Young Americans for Liberty

Syria: A Roadblock to an Iran War

aheram — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:59:32 +0000

The U.S. suggests a “coalition of the willing” to intervene in Syria:

The United States proposed an international coalition to support Syria’s opposition Sunday after Russia and China blocked a U.N. attempt to end nearly 11 months of bloodshed, raising fears that violence will escalate. Rebel soldiers said force was now the only way to oust President Bashar Assad, while the regime vowed to press its military crackdown.
The threat of both sides turning to greater force after Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution raises the potential for Syria’s turmoil to move into even a more dangerous new phase that could degenerate into outright civil war.
[…]
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned that chances for “a brutal civil war” would increase as Syrians under attack from their government move to defend themselves, unless international steps provide another way.

Just as it is in Libya, bloodshed is being used to justify even greater bloodshed. I suspect we will see a repeat of “We came, we saw, 30,000 Libyans died.”

Michael Geist on the Global Copyfight

aheram — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:44:58 +0000

Michael Geist’s keynote address discussing “the role of digital activism in countering bills like SOPA and the ongoing copyfight over the use of WIPO, ACTA, and aggressive laws to promote restrictive copyright rules.”

"Sh*t People Say" Contest -- Liberty Themed!

Megan Duffield — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:29:57 +0000

There’s this meme floating around on YouTube. There’s these videos satirizing the ridiculous things people say, usually broken down by demographic. Sh*t white people say. Sh*t black people say. Sh*t rich people say. Sh*t hipsters say. Sh*t zombies say. Just a whole lot of shit. I found a lot of them pretty racist, or at least collectivist by design. I don’t usually go for that sort of humor, but then I found one that tickled my prejudices right where I like it:

Just brilliant! Best of all, completely true. Will Potter, who created the video, says it’s all based on statements the FBI has actually made in court, in the press, or to activists themselves. Being married to a civil rights attorney, I’ve heard most of these before. Green Is The New Red looks mostly liberal, but they’ve chosen a rallying cry everyone can get behind: Activism is not Terrorism. Americans allegedly have the Constitutional right to political activism, but activists on both sides of the aisle (or no aisle at all) are being targeted by the programs created to surveil terrorists.

Click here to participate in the contest!

America the Caged

aheram — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:26:56 +0000

Adam Gopnik writes about the modern-day shame of the American Prison State:

For a great many poor people in America, particularly poor black men, prison is a destination that braids through an ordinary life, much as high school and college do for rich white ones. More than half of all black men without a high-school diploma go to prison at some time in their lives. Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today—perhaps the fundamental fact, as slavery was the fundamental fact of 1850. In truth, there are more black men in the grip of the criminal-justice system—in prison, on probation, or on parole—than were in slavery then. Over all, there are now more people under “correctional supervision” in America—more than six million—than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height.

The main thrust of the article is this: The detached bureaucracy -- and all its professional procedures -- lends itself to the brutal inhumanity and gross injustices of our prison system.

A Libertarian Primer on the Copyright Wars

aheram — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:21:41 +0000

On Jan. 18, the world was audience to the one of the most visible online activism yet in Internet history. Taking part in the 24-hour protest were thousands of websites and millions of Internet users going head-to-head with Hollywood to oppose a pair of anti-piracy bills — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) — currently making its way through Congress.

Leading the charge were Wikipedia, Google, Craigslist and several other Internet heavyweights which blacked out their websites or otherwise called attention to the anti-piracy bills. More important than just calling attention to these bills, the many websites mobilized users to directly contact legislators’ offices.

Just how effective were the protests? According to the Los Angeles Times, 162 million people directly experienced Wikipedia’s blackout. Additionally, 8 million users looked up their representatives in Congress. Reports suggest that the online activism led to an avalanche of real-world activism as thousands took to calling their representatives’ offices.

All Hail Campus Protectionism!

Eric Sharp. ETF — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:48:19 +0000

Check out this satirical letter I wrote for the Opinions section of MTSU's student newspaper Sidelines. If it reads like my previous satirical letter in Sidelines this is quite intentional.

