Immigration

Bill Cholenski of Catallarchy.net makes the case for open immigration.

Spam

The Cato Institute argues that there is a free-market solution to spam. Namely, requiring e-mailers to pay postage.

Social Security

Greenspan Urges Social Security Cuts

It's easy to forget that most of the spending that comes out of Washington are from entitlement programs like Social Security. Cutting Social Security benefits is a good move, but if we want to avoid the heavy burden of entitlements and make sure that people have enough money to retire the best thing to do is to scrap the whole system. That includes getting rid of the regressive payroll tax and giving people the freedom to do what every they want with their own money. I have nothing against partial privatization, but I still don't think it goes far enough. It's true that there's risk when dealing with the stock market, but surely returns from the market are better then the pittance from social security?

A Terrible Idea

Bush to Back Gay Marriage Ban Amendment

If this passes it'll be the most embarrassing amendment since prohibition. Why doesn't the President advocate an amendment that limits government and not people's rights, such as a strict balanced budget amendment. Or, if he's so hell-bent on altering the Constitution, why not repeal the sixteenth amendment.

Ballot Access News

Ballot Access News has published its February 2004 issue. It discusses the LP's use of Amazon.com here.

Paternalism

LP News comments on the New Mexico bill "that would require all drivers in the state to blow into breathalyzers before starting their cars". This is a perfect example of the paternalistic state at its worst.

Protectionism Watch part 3

Greenspan Cautions Against Protectionism

YIKES!

Am I the only one that thinks this is scary?

Well said.

The Adam Smith Blog refutes some anti-capitalist non-sense.

Federal Budget

Citizens Against Government Waste discusses ways to eliminate wasteful spending such as term limiting members of the appropriations committees and giving the president the power of line-item veto.

Internet Gambling

The Cato Institute has an article about the problems with internet gambling prohibition. The author comes to a conclusion that he believes will appeal to supporters of legalization as well as opponents.

Protectionism Watch part 2

The Cato Institute comments on the protection of the sugar industry.

Protectionism Watch

The National Center for Policy Analysis has an article up that observes "the heavily protected sugar industry is to blame for domestic prices that are that are three times higher than the world market price". This is yet another reason to support uni-lateral free-trade instead of the highly politicized bi-lateral approach.

No on 56

LP News reports that the California LP opposes Prop. 56. This is a truly rotten proposal that lowers the amount of votes required to raise taxes from 2/3 vote of each house down to just 55% and all of this is done under the guise of "fiscal responsibility".

Top-up Fees

The Mises Institute has an article that discusses top-up fees in the UK. The article is largely sympathetic towards the idea, but argues that it doesn't go far enough in making the education system more free-market oriented. I'm not an expert on UK affairs, but this idea seems like a better system then the status quo.

The FCC

The Independent Institute has published an article about the FCC in light of the Super Bowl controversy. It argues that the FCC is a source of protectionism and a relic of the "New Deal" era. The author recommends that "...the airwaves should be privatized, a system of full property rights over electro-magnetic spectrum should be established, and the FCC should stop policing content and let network owners decide what to air".

Private Charity

According to this article from the National Center for Policy Analysis, Americans give $35.1 billion each year through private donations while foreign aid is only $9.9 billion.

Bush Budget Charts

The Cato Institute has the facts about Bush and the Republican's budget figures.

Ridiculous Spending

This article by Stephen Moore describes the huge amount of money spent by Washington:

A federal budget that will spend more money in a single year than the entire gross domestic product of France and three times what it cost to fight World War II can hardly be disparaged as inadequate or celebrated as tight-fisted.

Scary stuff!

Link via Catallarchy

Porker of the Year

Citizens Against Government Waste has named the Porker of the Year for 2003. The winner is Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). Well isn't that interesting, not only is the winner a Republican, but 4 out of 5 of the people nominated are Republicans as well. I hope some day people will wake-up and realize that the Republicans are not, and never were, a party of small government.

Sorry

I'm sorry for the lack of posts, this week is the first week of the semester so I haven't had time to blog. I expect to make more posts as early as Thursday and as late as Saturday.