The Libertarian Party of Georgia wholeheartedly endorses Bob Barr for President of the United States. But just because we’ve made our decision doesn’t mean we aren’t paying attention to what the other candidates are saying.
On July 2nd, Barack Obama repeated an earlier announcement that he would make bribery and the draft parts of his administration.
Obama told cheering crowds in Colorado Springs that part of his policy would involve asking — if not demanding — citizens to perform some kind of “service.” He proposed bribing secondary school children into performing 100 hours of “public service” in a year so they would get a $4,000 tax credit toward their college tuition. At $40 an hour, this is a peculiar use of the word “volunteering.”
The Libertarian national party platform states “We oppose any form of compulsory national service.” Libertarians oppose mandatory volunteerism for the same reason we oppose a military draft: it constitutes involuntary servitude in violation of the 13th Amendment. Philosophically, the call for service comes from the anti-Libertarian belief that the volk is more important than the individual. Libertarians believe a strong society comes from individuals acting in their own self-interest, where private charity and service are truly voluntary actions.
Another objection to this proposal is that the government would be deciding what qualified toward that 100 hours of service. Considering the anti-freedom mind-set behind the call for “volunteerism,” we are sure that the only effort that would count would be activity in aid of collectivist, statist, and anti-freedom goals.
Libertarians believe government should have nothing to do with volunteerism. America is full of private charities, houses of worship, and fraternal organizations that make more efficient use of people’s desires to help their fellow man than the government ever will. In fact, Americans led the world with charitable contributions in 2006, more than doubling the percentage given by any other nation at almost 2% of our GDP*. It is our belief that the proper role of government in this matter is to lower taxes so more people would find they had the discretionary finances and the free time to support charitable organizations even more than we do now.
*Charities Aid Foundation, Kent UK, “Briefing Paper: International Comparisons Of Charitable Giving November 2006.”
