Government Theft

This is what has happened to the value of your money over the last 50 years, thanks to inflation. Some people refer to this as government theft as it is caused by the government issuing money to make up for its excessive spending, reducing the future value of our money. Something that cost $8 in 1959 will now cost $100.

The graph was compiled from Bureau of Statistics figures.

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Fewer Rules, Better Outcome

September 18, 1:38 PMCivil Liberties Examiner 

Officials in Drachten, Holland, wanted to reduce accidents and injuries on the town's roads, so they turned to a traffic engineer with an unusual idea: eliminate rules. Hans Monderman believes that people are more careful when they are subject to fewer commandments and less direction. So he removed road signs, traffic lights and even markings. The so-far positive results suggest that better results may well come from letting people make ad hoc arrangements on the spot than from subjecting them to top-down control. 

Part of the problem is that regulations seem to create a false sense of security -- and entitlement. A recent British study found that drivers actually give bicyclists less room when cycle lanes are explicitly marked on the road. Leaving the road unmarked creates greater perceived danger and forces drivers to make their own arrangements -- generally creating a safer situation for bicyclists. The same dynamic, Monderman claims, prevails in all traffic situations. Leave drivers, cyclists and pedestrians to their own devices, and they come to better arrangements than any that can be forced on them. 

So far, the data seems to support Monderman's theory. At least one report on Drachten's traffic experiment found a significant drop in accidents and injuries after traffic signals were removed at a busy intersection -- from between four and ten a year before the change to one per year thereafter. Traffic also began to move faster through the intersection even as it became safer. "On the busiest streets average times to cross the intersection have fallen from 50 seconds to about 30 seconds." 

There's a concept called "spontaneous order" popular among many philosophers and economists. The idea is that people are perfectly capable of adapting to new situations and establishing rules of the game for dealing with one another that are better than those imposed from above. The Drachten experiment looks to be an example of spontaneous order in action, as people create, on the fly, safe, sane ways to negotiate their way through busy roads. 

Monderman's ideas are now being implemented in other municipalities in Holland and Germany, and are under consideration in the United States. 

But left for the future is the idea that there might be wider lessons to be drawn from Drachten's experiment in letting people negotiate their relationships with one another with fewer rules standing in the way of better outcomes.

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A DOG has been booked for illegal parking.

The blue heeler was tied to a fence outside Rapid Creek market when it was approached by two Darwin City Council traffic wardens. One of the inspectors wrote out a ticket - and taped it to the dog's lead.

Witness Ray McEvoy said he couldn't believe his eyes. "I watched an elderly lady and her very faithful blue heeler roll up at the market," he said.

"The lady tied the dog to the fence and gave him a bowl full of water. And off she went into the markets.

''Then two traffic inspectors came along. They had a bit of a talk and, to my amazement, wrote out a warning infringement notice for the dog and taped it to his lead rope.''

Mr McEvoy said the dog was tied to a fence well away from the foodstalls.

''It was on a path rarely used,'' he said. ''And the owner made sure the dog was in the shade.

''It wasn't in distress at all. In fact, it was the most placid blue heeler I've seen in my life.''

Mr McEvoy, who runs a commercial cleaning business, said the booking caused quite a stir.

The dog owner was last seen marching off in pursuit of the parking inspectors.

Council spokesman Grant Fenton said a dog was considered to be ''at large'' if the owner was not there.

''You can't tie up a dog and leave it,'' he said.

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Bradfield and Higgins By-Elections

Members are invited to consider standing as a candidate for the LDP in the Bradfield and Higgins by-elections, which follow the resignation of Brendan Nelson and Peter Costello.

The Labor Party has said it will not be running, which will give minor parties such as the LDP an opportunity to do particularly well. This will also be our first outing since the party's name was restored.

Interested members should contact Peter Whelan at president@ldp.org.au or 02 9652 0415. It is not necessary to live in the electorate to run as a candidate.

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Contributions

Contributions and details of meetings are welcome up to 6pm on the second Friday of each month, after which the newsletter is submitted for editing.

Send to Graham Nickols at secretary@ldp.org.au

Urgent material missing the deadline should be forwarded directly to David Leyonhjelm at treasurer@ldp.org.au

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Liberty Links

Given the size of the LDP a lot of our members aren't able to make it to our state branch meetings. So here's a list of links of websites that may interest you. None of the listed websites are affiliated with the LDP and none of the views expressed represent LDP policy.

Australian Libertarian Society
Catallaxy Files
Free Market.Net
Introduction to libertarianism
CATO Institute
Centre for Independent Studies
Institute for Public Affairs
US Libertarian Party

If you have a link you'd like to appear here email info@ldp.org.au and let us know about it.