Bill of Rights Celebration Day

Every December 15^th for the last couple of years has been a day when I and a few others make an effort to get out on the streets with some signs and let people know we support the Bill of Rights. The first year I stood alone on Capitol Way with a sign in the cold rain. Last year I was joined by some fellow Libertarians at Percival Landing in downtown Olympia and this year we made it to the intersection on Marvin Rd and Martin Way in Lacey.

A few weeks ago I purchased an eight-foot banner, made a frame out of PVC for this year’s effort and sent out a statewide news release on the 5^th in the hopes that we would get some coverage.

I was going to write a summary about the event in case I was asked any questions but didn’t get to it because of some family medical issues which came up the evening of the day before. Then when I woke up on Thursday, it had snowed, and I thought maybe we won’t be able to get out and would have to cancel.

The weather began to clear, and I loaded the material in the car which was difficult because of my medical situation and started out. Half way there I decided to stop at the bank and draw $20 out of our account for pocket money. I got to the bank only to find that they had a power outage and it was going be a few minutes before I could get in. So there I stood in the cold while I waited; just a bit more frustration.

I pulled into the Shell station on the corner and asked about using their lot to park in, and the manager said yes without any hesitation. And I was prepared to pay him $5 to do so. That bit of saved money was appreciated.

I looked around but didn’t see any of my fellow Libertarians and thought that maybe I was going to be on my own, so I unloaded the car and started walking to the corner to set up. I no sooner got there when James Holcomb came walking up behind me. Within seconds Steve Bloom, a photographer from the local paper, The Olympian, showed up. To put it bluntly, I was thankfully surprised. It was going to be a good day after all.

Kevin Hochalter soon joined us followed by Allen Acosta at noon. We stayed until 2 p.m. and Allen estimated that four hundred cars passed by every fifteen minutes which works out to be about 1600 an hour or 4500 to 5000 over the three hours we were out there, which isn’t bad. One woman drove by, saw us and went and bought hot chocolate which she brought back for us; a very nice gesture. I estimate that we had positive responses of drivers and passengers honking and waving from at least twenty percent of those who went by. I didn’t see one negative reaction to our work.

Later that afternoon James Holcomb discovered that a picture of us was up on The Olympians site and the next day that paper had us on page three which was great. The Olympian is delivered to about 23,000 people in the area, so that suggest a nice number possibly saw us and will now link Libertarians with the Bill of Rights, which I hope will help the public see us in a positive light.

https://www.facebook.com/libertarianpartyofWA/photos/a.441908815877057.100384.441905952544010/1236785906389340/?type=3&theater

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Free and Open Markets

Free and Open markets will benefit the poor more than government programs have done for the last 50 years. Progress is our goal.

The minimum wage will do little to improve your life. Inflation eats away at your pay check every day. This policy designed by the Federal Reserve costs you but benefits the financial industry. Today a dollar buys about as much as a dime did in 1913. This and other government policies add to your costs every day. Let’s not burden businesses with a cost that will harm them. Let’s solve the inflation problem that eats up your earnings in the first place

Zoning laws have been designed to exclude certain groups of people, usually minorities and are expensive. Nationally it has been estimated that they costs about $1.6 trillion annually or $9000 per worker, drive up the costs of housing for first time buyers and add to the cost for renters. Housing regulations that simply add to your costs should be abolished

Occupational licensing laws originally part of the post Civil War Black Codes and later as part of the Jim Crow laws they were designed to keep blacks and other minorities from competing with whites. Today they continue to prevent competition and increase prices for consumer. Even licensing regulations for doctors do almost nothing to protect patients. It is time to abolish these Jim Crow Laws. In 1950 about 5% of jobs required a license. Today about 35% do.

Since the World War II the United States has deployed a large part of our military overseas. As a result our national military costs seven or eight times what our allies or about $2200 annually for each American compared to about $500 annually for the citizen of Germany, Japan and South Korea. American workers are subsidizing the defense of the nations our workers compete against in a world of global competition and spend about $85 billion annually to do so.

For the last 50 years the government has managed our urban bus and light rail systems and made it difficult if not impossible for businesses or individuals to compete. At the same time many low income people still go without access to dependable transportation to jobs and stores. Usually these are working women and single mothers as well as minority members of the community. The government’s own study says this.

“The lack of personal mobility has economic, social and human costs, such as higher unemployment, reduced tax revenue, greater welfare and medical costs, and limited social potential.”

“Almost half those without an automobile are persons 65 years or older, and of these, 81% are women.” 

“...23% of full-time working mothers and almost 60% of part-time working mothers have non-traditional work hours.  This reduces women’s ability to join carpools or find appropriately-scheduled transit options.”

“...nearly 40% of central city African-American households were without access to an automobile, compared to fewer than one of out five white central city households.”

It is time to open the market to other alternative providers.

