Thread to help students fight for Liberty in college

[thehighwaymanq]

Last year, I started this thread to track my Senior year in high school and get questions answered regarding liberty in the US History context. It was INCREDIBLY helpful to go through an entire year of school and look at the policies and actions of government through the lens of liberty.

Now a freshman in college, I have been fighting in all my classes for the cause of liberty. Although I am doing very well, there are questions that I can not answer. I think a running thread, similar to the high school one, would be very beneficial for me, as well as many other college students on the board.

If you have any questions you would like to pose and try to get answers you can bring in class, post here! I'll start!

1) Is using Plan B, or the abortion pill, the same as abortion?

2) As a non-interventionist country, how would one respond to ethnic cleansing that are going on? Will going in and disposing of the dictator leave the country without a leader and require the invading country to stay longer? (I'm thinking Libya, Iraq, etc)

3) How do we give 9/11 responders the correct healthcare? This is a tough one for me! I'm torn.

4) As libertarians or anarcho-capitalists supportive of democracy? Or a republic? Or are both better alternatives, but still leave something more desired?

5) The big idea so far is the centralization of wealth? With profits highest they've ever been, poverty highest, and the top 2% making the most ever, what is the free market way to explain this? And what would be the best way to solve it?

6) If you argue taxes are immoral, are you arguing for an end to all taxes whatsoever? Wouldn't Ron Paul's 10% opt out of the system idea still be 10% of immortal taxation?

7) If inflation is a hidden tax on everyone, why do many libertarian economists say it only affects the poor? Wouldn't it have the same effect percentage wise on everyone? (EDIT: I think I answered my own question- If someone has 100 dollars and someone has 1000 the person with 100, after 98% Fed destruction of the dollar, has 2 dollars. The person with 1000 has 20 dollars.)

8) Is college a bubble and will it eventually see the same fate as the housing bubble?

9) My professor showed me NBER statistics that boom/busts were longer and more painful during the Gold Standard, pre-Fed time. How do I refute that?

 

[gerryb]

1) Is using Plan B, or the abortion pill, the same as abortion?

This is a religious question. Lawfully speaking, I look at it this way. If I were to force a woman to take that plan b pill and it caused an abortion, would I be liable for murder in court? If so, why is it different if the mother does it?

2) As a non-interventionist country, how would one respond to ethnic cleansing that are going on? Will going in and disposing of the dictator leave the country without a leader and require the invading country to stay longer? (I'm thinking Libya, Iraq, etc)

Reframe - we are not non-interventionist, we are for constitutional foreign policy. If there is a problem in another country, that countries population can fix it. Afghanistan repeled the English, the Russians, and it may succeed in repelling America. Change must come from within, and be desired from the people.

3) How do we give 9/11 responders the correct healthcare? This is a tough one for me! I'm torn.

How do we give anyone correct healthcare? It isn't any different. You either have an insurance policy, savings, or seek(or get thrown at you hand over fist in this case) voluntary charity.

4) As libertarians or anarcho-capitalists supportive of democracy? Or a republic? Or are both better alternatives, but still leave something more desired?

Constitutional Republic, like we were given. The people must want to keep it, though. Democracy is mob rule, it's the same as a lynch mob.

5) The big idea so far is the centralization of wealth? With profits highest they've ever been, poverty highest, and the top 2% making the most ever, what is the free market way to explain this? And what would be the best way to solve it?

This centralization of wealth is due to the state. No other entity has the power to monopolize so many industries, and direct resources towards the chosen few. We have less and less of a free market every year since the 1800's. Look back towards what cause the railroad booms, and how the first oil boomsmen cornered their markets.. it was only possible by government coercion and force/manipulation of markets and regulations.

6) If you argue taxes are immoral, are you arguing for an end to all taxes whatsoever? Wouldn't Ron Paul's 10% opt out of the system idea still be 10% of immortal taxation?

