of that group are women“.
               “23% of full-time working mothers and almost 60% of part-time working mothers have non-traditional
work hours. This reduces women’s ability to join carpools or find appropriately-scheduled transit options”.
               “Nearly 40% of central city black African-American households were without access to an
automobile, compared to fewer that one out of five white central city households“. “Almost four in ten of
American households do not have public transportation available within two miles”.  
It is time to open the transportation marketplace to other providers.  Beginning in the early 1900’s after the
advent of the  automobile local governments across the nation began to highly regulate the urban
transportation marketplace in order to protect the streetcar companies from competition.  In the end
government left little opportunity for private individuals to own, operate, or maintain a private transportation
company in most American cities.


Occupational licensing: If the concept of equality is to mean anything than the midwife should have the
same right to practice as the publisher has to print.   Occupational Licensing can be traced back a  couple of
thousand years, but these laws had their biggest impact in America after the Civil War  when they were part of
the Black Codes and were used to keep the newly freed slaves out of the marketplace for jobs.  Today these
laws protect those occupations that are licensed and do little or nothing to protect the consumers.

  Jury Nullification: An old idea that goes back to the beginning of our country,  but one the judges are not
fond of the people knowing about.  You not only have the responsibility of finding guilt or innocence of the
person being tried, but you also have a responsibility to determine if the law that person is accused of
violating is a just law or not.

  Legislative redistricting:  Under the present system redistricting has become a game in which the
legislators choose the voters in the districts, rather than as it should be with the voters choose the legislators.

   Education: The government has no more business telling you what to think, or how to think in the secular
world than it does in the religious world.   Quality education doesn’t have to involve the government and with
30% of America’s students dropping out of high school it is obvious that we need to find alternatives.
     Children spend the first years of their lives learning and then we send them to public school.
Self Defense:   You right to defend you life is inherent right.
Health care:  
                Note: 30% of Medicare dollars are spent annually by five percent of Medicare members in the last
year of their lives.
An issue that is complicated by local, state and federal regulations.   Local, and/or state governments often
require certificates of need prior to building hospitals, or opening medical care offices, or clinics.  This may
limit competition.  
               Licensing laws for medical equipment may provide one  manufacturer  with a monopoly on a device
keeping costs higher than they would be in a free and open market.
               Occupational licensing laws limit competition.  Probably the best example is the restrictions placed
on midwives thanks to the political power of medical organizations.  
               State regulators have an impact that is significant.  The insurance market is different in each of the
states because of the regulators Imagine if each state had its own regulations on what kind of computer could
be sold and mandated certain features on each that may be different from other states.  This impacts both
health insurance and medical malpractice insurance.  A GAO report on the web at www.gao.gov/cgi-
bin/getrpt? GAO-03-702 provides us  with an example of malpractice insurance for OBGYNs costing $201
thousands in So. Florida and similar insurance costing $17 thousand in Minnesota.  
Environment:
Farm Subsidies: Cost anywhere from $12 billion to $30 billion a year depending on what is being counted.  
Import restrictions which  are  intended to protect some crops like sugarcane actually add  to the cost of the
average families food.
Shield Laws: The U.S. needs a shield law to protect reporters sources when they  are reporting on
government activities.
Marriage: Government has no business issuing marriage licensing.  This is a private agreement between the
parties involved and not any government body.


Property taxes:
Parks and Recreation:
Sanitation and water facilities:
Fire suppression:
Streets: