Rockwell's Thirty-Day Plan to a Free Market of Sanity and Economic Well-being
I've been in tuning in to the Ron Paul what now? discussion and found this gem. My only qualm with it is that it'd be so much change every day that I think it'd be better done over 3 months. Let's see what the Waccobians think. They might complain about too much economic prosperity caused by such a massive shift from big government to small. But I think the cause and effect would be fabulous. My favorite day is 29. I think that should be day 2.
When Eastern Europe broke free in 1989, we all realized just how little thought had been given to the transition from socialism to capitalism. Mises had told us the collapse was coming, and we should have been prepared.
As America comes to resemble a command economy, we need a transition plan here too. Yuri Maltsev proposed a "One-Year Plan" for the U.S.S.R. We're not in that bad a shape (yet), so we could do it in 30 days.
DAY ONE: The federal income tax is abolished and April 15th is declared a national holiday. The 40% reduction in federal revenues is matched by a 40% cut in spending. The budget is still almost twice as big as Jimmy Carter's.
DAY TWO: All other federal taxes are abolished, including the corporate income tax, the capital gains tax, the gasoline tax, "sin" taxes, excise taxes, etc. Businesses boom, and the few legitimate federal functions are funded with an inexpensive head tax. People who choose not to vote need not pay it. (Note: this was a mainstream view in the 19th century.)
DAY THREE: The federal government sells all its land, freeing up tens of millions of acres for development, mining, farming, forestry, oil drilling, private parks, etc. The government uses the revenue to pay off the national debt and other liabilities.
DAY FOUR: The minimum wage is reduced to zero, creating jobs for ex-federal bureaucrats at their market wage. All pro-union laws and regulations are scrapped. The jobless rate falls dramatically.
DAY FIVE: The Bureau of Labor Statistics, like the rest of the Labor Department, is sent to that big hiring hall in the sky. Without detailed economic statistics, future economic planners will be blind and deaf.
DAY SIX: The Department of Commerce is abolished. Big business has to make its own way in the world, without subsidies and privileges at the expense of its competitors and customers.
DAY SEVEN: The plug is pulled on the Department of Energy. Oil and gas prices plummet.
DAY EIGHT: All regulatory agencies, from the Interstate Commerce Commission to the Federal Trade Commission, are deep-sixed. Competition is legalized.
DAY NINE: HUD is squashed like a bug. There's a building boom in cheap, private, apartments.
DAY TEN: The interstate highways reopen as private businesses. Road entrepreneurs price travel according to consumer demand. Using modern technology, drivers get bills once a month. Credit risks — and drunks and dangerous drivers — aren't allowed on the road. Non-drivers no longer subsidize car owners.
DAY ELEVEN: Government welfare is wiped out. Bums work or starve. The deserving poor find a cornucopia of private services designed to make them independent. Private charity explodes, as the American people, already the most generous in the world, find their incomes almost doubled, thanks to the tax cuts.
DAY TWELVE: The Federal Reserve closes its open-market operations and stops protecting the banking industry from competition. But banks can now engage in all the non-bank financial activities previously forbidden to them. The business cycle, which is caused by monetary expansion through the credit markets, is liquidated.
DAY THIRTEEN: Federal deposit insurance is scrapped. All insured deposits are redeemed from federal assets, which include the personal assets of high-level government employees. The threat of bank runs forces banks to keep 100% reserves for their demand deposits, and prudent reserves on all other accounts. There are no more inherently bankrupt banks propped up by the government, at taxpayer expense, and no more bail-outs.
DAY FOURTEEN: The shaky fiat dollar is defined in terms of gold, with the ratio determined by dividing the government's gold stock by all existing dollars on that day.
DAY FIFTEEN: The federal government sells National and Dulles airports to the highest bidder, and stops all subsidies to other socialist airports around the country. All constraints on airline prices and service cease. It costs more to fly during peak hours than off-peak, but overall, air travel drops in price.
DAY SIXTEEN: All government regulations that create and sustain cartels are abolished, including those for the post office, telephones, television, radio, and cable TV. Prices plummet, and a host of new and unforeseen services becomes available.
DAY SEVENTEEN: Centrally planned agriculture, as imposed by Hoover and Roosevelt, is repealed: there are no more subsidies, payments-in-kind, marketing orders, low-interest loans, etc. Farm prices drop. Entrepreneurial farmers get rich. Welfare farmers go into another line of work. The poor eat like kings.
DAY EIGHTEEN: The Justice Department shutters its anti-trust division. Companies, big and small, are free to merge — up, down, or sideways. Stockholders can buy any other company, or sell their stock to anyone else. Marginal producers can no longer battle their competitors with bureaucratic weapons.
