Listed below are just a few of the issues that serve as examples of how Libertarians promote individual freedom and personal responsibility. Because of what most people have come to expect from the government, some of the issues discussed on this page require a bit more detailed description. On each issue the Libertarian position is stated in a simple phrase in bold type, when needed a more detailed explanation follows.
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION:
Government should not censor speech, press, media or Internet. The free communication of thoughts or opinions, is one of the invaluable rights of mankind and everyone may freely speak, write, and print on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty. Rather than the government assuming a roll of censorship on possibly questionable materials, people should take personal responsibility for what they are expressing, and if a certain segment of the population might find what they are expressing offensive, they should take the responsibility for limiting the exposure to what they are expressing. At the same time, someone who is offended with certain materials should take personal responsibility not to expose themselves to the materials they might find offensive. As Lysander Spooner pointed out vices are not crimes. Libertarians feel that personal responsibility and a general respect to the views of others are the best ways to promote a free society and the freedom of expression required to allow a free society to flourish.
Traditionally, freedom of expression has been restricted to speech, press, and the media. The introduction of the Internet in the late twentieth century forever revolutionized the communication of ideas. By and large the Internet has existed as a self-regulating Libertarian society. It is this nature of the Internet that has made it such an important tool for communications and the spread of freedom. Preservation of the self-regulating nature of the Internet is an important issue for the twenty-first century and beyond.
MILITARY SERVICE:
Military service should be voluntary. There should be no draft. Serving one’s country in its armed services is an honorable vocation, but should be done voluntarily. Congress has the authority:
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions (ARTICLE I, SECTION 8, Constitution for the United States of America).
Under this authority, no appropriations for armies are to be longer than for two years. The founders of our nation did not like the idea of standing armies. They feared the threat that standing armies pose to a free society. Some of the complaints against King George in the Declaration of Independence were:
He has kept among us in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of the legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by mock Trial, from Punishment for many murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states.
While a navy, which operates on the open seas, will not pose an immediate threat to the general population and the security of their property and rights a standing army possesses the ability to march into town and seize property belonging to the inhabitants of these states. This was considered so serious a threat by our founding fathers that they added the Third Amendment: “No Solider shall in time of peace be quartered in any house, without consent of the Owner, nor in war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.” The Third Amendment is one of the few provisions of the Constitution generally being honored by the national government.
Among the powers the people gave to congress was the authority: “To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal….” The only time our armed services should be sent into combat is when Congress declares war. Most time when our troops are being sent into harms way, it is without the benefit of having Congress actually declare war. Libertarians believe that Congress should declare war only when our country is under attack or faces the threat of an attack upon our soil. Since World War I, the United States of America has found itself becoming involved in entangling alliances which have lead our nation to many situations where our armed forces were put in harms way for all the wrong reasons.
Our founding fathers did not see the need for a military draft. Congress was given the authority to:
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.
According to Tennessee State Law (TCA 58-1-104 (d)):
The militia shall consist of all able-bodied male citizens who are residents of this state and between eighteen (18) and forty-five (45) years of age and who are not members of the army or navy as hereinabove defined, and who may not otherwise be exempted by the laws of this state or the United States.
Under the Constitutional authority of ARTICLE I, SECTION 8, Congress should see to it that militia is properly trained and equipped. If Congress would follow their Constitutional duties to train and equip the militia and to limit military functions to the defense of the United States of America from rebellion or invasion, then their would never be a need for a military draft. Some people claim that the militia has been replaced by the National Guard. If one closely looks at state law, one sees that the militia is distinct form the National Guard, which is actually considered to be a portion of the federal army. Constitutionally, the militia is also supposed to be used for federal law enforcement. Following the Constitution eliminates the cost of standing armies and federal law enforcement. The whole concept of using the militia for national defense is connected to the Second Amendment:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
The defense of our nation and the “security of a free state” all are dependent upon “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.” As a matter of principle Libertarians are strong supporters of the Second Amendment. Many historical examples show that tyrants and dictators seek to disarm their citizens before they start their reign of terror. The topic of the Second Amendment is very important to the Libertarian movement. Unfortunately, the confines this simple issues page do not allow the topic to be fully discussed. Interested readers should consult our Reading Room and the many links contained within our links section. These resources will provide adequate amounts of information on this important topic. The idea behind the Second Amendment is to protect the people both form foreign invasion and the possibility of a tyrannical government at home. As long as the people are armed, they may be secure in their liberty.
