Rethinking the Auto Bailout

Attackdonkey — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 18:33:00 GMT

I certainly agree with all who were against the bank bailout, as the banks work hand in hand with the Fed to create inflation and rob us of our money, but the auto industry is not in the same boat as the banking industry.

In practice I am in favor of a Federal bailout of the American Auto industry though I would approach it from a different angle. What I am in favor of is not a bailout, but retribution. I can only imagine how much the Federal government has taken from the big three car makers in the form of taxes since he inception of the coorporate income tax, and I don't have a problem with theif giving his victim back his rightull belongings, infact I believe Justice demands it!

The federal government should repay to the car makers their tax money from the last several years or even decades, agree not to tax them anymore, stop the regulations they have on the Auto industry, prohibit state regulation of the industry and their labor restrictions, and stop inflating the money supply both by the Fed and the fractional reserve banking system.

I shared the first point of my plan with a statist coworker and he said that would be fine except that as soon as Ford and GM got their tax money back, other people would want their money back, and if the car companies were exempted from paying taxes, everyone else would want the same treatment. He went on and on and I was never able to layout the rest of my plan, but this in and of itself is a good first step, and the retort he gave as a reason not to do it, I hold as a great reason to do it.

To see the tax money as one's own money, and not the government's is a great first step, and we have an oppurtunity to do it here.

3rd parties in America and IVR

Attackdonkey — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:10:00 GMT

I wrote this in a response to a question raised about 3rd parties in America.

But there is a solution, I don't expect anyone here to buy into this as a way of saving democracy or justifying it, or any of the above, but at least it may help.

It's the idea of an instant voter run off. you get one fewer votes than there are candidates running for the office. You vote first for the person you would most like to see win, and you have the option of selecting your second favorite candidate to the right.

so my ticket might read

1 2 3 4

McCain ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

Obama ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

Hoppe ( x ) ( ) ( ) ( )

Barr ( ) ( ) ( x ) ( )

Paul ( ) ( x ) ( ) ( )

if after the ballots are read and no candidate receives more than 50% of the votes for the 1 column, then the candidate who recieves the fewest # of votes will be dropped and those whose ballots had the least popular candidate ranked first would be read again under the 2nd column. so if Hoppe came in last my vote would be changed to Paul. if there were still no pure majority, the next least popular candidate would be dropped again and the process would repeat.

This would allow people to vote their conscience instead of for the lesser of two evils, and would protect the would be winner from the spoiler effect. It does not fix democracy, but perhaps it is a little better that 51 rule over 49 than 23 rule over 77.

If nothing else it would be a legitimizing tool for getting the message out about Libertarianism and Austrian economics.

one last note. this would be a little tricky when it came to the electoral college, and I don't know how it would play out exactly. supposing this were implemented in all 50 states, we could have a design such that the electors might be recalled and the next most popular candidate would be elected by that state in the event that the candidate initially elected did not get a substantial number of electoral votes from other areas. So that even if Hoppe won Oklahoma straight away, his electors might be recalled in favor of Paul's if Obama is leading Paul 268- 264, Oklahoma would not send Hoppe electors if Paul was voted more popular than Obama. In this case Oklahoma's 6 electoral votes would make difference 270-268.

Again, I'm not claiming that this will fix the world, but it may alleviate some of the pain. And most importantly, as I mentioned before, it would provide people a real incentive to take a good look at the issues, both economical and ethical and that would be the best for us, and for liberty.

Attackdonkey : refom

Rethinking the Auto Bailout

3rd parties in America and IVR