The Drug War has caused serious damage to the African-American family as well as others low income groups nationwide. Poor people have been targeted by law enforcement nationwide because of the drug war. The poor are more likely to have less access to adequate legal help than the well to do and suffer the consequences.

 The National Debt is now almost $20 trillion or almost $60,000 for every citizen in the nation. Do you have $60,000 you can spare?

These are just a few of the many anti prosperity policies that harm workers.

HEALTH CARE: Part 2

 A slightly edited version of this was printed in LP News Dec. 2013.




The problems with the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare as it is known in the media are all too obvious. Sadly over the last 150 years of regulations most of the problems start with regulations passed at the state level of government and not at the national level.  If anything the government should have worked at reducing and repealing the regulations passed by the states instead of beginning with a top down approach. To that end we suggest these steps as a beginning for reform.

Let’s be clear the Libertarian People supports a free and open market in health care and believes that you should have the right to choose the type of care you want whether it is traditional Asian, Western medical care or another variation.

Repeal the Occupational Licensing Laws. These laws do not protect patients but are there to protect the profession from competition. Occupational Licensing Laws and other regulations have deprived midwives, denturists, optometrists and others of an opportunity to practice and they deprive patients of a choice. Historically occupational licensing laws can be traced back to the Hammurabi Code of 1700 B.C. In the U.S. occupational licensing laws were used to keep newly freed slaves from competing against whites after the Civil War.

Sixteen states allow for Advance Nurse Practitioners to set up their own practices independent of doctors. In the others they are required to be supervised by an MD. Expanding the role that Advance Nurse Practitioners are allowed play will save many more tax dollars. Let’s repeal the laws in the states that restrict Advance Nurse Practitioners and give the public a few more choices. [1]

Nurse midwives are recognized in all states but direct entry midwives, which are those who did not study nursing, are prohibited from practicing in many states.  Direct entry midwives may have learned this craft through an apprenticeship or by attending a college that trains people for this occupation. Approximately twenty-six states have some form of laws permitting direct entry midwives. In the other states direct entry midwives are outlawed thus depriving mothers of a choice. [2] Midwives deliver about eight percent of births in the nation. [3] Studies have shown midwives to be as safe as doctors and offer mothers and infants care that is as good and sometimes better.[4]Such a change would be especially beneficial to Native Americans and African-Americans who have some of the highest rate of infant mortality due to lack of prenatal care. Child birth in the U.S. costs about $8000 and up [5] for an MD to deliver but $2500 to $4000 for a Midwife and often lower.  With forty percent of births nationally being paid for by Medicaid and 50% in Washington State expanding the opportunities for midwives would save significant tax dollars and result in healthier children at birth.

Abolish the state medical boards. In the fifty states the state medical boards are controlled by the professions and are a classic example of what is known as regulatory capture where the board is run for the benefit of the profession and not the patients. If the idea of equality before the law means anything then no profession should be treated any different than the general population.  [6]

Repeal the Certificate of Need Laws on the books in many states. These are laws were originally intended to reduce alternatives to established services, but do little more than increase the costs and deprive patients of another choice. With this law those who want to open a new hospital or another facility need to prove that there is need. [7]

Repeal the Corporate Practice of Medicine of Laws, regulations and court decisions. These laws and related court decisions were used by the medical profession to fight the growth of prepaid medical groups in the late 1940s and later years. Today the laws may be preventing the growth of retail health clinics in some states. Retail health clinics offer a viable low cost alternative to people needing immediate care instead of running to an expensive emergency room. Retail health clinics have grown significantly since 2006 when there were about 200 nationwide, today there are about 1300 nationwide. [8]

Abolish the FDA. There is no reason that the functions performed by the FDFA could not be done by a private organization such as Consumer Union or Underwriters Laboratory quicker and with better results for consumers and do away with the need for a prescription. If nothing else we should let pharmacists prescribe medicine as they did prior to 1938. [9]

Adopt No Fault medical malpractice Insurance.  With $250 billion spent on medical malpractice business and about 200,000 deaths annually [10] from medical errors and infections most of which are never compensated we need to find a way to fix this system and a no fault system may be a practical approach. [11]

Repeal the McCarran-Ferguson Act. This law passed in 1945 restricts the insurance companies from selling across state lines and has balkanized the insurance industry to the disadvantage of consumers. [12]

[1] http://www.aanp.org/images/documents/state-leg-reg/stateregulatorymap.pdf

[2] http://mana.org/statechart.html

[3] http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5504a7.htm

[4] http://jech.bmj.com/content/52/5/310.abstract

[5] http://transform.childbirthconnection.org/resources/datacenter/chargeschart/

[6] http://www.justice.org/resources/Medical_Negligence_Primer.pdf

[7] http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/health/con-certificate-of-need-state-laws.aspx

[8] http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/mpr_12.htm

[9] http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2012/02/how_to_increase_1.html

[10] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/opinion/more-treatment-more-mistakes.html?_r=0

& http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=deaths-from-avoidable-medical-error-2009-08-10 &  a very good article from the WSJ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444620104578008263334441352.html

[11] I am not sure how no fault medical malpractice insurance fits into the libertarian mold because people should never be denied an opportunity to take the case to a jury.

