Political labels: Part 2.
As I explained yesterday in Stay out of our wallets, religions, and our lives, my editor Michael recently found a very good online test that caused us to evaluate our political philosophy. According to the World’s Smallest Political Quiz, our views make us Libertarians. We wondered about that, so we sat down and discussed each question in detail.
The Quiz is interesting, and can be the basis for enlightening discussion. If you haven’t taken it I recommend you follow this link, World’s Smallest Political Quiz, and then come back to MYODB. You’ll only be gone a couple of minutes because the quiz is only ten short questions.
Your score is provided to you in a chart presenting your political beliefs on two spectrums, Left Wing/Right Wing, and Libertarian/Statist.
Note: The questions are simplistic, the choice of answers more so. The longest question has only 10 words; the average length is 8.3 words. Your answers choices are; Agree, Maybe, Disagree.
For me, answering the questions was easy. The first time through I was 100% Libertarian on both the Personal and the Economic issues. The second time I went 90/100 because I don’t oppose using the forces of government to help my wife and I manage our children’s access to sex and violence in movies, television, and on the internet. I only support government involvement where children are concerned. I have serious problems when adults are blocked in any way from the content they choose to watch. Except, maybe…
Michael and I worked through each of the questions, with me giving my answers and him challenging those answers, delving into the nuances with pointed scenarios. The easy quiz became more complex and I moved away from Libertarian.
Personal Issues
Government should not censor speech, press, media or Internet.
I would not want even consenting adults having an option to view actual rapes or murders and I have no doubt that if that type of content were allowed someone somewhere would find a way to sell it online, probably already have.
Military service should be voluntary. There should be no draft.I definitely favor keeping military service voluntary. Of course, I write that believing that if the U.S. were in a war where our survival was threatened enough of us would rush to join up. If not…
There should be no laws regarding sex for consenting adults.
I agree that there should be no laws regarding sex for consenting adults, in fact, I am sick of the issue (please don’t write comments about human/non-human crap and please don’t forget that by “consenting” I mean in possession of mental capability to decide; this is debate requires sense).
Repeal laws prohibiting adult possession and use of drugs.
My view of adult drug use has always been that it should be legal. Then Michael pointed out that drug abusers (alcohol included) become leeches on society causing crime, and breeding children they can’t support. As I wrote in June, What happens to the children? He also pointed out that there are drugs that cause addiction from only a single use. A person is considered an adult at age 18. Having been 18 (once, long ago) and having known many 18 year-olds, I am not sure it is a good idea to create more opportunities for people to ruin their lives from a single, momentary, bad decision than we already have.
There should be no National ID card.
The question on National ID cards didn’t seem that difficult. I oppose national ID cards for symbolic reasons but realistically, I think (please excuse the cliché) that the ship has left the dock. We already have so many forms of government ID, plus all the personal information either on line or being collected by businesses, that it really is an issue we shouldn’t have to worry about, as long as our government, remains, Our government. Yikes.
Economic Issues
End “corporate welfare.” No government handouts to business.
Neither Michael nor I saw any reason to continue corporate welfare or any handouts to business. Anybody disagree on that??
End government barriers to international free trade.
I favored ending barriers to international trade until Michael pointed out that the issue wasn’t simply that not every business in every country plays fair (USA included), nor that many foreign businesses are either subsidized by their governments or are branches of their governments – The bigger issue is that some third world nations have the potential to revert to slavery and child slavery. Ending all trade barriers would then create human rights crises all over the world while enabling some countries to place products on the market at prices that would severely undercut Western goods and destroy our economy.
Let people control their own retirement; privatize Social Security.
I have always supported getting the government out of the business of financing our retirements because too many Americans pay into Social Security all their working lives and end up with only Social Security and no actual assets. No problem there. I want people to save their own money so they have something of real value.
Replace government welfare with private charity.
Replacing government welfare with private charity seems like an easy one. I favor that. Well…except in cases where the parents are too messed up to properly care for their children.
Cut taxes and government spending by 50% or more.
Finally, cutting taxes and government by 50% or more sounds like a great plan. Except that we have created so many obligations through so many entitlements that we probably have to keep in place for a while. We will never be able to do this.
Please challenge my answers in the comment section below. Do you think you can provide the logic to move Michael, me, and my readers more to the right? More to the left? Center? And please challenge yourself on your views.
What political label fits you? Are you sure?
