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Libertarian for Congress: Richard C. Ehrbar III

For Immediate Release: 12/9/11

 OSU Undergrad Files Congressional Petition in 3rd District as Libertarian
 
Student believes liberty message, diverse district, and current political environment are recipe for libertarian victory
 
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio State University undergraduate Richard C. Ehrbar III filed petitions to the Franklin County Board of Elections on Wednesday as a Libertarian Party candidate for congress in Ohio’s new 3rd District.

Ehrbar filed his petitions after spending the previous months reaching out to numerous areas in and around Ohio’s capitol city.

Located mostly within the Interstate 270 boundary surrounding Columbus, the new 3rd District is a diverse blend of college campuses, businesses, and a large inner city population.

Ehrbar believes the community’s cultural diversity parlayed with the current political environment make the Franklin County district fertile ground for his inaugural campaign for office.

“Our campaign is predicated upon three cornerstones: peace, liberty, and sound money”, Ehrbar said. “Students in the district are concerned with ending the wars and finding jobs; inner city residents are desperate for prosperity and respect for their personal liberties; and small business owners need significant tax relief and freedom from over-burdensome regulatory constraints. Our campaign addresses each of these issues with a constitutional solution.”

With HB 318 still lurking in the Ohio Legislature, the possibility exists that Congressional candidates will have to file petitions once more in order to qualify for the June 2012 primary. Wednesday’s filing deadline may end up being extended until March 2012.

When asked if the uncertainty would impact campaign strategy, Ehrbar replied: “We are already going to be out campaigning for peace, so this just adds a few signatures to the agenda. Our team is ready to put things in high gear. With democrats focusing on primary battles we may get a chance to get a leg up in the race because we can campaign for the general election while they beat each other up preparing for the primary.”

Ehrbar for Congress was launched in late August 2011 in attempts to restore Peace, Liberty, and Sound Money to the American people through constitutional governance. RIchard C. Ehrbar III is seeking to become the first candidate from the Libertarian Party to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

####
Contact information:

E-mail: ehrbarforcongress@gmail.com. 
Media inquiries and interviews (for immediate response): 419 806 6120
On the web: www.facebook.com/RichardCEhrbarIIIfor2012U.S.Congress.   

Ehrbar for Congress   *   1490 Indianola Avenue   *   Columbus, Ohio 43201

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To Learn More about Freedom Rising go to OneDifferenceNow.org

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Economic Equality versus Economic Liberty

Economic Equality versus Economic Liberty by Alex Merced

One of the fundamental divides among activist economics is what is the goal when thinking of policy and the economy. Progressives focus on Economic Equality and how policy can manipulate the economy to distribute resources in a more "equitable" or "fair" way as measured through income statistics. While Libertarians and Conservatives are more concerned with Economic Liberty allowing capital to flow freely increasing the odds of that capital to flow into the hands of those with the greatest entrepeneurial ability who can put that capital to use developing the division of labor, structure or production, and into innovations that create more accessibility to scarce goods for all.

It's hard to measure the effects of Economic Liberty via statistics because it's about the quality of products and services improving and their costs dropping. For example, the Iphone may not be a cheap gadget, but because of it there are many other purchases I can bypass such as buying watches, gaming consoles, calculators,  and many other things people would spend a lot of their wages on is now in one device for much less than all of those individual goods put together. So while looking at income statistics may show "real wages" havn't grown in decades but quality of life sure has increased since less wages are needed to have access to a variety of benefits since you need fewer devices to do more tasks. This is the result on entrepeneurship and innovation which can be magnified by free flow of capital and information which those who support economic liberty focus on.

 Although, those who support Economic Equality measure their policies via aggregate macroeconomic income statistics. Just because numbers such as "real wages" grow or "the income distribution" narrows doesn't mean that an increase in the quality of life has occured because quality of life is not tied to how much you make, but what you can buy with it (oh yeah... and if it makes you happy, which is not measurable) which is constantly being imporved by productivity gains and innovation from entrepeneurs. So instead of the hyper focus on labor wages, they'd be better of focusing on fostering entrepeneurship in individuals like the Economic Libertarians.

The New Revolution: Anarcho-Creatarianism

The New Revolution: Anarcho-Creatarianism

by Alex Merced

Many people call themselves many things yet come to the same conclusions, but many of us come to those conclusions for many reasons, for example...

Conservatives find themselves wanting to preserve traditional values of the United State which happen to be Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Libertarians value Liberty as an End in itself so policy that leads Liberty is the goal

an Individualist values the individual above all collectives

Anarchist find freedom from coercion and oppression as the utmost value while they may disagree how to manage resources once this is done (Anarcho-Capitalist versus Anarcho-Socialist)

Although while I agree with many of the views and conclusions of Anarchist, Libertarians, and Conservatives I can't say I really fit any of these philosophies in it's purest sense. At the end of the day my arch virtue, my chief principal is Creativity. So if I spent a moment and try to figure what you would call someone who's life doctrine focuses around Creativity and the term I came up with is...