Aramark, our food services provider, recently enacted a rule at MTSU that student organizations could only have one bake sale per semester (excluding Greek organizations of course). We speculate that this is because our YAL chapter sold too many tasty tamales and apple pies. MTSU is not the kind of campus where it is easy to walk or drive 5 minutes away for lunch at back in time for class, so the cartel granted by contract particularly effects what choices and prices students have to deal with. Aramark is a large company and may even be doing the same thing on your campus.

Anyway, on with the letter:

Dearest Aramark:

You, my favorite of food-service giants, have recently undertaken some measures, which I must praise.

Specifically, you have insisted that a section of your contact with MTSU be enforced – the one that binds radicals and hooligans in "student organizations" to a satisfactory one bake sale per semester.

What It Means to Be Pro-Life (Part 2)

zachfoster — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:26:27 +0000

Continued from Part I: How the Left Justifies Killing

Part II: How the Right Justifies Killing

Rightists love to award themselves the moral high ground for opposing abortion while simultaneously supporting wars of aggression with high civilian casualties. Indeed, on the economic front, conservatives who ironically subscribe to Keynesian economic theory are convinced that America’s entry into World War II is what restored economic prosperity -- that war is a good cure for economic depression. What a pro-life sentiment: War is good for the economy! Who cares about the loss of innocent life war always entails -- any time the country falls into economic recession, all Americans need to do is go to war and all will be well! </sarcasm>

Currently many Republicans are incredibly nervous about Iran developing nuclear weapons. Many of these unrepentant warhawks are crying out for the U.S. to “stop Iran from getting the bomb!” Yet they fail to think through what this means in practice.

How does one country stop a hostile country from doing something? Should the United States throw sanctions on Iran? That has already been done! Should the U.S. throw more sanctions at the rogue republic? Such an effort would be useless! Sanctions are a waste of time and also an agent of death when used against third world dictatorships. After all, cutting off food, trade, and other needed commodities will not change the plans of the Ahmadinejad regime; the regime is not representative of the Iranian people and no matter what, both Ahmadinejad and the Ayatollah will still eat gourmet meals while the poorest of the poor in Iran will die of starvation from the sanctions.

Craigslist: How the founder espouses liberty ideals

BenLevine16 — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:11:27 +0000

All of the quotes and information used in the post can be found in Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston.

Craigslist was founded in early 1995 by Craig Newmark; it started as a simple e-mail list that grew exponentially over the next few years. Newmark, who worked in the tech industry, would send an e-mail full of what he considered "cool events" happening in the SF area to a list of friends. They would then send that list to their own friends, who would in turn want to be on the original "list," which became "Craig's List."

When the list of e-mails simply became too long, Newmark decided to put his list on the internet. He wanted to call it "SFEvents" or something simple but his friends insisted that he go a different route: craigslist.com. Why not? The name had already stuck. But that's not what Newmark settled on. Instead, he went for craigslist.org. Why? Because ".org" exudes a feeling of community and trust, something Newmark loves.

The story of how his business progressed is really amazing; after working all day, Newmark would work through the night hours on the website and has said that, "If I was billing for my own hours, it would have been a great deal of money." Essentially, he worked his ass off. It was still more of a hobby at that point but one he took great pride in.

A Call to Collaboration

mvwindsor — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:39:42 +0000

On Saturday, February 4th, members of the Occupy movement across the globe are planning to hold various rallies and marches in their respective cities to protest the growing momentum of U.S. interventions and sanctions against Iran that are building up to a possible declaration of war. Given that U.S. liberty-minded activists are equally passionate about halting the spread of our overseas empire and the unconstitutional declarations of illegal wars, this event presents a historical opportunity for liberty activists and Occupiers to unite for a commonly shared goal.

The organizations lending their official endorsement to this cause are strikingly diverse, ranging from the Workers World Party to the Center for a Stateless Society.

I would like to urge all Young Americans for Liberty members to coordinate with their local YAL chapters for a planned collaboration with the Occupy movement on February 4th to show the Establishment that we stand together in solidarity against the unconstitutional wars that are declared without Congressional approval, wars which threaten to bankrupt our nation both morally and financially. According to the Facebook event page, so far every state has an anti-war Occupy event planned in major cities across the U.S. on Feb. 4th, and I am working with my local YAL chapter to engage with our own city's anti-war Occupy rally to be held this coming Saturday.

