Venezuelan Student Leader Receives Prestigious Honor

Students are able to change the world. While we all think that as idealistic college students, an international committee of the world's foremost leaders of liberty just said the same thing. The 2008 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty will be awarded to Yon Goicoechea, the leader of the pro-democracy student movement in Venezuela. Yon joins the esteemed list of recipients before him of Matt Laar, Hernando de Soto, and Peter Bauer.

The Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty is a biennial award begun in 2002 to honor those individuals who have made a significant contribution to advancing liberty. With the award comes an unrestricted $500,000. It is the most prestigious award available today for those who advance liberty.

The pro-democracy student movement in Argentina began in May 2007 in reaction to increasing government oppression. The movement is nonviolent and of an enormous size. The movement has been praised with such tangible successes as defeating a constitutional amendment that would have given the Venezuelan government unprecedented power.

Here is a quote from Yon that illustrates his passion and what he has done:

“We have come to tell the ombudsman that there are 182 jailed students who were imprisoned because they were protesting on the streets in favor of Venezuelan democracy… The students of Venezuela are standing up for civil rights that have taken centuries to build… the cry from the students is peaceful."

What makes Yon's selection so important to us is that it recognizes the power of college students to fight for liberty. Yon has been ranked alongside the minister of Estonia who helped transform the country from communism under the rule of the USSR to a thriving capitalism. A 23 year old has been declared one of the foremost leaders of liberty in the world.

It's not just in our heads. As students, we can change the world.

Starve the World, Save the Environment

I'm used to articles about the obesity epidemic or the organic food revolution, so this seemed like a bad joke. But then I cracked open the Economist, and there it was again.

Indeed, it looks like food shortages are replacing food overabundance in the news. Few are surprised by hunger in the third world. The fact that Haitians are rioting in the streets over food shortages and subsisting on mud (yes, mud) "cookies" shocks few Americans.

But now it appears middle-class Americans are beginning to face the food crunch. Rice and wheat prices have soared, causing the price of basic staple foods to rise precipitously. While Americans are unlikely to be making brownies out of their backyard dirt anytime soon, it appears the era of cheap food is over.

Of course when a crisis like this comes up, government's sticky fingers are never too far away. While we may expect this global disaster to be caused by drought or soil problems, no unusual climate patterns are to blame. Instead, it appears government biofuel programs are at least partially at fault. By raising the demand for grain (to turn into ethanol), these programs are literally taking bread out of people's mouths. And as grain prices rise, UN World Food Programme head Josette Sheeran notes:

“For the middle classes it means cutting out medical care. For those on $2 a day, it means cutting out meat and taking the children out of school. For those on $1 a day, it means cutting out meat and vegetables and eating only cereals. And for those on 50 cents a day, it means total disaster.”

Disturbing stuff. Haiti's prime minister has resigned, while Egypt's president has ordered the army to bake bread (!) And American engineers are beginning to hoard bags of rice. I'm really at a loss for words - have any of you noticed this trend in your own food shopping lives?

L(or l)ibertarian Opportunities

A major draw of many organizations, whether political, fraternal, or otherwise, is the idea of the organization as a network. In this sense, liberty-oriented groups are no different, but we fail to advertise this point. To remedy this apparent weakness in our movement, this will be an ongoing column of opportunities and events within the libertarian community.

Although deadlines for many internships and programs have passed, the CATO institute's Cato University is still open for registration, and scholarships are available for those who may warrant financial assistance. I have heard many good things about this program to the effect that it is both informative and enjoyable as it creates, for a week, a micro-utopia of similarly minded individuals coming together for a common purpose. This session's topic is "Freedom's Campaign in the 21st Century" and more information can be found here.

The Drinking Age Isn't the Only Absurd Law Concerning the Scourge of Alcohol

I mentioned in a previous post that the key to a college student's heart is through drinking and drugs. To this end, I recently came across an article outlining some of the more ridiculous drinking laws in states around the country, affecting both young and old. The article itself says it best, so I will leave it at that for now.

Free the Jefferson 1!

True or false: the state is willing to arrest you for dancing.

The answer: true.

This past Saturday, many fans of liberty got together to celebrate the birthday of the great Thomas Jefferson. To celebrate this occasion, they organized a dance party at the Jefferson Memorial in D.C. The plan was for everyone to start dancing for 10 minutes at midnight listening to a playlist they selected on their own iPOD.

The Jefferson Memorial is open to the public 24 hours a day. The people celebrating his birthday were not blaring music, but intentionally avoided this by using their own iPODS. It was late at night so that no tourists would be disturbed. And the intention had no political motive whatsoever. It was just a group of people honoring Jefferson and having fun.

Yet, the police not only decided that dancing was not allowed and so forced the individuals from the memorial, but when one girl asked why they were being forced to leave, the police arrested her! I was not in attendance at this event, but many who were there are my friends, which is why I have taken a personal interest in this debacle.


I recommend you check out the posts on other blogs to get more information on this scandal as well as watch the video footage of it on youtube:

Pete Eyre's Account

Julian Sanchez's Account

The Agitator

The Washington Post even covered the story!

www.freethejefferson1.com

Facebook Group

You Tube: Dancing, Arrest, Post-Arrest

I am personally outraged by this. The videos clearly show that these individuals were not causing any disturbance. If we do not have a right to dance, what rights do we have? I encourage people to call the Jefferson Memorial and express their outrage as well or at least join the facebook group. It is likely that the trumped up charge will be dropped by any halfway competent judge, but that police think they can arrest individuals for no legal cause is frightening.

You Know You're Not libertarian If...

You are having a good day.

Happy Tax Day!

Enjoy subsidizing a random special interest.

Looking to Russia for small government

The fact that IRS fails to collect $345 billion a year in owed taxes is one problem. But now Washington is up in arms over the private debt collectors the IRS has employed to close the tax gap, costing an estimated $37 million - more than the collectors actually managed to collect. Of course, the standard reaction is more government, not less:

"This is a waste of taxpayers' money, and it could be much better spent if it were given to the IRS to hire more employees," said Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents 85,000 employees at the IRS.

While I agree with Ms. Kelley that this ineffective collection system is a "waste of taxpayers' money," perhaps the problem lies with the IRS's byzantine tax laws, which judging by the $345 billion left uncollected annually, are complicated enough that some people simply ignore them as much as possible, and hope not to be audited.

If we assume that taxation is a necessary evil (and that's a big if in some libertarian circles!), it's clearly in everyone's best interest to make sure that the tax system is as straightforward as possible, reducing the temptation to skimp on one's taxes.

While it's somewhat heartening that the IRS's desperation forced it to look into the private sector to resolve its problems, perhaps there's a proven alternative?

We have to look no further than Russia, where a 13% flat tax almost doubled tax revenue. At first glance, it may seem unfair that multimillionaires and schoolteachers alike are expected to pay the same portion of the their incomes to state coffers. What's one million more to a billionaire, the progressive tax argument goes. Well: "'Why have a progressive tax system that doesn't work?' asks Vladimir Redkin, an economist at Russia's Bureau of Economic Analysis." Why indeed have a program where $345 billion goes unpaid?

And while tax evasion is still a problem, it's an increasingly lower one: "'It's a small amount, so of course it's worth paying,' says Natasha Diniliouk, an accountant who lives in Moscow." Perhaps a sentiment that may be echoed by successful Americans, no longer needing tax havens and clever accounting to protect their hard-earned money.

So maybe, just maybe something like that would work in the US? Of course, we'd no longer need most of the IRS bureaucracy at that point, but I'm sure that's a sacrifice Americans would be willing to make, if only to compete with those damn Commies...