Let the free market be free
Posted in Liberty's Lessons by R Lee Wrights on February 28th, 2010 by John Stossel
The Internet has revolutionized the marketplace by, among other things, eliminating middlemen.
Internet car-buying services let you shop for prices and options without leaving home. “For sale by owner” websites show you houses for sale.
Uh oh. Can’t have that, can we?
In a truly free market, businesses can’t kill competition, because they can’t use force. Unfortunately, in our “mixed economy,” they can get their friends in politics to use force to stifle competition.
Adam Smith saw it all the way back in 1776. In “The Wealth of Nations,” he wrote, “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.” He advised that any legislation such a group proposed “ought always to be listened to with great precaution.” Detroit and its dealers wield enough influence in state capitals to make direct sales of cars on the Internet illegal everywhere but Alaska. Every year the automotive industry spends millions of dollars fighting government regulation, but when it can use government for its own ends, it does.
Take a look at our Party’s web page. At the top, like a bright marquee, we proudly announce our philosophy to all those who visit our site. It is simple. It is easy to remember. It is easy to understand. Smaller government. More freedom. We believe that when you give individuals liberty and responsibility for their own life the world is a safer and freer place to live. The best way to prove our philosophy works is when we use it and show it works.
I won’t be writing on drama ripped from the headlines this week. I will be writing on the drama silenced under terrifying government bureaucracy and elaborate funding schemes. It’s not in the news. It should be.
How LAMA has changed since the 2006 State Convention - and all for the better.
This coming weekend - February 26 to 28 — a Libertarian Party state leaders conference is being held in Austin, Texas. Libertarian activists from across the country will get together, share ideas, and network. On Saturday night, there will be a debate among the four declared candidates for LNC Chair. Sunday, the National Committee will have a regular meeting.
I frequently come up against the accusation that, because I don’t approve of taxation, I don’t care about the poor. In many minds, paying taxes to a ruling elite equates with helping the less fortunate and supporting society. But take a look at the U.S. Debt Clock. So far this year, this country’s ruling elite has spent $500 billion on war, $300 billion on interest to the Federal Reserve; $50 billion on subsidies; and $1100 billion on big-business bailouts. Is it just me, or does this look rather like slaughtering the poor and enriching the very rich?
Earlier today, a victim of the largest extortion racket in the world struck back, giving up his life in the process. The control freaks, and their propagandists who pretend to be “reporters,” will no doubt spend the next few weeks demonizing the man, or painting him as crazy. You can decide for yourself if this was the case. As best I can tell, today Joseph Stack burned down his house, and then crashed his plane into the Austin, Texas offices of the IRS. We don’t need to ponder the reason, because he told us why, in a suicide note, which 
Recently, several Canadian judges have ruled that simple possession of marijuana is no longer a crime. What has caused this turn of events? Why it’s medical marijuana. It seems that Canadian judges find it unconstitutional for marijuana to be legal as medicine and then force the sick to resort to the black market for their medicine. In the US, nine states have passed laws allowing the medical use of marijuana but only California allows patient access to their medicine without resorting to the black market. Sure in all nine states, patients can grow their own medicine (and wait four months for harvest), except buying and selling the seeds are illegal in eight of them. And if the patient or their caregiver buys seeds from Canada or other countries selling them, they violate another law if they ask the US Postal Service to deliver them.