[12] http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/McCarran-Ferguson+Act+of+1945

Transportation: A bit of history

Transportation: A bit of history in Washington State.

Light rail has become the nation’s big answer to urban transit. However, given the rapid advances in technology it will be a big questionable expense.

Here are some of the laws on transportation. I've been reading through them and have made a note beside two of them. Certainly someone with more skill at reading legalize than me needs to take on that chore.
35.58.240
35.58.250 Repeal or reform to allow for competition
36.57A.100 Repeal or reform to allow for competition
36.57A.090
81.68.015
81.68.020
81.68.040
Here's some information on what has been called the best transit system worldwide a couple of time. We can't build it but it gives you an idea what can be done and it is made up of 16 private companies and possibly a bit more from time to time. http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/fellows/brazil1203/transportation.html

Seattle history "The February 6th 1915 issue of the Electric Railway Journal reported that 518 Seattle jitney buses “are carrying 49,000 passengers daily…”
This piece below is from an older brochure I wrote up a few years ago. It is a bit out of date but the idea is still good.

“The Libertarian Party supports a free and open market in urban transportation services.
A Brief History: The transit industry is one of the most heavily regulated in the nation. In many cities it is almost impossible for you to own a transportation business because of the rules. The first major laws were passed to keep the jitneys from competing with the streetcars when jitney began to appear on the streets about 1915. Streetcars had been in decline for a number of years when in 1935 Congress passed the Public Utilities Holding Act that required the streetcar companies to be sold off from the electric companies that owned them. This led to the collapse of the streetcar business. In 1964 Congress passed the laws that spurred the development of government owned local transit companies

Transportation Alternatives: In 1986 London, England began to contract out their transit. By 1999 about 30 companies were providing bus transit in London. Services improved, costs were reduced significantly and ridership increased. Helsinki, Finland: Fourteen private companies now operate much of the region’s bus service through competitive bidding. A 30 % reduction in operating costs and a saving in subsidies has been achieved. Fares have been reduced by 12 % and services expanded. Stockholm, Sweden: In 1993 Stockholm began using private contractors to run their bus and rail system. Savings of nearly $150 million annually and reduced subsidies have been two improvements along with increased farebox revenue and more riders. Approximately 70% of the regions bus service has been contracted out. Copenhagen, Denmark: Similar results have been seen in Copenhagen where contracting out has been mandated by the Danish parliament. Source: http://www.apta.com/services/intnatl/intfocus/scandin.cfm Curitiba, Brazil: This transit system has been called one of the world’s best systems. With neighborhood circulators, intermediate services and express buses, all color coded, run by 16 private companies and overseen by a government agency this unsubsidized system is being copied by cities in other countries. With approximately 75% of the region’s 2.3 million daily commuters using the system Curitiba sets an example of what can be done to build a modern effective service for a fraction of the cost when there is a willingness to innovate. Source: http://www.worldbank.org/transport/urbtrans/pub_tr/curitiba_summary.pdf
The Jitneys in America: What’s a Jitney? First seen on the streets of Los Angeles about 1915 when automobiles began to appear, these privately owned vehicles competed with the streetcars for passengers. More flexible than streetcars and often operated part-time by drivers on their way to work they threatened the streetcars’ very existence. By the mid 1920s they had been outlawed in most American cities. The streetcar companies used their influence to kill off this emerging business. Today jitneys exist in only a few cites. The Atlantic City, New Jersey, jitney business is the oldest privately operated, unsubsidized transit operation in America. With 180 thirteen passenger vehicles running 24 hours a day 365 days a year and fares comparable to any bus system they offer riders a quality of service seldom seen anywhere.

Who Benefits from expanding transit services by opening the marketplace?
“Almost half those without an automobile are persons 65 years or older, and of these, 81% are women.”
“...23% of full-time working mothers and almost 60% of part-time working mothers have non-traditional work hours. This reduces women’s ability to join carpools or find appropriately-scheduled transit options.”
“...nearly 40% of central city African-American households were without access to an automobile, compared to fewer than one of out five white central city households.” Source: Using Public Transportation to Reduce the Economic, Social, and Human Costs of personal Immobility National Academy Press
In the 1930 the average family spent about 8% of family income on transit. In recent years the costs have climbed dramatically.

While ride sharing apps have benefitted many people not much has been done to help low income people improve their situation. Simply opening the marketplace may be the best way to help the poor and give them opportunities to start new businesses while helping others.”