From the Advocates for Self-Government online newsletter.
Mary Ruwart was a close runner-up for the Libertarian Presidential nomination in 2008 and currently serves on the Libertarian National Committee.
QUESTION: How do we get ourselves out of the national debt hole that has been dug for us, so we can move toward a truly libertarian society?
[MARY'S] SHORT ANSWER: Some libertarians propose selling off the government’s assets, such as its vast land holdings (including over 40% of the U.S. landmass), to retire the national debt, wholly or in part.
In recent years, however, the national debt has become so big that only increased wealth creation is likely to retire it.
Only libertarianism offers the prospect of such rapid and sustained economic growth. Studies suggest that the U.S. would be 3-18 times wealthier without the high regulatory and tax burden we have today.
I go into more detail about this wealth increase in Chapter 12 of my book Healing Our World, available from the Advocates [latest 2003 edition] or as a free download [older 1992 edition] at my website [Ruwart.com]
Freedom from this government aggression of high taxes and crippling regulations would allow our economy to produce more than enough wealth to retire the national debt and start anew. (And, needless to say, libertarians would never burden future generations with such a debt.)
So a libertarian society is not something that we can have only after we get out of debt. It is the tool we need to dig ourselves out of the hole!
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LEARN MORE (suggested reading from the Liberator Online editor):
* U.S. National Debt Clock: Warning: scary stuff! Check these out and see how fast the debt is rising:
Real Time national debt clock
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
National Debt Clock
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
* “Repudiating the National Debt” by Murray N. Rothbard: Should the U.S. default on, rather than pay off, part — or even all — of the ballooning national debt? Some libertarians think so, others don’t. In this provocative essay, the late great libertarian thinker Murray Rothbard explores that radical idea. Agree or disagree, it is filled with valuable historical and economic information.
http://mises.org/article.aspx?Id=1423
* “Should We Cancel the National Debt?” by Daniel J. Pilla. In contrast to Rothbard (above), Pilla argues passionately that we should NOT repudiate or default on the national debt.
http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/should-we-cancel-the-national-debt/
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Got questions? Dr. Ruwart has answers! If you’d like answers to YOUR “tough questions” on libertarian issues, email Dr. Ruwart at: ruwart@theAdvocates.org
Due to volume, Dr. Ruwart can’t personally acknowledge all emails. But we’ll run the best questions and answers in upcoming issues.
Dr. Ruwart’s previous Liberator Online answers are archived in searchable form.
http://www.theadvocates.org/ruwart/categories_list.php
Dr. Ruwart’s outstanding books Healing Our World and Short Answers to the Tough Questions are available from the Advocates.
http://www.theadvocates.org/
3 responses so far ↓
1 Brian Holtz // Apr 18, 2010 at 6:31 pm
For “our economy to produce more than enough wealth to retire the national debt”, some of that production would have to be taxed. It sounds like Dr. Ruwart agrees with the principle that the just obligations of the government should be retired using general government revenues/assets, and not by targeting any special class of victims (like present high earners, or future workers, or present just beneficiaries, or present creditors).
2 Michael Seebeck // Apr 18, 2010 at 6:44 pm
Not necessarily.
It seems to me that a vast productivity would cause a vast increase in exports and thereby flip the nation back to a net exporter, which would not only decrease our trade gap but return us to a creditor nation instead of a debtor nation, and when that happens, the lending we make will offset the lending we took.
At least that’s my impression. I seem to recall the nation once was that way. But I could be wrong.
3 Brian Holtz // Apr 18, 2010 at 7:18 pm
Paying off U.S. T-bills requires either government assets or government revenue. The trade balance has nothing to do with either.
I suppose Ruwart could be talking about government revenues that don’t come from taxation, such as return on invested capital, or profits from entrepeneurial activities. However, we certainly don’t want the government engaging in the scale of such activities that would be required to generate enough revenue to retire all its obligations.
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