Since I wrote my most recent article about the economic and fiscal views of the “third-party” presidential candidates – Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr – I thought I’d use my blog to highlight a U.S. Senate candidate with an Austrian economics-friendly platform. His name is Scotty Boman, and he’s a Libertarian from Michigan.
Boman’s issues page is divided into three categories: Peace, Liberty, and Prosperity. This triumvirate of topics will be familiar to fans of Ron Paul, the most famous popularizer of Austrian economics of all time, and that’s because Scotty Boman was a grassroots leader of the Ron Paul campaign in Michigan. In fact, Boman voted for Paul not only in 2008 but also in 1988 when Paul was the Libertarian Party’s nominee for president.
Since this is an economics blog, I’m concerned here with the candidate’s views on “Prosperity.” On the downside, Scotty doesn’t paint a very rosy picture when discussing the Federal Reserve System, the income tax, and Social Security. This is a common knock against Austrians, who are often said to be even more pessimistic than Communists! But hey, we see the direction the U.S. is headed, and we refuse to put on the rose-colored glasses. Sorry!
Boman points out that the U.S. dollar has lost 95% of its value since the 1913 debut of the income tax and Federal Reserve System. Of the income tax, he says he supports “repealing it and replacing it with nothing” and makes a mostly moralistic argument against taxation in general. While I agree, the view has little to do with economics. Boman’s views on the Fed are more suitable for discussion here.
Boman says the Federal Reserve System has been “absolutely ruinous” to our country. He points out the ridiculousness – so eagerly regurgitated by the financial media – that the Fed exists to “combat inflation” when, in reality, only the Fed can cause inflation in the first place!
“They do this by expanding the money supply. Each time the Fed creates new money, it diminishes the value of your dollar-based financial holdings. It thus imposes a hidden tax – the ‘inflation tax’ – and redistributes wealth from the poor and working class to the rich and politically connected.”
This is a hardcore Austrian view in line with the “principled populism” of Dr. Murray Rothbard.
As for a solution, Boman supports the revolutionary idea of free market competing currencies. This would take the power of determining “what is money” out of the hands of the government and put it into the hands of the people. The core of this philosophy rests on the Austrian “Theory on the Origin of Money,” which states that money arose naturally as the most commonly accepted means of exchange during the course of prehistoric barter. Gold and silver became “money” for a variety of reasons but basically because they were widely accepted and easily transportable. Once you see that the government doesn’t need to declare anything money, that the free market can do that, then the Federal Reserve System’s theft is demystified. You can see the Man Behind the Curtain and find out that the Emperor has no clothes. It’s not a pretty sight.
Of Social Security, Boman’s solution isn’t nearly as well defined. He basically throws his hands up in the air and admits there is no good solution, or at least, he doesn’t have one. This is refreshing from a politician. But he does offer one reform: make Social Security voluntary and allow young people to opt out. I know I would.
Author’s note: Since writing this article, I have become involved with the Boman08 campaign.
This is great news!