Organization: University of Maine System
Date: Wednesday, 8 Apr 1992 22:39:09 EDT
From: Nicholas C. Hester <IA80024@MAINE.MAINE.EDU>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.politics
Subject: 1992 Libertarian Platform part 2


------------------------------ Begin Part Two -------------------------------

                      II. TRADE AND THE ECONOMY

Because each person  has the right  to offer  goods  and  services  to
others on the  free market, and  because government  interference  can
only harm such free activity, we oppose all intervention by government
into the  area  of  economics.   The  only  proper  role  of  existing
governments in the  economic realm  is  to  protect  property  rights,
adjudicate disputes, and  provide a legal framework in which voluntary
trade is protected.

Efforts to forcibly  redistribute wealth or  forcibly manage trade are
intolerable.   Government  manipulation  of  the  economy  creates  an
entrenched privileged class  -- those with  access to tax money -- and
an exploited class -- those who are net taxpayers.


1. THE ECONOMY

Government intervention in  the economy  imperils  both  the  personal
freedom and the  material prosperity of  every American.  We therefore
support the following specific immediate reforms:

a.  drastic reduction of both taxes and government spending;

b.  an end to deficit budgets;

c.  a halt to inflationary monetary policies;

d.  the removal of all governmental impediments to free trade; and

e.  the repeal  of all controls  on  wages,  prices,  rents,  profits,
production, and interest rates.

2. TAXATION

Since we believe  that all persons  are entitled to keep the fruits of
their labor, we  oppose all government  activity that consists of  the
forcible collection of money or goods from individuals in violation of
their individual rights.  Specifically, we:

a.  recognize the  right of any individual to challenge the payment of
taxes on moral, religious, legal, or constitutional grounds;

b.  oppose all  personal  and  corporate  income  taxation,  including
capital gains taxes;

c.  support the  repeal of the  Sixteenth Amendment,  and  oppose  any
increase in existing tax rates and the imposition of any new taxes;

d.  support the eventual repeal of all taxation; and

e.  support a  declaration of  unconditional  amnesty  for  all  those
individuals who have  been convicted of,  or who now stand accused of,
tax resistance.

As an interim  measure, all criminal  and civil sanctions against  tax
evasion should be terminated immediately.

We oppose as  involuntary servitude  any  legal  requirements  forcing
employers or business  owners to serve  as tax collectors for federal,
state, or local tax agencies.

We oppose any  and all increases in the rate of taxation or categories
of taxpayers, including  the elimination of deductions, exemptions, or
credits in the  spurious name of  "fairness," "simplicity," or alleged
"neutrality to the  free market."  No tax can ever be fair, simple, or
neutral to the free market.

In the current  fiscal crisis of states and municipalities, default is
preferable to raising taxes or perpetual refinancing of growing public
debt.

3. INFLATION AND DEPRESSION

We recognize that  government control over  money and banking  is  the
primary cause of  inflation and depression.   Individuals  engaged  in
voluntary exchange should  be  free  to  use  as  money  any  mutually
agreeable commodity or  item, such as  gold coins denominated by units
of weight.  We  therefore call for the repeal of all legal tender laws
and of all  compulsory governmental units  of account.  We support the
right to private  ownership of and  contracts for gold.  We  favor the
elimination of all  government fiat money  and all  government  minted
coins.  All restrictions  upon the private  minting of coins should be
abolished so that  minting will be open to the competition of the free
market.





We favor free-market  banking.  We  call  for  the  abolition  of  the
Federal Reserve System,  Federal Deposit  Insurance  Corporation,  the
National  Banking  System,   and  all  similar   national  and   state
interventions  affecting   banking   and   credit.    Our   opposition
encompasses all controls  on the rate  of interest.  We also  call for
the abolition of  the Federal Home  Loan Bank System,  the  Resolution
Trust Corporation,  the  National  Credit  Union  Administration,  the
National Credit Union  Central Liquidity  Facility,  and  all  similar
national  and  state   interventions  affecting   savings   and   loan
associations, credit unions, and other depository institutions.  There
should  be  unrestricted   competition  among  banks   and  depository
institutions of all types.

To complete the  separation of bank and State, we favor the Jacksonian
independent treasury system, in which all government funds are held by
the government itself  and not deposited  in any private  banks.   The
only further necessary check upon monetary inflation is the consistent
application of the general protection against fraud to the minting and
banking industries.

Pending its abolition,  the Federal Reserve  System, in order to  halt
rampant  inflation,  must  immediately  cease  its  expansion  of  the
quantity of money.  As interim measures, we further support:

a.  the lifting of all restrictions on branch banking;

b.  the repeal of all state usury laws;

c.  the removal of all remaining restrictions on the interest paid for
deposits;

d.  the elimination  of laws setting  margin requirements on purchases
and sales of securities;

e.  the revocation of all other selective credit controls;

f.  the abolition  of Federal Reserve  control over  the  reserves  of
non-member banks and other depository institutions; and

g.  the lifting of the prohibition of domestic deposits denominated in
foreign currencies.




4. FINANCE AND CAPITAL INVESTMENT

We call for  the abolition of  all regulation of financial and capital
markets.  Specifically, we  demand the  abolition  of  the  tyrannical
Securities and Exchange  Commission, of state  "Blue Sky"  laws  which
repress  small  and   risky  capital  ventures,  and  of  all  federal
regulation of commodity  markets.  We oppose  any attempts to  ban  or
regulate  such  innovative   financial   devices   as   investing   in
stock-market index futures.