DAY NINETEEN: The Department of Education flunks the constitutionality test, and is kicked out. Private charities set up remedial reading and writing programs for the former bureaucrats. Federally subsidized sex education and other anti-family programs go out of business. Local school districts become responsive to parents or close, pressured by a fast-growing private school sector (which many more parents can now afford).
DAY TWENTY: All federal monuments are sold, in some cases to non-profit groups based on the Mt. Vernon Ladies Association, which owns and runs George Washington's home. The VFW buys the Vietnam memorial. There is much bidding for the Jefferson and Washington monuments. Nobody wants FDR's, so it's torn down and the land sold to a farmer. (With the federal government cut back to its constitutional size, much of Washington reverts to productive uses like agriculture, as in late 18th century.)
DAY TWENTY-ONE: The computerized financial and political dossier maintained by the government on every American is erased. The public wanders through the federal offices to make sure, in a reprise of the East Berliners' visits to Stasi headquarters.
DAY TWENTY-TWO: Equal rights are granted to all Americans, even members of non-victim groups. There is no affirmative action, no quotas, no set-asides, no public accommodations laws. Private property and freedom of association are fully restored.
DAY TWENTY-THREE: The EPA is cleaned out, with all "clean air" and similar big-government laws repealed. Ten thousand lawyers leap from their balconies. Private property is established in air and water. Americans harmed by pollution are free to sue the polluters, who are no longer protected by the federal government.
DAY TWENTY-FOUR: Americans are given complete freedom of contract, restoring rationality to malpractice and product liability law.
DAY TWENTY-FIVE: Government scrambles for more assets to sell (i.e., the National Zoo, also known as Washington, D.C.) to pay off the liabilities of the privatized Social Security system.
DAY TWENTY-SIX: Porno artists have to earn their own livings, as the National Endowment for the Arts tries to raise its budget through sidewalk painting sales.
DAY TWENTY-SEVEN: Foreign aid is outlawed as unconstitutional, unjust, and un-economic. Foreign politicians have to steal their own money. The World Bank, IMF, and United Nations close their super-luxurious doors.
DAY TWENTY-EIGHT: The American people are given the unrestricted right to keep and bear arms.
DAY TWENTY-NINE: The Defense Department is reoriented towards defense. American troops come home from all around the world. We adopt a policy of armed neutrality, remembering the Founding Fathers' teaching that we could not have an empire abroad and a constitutional republic at home.
DAY THIRTY: All tariffs, quotas, and trade agreements are put through the shredder. Americans can trade with anyone in the world, without barriers or subsidies. Japanese car prices drop an immediate 25%.
In just 30 exhilarating days, we have established the outlines of free market. Radical? Maybe so. Me, I can't wait until Month Two.
This article appeared in The Free Market for March 1991.
August 30, 2007
Copyright © 2007 Ludwig von Mises Institute
Re: Rockwell's Thirty-Day Plan to a Free Market of Sanity and Economic Well-being
DAY THIRTY ONE: Pigs fly
DAY THIRTY TWO: Hell freezes over.
Patrick Brinton
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by ubaru:
I've been in tuning in to the Ron Paul what now? discussion and found this gem. {snip}
Re: Rockwell's Thirty-Day Plan to a Free Market of Sanity and Economic Well-being
boy, it's so easy! I'm sure that all those consequences would be exactly what happens. It's the way it's always been before!
No more federal (and by implication, much less public) land? or land-use regulations? I can't see how that could go wrong...
lots of jobs if people don't have to pay living wages? who wouldn't want one of those?
No business regulation at all will increase competition?? Sure, monopolies only existed because they were maintained by excessive regulation.
... sorry, highlighting these stupid Randian platitudes gets old.. but the one that really shows me the deep understanding of the world this author has:
Quote:
Porno artists have to earn their own livings, as the National Endowment for the Arts tries to raise its budget through sidewalk painting sales.
right, porn has never existed without government subsidy. He finds possibly the most pure example of aggressive exploitative capitalism and shows his complete ignorance of reality. He's totally blinded by his inverted pollyannaish misunderstanding of business, government and human nature.
Re: Rockwell's Thirty-Day Plan to a Free Market of Sanity and Economic Well-being
I'm guessing Rockwell is either wealthy or a servant to the wealthy class. This type of freedom for them is the "gated community" mentality of the super rich. Why do you post this blather? If you seriously believe this, what are you doing on a "concious community" board?
Ron
Re: Rockwell's Thirty-Day Plan to a Free Market of Sanity and Economic Well-being
This stuff appeals to people who (a) feel that we need something, anything radical to deal with the fact that it seems like other people must be happier than they are but don't deserve to be, (b) think that if something sounds outrageous enough it's a courageous thing to say, and (c) have not the slightest clue about history going back further than about the last 18 months.
