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Dagny Taggart struggles to
manage a transcontinental railroad amid the pressures and restrictions
of massive bureaucracy. Her antagonistic reaction to a libertarian
group seeking an end to government regulation is later echoed and
modified in her encounter with a utopian community, Galt's Gulch, whose
members regard self-determination rather than collective responsibility
as the highest ideal. Published in 1957.
"Liberty
is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest
political end."
-- Lord Acton |
How
Markets Work: Disequilibrium, Entrepreneurship & Discovery
(Hobart Papers)
by Israel M.
Kirzner
The essence of
competition is ‘disequilibrium’ characterized by
continuous change. After nearly a century, classical liberalism and
microeconomics was rediscovered in the 80s but throughout the poverty
prone world such as ours, macro economists hold the upper hand and take
refuge in complex models and aggregates and emphasize competitive
equilibrium. The classical liberal’s
‘disequilibrium adjustments’ to reach the end-state
of a competitive economy is disregarded by our mainstream economists.
Professor Israel M. Kirzner
in his book ‘How Markets Work: Disequilibrium,
Entrepreneurship and Discovery’ criticizes the benevolent
economic czar to survey all individual preferences, endowments and
potentialities and then to compute and enforce a pattern of decision
that not only coordinates all decisions, but also ensures that no
opportunities for mutual gain remain unexploited.
The1986’s Nobel
Laureate Professor James Buchanan’s Public Choice theory
points out that people in the state sector are neither omniscient nor
altruistic but just like other people. Consequently, government fails
too, and it cannot reasonably be assumed that action by the state and
its academics to remedy market failures will necessarily be beneficial.
"I
do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us
with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use."
-- Galileo Galilei |
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18-year-old rebels against being
numbered
Wins right to vote without Social
Security registration
By
David M. Bresnahan
Copyright
1998, WorldNetDaily.com
LAS VEGAS, NV -- Even though government agencies tried their best to
stop him, an 18-year-old will vote for the first time in the Nov. 3
election.
Last July, Joshua Hansen, 18, went to register to vote. A few days
later he received a letter in the mail from Kathryn Ferguson, registrar
of voters of Clark County, Nevada, rejecting his application.
Hansen had refused to supply a Social Security number on his
application and Ferguson rejected him as a voter.
Hansen says he does not have a Social Security number, driver's
license, or government issued ID card. He says that he never will. He
also refuses to pay income tax.
He defends his stands on these issues based on his study of the U.S.
Constitution and his religious beliefs. He says he is willing to pay
any price and will not give in to government pressure.
Hansen takes his right to vote seriously. So seriously that he took
Ferguson to court to prove his point. With the help of his uncle,
attorney Joel F. Hansen, he got the court to order Ferguson to permit
him to vote.
He belongs to the First Christian Fellowship of Eternal Sovereignty,
which he says is a political religion based on Christianity and the
Constitution which people of all denominations may join.
"It's a fellowship of anybody who's Christian who really exercises
their Christian beliefs within politics," explained Hansen in a phone
interview with WorldNetDaily.
"The Social Security number was much like the mark of the beast talked
about in the "Book of Revelations." One of the main reasons is that it,
I mean you can't buy or sell without it, it's hard to do a lot of
business without it. Have you ever tried to get a job without one, or
voting or anything? A lot of the stuff talked about in the prophecy had
come to life and I said, 'I don't want one of those.'
"Everything around Social Security is a lie. I don't want any of the
benefits from it and I don't want to pay for it. The system's going
bankrupt. Anything I pay for I'll never see anyway. It's blatantly
unlawful and unconstitutional," explained Hansen.
Living without a Social Security number is a challenge, but not a major
problem for Hansen. He has no bank account, works only for family
members who will pay him "under the table," refuses to get a driver's
license, and won't pay taxes. Recently he started his own Internet
consulting business.
He just finished high school this year and says he has very few friends
who believe as he does. He belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.
"Because of my political beliefs," says Hansen, "I have a lot of
trouble getting along at church with a lot of my fellow members." The
members of his church believe in "The Articles of Faith," a portion of
it reads "We believe in . . . obeying, honoring, and sustaining the
law."
"They told me that the law said I had to have a number," explains
Hansen. "I said, 'This is kind of stupid because all these numbers are
obtained through the identification I already have.' When you get a
driver's license or an ID card here, basically you show them your birth
certificate, and to prove residency you write down on a little paper
what your address is and sign something that says you're not lying,
which is all you do on a voter registration thing."
Ferguson didn't like Hansen's logic. She rejected his application to
vote. Hansen contacted many elected officials for help. Some responded
and some didn't, but none were of much help so he decided to take it to
court.
"The Constitution of Nevada establishes who can vote," explained
Hansen. "If you're an idiot, you're insane, and if you don't have
residency you can't vote. That's it."
Hansen filed a Writ of Mandamus in the Clark County District Court.
The purpose was to have the court order Ferguson to register Hansen so
he can vote.
Nevada law states that the "County Clerk shall require a person to
submit official identification as proof of residence and identity, such
as a driver's license or other official document before
registering him."
Hansen presented a diploma from high school and a birth certificate,
but Ferguson demanded a Social Security card, driver's license, or a
state ID card.
Hansen does not have those items and in his petition to the court his
attorney stated, "therefore, he presented alternative identification to
the Registrar of Voters, but his right to register to vote was refused
and denied by the county registrar of voters."
Hansen was more surprised than anyone when his petition was granted by
the court. "I didn't think I'd win," he said. On Oct. 19, the court
ordered Ferguson to register Hansen to vote, and he now plans to cast
his first ballot on Nov. 3.
This may be just the first of many battles ahead for Hansen. He does
drive a car, and does not plan to get a license.
"The government has no right to regulate who can and cannot drive
unless they have proven themselves to be a danger to the community and
have been convicted by 12 informed jurors," wrote Hansen in an e-mail
message to WorldNetDaily.
"Assuming that everyone is already a danger and by telling us we must
have a license to drive is known better as 'prior restraint' and
according to the U.S. Supreme Court is unconstitutional."
Hansen also objects to the current law which will implement a national
ID card on Oct. 1, 2000. He says that Congress passed the law using
illegal immigration control as the excuse.
"The even more ironic twist is that most of the illegal immigrants
coming here are filtering from Mexico trying to reap the socialist
benefits offered by the federal government. Welfare, government
schools, health care, social security, etc. If you want to stop illegal
immigration bring back the American way of work hard and succeed as
opposed to show up and leech off the tax payers," wrote Hansen.
He concluded his e-mail by saying, "There is nothing they can ever do
to make me surrender my personal freedom, nothing. I don't know a lot
of people who exercise freedom to the point of fanaticism I do. I will
not pay federal income tax, I will not be marked my their
unconstitutional anti-Christ numbers. I will not take any of their
socialist benefits. I will not bow before any bureaucracy. I will not
surrender my God-given freedom to those bastards for any reason."
David
Bresnahan is a contributing editor of WorldNetDaily.com, and is the
author of "Cover Up: The Art and Science of Political Deception." You
may e-mail him at David@talkusa.com
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