Look to the constitution. There shall be no direct taxes(aka wage or income), only excise(which can be avoided by not purchasing the items with the excise). All taxes were also meant to be apportioned. Which means if California contributed $500 million, $500 million would be spent to benefit California.

7) If inflation is a hidden tax on everyone, why do many libertarian economists say it only affects the poor? Wouldn't it have the same effect percentage wise on everyone? (EDIT: I think I answered my own question- If someone has 100 dollars and someone has 1000 the person with 100, after 98% Fed destruction of the dollar, has 2 dollars. The person with 1000 has 20 dollars.)

Inflation affects every dollar equally. However, the reason it affects the poor more is they have less methods of protecting themselves against it the effects and are further away from the money creation (big banks get it first, who loan it to big corporations, who give raises to the most competitive labor first, who then try and invest wisely to avoid inflation and make the most profit, etc. etc., until eventually the money makes it to the poor folks, who have already been feeling the effect of higher prices)

8) Is college a bubble and will it eventually see the same fate as the housing bubble?

Yes, it is in a bubble. No, it will not have the same fate. It will be much worse, since folks can not default on student loans like they can on mortgages. There are many recent studies by CATO or Heritage on this.

9) My professor showed me NBER statistics that boom/busts were longer and more painful during the Gold Standard, pre-Fed time. How do I refute that?

Just because there was a gold standard doesn't mean their wasn't manipulation. What periods are you referring to? The point to make is the state should not have a monopoly on the method of exchange. If people want to barter, use gold or silver, use timber in trade for labor, etc. etc. they should be allowed to do that in a free society.

Gold, IMO, is not the answer. If we allow government to control the means of production and the use of resources, it does not matter what currency is utilized.

 

[thehighwaymanq]

New questions:

- What is the libertarian critique of stagnant wages hurting middle class?

- Is the US hurt by our trade deficit?

- How do we begin competing economically with China. Is it possible to compete with them because they have such low prices. And if so, if that a market failure?

-Will the Yen eventually overtake the dollar as the world reserve currency.

- How, and why, do banks hold debt?

- Shouldn't we have massive inflation, and how does the Fed keep our inflation rates lower?

- How does the US manipulate the CPI?

- How does China have high inflation, and how does it affect their economy?

- If Greece does go bankrupt, what are the immediate effects

- How much debt, percentage-wise to GDP, is acceptable to a country to still prosper?

- If FDR lowered government spending in 1938, and the economy shrunk again, doesn't that prove Keynesian is needed to propel the economy out of distress?

 

[thehighwaymanq]

-With foreign intervention, if change can not come within a population of a country, if a government is slaughtering thousands of people, should a larger nation such as us give some sort of help?


-In dealing with healthcare, should we interfere with the market process because the government was the reason the Ground Zero responders were sick. Or am I a hypocrite to think the government can solve a problem the government created.


-What about property taxes? Since they are not income or excise, where do they fall under? Are property taxes theft, implying that the government owns your property and merely lets you keep some of it?

 

[emazur]

2. Often times, it's the intervention that IMPOSES the dictator, intentionally or unintentionally. Fidel Castro for instance:


9. The gold standard days either had central banks (First Bank of the U.S., Second Bank of the U.S.) or the government had created a halfway house to central banking (post Andrew Jackson) and had other laws that allowed dangerous practices such as ones for fractional reserve banking (read Creature From Jekyll Island to learn more about this stuff)

 

[jack555]

As to your Plan B question I am going to have my doctorate in pharmacy in about 10 months and can give you the "mainstream medical view". Plan B works by stopping implantation, inhibiting ovulation, altering hormones, and thickening cervical mucous (or at least that is the scientific explanation offered...). The drug does not work once implantation has occurred. This makes it different than standard abortion where implantation has already occurred. You can decide on your own definition of abortion but in my opinion I don't think it is morally wrong to stop implantation with plan b I do think that abortion once implantation has occurred is wrong ( I would have to look at a timeline of fetal development but I might agree that say 3 days after implantation occurred I might not have a problem with it but say 2 weeks later I might).

