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From: kfl@AI.AI.MIT.EDU
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Date: Mon, 5-Jan-87 15:51:28 EST
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Posted: Mon Jan  5 15:51:28 1987
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    From: Steve Walton <ametek!walton>

    I want a hypothetical budget from the Libertarian Party or someone
    qualified to speak about where they stand, containing itemized
    expenditures and sources of income to pay for those expenditures.

  I can't speak for the Libertarian party, but my idea is to abolish
all taxes and all government programs except defense, the courts, and
the police.  These would be funded by voluntary donations, by fines,
by the estates of people dying without relatives or a will, and by a
voluntary "tax" on all contracts (which would not be mandatory, but
without which a contract would not be enforcable in court).
  Please note that any subset of the population which preferred things
the way they were would be free to set up a sub-government and
continue running whatever government programs they like, at their
exclusive expense, and for their exclusive benefit.

         There are three main reasons why Japan is doing so well: ...

    I have no arguments with any of these points.  However, do you
    consider these facts sufficient to balance the harm which you say
    accrues to a society from Government intervention in the market?

  If government takes 1/2 of all income in Japan and 1/3 of all income
in the US (lets say), then if Japanese work more than 1 and 1/3 times
as many hours as Americans (more than 12 hours per day rather than 9
hours per day), then they will exceed our productivity, all else being
equal, and given that the extra free time that Americans have is
assumed to have no value.
  In other words, higher taxes are equivalent to either working the
same number of hours for less net pay or to working more hours for the
same net pay.
  I would not want to work as hard as most Japanese do for the after-
tax wages most Japanese receive.  Would you?

    ... Do you think that if a foreign power is murdering Americans
    who travel abroad that the only appropriate American response is
    for Americans to stop traveling?

  It is unsatisfying to just sit here and do nothing when Americans
are being held hostage, but sometimes that is the best thing to do.
Starting a war that will kill millions in an attempt to save (or
avenge) several hostages seems counterproductive, even if the majority
of those millions of casualties would not be Americans.
  Reagan's policy of paying ransom is sure to encourage more hostage
taking, whether or not he succeeds in convincing most Americans that
he is not REALLY paying a ransom.
  What would you suggest is an appropriate response?

    Do you think that the USSR would have refrained from invading
    Western Europe in the absence of NATO?

  In the 1950s, perhaps not.  But I think western Europe has long
since fully recovered from the war and is now quite capable of
defending itself without our help.
                                                              ...Keith

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