Individual Unemployment Accounts

The Independent Institute has an article in its Spring 2004 issue called Individual Unemployment Accounts. These accounts, otherwise known as IUAs, would "be a mandatory and portable individual trust to which the employer and employee contribute". From what I've read they sound like Medical Savings Accounts, but for unemployment. These accounts sound better than the status quo, even though the fact that these accounts are mandatory might turn-off die hard libertarians. There's a lot of information in the article so if you want more details you're going to have to read it.

Gas Prices

Walter Williams argues that some gas prices are artificially high because some state governments set minimum gasoline prices. He blames lobbying on the part of colluding interest groups for the laws. Does anyone think that consumers will rise up and rebel against these laws? I hope so.

Drug Reimportation

The Cato Institute had an interesting debate about drug reimportation today. This debate is pretty interesting and informative if you're interested in the topic. I think drug reimportation is a good idea, but I understand the problems that might result from the lowering of profits of the pharmaceutical industry.

Freedom of Speech

Congressman Ron Paul on the regulation of speech.

Barriers to Entry

The Adam Smith Institute Blog discusses barriers to entry.

What 4th amendment?

5th Circuit gives police new power in searches

Link via Free-Market.Net

Ballot Access News

The March edition of Ballot Access News has been published. I recommend anyone who's interested read Ballot Access News, especially if you want more information about third parties and ballot access reform.

No Child Left Behind

Paul Jacob makes the case against No Child Left Behind.

Bundling and Microsoft

Arnold Kling has an interesting article that discusses bundling. He comes to the conclusion that if you object to the bundling of Windows with Microsoft Internet Explorer, then why not object to the bundling of cars with radios.

DDT

The Cato Institute makes the case for repealing the global ban on DDT.

Update: Radley Balko discusses something that is somewhat related.

State Housing Costs More Than Private

The Heartland Institute mentions a study that says the state-subsidized housing in California is more expensive than the private sector. The study says this occurs because:

higher design standards, to “blend in and temper neighborhood opposition to lower-income projects.”


longer turnaround times, because “nonprofit developers spend [more time] chasing other financial sources to put deals together.”


state laws, especially those that “require the highest prevailing union wages on projects built with public funds.”

It sounds like anachronistic New Deal era prevailing wage laws are the main culprits.

Textbook Censorship

The National Center for Policy Analysis and the Heartland Institute discuss the problem of textbook censorship. The problem is discussed further in the book The Language Police by Diane Ravitch. In her book she suggests the following reforms:

The textbook market should be open to competition by ending statewide textbook adoption and letting local schools and teachers decide what books to buy.

Every state should publish their bias guidelines, along with the names of those serving on their bias and sensitivity review panels.

School systems should require better teachers, particularly those with sound knowledge of English and history.

Activism

I'm sorry I haven't blogged as much as I usually do today, I've been busy. I have nothing specific to mention, but I have been updating the Activism part on the lower right side of my blog. If you're interested I've recently added the Home School Legal Defense Association, End Of Life Choices, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Animal Rights

Tibor Machan explains why animals don't have rights.

Link via Dissecting Leftism

Terrifying!

Now I think this is a scary website. It throws the whole notion of privacy, regarding what I want to do with my own money without being disturbed, out the window. If you go to the About section, the fine print says, "All calculations are based on records filed with the FEC of contributions by all individuals totalling more than $200 to a single campaign through December 31, 2003". Do we really need the Federal Election Commission? Why don't we just get rid of it.

War on obesity?

Consumerfreedom.com has a post about health paternalists that want to mandate labels on seemingly everything that has to do with food. I guess this is part of the whole "war on obesity" trend. Unlike the FDA, I trust people to decide for themselves what's best for them and what's not. Why is it any concern of the government if someone wants to get fat? Is it not possible that there are people out there who don't mind being a little overweight? I certainly enjoy junk food every now and then.

Update

I've update my "About this site" section of this site. I added my score on Bryan Caplan's Libertarian Purity Test so people can know to what degree I'm a libertarian. My score is around 80-85, which makes me a medium-core libertarian.

Private schools safer?

The National Center for Policy Analysis has an article that attempts to show that private schools are safer than public schools.

State mandated air bags

LP News asks whether it's a good idea for the government to mandate safety features such as air bags. It's an interesting question because since it's known that air bags kill and the state mandates there use then the government is more or less choosing who lives or dies. This raises an interesting question, is the government ethically liable for those who died as a result of this "safety" mandate?

More on outsourcing

The Reason Public Policy Institute has compiled a number of articles on outsourcing.

Law of the Sea Treaty part 2

Apparently, the e-mails to congress about the Law of the Sea Treaty are paying off. If you're interested, the Liberty Committee has created a new message for you to send to your represenatives in the Senate.

