I received this message recently from Jake who is the Brother of my friend and Podcast mate, Comedian, Pat Oates. He was responding to a comment I made on this week’s episode of the Pat Oates is Sad Podcast episode 193 referencing my feelings about our current form of government.
The way I feel about government would be best summed up as saying that I agree with former U.S. Congressman Dr. Ron Paul and what he says. The comment I made towards the end of the episode was something along the lines of: “If I cannot take away your property and money without your permission, then why can a group of people to get together and take away your stuff and call it taxation.” Or something like that. Go listen; I highly recommend the show.
I was aiming the statement directly at Jake and he sent a great response which I am posting below. Some of the questions in his response are ones that I once had. Very valid questions that many people have had and many more still do. My next Blog post will be my answer to Jake.
Jake writes:
“Just listened to the podcast. Tell Brandon I appreciate thinking of me and I definitely lean Libertarian. We probably agree on a lot. Here is what I want to hear tackled that I haven’t heard from Dave Smith, Ron Paul, Tom Woods or any of the high profile Libertarian guys. There is no question that we should end our involvement in the Middle East, end the war on drugs, end the Fed, get rid of the federal income tax, end Obamacare and the welfare state entirely and most of the other Libertarian talking points, but no one seems to tackle implementation and I’m not smart enough to figure it out. If we ended our global military effort, what would happen to all of the troops and the companies that live off of the military industrial complex in the short run? Unemployment would have to increase. If we ended the war on drugs and released all of the non-violent criminals from prison, where would they go and how would the prisons function? I would think the labor force would grow increasing unemployment and any company living off the prison system would struggle.”
He goes on to say, “If we ended the Fed, interest rates would absolutely go higher based on market forces – would that cause a short-run recession? It would have to and the country would have to start defaulting on debt. As you take each issue that our country has absolutely gotten wrong, the long-term fix seems obvious to me, but the short-term pain of fixing the issues are very scary. Now couple that with the fact that you would need to elect Libertarians to the Presidency, Congress and Senate and most of them would argue that their functions should not exist (because they would either shrink or eliminate government) and they would be running on a platform of eliminating hand outs. It seems like an uphill battle.”
Stay Tuned for My Response!!
more laws, more problems. 