Sure, you can buy a cigar in Boston...if you're rich enough.

Bonnie Kristian — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:15:01 +0000

The city of Boston has quietly banned all cigars which cost less than $2.50.

Translation: Blunts, no. Fancy Habanos, yes.

Second translation: Poor people smoking, no. Rich people smoking, yes:

The ban is effective February 1, 2012.
But for those upper class cigar aficionados, the elite few who are still allowed to smoke indoors at their pricey cigar bars, will still be able to purchase single cigars. A stipulation in the city ordinance allows tobacco shops to sell individual cigars, as long as they retail for $2.50 or more.

The city agency responsible for the ban, the Boston Public Health Commission, is composed of a seven person board. I hardly need mention, of course, that the board members all appear to have careers which have undoubtedly kept them far from poverty.

It is grimly ironic, though, that one of the board members specializes in “racial and ethnic disparities in health care.” Evidently he isn’t equally bothered by what will amount, thanks to higher levels of poverty among minorities in America, to a ban which will limit the purchasing abilities of minorities at a disproportionate rate.

Third translation: Government is not a friend to the poor.

Twelve Steps to Admitting Neoconservatism is Progressivism

joel.hills — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:31:22 +0000

First off, my personal ideological testimony.

Having always had a healthy distaste for authority, I hate to admit I started my political journey as a “rebellious” liberal. That is, until I realized the logical concessions one must make in persisting as a statist. For instance, one must, all at once, distrust the government searching the home one harbors no umbrage toward the government having purchased for one in the first place.

So, I moved on down the ideological line.

Being a passionate reactionary, I soon stumbled awkwardly into full-on mainstream, “kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out,” neo-conservativism. My foreign policy position basically mirrored the plot of an episode of G.I. Joe. I entered into every episode knowing who was the good guy and bad guy; I knew the good guy was always right; and knowing was “half the battle.”

A New Generation

KTSontag — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:26:24 +0000

When I converse with my peers about current events, I tend to get one of two responses: that of ignorance, or that of despair. The ignorant aren't the ones that I would like to reach in this article; they still have a lot to learn and a lot of waking up to do. Instead, I want to reach those who no longer have hope -- those who see the police state forming and feel that if their candidate of choice doesn't win the presidency, well then, there is no more use trying. I have news for you, friends: You have a lot more power than you realize.

Each upcoming generation has a great, underrated power over older generations: inevitability. There is no way to get around it; we will be the leaders of the world, and as such, we are the ones responsible for the world we live in. We cannot be like the political leaders we despise and blame it on generations passed.

We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country. -- Thomas Jefferson

Have we already forgotten the lessons of the 60's, or did we simply learn the wrong ones? I contend it's the latter, another failure of our abysmal education system. But I digress. The real lesson to be learned is that the people have the power, especially the youth. The youth overwhelmingly participated in the civil rights protests -- the sit-ins, the marches, and the boycotts. In fact, Martin Luther King, Jr. himself was born in 1929, making him a relatively youthful leader.

YAL@VU: Spring Kick-off Events

mrbasil0 — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:38:22 +0000

On January 16th, YAL@VU held its first event of the semester, a teach-in focusing on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and its provisions for indefinite military detention of terrorist suspects, combined with a presidential debate watching party. We had one of our largest ever turn-outs, with close to 50 people in attendance during the 3 hours. As part of our spring recruitment drive, we also added 16 new emails to our mailing list. Two local TV stations, WSMV and WKRN, came to report on the event. Our teach-in was led by John M. Drake:

John Drake was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1968. He earned his baccalaureate degree in computer science from UAB in 1991. He then completed a Masters in computer science. In 1998, Drake relocated with his wife to Nashville so that she could pursue research at Vanderbilt. A friend whom he was helping prepare for the LSAT suggested that he sit for the exam as well. He attended Vanderbilt University Law School and graduated in 2011. He currently works in the Nashville area, where he lives with his wife, Dr. Wonder Drake, and their twin sons, Cameron and Miles.