SEXUAL RIGHTS:
There should be no laws regarding sex for consenting adults. Adults have the right to private choice in consensual sexual activity. As with all other rights, the right to private choice in consensual sexual activity must be exercised with responsibility and a respect to the rights of others to object to certain behavior. Libertarians oppose any government attempt to dictate, prohibit, control, or encourage any private lifestyle, living arrangement or contractual relationship. As Lysander Spooner pointed out vices are not crimes. In a truly free society, those who officiate marriages should be free to decide whom they wish to marry and whom they refuse to marry. Marriage should be strictly a non-governmental activity between consenting adults. Libertarians support repeal of existing laws and government policies which are intended to condemn, affirm, encourage, or deny sexual lifestyles or any set of attitudes about such lifestyles.
THE WAR ON (SOME) DRUGS:
Repeal laws prohibiting adult possession and use of drugs. Generally these laws do more harm than good. Prohibition of alcohol was shown to be a failure with the results of Eighteenth Amendment, which was eventually repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment. The war on some drugs is a failure. To see how much of a failure the War on “Some” Drugs really is, just visit the
Tennessee Meth Offender Registry Data Base. Select any county and you can see how few people have been convicted in each county. We say the war on some drugs, because the government is selective in deciding against which drugs it will wage war. For example caffeine and nicotine may be more harmful and addictive than marijuana, yet they are legal. Drugs such as caffeine and nicotine allow people to function in the society our government has created for us. For this reason they are kept legal. Tennessee is currently spending millions of dollars on fighting the manufacture and use methamphetamine. Yet the official state results on this aspect of the war on (some) drugs show its complete failure as a policy. The government exercises absolute control over prisons and jails, yet getting illegal drugs in these is easier than getting them in our towns and cities. Some drugs that were once legal, such as marijuana, may actually have abundant medical benefits. The possible positive medical and economic impacts from medical marijuana are phenomenal. The re-legalization of marijuana far outweighs the supposed benefits of keeping it illegal. Although it cannot be used as a drug, industrial hemp also became a victim of the war on (some) drugs. Estimates place the positive economic impact of a fully operational industrial hemp industry in the billions of dollars. Repeal of drug laws would remove much of the profits from the illegal drug trade. The crimes associated with the illegal drug trade, such as drug related violence and robberies would be greatly reduced. Contrary to popular opinion repeal of these laws would not flood the streets with drugs. Rather, their sale would move shops that could be held responsible for what they are selling and to whom they are selling. The sale of drugs could be regulated in way similar to the sale of alcohol. Libertarians would recommend moving this control from the hands of the government to a private regulatory organization such as a self-regulating merchant’s board. Re-legalization of drugs would also benefit those who have drug addictions. Currently these people face the possibility of time in prison if they admit they have an addiction problem. When
drugs are re-legalized they would be able to seek counseling and a rehabilitation program without fear of criminal prosecution. As Lysander Spooner pointed out vices are not crimes.
EDUCATION:
Parents have the right to decide how they want their children to be educated. Education is far too important to be handled by the government. Gaining a basic understanding of the education issues and the government’s proper roll in education requires a briefer review of how the modern American educational system came to be.
Early in American history there were no national or state boards of education. There were no accrediting agencies, no regulatory boards,, no state textbook selection comities, and no teacher certification requirements. Education meant complete freedom and diversity. Children were educated at home by tutors, private schools, church schools, academies for college preparation, seminaries, dames’ schools for primary education, charity schools for the poor, tutors, and common schools. All schools were strictly local. An the educational results were that these many forms of education created a literate and well educated society.
