No. 4
Winter 1999
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LPQC News | Vol. 5 No. 4 Winter 1999 |
In This Issue:
Libertarians Blast City's Approach to Cab Drivers'
Fears
New Yorkers Say Yes to Gun Freedom In Charter Defeat
1999: A Turning Point Towards a Free Millennium
How To Wreck An Economy-Chief Economist for the State of
New York Discusses Taxes
The Libertarian Party of Queens County is appalled by the City's response to actor Danny Glover's complaint of being unable to get a taxi on account of his race.
"There they go again, taking a sledgehammer to a social problem in the name of "fairness" but it will only make things worse," said Jim Strawhorn, Chair of the LPQC.
"The real problem is a basic distrust between two communities-the City's cab drivers are immigrants, and stories they have heard (and to some extent, their own experiences) have led many to fear African-Americans in general. Fining them for trying to preserve their personal safety will give them an incentive to find more creative ways to avoid African-American passengers; it will do nothing to foster better relations between the two groups. And it will stir up resentment in this supposed "land of the free."
"If government has a role to play in this situation, it should be to encourage the parties to communicate and work things out among themselves. The City should also end its ban on guns, which will allow peaceful citizens to defend themselves against violent ones. Knowing that they could protect themselves, cab drivers would have less reason to fear anyone they might pick up.
"This kind of grandstanding never works. It causes more problems than it ever solves, and that's exactly what will happen here," said Mr. Strawhorn.
The off-year election just past saw a spectacular (though perhaps inadvertent) victory for pro-liberty and 2nd Amendment advocates, as "liberal" New York City voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposed City Charter revision that included several new gun control regulations.
The charter question had 281,265 voters, or 76%, casting "no" ballots and 90,838 or 24% voting in favor. Among the changes were proposals for creating "gun free" zones within 1,000 feet of schools that would bar even licensed gun owners from carrying a firearm near a school; requiring a two-thirds vote of the City Council instead of a simple majority to hike taxes; forcing gun owners to use trigger locks; and creating an emergency budget fund from city surpluses.
Pro-government supporters quickly spun the results, to deflect attention away from its gun-rights implications. Before the election, local editorials prominently cited the gun control sections, hailing them as a "no-brainer" reason to vote for the revision, "that no sane person could object to." But after the vote, commentators emphasized other problems voters had with the revision as a whole (such as changes inserted to benefit the Giuliani Administration), as reason for its defeat. Had the statist side won, the media apparently would have cheered the outcome as being specifically the result of the gun control provisions! Whatever the case, score one for liberty, straight through the bulls-eye of the Big Apple!
The last twelve months have been an amazingly productive time for supporters of free markets and minds, harkening a coming renaissance in liberty as we approach the 21st Century. Before the year/decade/century/millennium expires, a very fast recap is in order:
Due to these trends, the future for Liberty appears quite bright. To this I say, Peace and Freedom in the new Millennium!
Anyone with the haziest knowledge of economics knows that if you make something more expensive, demand for it will decrease. If that something is living in a particular place, people will leave and businesses will be forced to shut down. But for years, New York's policy makers, both state and local, operated on the assumption that they could raise the cost of being a New Yorker by raising taxes without harming our economy.
During the recession of 1990-91, that upside-down economic "thinking" produced a catastrophe: High tax rates were raised even higher, causing the recession to be longer and deeper in New York than in any other state. In May of this year, Dr. Stephen Kagann released a study entitled "Cutting Taxes, Creating Jobs: The Decline and Revival of Upstate New York." While it focuses on the upstate economy, it holds lessons for governments everywhere.
The December 11 LPQC meeting will be a chance to hear-and question-the economist who has shown by the numbers that high taxes are a recipe for economic disaster.
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