People are the sole owners of their own lives. What people produce in life we call property. It is right that people be free to keep or trade what they produce with others. We oppose government intervention in production and trade through taxation, regulation, licensing, inflation, etc. The proper role of government in the economic realm is to protect life, property, and honest trade, not restrict it. Efforts to forcibly redistribute wealth or forcibly restrict honest trade is slavery by other names.
Taxation, the taking of people’s wealth by force and threat of force, is an act of theft and extortion. We support spending reductions in all areas of government and eliminating all tax withholding.
In order to achieve a free economy in which government victimizes no one for the benefit of anyone else, we oppose all government subsidies, special interest laws, tariffs or quotas for anyone for any reason.
We recognize that government control over money and banking is the major cause of inflation, depression and distortion of relative prices and production. In order to have a free market and its relative stability, we advocate replacing legal tender laws, the Federal Reserve central bank, and the maze of banking, monetary, and securities regulations, with standards set in the free market. Until a free market monetary system is established, we support voluntary exchange using gold, silver, or other commodities in exchange for goods and services.
We seek the elimination of protectionist occupation licensing and mandatory certification laws, which prevent individuals from working in whatever trade they wish. Such special interest laws serve to prevent competition and mobility and give a semi-monopoly to those already licensed, at the expense of the consumer and those who are trying to get started in a protected profession.
We advocate privatizing the current government licensing bureaucracies, removing their monopoly status, and letting them compete in the free market.
We advocate replacing the current counter-productive political welfare system with private charitable efforts. As an interim measure we advocate a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for all charitable contributions.
We ask “Why are people poor and unemployed?” The answer is government intervention in the marketplace, (i.e., taxation, inflation, regulation, licensing, minimum wage laws, retirement laws, etc.) which destroys opportunity, mobility, hope, independence, and wealth.
Welfare and unemployment programs appease those whom government has oppressed, and keeps them dependent. Truly free markets in which people are allowed to keep the fruits of their labor and produce a surplus with which to help others is the rational moral answer to helping the unfortunate. Free markets typically generate more jobs than there are job seekers.
We support the right of free persons voluntarily to establish, associate in, or not associate in labor unions. An employer should have the right to recognize, or refuse to recognize, a union.
We oppose government interference in bargaining, such as compulsory arbitration and right to work laws. Therefore we urge the repeal of the National Labor Relations Act, the Taft-Hartley Act, and all similar laws which prohibit employers from making voluntary contracts with unions.
Strikes or boycotts do not justify the initiation of violence against other workers, employers, strike-breakers, or anyone’s property.
We advocate freedom and responsibility for all with special interest laws for none. Therefore we call for the repeal of all laws which help or hinder business, such as corporation laws, corporate limited liability laws, corporation taxation, tariffs, quotas, anti-trust laws, bankruptcy laws, and all similar laws.
On principle, Libertarians call for the eventual complete separation of business and government.
We explicitly acknowledge the right of individuals to subvert state regulation, taxation, and executive orders through black and gray market activity, as defined by Samuel Edward Konkin, so long as such activity does not violate individual rights and liberties.
Individuals and organizations that engage in fraud or misrepresentation are obliged to provide restitution to victims of these actions. We oppose government interference in consumer choice and government price-fixing schemes.
In order to ensure the best possible health care, we advocate the deregulation of the healthcare industry. Government intervention, restriction, and protectionism in the healthcare industry has driven up costs and decreased the supply of doctors, nurses, technicians, hospitals, and medical insurance. We advocate replacing compulsory or tax supported plans to supply health services or insurance with voluntarily supported efforts.
We affirm the individual right to make one’s own decisions regarding health, medicine, and safety is absolute and not subject to government restriction or mandate.
Because all individuals should have full responsibility and control over their own lives, anyone, including terminally or hopelessly ill persons should have the right to die at the time and place and under the conditions of their own choosing. We support the concept of living wills in which individuals declare the manner in which they are to be treated and the procedures for disposal of their remains. In the absence of such wills and the ability of the individual to choose (e.g., coma) the matter should be decided by the family or such person or persons the individual may have clearly preferred with whatever guidance they may desire. In keeping with the principle of non-coercion, no individual shall be forced either to continue or terminate life sustaining care.
We advocate a true free market in transportation; accordingly we support systematic privatization of all forms of transportation including, but not limited to: Amtrak, all airports, taxicab and bus services. We support elimination of all state and federal transportation regulations and regulatory agencies.
We propose the privatization of the monopolistic governmental Postal Service. Pending privatization we call for allowing free competition in all aspects of postal service.
We advocate bringing the positive benefits of free market competition to utilities; accordingly we call for privatization and deregulation of all government monopolies, such as garbage collection, electric, gas, or communication utilities, the Public Utilities Commission, fire departments, water and sewer departments, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Price Anderson Act, the Minnesota Energy Agency, and all similar regulatory agencies.
We hold that unions between adults are a private matter, and should not be the subject of government licensing, regardless of sex. We call for the State of Minnesota to not restrict or give preferential treatment to private contracts between adults.
Any organization which is funded by, directly answerable to, or works in cooperation with the US Congress, state legislatures, or federal or state bureaucracies cannot rightly be considered “private”. These corporations, nonprofits, and institutions are subsidiaries of the state. We therefore oppose any attempts by such entities to censor individual expression, violate health privacy, promote armed conflict, or otherwise through corporate policy, political lobbying, or regulatory capture infringe upon individual liberty.