What It Means to Be Pro-Life (Part 1)

zachfoster — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:17:06 +0000

Many Americans with some political consciousness tend to group themselves in one or two political categories: the left and the right, the former are usually associated with the Democrat Party and the latter with the Republican Party. Whenever people assign themselves to one of these two positions, they usually subscribe to the majority of that position’s pre-set policies and beliefs.

Both the left and the right have their own views on the sanctity of life, yet their contradictory views -- the left being against war and the death penalty but all for the choice of abortion and the right being against abortion but for the death penalty and war -- become a paradox. Wherever they stand on the issue of life, both the left and the right are in full favor of death to some extent, and any stance they take on preserving life -- whether in the fetal stage or in the electric chair -- is based on fallacious logic and dishonest euphemisms. Both sides are willing to kill in order to bring about their ideal conditions in society.

Part I: How the Left Justifies Killing

Leftists love to attack war but most of them are hypocrites for doing so, since they also often favor war but simply for different reasons than the right. Socialists favor labor violence and outright civil wars which they refer to as “wars of liberation.” If they subscribe to Lenin’s teachings, violence and outright terror in the name of proletarian revolution are justified (see The Black Book of Communism, Chapter 4: The Red Terror). More moderate leftists, from Woodrow Wilson to Barack Obama, campaign on peace but instead lead the country into wars for various political and economic purposes. With Wilson it was the First World War and with Obama it was continuation of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as well as intervention in the Libyan Civil War as well as those in Somalia, South Sudan, and Central Africa. Both social democrats enjoyed wide support from their allegedly pacific Democrat Party.

KSU YAL Hosts 'The Case against the Drug War'!

Hans Schulzke — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:13:22 +0000

Our first event at Kennesaw State University this semester was the most successful we’ve ever had. Over fifty people showed up on a Wednesday night to hear LEAP speaker Jay Fisher give a constitutional case against the drug war. By the end of the night, there were people standing in the back, sitting in the front, and all engaged in a great Q&A session. We had a large number of people sign up for email and call-sheets, we launched a new SSDP (Students for Sensible Drug Policy) chapter on campus, and we had high-quality conversation exposing people to libertarianism, the ideas of liberty, and YAL.

There are four main behaviors or decisions to which I credit the successful turnout:

1. We prepared in advance. We contacted LEAP (www.LEAP.cc) in December to schedule a speaker. We reserved the room before the first day of classes. We had a flyer produced in the first week of class. We had an advertising plan, a solid event plan, a Facebook page produced, and a committed ground crew for advertising long before the week of the event.

Rand Paul Disappoints

Brian Beyer — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:41:10 +0000

Rand Paul is good on some things, and not so good on others.

Earlier this week, Paul was detained in Nashville for refusing a pat down after an “anomaly” was spotted during his full body scan. The T.S.A. denies that he was detained citing some Orwellian semantics. His refusal was noble and deserves applause, especially when considering his standing as an American Senator.

But just because Rand is good on some issues of the warfare-police state should not give him a free pass from scrutiny. Case in point: Rand Paul voted for the Kirk-Menendez amendment on December 1, 2011. Equally disappointing is that his vote flew straight under the radar. Whether unnoticed or ignored, antiwar vigilantes failed on this one.

The Kirk-Menendez amendment (#1414) seeks “To require the imposition of sanctions with respect to the financial sector of Iran, including the Central Bank of Iran.” The amendment’s main focus is on Iran’s oil industry: “Sanctions imposed…shall apply with respect to a foreign financial institution owned or controlled by the government of a foreign country including a central bank of a foreign country, only insofar as it engages in transactions for the sale or purchase of petroleum or petroleum products to or from Iran.”

State of the Union: Ten Economic Graphs That Should Scare The Hell Out Of You

Wes Messamore — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:39:13 +0000

Crisis takes a much longer time coming than you think, and then it happens much faster than you would have thought. ~ MIT economist Rudiger Dornbusch

At President Obama’s State of the Union Address this year, which was heavy on recycled platitudes and light on substance, the president did more to prepare for the upcoming general election than actually give a genuine assessment of the state of the union, but that’s pretty par for the course. A sincere state of the union by the President of the United States may be more than most Americans are ready for yet – the horror of listening to the president describe the true economic realities we face might be more than many people could handle. I hope I’m wrong and most Americans would welcome an honest word from a major politician as a breath of fresh air.

