Document:National Platform 1984: Difference between revisions
Document:National Platform 1984 (view source)
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We condemn all coercive monopolies. We recognize that government is the source of monopoly. through its grants of legal privilege to special interests in the economy. In order to abolish monopolies, we advocate a strict separation of business and State. | We condemn all coercive monopolies. We recognize that government is the source of monopoly. through its grants of legal privilege to special interests in the economy. In order to abolish monopolies, we advocate a strict separation of business and State. | ||
"Anti-trust" laws do not prevent monopoly, but foster it by limiting competition. We therefore call for the repeal of all “anti-trust“ laws, including the Robinson-Patman Act which restricts price discounts, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and the Clayton Anti—Trust Act. We further call for the abolition of the Federal Trade Commission and the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice. | |||
We defend the right of individuals to form corporations, cooperatives, and other types of companies based on voluntary association. Laws of incorporation should not include grants of monopoly privilege. In particular. We oppose special limits on the liability of corporations for damages caused in noncontractual transactions. We also oppose state or federal limits on the size of private companies and on the right of companies to merge. We further oppose efforts, in the name of social responsibility or any other reason, to expand federal chartering of corporations into a pretext for government control of business. | |||
==6. SUBSIDIES== | |||
In order to achieve a free economy in which government victimizes no one for the beneï¬t of anyone else. we oppose all government subsidies to business, labor, education, agriculture, science, broadcasting, the arts, sports, and any other special interest. Relief or exemption from involuntary taxation should not be considered a subsidy. We oppose any resumption of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, or any similar plan that would force the taxpayer to subsidize and sustain uneconomic business enterprises. | |||
==7. TARIFFS AND QUOTAS== | |||
Like subsidies, tariffs and quotas serve only to give special treatment to favored interests and to diminish the welfare of other individuals. These measures also reduce the scope of contracts and understanding among different peoples. We | |||
therefore support abolition of all tariffs and quotas as well as the Tariff Com- | |||
mission and the Customs Court, | |||
==8. PUBLIC UTILITIES== | |||
We advocate the termination of government-created franchise privileges and governmental monopolies for such services as garbage collection. fire protection, electricity, natural gas, telephone, or writer supplies. Furthermore, all rate regulation in these industries should be abolished The right to offer such services on the market should not be curtailed by law, | |||
=DOMESTIC ILLS= | |||
Current problems in such areas as energy, pollution, health care delivery, decaying cities, and poverty are not solved, but are primarily caused. by government. The welfare state, supposedly designed to aid the poor, is in reality a growing and parasitic burden on all productive people, and injures, rather than benefits, the poor themselves. | |||
1. ENERGY | |||
We oppose all government control of energy pricing, allocation, and production, such as that imposed by the Department of Energy, state public utility commissions, and state pro-rationing agencies. Thus, we call for the immediate decontrol of natural gas prices. We call also for the immediate repeal of the â€windfall profits tax," which is really a graduated excise tax on the production of crude oil, and which cripples the discovery and production of oil. We oppose all government subsidies for energy research, development, and operation, including subsidies for solar energy. We call for the abolition of the Federal Synthetic Fuels Corporation. We further oppose government subsidies for the development of | |||
solar energy. | |||
We oppose all direct and indirect government participation in the nuclear energy industry, including subsidies, research and development funds, guaranteed loans, waste disposal subsidies, and federal uranium enrichment facilities. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should be abolished; full liability — not government agencies — should regulate nuclear power. The Price-Anderson Act, through which the government limits liability for nuclear accidents and furnishes partial payment at taxpayer expense, should be repealed. Nuclear energy should be denationalized and the industry‘s assets transferred to the private sector. Any nuclear power industry must meet the test of a free market. | |||
We support abolition of the Department of Energy and abolition of its component agencies, without their transfer elsewhere in the government. We oppose the creation of any emergency mobilization agency in the energy field, which would wield dictatorial powers in order to override normal legal processes. We oppose all government conservation schemes through the use of taxes. subsidies. and regulations. as well as the dictated conversion of utilities and other | |||