In 1635 Virginia became the first colony to establish a free school. In 1642 the Massachusetts Bay Colony passes a law that parents assure their children know the principles of religion and the capital laws of the commonwealth. Five years later the Massachusetts Bay Colony passes the Massachusetts Law of 1647, which was also known as the Old Deluder Satan Act. The Law states:
It being one chiefe project of ye old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of ye Scriptures, as in former times by keeping him in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times by persuading from ye use of tongues, yt so at least ye true since & meaning of ye original might be clouded by false glosses of saint seeming deceivers, yet learning may not be buried in ye grave of or fathers in ye church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting or endeavors,-
It is therefore ordered, yet every township in this jurisdiction, after ye Lord hath increased your number to 50 householders, shall then forthwith appoint one with in their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write & read, whose wages shall be paid either by ye parents or masters of such children, or by ye inhabitants in general, by way of supply, as ye major part of those yet orderly prudentials ye twone shall appoint; provided, those yet send their children be not oppressed by paying much more ym they can have ym taught for in other towns; & it is further ordered, yet where any town shall increase to ye number of 100 families or householders, they shall set up a grammer school, ye mr thereof being able to instruct youth so far as they shall be fitted for ye university, provided, yet if any town neglect ye performance hereof above one year, yet every such town shall pay 5 pounds to ye next school till they shall perform this order.
This was the first law in America to require the establishment of schools and the education of children. Our founding fathers held education in high regard. For example, Thomas Jefferson maintained that education is important to maintaining a free society. In the northern colonies town and communities established common schools. In the common schools, the parents in a community pooled their resources to hire a teacher to educate their children. In southern colonies wealthy plantation owners provided education for their own children (and often their slave’s children) by hiring a private tutor or teacher. By and large government played little or no roll in early American education. The first pronouncement from the national government about education was made in the North West Ordinance of 1787:
Article III of The North West Ordinance of 1787 states:
Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged….
The Constitution for the United States of America was declared ratified in March of 1789. The Constitution for the United States of America makes no mention of education. Many of the founding fathers had concerns about the Constitution and the possibly powerful government it had created. On September 25, 1789 they submitted to the states twelve amendments for ratification. The founding fathers voiced their concerns in the Preamble to these amendments:
The convention of a number of states, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the government, will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution.
Two important amendments that relate to the topic of the national governments involvement in education are:
IX Amendment: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
X Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Under the Ninth and Tenth Amendment, education should be left to the states or to the people. The sentiment that government should have nothing or very little to do with schools or education prevailed for the remainder of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. For example, the original 1796 Constitution of Tennessee, which Jefferson had allegedly called the least imperfect and most Republican among the state Constructions. made no provisions for the government funding education or operating schools. Again, education was important, but not considered a proper government function.
Obviously, the idea of government being involved in schools was not an American idea. Historical evidence indicates that our founding fathers thought that education was important, but not a government function, not even on the state level. During the early years of American history, education was controlled strictly at the local level with only a few state laws requiring education or addressing the issue of education. This leads one to ponder where the idea of government run schools originated.
After Frederick the Great was defeated by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807 he revised the Prussian system of government schools which were established in 1717. One of the features of the new system was compulsory education for children age seven to fourteen. Private schools could exist only so long as they met government standards. Teachers had to be certified, and high-school graduation examinations were necessary to enter the learned professions and the civil service. The purpose of the system was to instill nationalism in Prussians and to train young men for the military and the bureaucracy. Nationalism meant unquestioned loyalty to the state. In 1819, Prussia passes the world’s first compulsory education law which is actually implemented.
Prussia sets up a three-tier school system, in which one half of one percent of the population is taught to think. They go to school called academie. Five and a half percent of the population go to Realschulen, where they partially learn to think, but not completely, because Prussia believed their defeat at the hands of Napoleon was caused by people thinking for themselves at times of stress on the battlefield. They were going to see to it that scientifically this couldn't happen. The lowest 94%, (that's some pyramid, right?) went to volkschulen, where they were to learn harmony, obedience, freedom from stressful thinking, how to follow orders. They worked out a system that would in fact guarantee such results.
In 1833 the French Victor Cousin published Report on the Condition of Public Instruction in Germany, and Particularly Prussia which outlined the specifics of Prussian Public Education. Both the Prussians and the French were important American allies, and the philosophical and educational ideas of these two nations became very popular in early America. The first quarter of the nineteenth century was a period of great economic and political change both in Europe and in America.
