Posted on 07/23/2002 9:22:00 PM PDT by OrthodoxPresbyterian
Thank you for the honor of addressing you on July 4, which is a worldwide libertarian holiday. I want to share with you how the Movimiento Libertario is guiding Costa Rica from socialism to libertarianism.
For your reference, my country is about the size of West Virginia and has a population of four million people. Like you, Costa Rica has been governed by either of two political parties that have been stealing our individual freedoms a little at a time, year after year.
Costa Rica is a socialist country where the State has monopolies on insurance, telecommunications, oil refining, access to Internet, and even in the production of liquor. Further, 93% of students are subject to a total public school indoctrination which glorifies the State, which also runs banks, trains and grocery stores, and forces all workers to pay for compulsory health care and pensions which are a fraud.
Costa Rica is also socialist because the State has created an average annual inflation of 18% for more than 25 years. Further, the tax burden on the average Costa Rican consumes about 50% of his salary. That means that two thirds of one's salary is stolen by the State.
When the Movimiento Libertario was founded eight years ago, the word "libertarian" did not exist in the Costa Rican vocabulary. Today, the libertarian position is discussed in ALL political debates. Three persons, including myself, founded the Movimiento Libertario on May 25, 1994. The other two persons were economist Rigoberto Stewart and former Florida Libertarian Party chair Raúl Costales, who introduced Rigoberto and me to libertarianism. As I'm sure is also the case with you, we were inspired by the libertarian philosophy as it was developed by great thinkers in the fields of philosophy, ethics, politics, law, economics and psychology -by intellectual giants such as Frederic Bastiat, Ludwig von Mises and Ayn Rand.
From the start we decided to emphasize not only the practicality of libertarianism, but also its morality. And we think that it is on moral grounds that we have won most of our successes. The free market has had many economic defenders over more than two centuries, and has proven to be the best economic system. But we are convinced that to win the intellectual battle we must emphasize the immorality of collectivism, of socialism, of statism, and the injustice, wars, suffering and poverty they bring about. Inversely, we should proclaim the justice, peace, happiness and prosperity that libertarianism provides.
Our task has always been to change minds, to undertake a large educational campaign which brings many, many people to the side of freedom with responsibility. It is not an easy task, for the State pretty much controls educational systems everywhere, and attempts to brainwash our children into becoming irresponsible, dependent, obedient serfs. But our strongest weapon is that we have reason on our side.
Another complication is that as libertarians who don't accept government campaign funding, we are at a disadvantage against the bipartisan monopoly. But fortunately in such situations, many people admire a lean David that stands up to a bloated Goliath.
For our first electoral participation in February 1998, our goal was to get our foot in the national Legislative Assembly (or Congress), which consists of 57 legislators in Costa Rica. And we did it! But from the start, we knew that only one Congressman, surrounded by 56 others representing statist parties, could not realistically aspire to pass the libertarian political agenda during a four year term. Although I introduced more law bills than anyone else, most either did not pass or are still tangled up in the legislative agenda. The subjects of the bills included economic deregulation, reducing the size of the State, eliminating taxes, breaking up State monopolies, eliminating privileges and restoring individual liberties.
But it is in improving law bills introduced by others that we were able to play a major role. We were able to change many of them significantly so as to stop or mitigate individual rights violations, close the door on financing new public entities, reduce the tax load and bureaucracy, and avoid new, burdensome economic regulations. For example, we were able to stop the extension of the social security tax to independent workers, benefiting hundreds of thousands of workers who are not forced to pay into the the Ponzi scheme which social security is.
I was fortunate to have a small but very motivated and dedicated libertarian staff in my office. That staff is now very experienced and is now helping our new libertarian Congressmen. Further, I was also fortunate to count on the excellent counsel of a group of libertarian external advisors, who without charging a cent helped me make tough decisions in the tactical and strategic areas. This was also a small group, but it consisted of highly trained professionals, primarily in the business, academic, legal and economic fields. Two of them have accompanied me here at their own expense, and I ask you to please welcome them: economist Mario Vedova and businessman Werner Ossenbach, where are you? There they are! Both of them will be part of the workshop that we will have tomorrow afternoon.
Furthermore, news media people soon learned that we could back up our statements and positions with objective proof. This enabled us to have all our newspaper articles published in newspapers, and also to become an interview favorite of journalists who welcomed our explanation of libertarian positions and solutions never before heard in Costa Rica, which get to the root of the problem and work! And this in turn helped us to spread the libertarian philosophy to every corner of the nation, for free!!
Once libertarianism was represented in Congress, it became a topic of study for high school and college students, who very often visited our Congressional offices and continue to do so. Libertarian ideas have been openly discussed everywhere in the last four years. The great news is that it is precisely among young people that our message is most welcome. Poll after poll has verified this fact. And we are banking on this when we predict that Costa Rica will be a libertarian nation in our lifetime. But we still need to do much more work at high schools and universities over the next months and years.