Creatarian (Someone who holds the doctrine of Creation)

Although this word alone only explains the ends which is creativity/creation which also explains my disdain for it's antithesis, Destruction/Violence. Although what institution embodies violence more than government, which at the end of day is a monopoly on violence over a given people, so to emphasize this realization I figured I'd add the Anarcho pre-fix to emphasize this. Although I guess if you valued creativity and believed in government you'd be a Creatocrat (Rule/Strength by Creation).

Why have a Doctrine of Creation?

Well, I've always been someone who's loved creativity, loved music, art and anything that gives me new experiences. Creativity is Creation, and there is nothing greater than to create and bring something new into this world whether it be a song, an idea, or even a child. New is a beautiful thing, and if you live you life pursuing the creation of relationships, ideas, hope and anything else it can only lead to an enriching life. Vice Versa, living a life of destruction can only lead to life of misery as you live your life destroying relationships and hope around you.

So what are the views of an Anarcho-Creatarian?

 (I'm now writing the Anarcho-Creatarian Manifesto, it'll be released soon)

Liberty: If you are an An-Creat you do value Liberty but not as an ends but as a means because having and valuing Liberty not only allows you the autonomy to be creative but also the mental autonomy, if you think it terms of liberty not only are your actions free'd so is your mind to generate endless ideas on how to create in the world around you.

Life: To give life is creation, to take it is destruction. Also, While people due to their liberty have the autonomy to live a life of destruction they cannot destroy the creations of another (homesteading).

War: Violence, especially war are acts of destruction and the aim of an An-Creat is to reduce destruction in the world and induce creation without violating anyones Liberty (since Liberty is pivotal to a Creative Environment)

Economics: An-Creat desires a strong economy because it fosters incentives for creativity and provides for more leisure and resources for society to pursue creative endeavors. So An-Creat is a strong support of real free market economics (Austrian Economics) in pursuit to these ends.

When the Anarcho-Creatarian Manifesto is created further issues will be illustrated and discussed, and hopefully this will begin the development of Creatarian Philosophy and Ethics.

I have Created a Facebook Page Anarcho-Creatarian if you want to join this new movement as it develops please search and join the page.

Labor Economics #3 - The Minimum Wage

Labor Economics #3 - The Minimum Wage
by Alex Merced

One of the most sancrosanct bastions of Labor laws is the minimum wage, and if you want to go beyond this article in learning about it listen to Roger Garrisons lecture on topic from Mises U 2010. Essentially what I want to demostrate through a brief example is...

1. The Minimum Wage actually transfers wealth from the those at the bottom, to the people marginally above them, so it transfers wealth upwards instead of downwards like it intended.

2. The Minimum Wage Creates Unemployment

So let's imagine a world with 300 people in Labor force working at the current wages.

100 People working at $8/hr ($800 spent)

100 People working at $7/hr ($700 spent)

100 People working at $6/hr ($600 spent)

of course, the lower paid workers are the lower skilled and lower educated workers who may be payed more in the future if they learn skills and information on the job. What happens right now is that the economy can allocate work for the entire labor force at these wages, but what happens if we establish a minimum wage of $7/hr. Now our workforce looks like so...

100 People working at $8/hr

185 People working at $7/hr

15 people unemployed

The minimum wage law did not make these employers magically have more resources, so the $600/hr that was was going to the 100 laborers at $6/hr in the first scenario can now only afford to continue to employ 85 out of the 100 laborers leaving 15 unemployed since there is no more resources to employ them. Essentially the lower you are on the wage ladder the more negatively affected you will be by an increase in the minimum wage, it's those in between the bottom wage and the new minimum wage who benefit at the cost of those at the bottom.

(NOTE: One may ask why wouldn't the labor force reduce the wages of the $8/hr workers to keep the $6/hr workers? The answer is simple, the $8/hr workers add more value which is why they are payed a higher wage in the first place so if you had to choose between possibly causing a valued worker to quit from a  pay cut or laying off workers who add the least value you'd choose the latter.)

So this example shows how it causes unemployment, and how increases the wealth of a few at the cost of not those at the top but those at the bottom. So what happens to these unemployed people, they still have to find work so they may move to another location with a lower or no minimum wage in which they can enter the labor force at their skill/education level. Although, if these uneducated/unskilled people migrate from all the places with a minimum wage to this one bastion of freedom with no minimum wage it causes a huge concentration of uneducated/unskilled people in one place.

This explains why the places that are the most free sometimes seem to have some large concentration of uneducated people (a very gross and misplaced charachterization of many souther red states), not because freedom is backwards but because these free places are the only places that will welcome with open arms those from other locations who've been kicked out by wage laws, forbidden to enter the labor market and develop the skills to later make higher wages.

"Give me your tired, your poor,


Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,


The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.


Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
 
- Statue of Liberty