Getting to Know You.....

Undoubtedly this posting is inspired by the fact that I live in both the USA and Europe where the word "liberal" has a negative connotation in both regions BUT has two completely different meanings!!

Say again?

Here is the short explanation since I am confident my educated audience has some sense of what I mean:

USA/American "Liberal" -- typically defined as a: big government advocate, a believer in class warfare, and a promoter of "tax and spend" policies.

European "Liberal" -- typically defined as a: believer in a greater degree of economic freedom, a greater reliance on market forces, and , now sit down for this one!!! Lower Taxes!! (but not all of them I have learned :)

Well enough of the background -- the central purpose of this post is to move my audience from the tiresome "conservative OR liberal" labeling that is thrown around at dinner parties, during election campaigns, or via a range of colorful (both physically and verbally) bumper stickers to an entirely new vocabulary. NO, I am not advocating Orwell's "New Speak" here but I am promoting the use of this very user-friendly web-based tool:

http://www.self-gov.org/quiz.html

I love this short quiz because it never fails to educate people as to what their worldview actually is such as a friend in Iowa -- name withheld to protect her from ridicule :) -- who discovered that she is a "Statist" according to the quiz. This of course provided me with the opportunity to mention some of history's famous statists with which she shares this label -- Stalin and Hitler come to mind.

Now there is no need to share your "quiz label" with me but if you take the quiz and the results disturb you please don't hesitate to contact me for advice on how to evolve your statist views via some good books or websites such as these:

http://www.acton.org -- free markets ARE moral

and

http://www.uhurugroup.com -- "trade not aid"

Yours in tax slavery,

Todd