Reducing Poverty

The Free Market philosophy is built on Self-ownership and Respecting your rights. Don’t hurt others or take their property.  Poverty can be reduced by cutting unnecessary spending and by reducing regulations in markets, such as housing, urban transit, and healthcare, that are now heavily regulated.

 

Bring all the troops home from overseas: Would you pay your neighbor’s electric bill if they wanted your job? Today the U.S. has approximately 200,000 troops stationed around the globe in about 170 countries on some 800 bases at a cost of $150 billion annually or roughly $450 for each American man, woman and child. Many of the countries we are defending are also our economic competitors in the global economy. The cost of the wars thru Jan. 2020 is $19,000 per each man, woman and child.

 

More choices in education; schools in poor neighborhoods are often poorly funded, get poor results and harm the students. End the government’s control of the schools.  Open the market to new ideas and give students an opportunity.

 

End the Federal Reserve: Stop the erosion of our wages by government inflation.  One 1913 dollar has the same value as $26.29 today. We need a stable currency.

 

End the drug war: The drug war was born in racism and has heavily targeted Blacks and Hispanics.  Young people who get arrested carry that burden for life. It costs $51 billion annually.

Repeal all restrictions on health care providers such as midwives, nurse practitioners, and others. In most states today the laws deprive an expectant mother of a choice in birth attendants. Abolish the Certificate of Need Program. Abolish the FDA.  An estimated $1 to $1.5 trillion is wasted annually on healthcare.

 

Abolish land use laws and other housing regulations: These laws cost the nation about $1.6 trillion annually or almost $3660 per worker. Zoning laws have their roots in the nation’s racist history and now everybody pays the price. While these laws harm almost everyone they are especially harmful to renters and low income workers, especially young families.  Boarding houses that once were home to about 30% of the people in cities have been outlawed in most cities.  In 1901 the average family paid 23% of their income on shelter. Today many low income, families spend twice that.

 

Open the transit marketplace to alternative providers. City politicians outlawed competition from private businesses in the early 1900s. Today you pay about 17% of you income for transportation compared to 8% in 1930 thanks to regulations. Regulations that limit your right to own and operate a private transit business need to be repealed. Elderly women, working mothers and members of minority groups are the victims of the lack of services. As one government study reports, “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.” Six percent of white households do not have a car.  14% percent of minority households don’t have a car, and for Blacks specifically, it is 18%, or three times that of whites. 

 

Abolish occupational licensing laws: In our nation these laws have been used to restrict competition especially between blacks and white after the Civil War. In 1950 about 5% of jobs required some license, today 35% of jobs do.

 

Abolish business licensing laws including Cottage Kitchen laws: We engage in trade to provide food, shelter and clothing for ourselves and families. When the government requires a license, they are selling your right to engage in that trade.            END/ mhw