 

[thehighwaymanq]

-How do you compensate for lower wages and higher productivity?

-Taxes reached all-time levels following the Great Depression, so why is Keynesism considered the reason for economic growth in the 50's and 60's.

-Is a Constitution necessary?

-Speaking about Internment camps, was it necessary for the government to use them in order to save money that would be needed to protect Japanese Americans from violence and aggression from other citizens? Was it financially a better decision? Similarly, is the death penalty a better practice because it makes more financial sense?

 

[Carehn]

-How do you compensate for lower wages and higher productivity?

The 2 our not linked in such a way. Higher productivity simply makes things cheaper, yes someone can try and pocket the increase in productivity but his competition will have a cheaper product. If a boss tries paying his workers less to improve the bottom line then his competition will have the best workers. This is not and instant reaction but good help is more profitable then cheap labor.

-Taxes reached all-time levels following the Great Depression, so why is Keynesism considered the reason for economic growth in the 50's and 60's.

Because all the other producing country's where bombed into nothing. the 50s and 60 where more of the result of people going back to work and being the bread basket of the world. Taxes and or bombs don't produce anything. Bombs sure don't and taxes will always produce less wealth when spend then taken in. Some government investments may be better then others but its like the idea of the perpetual motion device. You cannot create more energy then you use. 100% is possible but not likely to happen. The same proves true for government. It cannot produce more wealth then it uses or taxes. At best it could only be 100% efficient but that is in a perfect world and in witch cause it would only produce the same results of a free market. Not to say the market is always efficient and never makes a wrong choice but wile it creates wealth be it good, ideas, services, government can only move these things around but never grow them only dilute them.

-Is a Constitution necessary?

No.

-Speaking about Internment camps, was it necessary for the government to use them in order to save money that would be needed to protect Japanese Americans from violence and aggression from other citizens? Was it financially a better decision? Similarly, is the death penalty a better practice because it makes more financial sense?

It was not governments decision to make. And once again just look at the outcome of all those good intentions.

 

[thehighwaymanq]

- I hear people say legalize competition for the USPS. Is delivering mail illegal? Why can't a private company start doing the same thing?

 

[thehighwaymanq]

- Were the Articles of Confederation the closet thing to a libertarian-organized government?

- How does one create money if its not from a central bank printing it?

-Does our Constitution need a interstate commerce clause?

- Why did the founders leave slavery in the original document when they supposedly loved individual rights

 

[teacherone]

- I hear people say legalize competition for the USPS. Is delivering mail illegal? Why can't a private company start doing the same thing?

yes. your mail box is federal property.

 

[thehighwaymanq]

In speaking of the seen and the unseen, let's say I create a new industry and produce jobs. You can see the jobs I created, but you don't see what industries I took those employees away from. How is this different from government shifting money from one sector to another without actually producing more wealth?

 

[thehighwaymanq]

If a very poor woman is pregnant and she can't afford to have a pregnancy and the baby would be placed in extreme poverty, is abortion justified?

 

[thehighwaymanq]

Is fiancialization a bad thing?

 

[thehighwaymanq]

Is fiancialization a bad thing?

I really need help with this one. My professor talks about this every single day. Can somebody give me a free-market critique of fiancialization? Is it possible without government handouts and help to the rich?

 

[thehighwaymanq]

BUMP

 

[thehighwaymanq]

What is the seen and unseen of tariffs?

 

[thehighwaymanq]

A baby can't survive in the womb and needs to be taken out to get special medical care. If that baby is left to die, is it considered an abortion?

 

[thehighwaymanq]

Well, this thread looks like a failure. I have a list of new questions though, so I will bump this and if anybody wants to answer them please do.

I will be making a new thread soon with all my questions in a concise organized manner so it's easier for people to view and analyse. Thanks to everyone who has helped!