Libertarians Mean Business
When it comes to reducing taxes, Libertarians mean business, not business as usual.

You may disagree with Libertarian positions on some matters. No two people agree on everything. But, notice how much more you disagree with Republicans and Democrats. You likely agree with Libertarians on the really important issues: reducing government, rather than slowing its growth; reducing income taxes substantially so that the dollars you make are your to spend or save as you see fit. Your differences with the Libertarian positions are trivial compared with your differences with the current positions of the Republican and Democratic parties.

Positions on Issues:
As Business people, as well as members of the community, we have experiences and libertarian viewpoints that can help solve problems in major issues of economic and public policy concerning Gwinnett County and Georgia. Issues include:
- Strong defender of private property rights (Eminent Domain is being abused)
- Supporter of Education Freedom. (School Choice - To provide tax credits to families to help pay for education and give parents more control of our schools.)
- Defender of law-abiding citizens' Second Amendment right to own firearms
- End "Corporate Welfare." (Government programs are very difficult to eliminate when the benefits of a program are highly concentrated and visible to a small number of people, and the costs of the program are diffuse and nearly invisible to those who have to pay.)

Additional Information on the Libertarian Party and Libertarian Issues:
National Libertarian Party:
http://www.lp.org/......

Advocates for Self-Government - If you want to easily get a basic understanding of what libertarianism is and to take a short Quiz to find out where you fit on the political map, this is the web site to go to:
http://www.theadvocat....
http://www.libertaria....

Bob Barr for President:
http://www.bobbarr200....

Ron Paul for President:
http://www.ronpaul200....

Georgia Libertarian Party:
http://www.lpgeorgia.....

A Businessperson's Guide to the Drug Problem (Nine Ways the War on Drugs Hurts Businesses):
http://www.cjpf.org/b....

Cato Institute - Libertarian think tank:
http://www.cato.org......

Reason Magazine - reporting a libertarian viewpoint on current issues:
http://www.reason.org....

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Why the Government Does Not Work:
Government is force. The only reason anything is turned over to the government is to force people to do what they don't want to do, force them to pay for what they don't want to pay for, or to forcibly prevent them from doing what they want to do. And force is the least efficient mechanism for achieving social objectives. Any business person knows that you get nowhere trying to intimidate employees; you have to motive them to do what you want to do. Because government is force, its programs are doomed to fail before they even start.

Charity:
There are those who say that people are not generous - that they have to be forced to contribute to the well-being of others. If that is so, why are there hundreds of thousands of churches in America, supported entirely by voluntary donations? Why do people usually slow down on the highway to let you change lanes? Imagine how much more charitable Americans could be if we reduced the income tax significantly?

Campaign Finance:
The problem with politics isn't the money, it's the power. So long as politicians have the power to grant favors, exemptions, and business protection, people will find some way to subvert them - if not with money now, then with promises to take care of them later. The only way we will clean up campaign financing is by taking power away from politicians - reducing the size of the government.

Income Tax:
Would you be willing to give up your favorite government programs if it meant you would pay significantly less taxes?

Reducing taxes substantially will provide five benefits: (1) You and your family will get an immediate raise in take-home pay; (2) everyone your company/employer does business with will also get a raise, allowing them to do more business with your company; (3) everyone in America will get a raise, providing a prosperity far beyond anything we've seen in our life-times; (4) business owners will have more after-tax profits to invest and grow their business; (5) to service the increased demand, businesses will hire those currently unemployed or underemployed.

Social Security:
About fourteen percent of an average person's salary is taken by social security for old age benefits - which may not be funded when young workers are ready to retire. Why is Social Security in trouble? In the early years of Social Security, the ratio of workers to retirees (those drawing Social Security) as 16 to 1. Now, only 3.3 workers pay into the system for every person drawing benefits. By the time young workers are ready to retire, the ratio could be 2 to 1. In 1930, the average life expectancy for an American was 59.7 years; and the people who lived to age 60 lived on-average another 15 years - and people got benefits at age 65. In 2002, the average life expectancy for an American was 77.3 years; and people who live to age 60 live on-average another 21 years - and people get full benefits at age 65 to 67 depending on the year of their birth.

The greatest flaw in our current system is that it transfers wealth from the young to old while the age which retirement benefits start is too young for some people. If each person privately funded their own retirement plan and they had the health to work to age 70 or 75, a good many people would work. Think of the economic growth in this nation if old people, fully capable of working, worked in productive jobs?

Environment:
The biggest polluter in America is the U.S. military. Almost all pollution takes place on government property - on government lands and road, in government lakes, rivers, and streams. Pollution rarely occurs on private property, because property owners are concerned about the future value of their property. But, government has allowed companies to dump toxic wastes in its lakes and streams, and to clear-cut or strip-mine its lands. Then as public outrage has become overwhelming, the government responds by passing new laws and setting up new agencies that harass companies and property owners who have always taken far better care of their property than the government has. At the same time, the government provides protection to polluters by, for example, not allowing people down river to sue a polluter up river for damages caused by the pollution. Many times the burden of the clean up is shouldered by the taxpayers. If the polluters don't pay for the damage they do, why should they stop polluting?

Smoking in Public:
Smoking kills and everyone knows it - but people smoke. Smokers have the right to smoke while non-smokers have the right to not being near smokers. Each business would set its own smoking policy. Some would ban smoking, some would permit it, some would segregate smokers and non-smokers. Those who wish to avoid secondhand smoke would patronize or work at the appropriate establishments. Those who wished to smoke could do likewise.

Health Care:
Over 51 cents out of every health care dollar is currently spent by the government. Almost 100% of America's health care cost is regulated and controlled by governments. Laws, mandates, restrictions, and regulations have drastically boosted the cost of health care in America. We have a government-created health care crisis.

The solution is NOT a Government single-payer health care monopoly on funding. We need to break up the government's restraint of competition in health care. We need to de-monopolize health. We need health care insurers and health care providers to compete to serve our health. We need to allow individuals buying their own medical insurance to fund health care with pre-tax dollars the same way that businesses fund health care with pre-tax dollars.

Food & Drug Administration (FDA):
Some experts estimate that FDA delays in approving drugs that were already used safely elsewhere in the world have cost at least 200,000 American lives over the past 30 years. Why won't the FDA as least allow a drug approved in Europe, Japan, or Canada - but not approved here, to be marketed with a BIG label that warns that the drug has not been approved by the FDA?

Letting the FDA decide what medicines we can take has transformed the matter from a medical to a political issue. If someone dies from taking an FDA-approved drug, Congress holds lengthy hearing to scapegoat the FDA commissioners. But if thousands of people die while the FDA strings along the pharmaceutical companies, there are no hearings, no TV sound bites, no TV news programs devoted it the deaths, no attention whatsoever - just a lot of prematurely dead people whose families have no political pull. If you were an FDA decision-maker, which way would you lean?



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Group Activities:
First Meeting is to network and discuss the goals of the group.
Networking - some at each meeting.
Get members articles published in letter-to-editors of newspaper and publications.
Discussion meetings - The topic to be announced beforehand.
Members of the group can attend meetings of other Gwinnett groups to order to put forward the Libertarian perspective.
Invite Local speakers and government officials to address the group.


Member Benefits:
Our goal is to make Gwinnett County and the state of Georgia a better place in which to live, work, play and educate our children -- a place where individuals have true freedom and take responsibility for their actions. The Libertarian Group of Gwinnett County should enable men and women to accomplish collectively what no one could or would do individually.
Volunteer Committees - Add your input to issues that concern you and your business.
Networking Opportunities - Grow your business by networking with other libertarian business people from Gwinnett County.