In 1835 Tennessee replaced its previous (1796) constitution with a new one. According to historians, this change transformed Tennessee from a Republic to a Democracy. The 1835 Constitution among its many modifications form that of 1796 included the following passage dealing with education and schools:
ARTICLE XI, SECTION X. Knowledge, learning, and virtue, being essential to the preservation of republican institutions, and the diffusion of the opportunities and advantages of education throughout the different portions of the State, being highly conducive to the promotion of this end; it shall be the duty of the General Assembly in all future periods of this government, to cherish literature and science. And the fund called the common school fund, and all the lands and proceeds thereof, dividends, stocks, and other property of every description whatever, heretofore by law appropriated by the General Assembly of this State for the use of common schools, and all such as shall hereafter be appropriated, shall remain a perpetual fund, the principal of which shall never be diminished by legislative appropriation, and the interest thereof shall be inviolably appropriated to the support and encouragement of common schools throughout the State, and for the equal benefit of all the people thereof; and no law sh all be made authorizing said fund, or any part thereof, to be diverted to any other use than the support and encouragement of common schools; and it shall be the duty of the General Assembly, to appoint a Board of Commissioners, for such term of time as they may think proper, who shall have the general superintendence of said fund, and who shall make a report of the condition of the same, from time to time, under such rules, regulations and restrictions as may be required by law; provided, that if at any time hereafter a division of the public lands of the United States, or of the money arising from the sales of such lands, shall be made among the individual States, the part of such lands, or money, coming to this State, shall be devoted to the purposes of education and internal improvements; and shall never be applied to any other purpose.
The common schools referred to in this section were modeled after the common schools of Colonial New England. As families migrated into Tennessee from other states, they began to establish common schools to teach their children. The Constructional provision above simply provides a means for the State of Tennessee to fund education at the already existing common schools. These were to be funded from the interest earned on funds from the sale of public lands. They system was designed to be a perpetual fund that would never have to be funded through taxation. Also the only supervision exercised by the state was over the fund, not over the schools.
In 1837 Horace Mann accepted the position of First Secretary of the State Board of Education in Massachusetts. Horace Mann’s Seventh Report to the Boston School Committee of 1843 praised the Prussian educational system which he had observed on a Visit to Prussia earlier that year. This report popularized the Prussian model of Education in the United States of America. Horace Mann is among the people that may be credited with creating our present day public education system.
In 1848 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, both products of the Prussian educational system, published their Communist Manifesto. Among their suggestions are property taxes and the establishment of free government run public schools. Marx and Engels hoped to create a state in which everyone had unquestioning loyalties to the state and the Communist economic system. Communism discourages all forms of individualism. All thoughts should be directed towards benefiting the collective as manifest in the state. Modern American public school curriculums and text books are inundated with concepts that promote collectivism and discourage individualism. That same year Mann resigned his position as secretary of education to take the Congressional seat vacated by the death of John Quincy Adams. As a congressman, Mann was able to promote his ideas about state run schools in Washington D.C. In 1852 Massachusetts becomes the first state to enact a mandatory attendance law. By 1885, 16 states have
compulsory-attendance laws, but most of those laws are sporadically enforced at best. All states have them by 1918.
The first kindergarten in the United States of America is started in Watertown, Wisconsin, founded by Margarethe Schurz in 1856. The Kindergarten had been invented by Prussian Educator Friedrich Froebel in n 1837. Kindergarten is the German word for “child’s garden.” Froebel states that in nature we allow plants and animals space and time to grow because their internal laws suggest they will develop properly only in this manner. He strongly advocates the extension and application of this rule to the education of children. For Frobel, the kindergarten was a place to grow children so they could function properly in the state-run Prussian educational system and later as good subjects of the Prussian state. The kindergarten was an attempt to integrate very young children into the collectivist/ anti-individualist mode being proposed by the state run educational system. In 1860 Elizabeth Peabody opened the first "formal" kindergarten in Boston, Massachusetts. This became the first formal kindergarten in
America.
By the time of the Second American Revolution (1861 – 1865), the idea of government run schools was really beginning to take hold in America. The National Education Association (NEA) was founded in 1857, and became one of the big supporters of American government run schools. The change in attitudes about governments roll in education is seen in historical documents. For example, after the Second American Revolution Tennessee adopts a new (Reconstruction) Constitution. This constitution includes ARTICLE XI, Section 12:
Education's inherent value--Public schools--Support of higher education.--The State of Tennessee recognizes the inherent value of education and encourages its support. The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance, support and eligibility standards of a system of free public schools. The General Assembly may establish and support such postsecondary educational institutions, including public institutions of higher learning, as it determines.
