Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Politics

I've been trying to figure out where I fit politically. I seem to be more libertarian than either liberal or conservative. I think government should be a lot smaller--Federal should probably be half to 1/3 the size it is, not counting the military.

Top federal priorities should be:
Defense
Non-consensual Law Enforcement
Legal infrastructure--Courts, judges, etc
Infrastructure and long-term investment. Public buildings, roads, parks, etc.
Protection from state government
Promoting commerce

Lower priorities
Education. This is a lower priority only because I don't think the feds are all that likely to efficiently spend education dollars. I also don't see a really good way to use federal money to help locally--If you reward high-performers, you're de-funding the people who need the most help, if you help where it's needed the most, you essentially reward poor performance.

Health Care. This is a weird situation--I don't think it's a primary function of the federal government, but the finances of health care are currently insane. Those with health insurance are already subsidizing those without, in a very inefficient way. If the subsidy were moved and controlled (more preventative, less ER) I think it likely that my health insurance costs would go down by more than my taxes would go up.

The other option is a "pay or die" system. I personally would be reasonably OK with that, but it won't fly politically, and there are problems of people having to prove they can pay before they can have treatment.

The reason I specify "non-consensual law enforcement" is to distinguish it from busybody law enforcement like drugs, prostitution, gambling and other vices. If we spent less (resources) on victimless crime, we'd have more to spend where it will protect victims.

If drugs are legal, I think there will be far less property and violent crime and more room in prison to keep violent offenders longer. The drug addicts won't need to steal as much, and may be able to support their habit legally.

Prostitution should also be legal, partly to help protect prostitutes from being unfairly exploited.

I find state-run gambling offensive--The state should not be allowed to run a lottery (or a whorehouse, or a liquor store...) but should be able to (reasonably) tax and regulate privately run gambling. (or whorehouses....)

Federal coercion needs to stop. I'm talking about "pass these laws, or we won't fund your highways" type things. Intent also needs to be considered--Abuse of the interstate commerce clause to justify regulating things that should be left to individual states needs to stop.

Taxes should be primarily on spending.

This is a draft, and I'll likely come back to it later.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks so much for the advice. If I had read it first, I probably wouldn't have written today's blog as I did. Still, my STS (sons tech support) will understand your info much better than I. Read your last blog and will check back later to read more. I, too, have trouble with defining my lable--I think most of us are a mixture defying categories. For instance I have some friends who actually ARE feminist lesbos, but I've never seen why it is obligatory to be gay to be a feminist.

    ReplyDelete