Document:Libertarian Party Radical Caucus Platform 2016: Difference between revisions

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===4. The War on Drugs===
===4. The War on Drugs===


[TO BE REVISITED]
[FINAL-APPROVED]


The so-called "War on Drugs" is in reality a war on the American people, our Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. We deplore the suffering that drug misuse has brought about; however, drug prohibition is more dangerous than drugs themselves and comes with a staggering cost in both money and human lives. The War on Drugs is a grave threat to individual liberty, to domestic order, and to peace in the world; furthermore, it has provided a rationale by which the power of the state has been expanded to restrict greatly our right to privacy and to be secure in our homes.
The so-called "War on Drugs" is in reality a war on people. We deplore the suffering that drug misuse has brought about; however, drug prohibition is more dangerous than drugs themselves and comes with a staggering cost in both money and human lives. The War on Drugs is a grave threat to individual liberty, to domestic order, and to peace in the world; furthermore, it has provided a rationale by which the power of the state has been expanded to restrict greatly our right to privacy and to be secure in our homes.


While we do not advocate drug misuse, we are in favor of alternative solutions that do not increase the power of the state. Additionally, we favor the elimination of all laws establishing criminal or civil penalties for the use of drugs, and the abolition of bureaucracies like the Drug Enforcement Agency.
While we do not advocate drug misuse, we are in favor of alternative solutions that do not increase the power of the state. Additionally, we favor the elimination of all laws establishing criminal or civil penalties for the use of drugs, and the abolition of bureaucracies like the Drug Enforcement Agency.
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[PENDING-ASSIGNED]
[PENDING-ASSIGNED]


We recognize that government control over money and banking is the primary cause of inflation and depression. Individuals engaged in voluntary exchange should be free to use as money any mutually agreeable commodity or item, such as gold coins denominated by units of weight. We therefore call for the repeal of all legal tender laws and of all compulsory governmental units of account. We support the right to private ownership of and contracts for gold. We favor the elimination of all government fiat money and all government minted coins. All restrictions upon the private minting of coins should be abolished so that minting will be open to the competition of the free market.
We recognize that government control over money and banking is the primary cause of inflation and depression. Individuals engaged in voluntary exchange should be free to own and use as money any mutually agreeable item: such as commodity based currency, like gold coins denominated by units of weight, or cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin. We favor the elimination of all government fiat money and all government minted coins. All restrictions upon the private minting of coins should be abolished so that minting can be open to the competition of the free market. We call for the state to desist attempts to regulate cryptocurrency as well as the abolition of all stat usury laws.
 
We favor free-market banking. We call for the abolition of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Banking System, and all similar national and state interventions affecting banking and credit. Our opposition encompasses all controls on the rate of interest. We also call for the abolition of the Federal Home Loan Bank System, the Resolution Trust Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, the National Credit Union Central Liquidity Facility, and all similar national and state interventions affecting savings and loan associations, credit unions, and other depository institutions. There should be unrestricted competition among banks and depository institutions of all types.
 
To complete the separation of bank and State, we favor the Jacksonian independent treasury system, in which all government funds are held by the government itself and not deposited in any private banks. The only further necessary check upon monetary inflation is the consistent application of the general protection against fraud to the minting and banking industries.
 
Pending its abolition, the Federal Reserve System, in order to halt inflation, must immediately cease its expansion of the quantity of money. As interim measures, we further support:
 
a. the lifting of all restrictions on branch banking;
 
b. the repeal of all state usury laws;
 
c. the removal of all remaining restrictions on the interest paid for deposits;


d. the elimination of laws setting margin requirements on purchases and sales of securities;
We favor free-market banking. We call for the abolition of the National Banking System, and all similar national and state interventions affecting banking and credit. Our opposition encompasses all controls on the rate of interest. There should be unrestricted competition among banks and depository institutions of all types, including private insurance agencies competing for the business of protecting investors deposits that is current granted as limited and without competition by the the National Credit Union Administration and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.


e. the revocation of all other selective credit controls;
We call for the legalization of domestic deposits denominated in foreign currencies.


f. the abolition of Federal Reserve control over the reserves of non-member banks and other depository institutions; and
Above all we call for the abolition of the unaccountable Federal Reserve that issues its own money created without oversight and lends it at interest to the government and other banking institutions.


g. the lifting of the prohibition of domestic deposits denominated in foreign currencies.
We therefore call for the repeal of all legal tender laws and of all compulsory governmental units of account.


===4. Finance and Capital Investment===
===4. Finance and Capital Investment===