What would a sincere state of the union address look like? The president could just show us graphs of economic data and leave it at that. It would be the most radical truth-telling we have heard from the White House in a long time. If you really want to know the state of union and you have the stomach for it, here are ten economic graphs that show just how precarious the state of the union really is and just how long our current economic troubles are likely to last:

1. Graph of the world’s reserve currencies and the duration of their reserve currency status since 1400 C.E.

Are you seeing this? When I saw this on ZeroHedge earlier this month, I decided instantly that this graph should be everywhere. Nothing lasts forever and this graph eloquently and poignantly demonstrates that world reserve currency status is no exception.

What is money? (Part I)

Wes Messamore — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:59:21 +0000

Oh yes, we’re tackling the big question today. No more subtly alluding to a certain view of money and economics while assuming you “get it” too. I’m going to break it down to the fundamentals here and do so as painlessly and simply as possible.

If you’re an advocate of “sound money” or “honest money” and you want to understand your own views better or find an easier way to explain them to others, read on! If you have a friend who is new to this kind of economic thinking, this might be a good article to share with them.

Economic thinking isn’t hard. In fact, it’s quite natural and intuitive in a lot of ways. People who make it more complicated than it really is are doing so to keep you from thinking about it and to convince you that you can’t really understand it like they can. Knowledge is power. So the less honest stewards of economic thought have decided to keep that power to themselves by making the knowledge seem unattainable to people without advanced degrees or Nobel Prizes. Don’t be intimidated! Finance and economics are for everyone.

TSA Illegally Detains Senator

mvwindsor — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:33:01 +0000

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was detained for four hours at a Nashville airport on Monday, January 23rd, after declining a TSA request for a pat down. Believing that his first attempt at the scanner had triggered a false alarm, he asked if he could walk through the scanner once more. He was then denied a second attempt and briskly escorted by local police into a detention cubicle where he remained for four hours, missing his flight as well as his commitment that day to speak in front of a crowd of 200,000 at the March for Life rally in D.C.

After his release, he was allowed to board another flight after he went through the scanner again without setting off the alarm a second time.

Though the TSA argues that it acted properly and objects to the use of the word "detainment" to describe Paul's treatment, according to Article 1, Section 6 of the Constitution it is illegal to hold in custody Congressmen who are traveling to and from Congress:

They [the Senators and Representatives] shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same.

This is not to say that members of Congress are above the law and are not subject to the same security measures as non-office holding citizens while traveling under regular conditions.

McDonald's shows how we're still in a recession

Elliot Engstrom — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:30:11 +0000

McDonald's reported record profits of $27 billion in 2011. Hooray, evidence of a global economic comeback, right? Not so fast.

For most people, McDonald's isn't necessarily their food of choice. Sure, there are some people who voluntarily eat at McDonald's very often. But overall, the food at McDonald's is low quality and extremely unhealthy. In economic terms, it's what we call an inferior good.

Usually when we think of goods and services, we are thinking of normal goods. Normal goods are items for which demand increases when income increases, and vice versa. Sports cars are a normal good. When people make more money, they are most likely to buy sports cars.

Inferior goods run the opposite way. When people's income overall decreases, demand for inferior goods increases. This is because people are substituting the inferior good for something that they would rather have, but cannot afford. Case in point -- low quality food from McDonald's.

Food from McDonald's is probably not at the top of most peoples' menu of choice. However, as real income (not actual money in pockets, mind you, but rather real purchasing power) decreases as it has over the past several years, we should expect demand for inferior goods like McDonald's to increase. Don't be surprised if at the end of fiscal year 2012, we find that McDonald's profits have increased even more.

The 7 Best Libertarian Songs You've Never Heard of

aducknamedjoe — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:56:49 +0000

Sick of hearing Green Day bash capitalism and U2 calling for more and more government intervention? Need some music that doesn't unthinkingly accept the default leftist, collectivist worldview?

Look no further!

Below are the top 7 best pro-liberty, pro-economic freedom songs that you've (probably) never heard of (no Lee Greenwood or Rush here!) in no particular order. Feast your ear holes:

1. “Sons of Liberty” by Frank Turner

Remember when I said this list was in “no particular order?” (Yes I did, right up there, like, three lines ago). Well, I lied. This first one is easily my favorite song of the bunch. That's why it's first.

