Sexual abusers have exerted power without
the consent of the abused. Far more damaging, federal, state, and local U.S. governments
have enacted millions of laws and regulations without citizen consent – a key
reason for Mr. Trump’s victory.
To counter the governmental excess, U.S. Senators should be limited to a
single term and House members to two terms. Legislators
need not remain in office long enough to learn the ways of government. They
should focus instead on reversing most of the laws and regulations already in place.
State and local governments, including the
judiciaries, should continue with only their essential duties. For this
libertarian, these are as follows:
· Protect
private property,
·
Enforce contracts,
·
Adjudicate lawsuits,
·
Keep people from directly hurting
others by force or fraud (the police power).
In addition to assisting
with the above, the federal government should perform only the following
duties:
· Establish
and enforce immigration policies,
·
Pay a universal basic income to
every adult citizen, replacing Social Security, Medicare, and all welfare
programs,
·
Defend the nation.
Tax rates would be low and flat, with no
deductions. Unions as they exist today would be disempowered, and government
would not interfere with the interactions between employers and employees. Crony
capitalism and government lotteries would be terminated. No laws would prevent
citizens from hurting themselves. Government would make no attempts to
influence the economy. Private welfare organizations would raise money from the
prosperous and pay it to the poor. All schools would be owned by individuals or
non-governmental organizations. The students of central-city schools being in obvious
need of financial help, the prosperous would likely volunteer to provide it, as
some are doing already.
With government sharply reduced, the poor
would gain wealthy faster than the rich. On-going poverty would largely
disappear.