One of the premier products and promoters of the Prussian educational system was Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt, who in 1875 became a professor in philosophy at the University of Leipzig. Wundt soon established the world’s first psychology laboratory. Wundt asserted that mankind is devoid of spirit and self-determination. He thought that exposing people to “meaningful” experiences would produce desired results. Wundt saw the mission of schools being to socialize children rather than development of intellect. Returning from studies at the University of Leipzig in 1883 G. Stanley Hall joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins University. One of Hall’s protégés was John Dewy. Dewy published the first American volume on the revised science of psychology. Dewy thought that schools should be more social than individualistic to integrate students into a democratic (i.e. socialist) society. Wundt’s teachings at the University of Leipzig became the foundation of Americas modern progressive Educational system. Many of Wundt’s students went on to found and lead America’s prestigious centers for training teachers, such as Teacher’s College at Columbia University.
At the NEA's organizational meeting (1857) the NEA began to call for the creation of a Federal Department of Education with Cabinet Status. The NEA began to lobby Congress for that purpose. In 1867 Congress created a Department of Education, but without cabinet status. IN 1869 the department was demoted to a bureau within the department of the interior. In this status it was headed by a commissioner. When in 1889 the NEA asked that the Bureau of Education should be restored, it became the U.S. Office of Education. IN 1979, President Carter urged Congress, at the request of the NEA, to create a Department of Education with Cabinet Status. Since the Federal government has no Constitutional authority over education, they use finding as a means of regulating schools in the states. If states, or local school districts do not follow federal mandates about education, they are threatened with loosing funding. The most recent attempt to control schools is the No Child Left Behind Act.
This brief historical overview of American government run and operated schools shows that they are designed to undermine individuality while encouraging blind obedience to the government. Section 2 of Tennessee’s Declaration of Rights states:
That government being instituted for the common benefit, the doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power and oppression is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.
As a matter of principle, Libertarians oppose an education system designed to teach non-resistance. Libertarians advocate giving parents total autonomy over their children’s education. Libertarians generally oppose any government involvement in education. Furthermore, Libertarians recognize that on average market-sector schools can operate at about half the cost and produce twice as good of academic results as state run and operated schools. The Libertarian views on the issue of education are based in historical precedence and sound economic theory.
CORPORATE WELFARE:
End "corporate welfare." No government handouts to business. Libertarians generally oppose all forms of government subsides to private corporations. Governments pay companies millions of dollars each year. Sometimes the Federal government will even pay a company not to produce products. Another type of corporate welfare is economic development. Recently “economic development” has been used across America to use emanate domain to seize land to build “industrial parks.” More often than not, governments must spend money on “internal improvements” such as roads and rail roads to make these “industrial parks” marketable. The government is spending money to make improvements to move businesses to areas in which they actually have no real interest in the first place. Corporate welfare would of course also include the government running businesses. For example in Nashville, the government own and operates the Gaylord Entertainment Center and Tennessee Titan’s Stadium. While both of these are
fine facilities that serve an important roll in the community, Libertarians feel that operating and maintaining these should not be the responsibility of Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County’s government, nor should the taxpayers of Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County be forced to pay for these facilities. All fees to operate these facilities should be paid by the people who use them and the people who attend events at these facilities. Other examples like this would include convention centers. Economic impact studies by a number of groups show that these endeavors usually cost more to taxpayers than the revenue they bring into the governments coffers. Another example is schools. Schools can and should be operated as privately owned businesses. Introducing the factors influencing the market sector into any endeavor, including education, will improve services and reduce costs. When any of these endeavors are operated by the government they basically create a need for an ever increasing
tax burden on the general public.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE:
End government barriers to international free trade. Thomas Jefferson in his Inaugural Address, of March 4, 1801 said, “Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political: peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations-entangling alliance with none.” Jefferson and our other founding fathers recognized the importance of free trade for a free society. Historically, America’s economy blossomed when trade was free and suffered when international trade was highly regulated. Basically with all trade the introduction of competition weather from abroad or at home will produce a healthy economy. The so called recent free trade agreements (NFTA and GAT) actually only harm and challenge the sovereignty of the United States of America rather than establish free trade. These agreements are thinly disguised attempts at creating world government. True free trade will respect national and individual sovereignty.