Frank Turner, a former anarchist who now describes himself as a “classical liberal/libertarian,” combines an excellent folk/punk guitar sound with defiant lyrics informed by a very British sense of liberty.

To wit:

But a sorry cloud of tyranny has fallen across the land/
Brought on by hollow men, who did not understand/
That for centuries our forefathers have fought and often died/
To keep themselves unto themselves, to fight the rising tide/
That if in the smallest battles we surrender to the State/
We enter in a darkness whence we never shall escape./

YAL at IUPUI to host Civil Liberties College Tour Stop

jamesmaier93 — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:07:28 +0000

Young Americans for Liberty at IUPUI will be hosting one of the stops on the YAL Civil Liberties College Tour on Tuesday February 7th!

At the current moment, an event of this nature is certainly necessary, as every day, we are seeing our rights whittled away by a government that has stepped far outside of its constitutional and legal constraints. Legislation such as the PATRIOT Act and the NDAA have roused people awake to the threats we face and even have become seminal issues for Republican presidential candidates.

All of these developments have come about as a result of wars, and as Randolph Bourne's thesis suggests, war is the health of the state. Wars, like the ones the US government is conducting in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia are the health of the state because many accept the certain steps taken in effort to make us "safer," when in reality, our rights and privacy are violated.

Many do not know this, but as a result of NDAA, anyone of us can be indefinitely detained with no charge. Yet, many accept this. Those who warn of it are painted as traitors and terrorist sympathizers, by those who do not understand the laws of this country and their natural rights.

Where did you get your shoes?

mvwindsor — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:01:59 +0000

It's a common question I used to ask Occupy activists while being present at some of their rallies during the peak of the movement in autumn 2011.

Caught off guard by a perfectly normal question, the anti-corporate activist would inevitably drop his head down towards the ground in guilty contemplation of whatever shoes he was wearing during the protest, with his "corporations are evil" sign suddenly beginning to waver uncertainly in his hand. As if contemplating the issue for the first time, his mind races for a quick response to a disarmingly simple question. He flounders around awkwardly for a few minutes, thinking out loud with an "um, well... ah" mumble, fidgeting nervously with the wounded and confused look setting deeper and deeper into his well-meaning yet misguided face.

If there's any one question I've found that silences an Occupier who decries the evils of corporate greed which puts profit before people, it's "So where did you get your (fill in the blank) from?"

National End Crony Capitalism Day Feb. 14th

Joseph Brown — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:57:41 +0000

Kelly Jemison has a post over at Students for Liberty promoting national crony capitalism day, a great event to do on campus before wrapping up our Spring recruitment drive contest, which ends Feb. 17th--your chapter can win cash prizes and we will provide you with free resources and activism kits! Crony capitalism day, is set for February 14th (Valentine's Day), and will expose the love between big business and big government. Tabling kits are provided free of charge, just apply through this survey. Each tabling kit includes:

1 tabling banner (2′ by 6′) – to draw attention to the event
1 event execution information sheet
1 sample press release
100 stickers with the attached image
100 Valentines – with a cronyism definition on one side and illustration on the opposite side
120 Dum Dum lollipops – to be attached to the Valentines (for a candy gram effect)

The Unintended Consequences of Government Policy

maske1ka — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:11:11 +0000

The law of unintended consequences, often cited but rarely defined, is that actions of people -- and especially of government -- always have effects that are unanticipated or unintended.

Consider the following short list of legislation and packages of bills:

Federal Reserve Act of 1913
The New Deal
The Great Society
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Dodd-Frank Act
Department of Education Organization Act
Reorganization Plan Number 3 (Environmental Protection
Agency)
Food and Drugs Act of 1906 (Food and Drug Administration)

It seems that most people take these pieces of legislation at face value and defend them based on what they were taught in school or what they see and hear on television. Popular opinion is quick to point out the sincere intentions of these pieces of legislation and the importance they play in our lives. Popular opinion is also as quick to shy away from talking about the reality of these pieces of legislation in what is commonly referred to as the unintended consequences.