Posted on 06/04/2006 4:20:59 PM PDT by Lorianne
John Stossel thinks sweatshops are good for workers, while minimum wages hurt the poor.
Controversial? Sure. Just don't call him a Conservative.
"I'm a Libertarian," according to Stossel, the TV network consumer reporter turned staunch free-market defender. "I hold beliefs Conservatives abhor."
Speaking at a luncheon hosted by the conservative Fraser Institute think tank yesterday, Stossel made it clear his politics don't quite fall within the traditional left or right wing spectrum.
He takes no issue with gay marriage, for example, while he says sending troops to Iraq "wasn't a good idea." At the same time, lefties likely won't love his views on global warming - "Those environmental guys," Stossel said, "seem to be acting more like psychics than following the science."
But Stossel's contentious governments-are-bad preaching also extends to drug laws, which he says are causing harm.
So does Mill. However, Mill trailed off into socialism in the end because he would not recognize the need for institutions mediate between the individual and the state, not family, not church. Even the corporation has to be treated as an artificial institution.
What parts of the Bill of Rights do you disagree with?
Some folks probably thought that about anti-miscegenation laws, and it looks like that's working out just fine.
Seriously, there are a number of companies that offer insurance for "domestic partners", and it hasn't affected benefits for traditional married couples that I can tell so I'll go out on a limb and venture a guess that insurance would be a non-issue if gay marriage was recognized by the government.
It certainly lowers it.
Homicide Rates and Substance Control Policy
My research indicates that the theory of the primary cause of violent crime in the United States which is most consistent with the available data is a violent black market caused by the War on Drugs today, and Prohibition in the 1920’s.Violence and the U.S. Prohibitions of Drugs and Alcohol(pdf)...
Many economists, such as Milton Friedman (1991: 57) and William Niskanen (1992: 238), have argued that the Drug War is responsible for the United States’ crime problem. Bruce Benson et al. (1992: 679) performed a cross-sectional analysis of data from 67 Florida counties in 1986 and 1987 to determine if property crime is positively related to the intensity of drug enforcement activities. Harold Brumm et al. (1995: 509) examined data on 57 cities in 32 states in 1985 to determine if homicide rates are positively correlated with the percentage of a communities law enforcement resources that are devoted to the enforcement of drug laws. Both property crime and violent crime were determined to be positively correlated with the intensity of drug enforcement activities.
...
One possible theory for the correlation between the homicide rate and the substance control proxy is that homicides are caused by drug and alcohol use, and therefore homicides increase as drug and alcohol arrests increase. This theory does not explain the data.
This paper examines the relation between prohibitions and violence using the historical behavior of the homicide rate in the United States. The results document that increases in enforcement of drug and alcohol prohibition have been associated with increases in the homicide rate, and auxiliary evidence suggests this positive correlation reflects a causal effect of prohibition enforcement on homicide. Controlling for other potential determinants of the homicide rate -- the age composition of the population, the incarceration rate, economic conditions, gun availability, and the death penalty -- does not alter the conclusion that drug and alcohol prohibition have substantially raised the homicide rate in the United States over much of the past 100 years.
So do you support banning alcohol? If not, why should we support the ban on other drugs?
Libertarians do not argue against the existence of government. Have any other straw men you'd like to beat?
Self-"victimization" is not the proper business of government.
But prohibition's enrichment of criminals, and the ills that exacerbates, is a problem with prohibition.
There is a reason things are done the way they are. Marijuana is where "the line" is drawn.
And what is the reason for that ... since marijuana is less addictive than alcohol, and unlike alcohol does not lead to fatal overdose nor increase violent behavior?
When these authoritarians cannot argue logically about concepts and ideas, they lie.
Actually it's the same as the big "L" platform until you press them into defending a particular plank of that platform. Then they become small "l" libertarians who agree with everything except that plank ... and maybe one or two others.
So, you can have 30 libertarians in a room, none of them supporting the same platform. And people wonder why the Libertarian Party is making no headway.
There is no 'small " l " party.' It's a philosophy (with room for disagreement about particular applications), not a party.
Given your assertion that both programs are "not working", it's hard to explain why Prohibition lasted only 13 short years yet drug prohibition has been going on for 70+ years with no end in sight. Every survey I've seen says that people don't want to change it.
You say drug prohibition "isn't working". What do you mean, "isn't working"? Are you saying that if we legalized all drugs, drug use would remain essentially the same?
Nice straw man.
I don't understand why this addict won't do the same amount of crime and buy more cheap drugs. Now that it's legal and cheap, he can shoot up twice a day instead of every other day.
I mean, when there's a sale at the grocery store, don't you stock up? If Pepsi's on sale, I buy more and drink more Pepsi. And I'm not an addict. Really.
Nice post, newbie.
There is very little he and I disagree on, actually. The war is the only one I've seen so far.
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