RETIREMENT:
Let people control their own retirement; privatize Social Security. Ones Retirement is far too important to be entrusted to the government. Libertarians believe that the people can make better choices about their future than the government can. Initially Social Security was supposed to be a reserve fund set aside just for retirement benefits. However, the bureaucrats in Washington D.C. found ways for themselves to dip into the fund. Instead of the funds that you contribute being set aside and invested for your retirement, they became part of a general fund that congress could plunder at will. The system was modified so that the funds you are currently contributing are paying benefits to people currently on the system. When a large number of people, such as the baby boomers, start drawing benefits, from contributions made by a much smaller group, the program’s funds will quickly be depleted. Libertarians believe that Social Security should be replaced with a private retirement fund that is
controlled by the individual. Everyone should receive a full refund of the funds they have contributed and be given a choice of investing these funds for their own retirement. Such a transition would have to be implemented over time to take care of those already receiving benefits or those that are just within a few years of retirement.
WELFARE:
Replace government welfare with private charity. Taking care of the poor and elderly is an important function of a civilized free society. However, welfare is not a proper function of government. David Crocket once said, “We have rights, as individuals, to give as much of our own money as we please to charity; but as members of congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of public money.” Tax dollars belong to the people, not the government. The government uses force and fraud to rob the people of their money through taxes. Private charity is much more effective at determining and then solving the needs of the poor and elderly. Whenever America has faces a disastrous need the people have come through with abundant donations. While the government shows itself to be an ineffective conduit for distributing charity, private charities have a proven track record of determining needs and meeting those needs in an efficient manner. Recently in Tennessee, TennCare paid $784,205 in
benefits to dead people. This was the fourth consecutive year Tennessee had paid benefits to the deceased (Source: The 2006 Tennessee Pork Report). Countless examples of mismanagement and abuse of government welfare programs are well documents. Private charities can operate on a local level and set their own rigid standards for who they choose to help. Private charity also eliminates the need for costly bureaucratic overhead. Bureaucratic overhead becomes one of the largest consumers of funds in government welfare programs.
IMIGRATION:
Peaceful people should be able to cross borders freely. There should be no national ID card. Libertarians derive their positions on all issues, including immigration, on the principled avoidance of initiating force. Governments initiate force when they tell someone whom they may or may not hire. To define providing humanitarian aid to someone a crime, simply because of their national origin, is both an initiation of force and immoral. On numerous occasions the U.S. Supreme court has held that the right to travel on public roads and highways is a right that shall not be abridged by any governing body.
In a society that promotes justice for all and innocence until proven guilty, individuals should enjoy the right to be judged by their own merits or shortcomings. They should certainly not be judged based on some arbitrary catigatory into which some bureaucrats have placed them. Condemning individuals because of their national origin and their governmental classification is in actuality a form of racism.
Illegal and legal immigrants are distinguished only by the fact that the latter is "politically approved". While we are a nation of law, and Libertarians recognize that law plays an important roll in a civil society, Libertarians also recognize that laws are made by fallible humans and can be fallible. Laws should always respect the individual.
America has a welfare problem, a crime problem, and a terrorism problem, not an immigration problem. Libertarians would solve the welfare problem by replacing government welfare programs with private charity. Libertarians would solve the crime problem by eliminating victimless crimes, so law enforcement can focus on true crimes committed against persons and property. Libertarians would additionally reduce crimes by making sure that each individual has the means to protect themselves, their property, and their family. Abundant statistical evidence proves that an armed citizenry is a citizenry that is safe and relatively free from crime. Libertarians would solve the terrorism problem by avoiding entangling alliances while promoting free trade with all nations. America’s military should protect America and her interests not be the world’s police force. Congress can use its authority to grant letters of Marque and Reprisal (Article I, Section 8) to seek out and capture know terrorists. The only
thing
Congress is authorized to do with regards to immigration is "To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization", that is the process by which an immigrant can become a citizen. Beyond this any federal involvement or oversight of immigration is unconstitutional.
