Saturday, April 02, 2011

Ah, Liberty

I saw a TV show that was very interesting and important Thursday night on the Fox Business Channel. Let me share it with you. It was about a presentation sponsored the Students for Liberty (SFL).

The SFL is a group of young people who care about freedom and limited government. This five year-old group started small, but has been growing, as illustrated in this chart of the attendance for the International Students for Liberty Conference, last held just this March.


Students for Liberty Conference

2007

2008

2010

2011

Number of Students in Attendance

40

100

300

500

How exciting that conference attendance has grown from just 40 to 500.


John Stossel
of Fox Business News gave a presentation on the Libertarian viewpoint of the following topics:

  • What is a Libertarian - Freedom to do what I like as long as it does not hurt anyone. The philosophy is "He governs best who governs least," supporting the free market.
  • War - Support of anti-war policy, Self defense and national independence make government-backed military absolutely appropriate. The military is best when represented by all sections of the population, so recruiting is fine.
  • Economy - Government should not spend more than they take in.
  • Federal Drug Policy - The war on Drugs does not work any better than Prohibition did. The government recognizes that nicotine is as addictive as heroin. Government programs are difficult to overcome. Support decriminalization of drugs.
  • Why there’s really no difference between Republicans and Democrats - Both parties listen to special interests. Both think they can run your life better than you can.


John is joined in discussions these topics by David Boaz of the Cato Institute. John started from a liberal background; David was a conservative before becoming a Libertarian.

It is up to us to make further changes in direction of freedom.

Not only did I really enjoy the program, but I learned quite a bit, too. This is about personal freedom over federal intervention. You can enjoy it, too, by checking these topic episodes mixed in with samples from John’s Television show Stossel showing Thursday evening on Fox Business Network.

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