In the recent elections no party even came close to getting a majority of Congressional seats. With Congress widely split among four parties, the Movimiento Libertario's negotiating power has increased significantly from the previous 1-against-56, David vs. Goliath situation. Proof of that is that through some hard negotiations, last May we were able to place one of our libertarian legislators as Vice President of Congress, and another as the Chair of the equivalent of the Ways and Means Committee, which reviews and votes on the annual government budget. This is the first time in history that such an important position has been in the hands of an opposition party.
One important battle that we will soon undertake is to stop a bill that pretends to tax Costa Rican individuals and companies on their worldwide income. I am sure you all know the advantages of offshore income not being taxed, as is presently the case in Costa Rica, and I am sure you can also understand why the U.S. government is putting pressure on other countries to close that wonderful possibility, which can protect one's hard earned assets against government confiscation.
Perhaps the most important point that I wish to make to you today, my American libertarian brothers and sisters, is that what allowed us to get into the national Congress was Costa Rica's electoral system of proportional representation. In Costa Rica it works like this: the 57 legislative seats are distributed between the 7 provinces based on relative population. That is how San José province, the most populous, is assigned 20 seats, which the voters of the province could elect. And I was elected because I obtained about 5% of the vote in San José, which is equal to the proportion of one over twenty seats.
So, in contrast to the winner-take-all electoral system in the U.S., in Costa Rica we were able to get our foot into Congress without having to defeat a major party opponent in a direct race. That's how the proportional representation system enables so-called third parties to "get in" and then build on that based on Congressional performance, as we did.
Present here today is a fellow libertarian from Virginia, Bill Redpath. Where are you, Bill? There he is! Bill is making reform proposals to your Platform and Bylaws, to seek the establishment of a proportional representation system in the U.S. I fully endorse his proposal and strongly encourage you to support it. Please note that without proportional representation, we would have NEVER been able to achieve the victories we have won in Costa Rica. It is clear that your present electoral system is designed to perpetuate the bipartisan monopoly of Republicans and Democrats. A similar monopoly is now being broken up in Costa Rica, by elected libertarians, due to proportional representation.
For the elections held last February we ran an ambitious campaign for Congress, and it paid off. We spent about $217,000 in the campaign, and elected six libertarian legislators, or 10% of Congress. That equals about $36,000 per Congressman elected. Our TV campaign absorbed 87% of total costs, and another 5% went for radio and newspaper advertising near the end. We received a relatively small but much appreciated financial support from American libertarians, and if you are one of them, thank you very much, and we hope you are pleased with the results! I would also like to thank National Chair Jim Lark and the LP National Committee for enabling us to circulate two e-mails among LP members.
Since my time is about to expire, I invite you to attend the workshop tomorrow afternoon, in which we can go into more details about our political actions, and can also have time to answer many of your questions. The workshop will be held tomorrow afternoon at 2:45 PM, entitled "Political Action in Costa Rica".
But for now let me conclude by saying that the Movimiento Libertario is living proof that an uncompromising, principled, morally centered libertarianism can attract many people in a relatively short time, in countries that had never heard of our philosophy before. And that perhaps the strongest factor that motivates us is that we KNOW that we can change sufficient minds in Costa Rica so that we will achieve liberty in our lifetime!
The fact that we are a "Republic" is not in any way mutually exclusive with a Parliamentary system of Proportional Representation. There is nothing inherently contradictory about a Parliamentary Republic; the defining characteristic of a Republic is not a "winner-takes-all" electoral system, but rather equal treatment under law for all Men.
Check your copy of Samuel Rutherford's Lex Rex if you think otherwise. (Of course, since the soul of "Republicanism" is equal treatment under law, we become less and less of a "Republic" with the passage of each "law" from which Congress exempts its own members... a travesty against which Rush Limbaugh justly rails).
There's nothing "anti-republican" about a Parliamentary electoral system; our Republic just is not structured in that manner, that's all.
More's the pity.
I realized my mistake only after I posted it, but that's what I get for having only a year of high-school Spanish under my belt.
Ummm.... yeah, "orthogonal"... what he said.
A far more linguistically-economic statement of the case than my #21.
But, same point... ;-)
I'm dating a girl who bought a beach house in Costa Rica for a measly $40k.
Of course, you're well advised to boil your water, but Gringo Dollars still go a long way....
Two questions: does she have a sister and can she fish?
We weren't set up to havce what you imagine it is that you desire . That too, makes it a moot point. OTOH, should ( GOD forbid ! ) you get what you claim to want, things would be untenable . Why ? Because the lefties would have more power than they do now, Conservatives ( and some socalled Conservatives ) would do what they ALWAYS do ; bicker / fight / get nothing done, and hand it all, on a silver platter, to the Dems/ Liberals / faaaaaaaaaar lefties. Doubt me ? Don't ! Look at the way the GOPers and the fringers fight on FR.