Regulation in California

Over-regulation in California is doing harm according to this article from the National Center for Policy Analysis. The article says:

The state's regulatory environment is the most costly, complex and uncertain in the nation; for example, in the area of labor law, California enacted 15 statutory changes per year between 1992 and 2002, which is four times the average for state legislatures nationwide over that same period.

Federal Spending

The Cato Institute recommends Congress to put their money where their mouth is and cut spending. The article recommends "...At minimum, abolish the Departments of Education, Commerce, and Energy." I think HUD would be another good department to abolish (though I confess I don't know whether it would be a better idea to either privatize or abolish Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac).

Badly needed privatization

The Reason Public Policy Institute Blog links to a report (warning PDF file) about privatizing the Rural Telephone Bank, which "was created to subsidize phone service in rural areas".

Balanced Budget Veto

The Cato Institute has an interesting proposal. It's called a Balanced Budget Veto. It sounds like it's a combination between a balanced budget amendment and a line-item veto. This is how the article describes the amendment:

A constitutional amendment should be considered that would give Bush veto power not merely to strike discrete "items" like the Omnibus's 8,000 earmarks, but also the ability to reduce spending across-the-board (subject to a two-thirds congressional override). The amendment would specify that the new executive power would be operational when the federal budget was unbalanced.

I think this would be a hell of a lot better than the marriage amendment.

Law of the Sea Treaty

The Senate is pondering a new U.N. treaty called the Law of the Sea Treaty. The Cato Institute goes into detail as to why this should be opposed. If you want to write to your representatives in the Senate click here.

Blame India Watch

Here's an entire blog devoted to the increasing trend of blaming India for the loss of IT jobs.

Personal Responsibility

The Analphilosopher discusses/rants about personal responsibility.

Haiti

Sheldon Richman of the Future of Freedom Foundation comments on Haiti.

Federal Spending

The Heritage Foundation offers some advice on how to control federal spending. It's very long and detailed, but if you have the time it's worth a read.

Link via Marginal Revolution

Hilarious!

“IN AMERICA, WE have a two-party system," a Republican congressional staffer is supposed to have told a visiting group of Russian legislators some years ago.

"There is the stupid party. And there is the evil party. I am proud to be a member of the stupid party."

He added: "Periodically, the two parties get together and do something that is both stupid and evil. This is called—bipartisanship."

From
VDARE.com

Privatization around the World

Tech Central Station has an article about energy privatization in Romania.

Jobs

Here's an article from the Mises Institute that discusses jobs. The best part of the article is when it goes into detail about how the state can cause joblessness.

Political Philosophy

Julian Sanchez has an excellent post that explains that libertarianism is a political philosophy not an all-encompassing theory of ethics. I think this is an important distinction that many people don't recognize, but should.

Who Links to me?

As far as I know, Catallarchy.net and Analphilosopher are the only ones who link to me. I recommend you check out both of them.

GM Food

Here's an opinion article from the Telegraph about the skepticism regarding GMOs.

Personally, I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. It seems to me that GM technology has virtually limitless potential, but maybe I'm just a stooge for the biotech industry. ;)

Free Trade

John Ray of Dissecting Leftism links to a number of articles relevant to free trade.

Finally

I changed the color of the title of the blog. The default settings are getting a bit dull. I might make more changes soon. I'm sorry I couldn't get to changing the settings earlier.

Social Security Reform

The Cato Institute has a proposal to reform social security called the 6.2 Percent Solution. It allows people to take their half of their payroll tax and put into individual private accounts. The other half goes to pay transition costs. Those who want to keep the status quo don't have to participate. Click here for more details.

California Primaries

Gary Nolan won the California Libertarian Presidential Primary. For U.S. Senate, Judge Jim Gray won. In regards to the Propositions, the good news was the resounding defeat of Prop 56 which would of made it easier to pass tax increases. Unfortunately, Prop 55 just barely passed. This is another one of those school bond measures does nothing but waste money. The biggest news of all of the propositions were the ones backed by the governor, Props 57 and 58. We'll have to wait and see whether these will actually help the state, but I'm extremely skeptical.

Victory for Luddites

California County Bans Planting of Biotech Crops

Update: More info at consumerfreedom.com.

Religion and Liberty

Agoraphilia has a good post regarding a recent decision by the California Supreme Court that forces the Church to provide birth control in its employees health care plans despite the Church's position against contraception. In fact his post is so good I decided to add the blog to my blogroll.

My take on the issue is that it's truly disheartening to see this in a country that was founded on the principle of religious liberty and it's especially disheartening to see it here in my home state of California. I think the best way to handle this issue, much like the handling of most libertarian issues, is to seperate church and healthcare from state, then we certainly wouldn't have this complicated mess on our hands.

Nooooooo!

Senate OKs Assault Weapons Ban Extension

I'm infuriated and speechless.

Update:Wait a second, maybe I spoke to soon.

Living Wage

The National Center for Policy Analysis and the Reason Foundation study the negative aspects of living wages.