We call for repeal of all laws based on the muddled concept of insider
trading.  What should  be punished is  the  theft  of  information  or
breach of contract  to hold information  in confidence, not trading on
the basis of  valuable knowledge.   We  support  the  right  of  third
parties to make  stock purchase tender offers to stockholders over the
opposition of entrenched  management, and oppose  all laws restricting
such offers.

5. GOVERNMENT DEBT

We support the  drive for a  constitutional  amendment  requiring  the
national government to  balance its budget,  and also support  similar
amendments to require  balanced state budgets.   To  be  effective,  a
balanced budget amendment should provide:

a.  that neither  Congress nor the  President be permitted to override
this requirement;

b.  that all off-budget items are included in the budget;

c.  that the  budget is balanced  exclusively by cutting expenditures,
and not by raising taxes; and

d.  that no exception be made for periods of national emergency.

The Federal Reserve  should be forbidden  to  acquire  any  additional
government securities, thereby  helping to eliminate  the inflationary
aspect of the deficit.  Governments facing fiscal crises should always
default in preference  to raising taxes.   At a minimum, the  level of
government should be frozen.





6. MONOPOLIES

We condemn all  coercive monopolies.  We  recognize that government is
the source of  monopoly, through its  grants  of  legal  privilege  to
special interests in  the economy.  In order to abolish monopolies, we
advocate a strict separation of business and State.

"Anti-trust" laws do  not prevent monopoly,  but foster it by limiting
competition.  We therefore  call for the  repeal of  all  "anti-trust"
laws,  including  the   Robinson-Patman  Act  which   restricts  price
discounts, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and the Clayton Anti-Trust Act.
 We further call for the abolition of the Federal Trade Commission and
the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice.

We defend the right of individuals to form corporations, cooperatives,
and other types  of companies based on voluntary association.  Laws of
incorporation should not  include grants of  monopoly  privilege.   In
particular, we oppose  special limits on the liability of corporations
for damages caused  in noncontractual transactions.   We  also  oppose
state or federal  limits on the  size of private companies  and on the
right of companies  to merge.  We  further oppose efforts, in the name
of social responsibility,  or any  other  reason,  to  expand  federal
chartering of corporations  into a pretext  for government control  of
business.

7. SUBSIDIES

In order to  achieve a free  economy in which government victimizes no
one for the  benefit of any  other, we oppose all government subsidies
to business, labor, education, agriculture, science, broadcasting, the
arts, sports, or  any  other  special  interest.   In  particular,  we
condemn any  effort  to  forge  an  alliance  between  government  and
business under  the  guise  of  "reindustrialization"  or  "industrial
policy."  The unrestricted  competition of the free market is the best
way to foster  prosperity.  We therefore  oppose any resumption of the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation,  or any similar  plan  that  would
force the taxpayer to subsidize or sustain any enterprise.

We call for  the abolition of  the Federal Financing  Bank,  the  most
important  national  agency   subsidizing   special   interests   with
government  loans.   We  also  oppose  all  government  guarantees  of
so-called  private  loans.   Such  guarantees  transfer  resources  to
special interests as  effectively as  actual  government  expenditures
and, at the  national level, exceed  direct government loans in  total
amount.   Taxpayers  must   never  bear  the   cost  of  default  upon
government-guaranteed  loans.   All   national,   state,   and   local
government agencies whose  primary function  is  to  guarantee  loans,
including   the   Federal    Housing   Administration,    the    Rural
Electrification Administration, and the Small Business Administration,
should be abolished or privatized.

The  loans  of   government-sponsored  enterprises,  even   when   not
guaranteed by the government, constitute another form of subsidy.  All
such enterprises --  the Federal Home  Loan Mortgage Corporation,  the
Federal National Mortgage Association, the Farm Credit Administration,
and the Student Loan Marketing Association -- must either be abolished
or completely privatized.

Relief or exemption  from  taxation  or  from  any  other  involuntary
government intervention, however, should not be considered a subsidy.

8. TARIFFS AND QUOTAS

Like  subsidies,  tariffs  and  quotas  serve  only  to  give  special
treatment to favored  interests and to  diminish the welfare of  other
individuals.  The measures  also reduce the  scope  of  contracts  and
understanding among different peoples.  We therefore support abolition
of all tariffs  and quotas as  well as the Tariff  Commission and  the
Customs Court.

9. PUBLIC UTILITIES

We advocate the termination of government-created franchise privileges
and governmental monopolies  for such services  as garbage collection,
fire  protection,  electricity,   natural   gas,   cable   television,
telephone, or water  supplies. Furthermore,  all  rate  regulation  in
these industries  should  be  abolished.   The  right  to  offer  such
services on the market should not be curtailed by law.

10. UNIONS AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

We support  the  right  of  free  persons  to  voluntarily  establish,
associate in, or  not associate in,  labor unions.  An employer should
have the right  to recognize, or  refuse to recognize, a  union as the
collective bargaining agent of some, or all, of its employees.





We oppose government  interference in bargaining,  such as  compulsory
arbitration or the imposition of an obligation to bargain.  Therefore,
we urge repeal  of the National  Labor Relations Act,  and  all  state
Right-to-Work Laws which  prohibit  employers  from  making  voluntary
contracts with unions.   We oppose all  government back-to-work orders
as the imposition of a form of forced labor.

Government-mandated  waiting  periods  for  closure  of  factories  or
businesses hurt, rather  than help, the  wage-earner.  We support  all
efforts  to  benefit   workers,  owners,  and  management  by  keeping
government out of this area.

Workers and employers  should have the  right  to  organize  secondary
boycotts if they  so choose.  Nevertheless, boycotts or strikes do not
justify the initiation  of violence against  other workers, employers,
strike-breakers, and innocent bystanders.

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