Studies indicate that immigrants lead to an increase in jobs available. Immigrants increase the demands for goods and services. They contribute to the overall investment and productivity. On the whole immigrants are more highly entrepreneurial than native-born Americans and create jobs by starting businesses. Immigrants can fill important gaps in the low and high ends of the job market. Low-wage immigrants can help American companies survive competition form low-wage paying foreign companies.
The employment of force by the government to enforce its laws always has negative impacts on the rights of individuals. These impacts always ripple out to affect the rights of everyone under the influence of the government. For example, Federal Immigration laws require every employer to obtain and every employee to furnish proof of eligibility to work and identity (I-9 form). These laws clearly violate the individuals right to contract.
One must either support the sovereignty of the individual or the sovereignty of the state. All power is inherent in the individual, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their peace, safety, and happiness; for the advancement of those ends they have at all times, an unalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform, or abolish the government in such manner as they may think proper. This view in the Tennessee’s Constitution’s Declaration of Rights (Section 1) advocates individual sovereignty. Believing the individual is sovereign makes you a Libertarian. On principle Libertarians oppose any government that have a problem with any government that doesn't recognize individual sovereignty and see borders for what they are imaginary lines created by politicians to determine which group of thugs has jurisdiction over your life and property.
Promoters of the sovereignty of the nation state are statist. Satists abdicate their rights to rule themselves to the cult of the omnipotent state. For satists borders are important as a symbol of the power of the state over the individual. America has always been a nation of immigrants. Thomas Jefferson emphasized this basic part of the American heritage, taking note that all men have a natural right to relinquish the country in which one was born or other accident may have thrown oneself, and seeking subsistence and happiness wherever they may be able, and hope to find them. The Libertarian Party has long recognized the importance of allowing free and open immigration, understanding that this leads to a growing and more prosperous America. We condemn the xenophobic immigrant bashing that would build a wall around the United States. At the same time, we recognize that the right to enter the United States does not include the right to economic entitlements such as welfare. The freedom to immigrate is a freedom of opportunity, not a guarantee of a handout.
TAXES AND SPENDING:
Cut taxes and government spending by 50% or more. Taxation is theft. Tax money belongs to individuals who acquire these funds through their own hard work, and not the government who seeks to plunder these funds from them through taxation. Libertarians are the only ones who consistently stand up for the people’s right to keep the money they have earned. The amount of taxes a government must collect are of course directly linked to government spending. Fiscal responsibility requires a reduction in spending before one can cut taxes.
Governments operate on two separate sets of books. Most people are familiar with the government’s budgets. These budgets show how much money the government is generating in revenue (taxes, licenses, and fees) and how much they are spending. For example, Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County may have a budget of about $1.4 billion for a given year. The second set of books is called the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). The CAFR shows the actual assets in the possession of the government entity. For example, Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County may have assets listed in their CAFR worth $5.4 billion. If the following year, Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County decides that they will be spending $1.6 billion they will say that they have a budget shortfall of $200 million, when they actually still have $5.4 billion in assets. Then they will come to the citizens of Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County and tell them how they need $200 million in extra funding and that
taxes must be raised to pay for this additional funding. If enough people complain about the situation, the government of Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County will trim $100 million form their proposed budget, and then make some public statement about how they have cut spending by $100 million, when actually they have increased spending by that amount. Libertarians are not talking about these kind of smoke a mirror budget and tax cuts. Libertarians want real budget and tax cuts. The best way to achieve this is to limit the function of government. Incredibly, limiting the function of government also always increases individual freedom.
Simply limiting government to its proper functions (as outlined in the Constitutions and founding charters) would reduces government spending by at least 50%. This would also mean that taxes could be reduced by 50%. Furthermore each governing body should look for ways to save money. A Libertarian County Executive in Georgia offered his county employees a 10% bonus for any savings they could find for the county government (that is a savings of $1000 earns the employee $100). Such efforts combined with a responsible perspective on governing and spending could very easily lead to savings and tax cuts that exceed 50%.
CONCLUSION & OTHER ISSUES:
Since Libertarians believe in individuality, we do not expect everyone to hold exactly the same views on issues as they have been presented on this page. We invite each individual to take the principles of individual liberty, personal responsibility, and the doctrine of the non-initiation of force and apply them to each political issue they encounter. The National Libertarian Party has developed an extensive platform that deals with many more issues than we can cover on this page. Reading through this platform gives an even broader understanding of how Libertarians approach the issues.
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