Interesting to see that he wants to bring all the military forces home but still wants a strong defense without the Federal govt having any income except selling off property. I guess he expects them to pillage our cities for sustenance.
Who wrote this? Woody Allen? Charles Manson? Lewis Carroll? No question but it's a classic of magical thinking on Humboldt County's finest product.
Cheers—
Conrad
Re: Rockwell's Thirty-Day Plan to a Free Market of Sanity and Economic Well-being
one follow-up thought, may as well go on this thread as any.
for those who honestly seem to think that there shouldn't be regulations specifying minimum wages, follow it through. Is the idea really to create jobs that by definition don't provide enough income to live? Who do you imagine should hold such jobs, and how do you think they can earn enough (since I suspect anyone holding such a position also has a strong sense that individuals should earn what they get) to pay for food, rent, and any other basics needed for life?
George Will had a column recently, in a similar but far better reasoned vein, proposing too many people get higher education. The thing all such positions hold in common is a willingness for many of your fellow citizens to be denied something. There seems to be some kind of rationale that those who get whatever resource is in question somehow deserve it more than those who don't. Even if you accept that debatable logic, it still follows that the bottom line here is that not everyone can have access to the resource (education, money, nice places to live) and that's the end of it.
Lost in the worry that the undeserving might get something they haven't earned is the idea that maybe the goal should be to provide more of the resource, or provide a more sustainable equivalent, to the population as a whole. For those who secretly or unknowingly hold the Calvinist view that worldly success is a sign of virtue, I think that too much sharing of the wealth is a bad thing. It screws up the scorekeeping.
Re: Rockwell's Thirty-Day Plan to a Free Market of Sanity and Economic Well-being
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by rekarp:
I'm guessing Rockwell is either wealthy or a servant to the wealthy class. This type of freedom for them is the "gated community" mentality of the super rich. Why do you post this blather? If you seriously believe this, what are you doing on a "concious community" board?
Ron
How do you respond when someone posts something you do not agree with on a conscious community board?
Guidelines for posting on Waccobb
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Barry:
5) BE RESPECTFUL: You are welcome to disagree with someone but you may not attack them in any way, either publicly or privately. This includes slurs against population groups. One rule of thumb is that you should treat other members as if you are speaking in person with them.
Re: Rockwell's Thirty-Day Plan to a Free Market of Sanity and Economic Well-being
You answered your question: You respond respectfully.:waccosun:
Rekarp asked: Why do you post this blather?
That's respectful enough of you, if not of Rockwell. And I think it's a good question to address.
There's many things about Libertarian philosophy/policy that are reasonable and that I support. But Rockwell's post, if it is to be taken seriously, is off the deep end! On the other hand, I'm sure the Grand Canyon could be sold for quite a bit of money an put to a much more productive use (just think what a wonderful landfill site it would make!)
Liz, I'd like you to be wiling the discuss (defend? explain?) the things you post and not just be a posting service. Day 29 is a good thing, indeed, but most of the other days are quite objectionable to this community. What response did you expect?
I suggest you pick you topics/ideas carefully that are consistent with our values, including not letting people "starve".
Posts of this extreme nature are sure to engender passionate replies, including characterizations as "blather" and wonderings of what it is doing here, other than baiting such replies.
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by ubaru:
How do you respond when someone posts something you do not agree with on a conscious community board?
Guidelines for posting on Waccobb
Re: Rockwell's Thirty-Day Plan to a Free Market of Sanity and Economic Well-being
>>>How do you respond when someone posts something you do not agree with on a conscious community board?
Dear Ubaru--
I'm not sure whether you're objecting to Ron's calling the material you posted "blather" or whether you feel that he's casting aspersions on "a whole class of people" by referring to the gated-community mentality of the super-rich.
The "30-day wonder" post that you forwarded, with a glowing preface, is so rife with snide insults of large classes of people (e.g. artists who've received NEA grants being "porn artists" -- well, I'm one) that you could hardly expect anything but what you've gotten — pretty mild, it seems to me.
For my part, I responded by suggesting that people who actually credit this stuff with any fiber of sanity exhibit very little acquaintance with history. And yes, I'm afraid that's aimed directly at you, since you clearly stated that you buy it wholesale. I didn't call you stupid or idiotic, but I did suggest there's an active ignorance involved. If I had time, I might take every one of those propositions apart, but my impression is that it'd fall on deaf ears, and I don't have the time to clean the stables. That would take Hercules.
So if that constitutes a violation of Wacco guidelines, I apologize for that, as I really respect Barry's attempts to keep this forum civil. In turn, perhaps you should read your posts with a bit more sensitivity, or else just learn to weather the storm you stir up.
-Conrad
