Is recycling a good idea?

Over at Catallaxy (www.catallaxyfiles.com) a brief thread on recycling was prompted by the posting of an item from a show called Penn and Teller which questions whether most types of recycling make economic or environmental sense. Their approach is profane but their points are not trivial.

Unfortunately the folks at Catallaxy have short attention spans and prefer to discuss theory more than practice. Hence the debate died quickly. I have therefore picked up the issue here in the hope of prompting more considered discussion.

While recycling is widely regarded as good for the environment and to make econonomic sense by reducing the use of “virgin” materials, is that true? It certainly  makes people feel as if they are doing the right thing, but are they really?

The item can be found at this link:  http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/11/recycling-is-grigri-just-plain.html

What to cut first?

The LDP’s tax policy envisages a significant reduction in taxes. However, there will obviously be a need for reductions in expenditure too. A hit-list of targets would give credibility to our low tax stance.

What should be on the list?

Welfare to those who aren’t poor is obvious, although it is covered by the 30/30 policy.  Funding the ABC and SBS are a couple of favourites of mine.  What else?  Let’s think like voters here, not economists or whatever.

Tax reform 30/30

The Liberal Democratic Party is a low-tax party. One of the most central themes to our campaign is that Australian’s current pay too much tax and the level of government tax and spending across Australia needs to be significantly reduced. The current government hasn’t done that. In fact, despite offering some minor tax adjustments over the past few years the current government has been the highest taxing, highest spending government in Australia’s history.

One part of our campaign on taxes is “reform 30/30″, a comprehensive set of reforms to the income tax and welfare system in Australia. This policy includes replacing our current income tax scales with a flat 30% tax on top of a $30,000 tax-free threshold. Under this policy, no low-income person will have to pay tax. In addition, Capital Gains Tax and Fringe Benefits Tax will also be brought to 30% to match the marginal Company and Income tax rates so that the marginal tax burden on Australian tax-payers is always constant. This will make the tax system more simple and harder to cheat, saving billions of dollars. In addition, efficiency benefits will significantly boost the Australian economy. When combined with removing work dissincentives and labour market reform this will help reduce the unemployment rate and therefore the level of absolute poverty.

Further information on the LDP 30/30 policy can be read at our tax policy page and a more detailed discussion of “reform 30/30″ including changes to the welfare system, tax expenditures, industrial relations and a discussion of the consequences of reform can be found in a recently published monograph by the Centre for Independent Studies (pdf).

LDP only party against global warming scare

With the Treasurer and then the Prime Minister giving their support to a carbon trading scheme, the Liberal Democratic Party is now the only party left in Australia that remains skeptical of the need for international action on global warming.

The LDP accepts that the existence of global warming and the likely contribution of humans to climate change. However, unlike other Australian parties, the LDP does not let fear over-ride rational analysis of public policy. Currently there is insufficient evidence to show that any government schemes are able to create more benefits than costs. Global warming may well be a problem, but it makes no sense to fix one problem by creating another bigger problem. If the government can’t make the situation better — they should not get involved.

LDP supports “buy a gun day”

As reported around the media, the Coalition for Law Abiding Sporting Shooters (CLASS) announced a “buy a gun” day for today (18 Nov).

The President of CLASS, Peter Whelan, was quoted as saying:

“Gun ownership develops self-confidence and teaches individual responsibility, essential lessons for day-to-day living. The shooting sports involve control, coordination and patience, which are also important life skills.”

The Liberal Democratic Party supports this initiative as a part of the fight against the statists who want to destroy the rigths of shooters.

Shooters are a persecuted minority in Australia. The major parties are happy to score political points by abusing the rights of this minority. Therefore it is necessary for the defenders of freedom (whether shooters or not) to support those shooting organisations who are fighting to defend their rights.

The major parties pretend that they are will defend minorities. The truth is that they will only defend fashionable or popular minorities. There are many groups of unfashionable minorities out there who have no voice and are marginalised from the political process and these groups are easy pray to the regulating and controlling tendencies of the government.

The LDP is the only party that will stand up for the unfashionable minorities and defend their right to pursue their own lifestyle choices free from excessive government burdens and control. This includes standing up side-by-side with shooting groups such as CLASS and defending the rights of law-abiding shooters.

Immigration Policy

The LDP policy on immigration has been modified, taking into account feedback on this blog plus other feedback etc.

Comments of a liberatarian nature are welcome.

The policy can be found here.

What competitive federalism?

The High Court decision validating the Commonwealth’s Workchoices legislation, while probably good on balance, is a significant blow to the LDP principle of devolution of power with decentralised government and competitive federalism.

While blocking a return to the class warfare approach underlying many State labour laws and offering the certainty of a uniform national approach favoured by business, the decision nonetheless represents a further erosion of the power of the States.
In an environment of competitive federalism the States would be in competition with each other to achieve the best economic outcomes, with labour laws one of the variables.  Instead we have a Commonwealth imposed system which, while an improvement on what preceded it, still leaves a lot to be desired.  Moreover, a change of government could just as easily see a return to a highly regulated system.

Policy on traffic laws

The policy on traffic laws has been amended in light of comments from the previous post plus other feedback and information.

The full text is now available on the LDP website here.

It is not necessarily final and further comments of a libertarian nature are invited.

Environment Policy

The LDP needs a policy on the environment.

First, because the environment is electorally important. A new survey by Roy Morgan Research has found that “to Australians aged 14 and over, the most important priority for leaders of the world is ‘protecting the environment’ (22%, up 8% from November 2004)“.

Second, while we are all environmentalists the extremists dominate the debate and their policies inevitably rely on an increase in state control and expenditure.

Third, libertarian free-market principles can be readily applied to environmental issues with excellent results, something not recognised by most Australians. They have an expectation (as the research showed) that governments will produce solutions.

I am inviting creative and innovative suggestions for an environment policy. Once we have enough to get started, I will probably convert them into a wiki so that members can write the policy itself.

Here are a few vague suggestions to get things rolling:

1. The precautionary principle is an ideology, not a basis for managing environmental issues. It should only be used by extremist greenies concerned about whether their tofu is organic.
2. Water will be efficiently used if there is an effective pricing mechanism and functioning market. This cannot occur so long as the government continually gets in the way.
3. National parks are little more than neglected, locked up wastelands. Active management of parks is required including extensive opening up to recreational users such as 4WDers, hunters, walkers, campers etc.
4. Hunting certain native fauna (eg crocodiles) on a commercial basis should be re-introduced to put a commercial value on the animals.
5. Fire is a natural part of the Australian environment, with some seeds only germinating after exposure. Fuel reduction burning should be a significant element in the management of the natural environment.