You may not like what we have ; however, you wouldn't like, not one bit , a parlimant.
Probably would have been better off in Costa Rica. Anyone can get by in Spanish. Czech is impossible for most.
Stop -- You're bloviating, and embarassing yourself.
The FF's reasonings for the rejection of a Parliamentary system do not even apply following the enaction of the 14th and the 17th Amendments.
Since you're such a History Buff, ace, I'm not even gonna explain my point; after all, you should be able to tell me why this is so, no???
Once you wrap your mind around the irrelevance of the FFs objections to Parliamentarism following the enaction of the 14th and 17th Amendments (which they would have certainly opposed), perhaps you'll understand when I say I am not "pining" after a Parliamentary System in America... I am just enjoying the pleasure of watching the unfolding political drama in Costa Rica.
After all -- I do not pledge unquestioning Allegiance to the Flag, mi amigo. If Costa Rica develops into the kinda place which Patrick Henry woulda called Home, then there ain't no more "my country right or wrong" for me. Viva Costa Libertaria!!
It wasn't the right time.
The Libertarian Party of Costa Rica did not even exist in 1992. Now they control 10% of the National Congress.
To my knowledge, this is the strongest advance of Libertarianism in any friendly country in the last decade... with the possible exception of Ireland, where almost the entire Legislature has been pretending to be Tax-Cut, Free-Market Libertarians for the last five years (aside from that rather bloody Belfast squabble with the Brits), ever since their Socialist Welfare State ran completely out of money.
Speaking of boats, the Lobster Season is about to open in the Keys...
...so any time you want a landlubber Deck-hand who's about nine years outta practice, you know my FReepMail.
Of course, I was never in practice for Lobster; even back in the day, I've only Crabbed and Shrimped -- so I make no promises. ;-)
You may have been staying on topic; however, if you can bring yourself to actually read what I wroye and to whom , you'll discover that it was an answer to what that poster had written about the USA !
Sorry, you aren't even close, to refuting what I said. I shall; however, mark you down as one who has decided what is what, re the FF's thinking, Ammendments, and the current state of things. :-)
Should Costa Rica become a " Libertarian " haven, then you and the other FR Libertarians, should all move there. LOL
Your #27 was addressed to me, Einstein; you posted it in direct response to my #21. Check the thread notes.
If you can bring yourself to read what you actually wrote and to whom, you'll realize that you wrote to me, and I responded to you.
Good grief.
Should Costa Rica become a " Libertarian " haven, then you and the other FR Libertarians, should all move there. LOL
Ain't no need for quotation marks, "dear" -- the Movimiento Libertario is an expressly libertarian party, and has always proclaimed itself as such. And on that basis, they've taken 10% of the Costa Rican National Congress in the space of 8 years. Critical mass......
And as such, if Costa Rica does become a Libertarian Haven, "dear", I should be happy to keep a winter home there. A place to keep my guns, my money, and my family from the prying eyes of US Reichland Security? What could be so bad about that?
The last two times a third-world backwater tried Libertarianism as a governing system, one became Switzerland and the other became... the United States of America, at least in her early days.
Not a bad record.
You ever spent any time around a clique of homosexual men?
Like, in real life, for example?
I have never in my life encountered such a group of jealous, self-absorbed back-stabbers as homosexual men in a group environment.
"Homosexual advocates" have about as much chance of creating their own "party" as rival tomcats in heat. To a certain extent, the Christian Right has created an environment for "homosexual advocacy" by giving them something to be opposed to -- Christian "influence" in politics.
Just speaking from my own anecdotal observations... If it weren't for the political machinations of the Christian Right providing them with an "enemy", if you put more than five homosexuals in a room together they will kill eachother over their mutual "claims" to the nearest boy-toy... politics be damned.
This country is about federalism not democratic rules. This nation would go down the socialist slope faster then both republican and democrat party is pushing it at this time.
Or, not.
The experience of Costa Rica says otherwise.
And so, I watch, and wait... happy to see the Movimiento Libertario is guiding Costa Rica from socialism to libertarianism with each passing day.
Viva Costa Libertaria!!
Yeah, boo-hoo, it sucks.
Except when the 10% (not four percent) Third Party is the Libertarian Party, as is currently the case in Costa Rica.
Then, we're the KingMakers.
And we like that just fine.
Liberty and Capitalism and Freedom and stuff starts breaking out all over.
We like that.
LOL! I hear you! Are you still in Czech or have you decided it was safe to go back to the States? BTW, what made you rule out Costa Rica in the first place? My wife and I are looking for a new country to move to after we finish doing up our house here in Scotland. Maybe Costa Rica is a good candidate. We wanted to learn Spanish anyway.
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