Topic: Libertarianism
Common Objections to Liberty (I): Who would pay for medical research in a libertarian world? In a world where money is not confiscated by the force of government, many are afraid that no one would pay for medical research for projects such as curing cancer. This is simply not the case.by Jeremy West
(libertarian)
Monday, May 12, 2008
In a world where money is not confiscated by the force of government, many are afraid that no one would pay for medical research for projects such as curing cancer. This is simply not the case.
Currently, colleges and universities lobby government for money to carry out important research. Government, having no regard for cost as the money is not theirs anyway, simply grants this money.
If the university has some successes, they then lobby government for more money, as clearly they are doing good. If they do not have successes, then they lobby government for more money, as clearly they don't have enough money to do good.
If universities and other research facilities didn't have government to lobby for funds, who would they lobby? Why, the very people who are currently funding them of course. You see, government doesn't actually have any money that it didn't take from taxpayers. If it did not confiscate said money from taxpayers, those former taxpayers would be free to spend it as they wish. Instead of lobbying the Washington gang for medical research dollars, the universities and research facilities would have to lobby the very people who earned the money in the first place.
This would cause a revolution in medical research. Instead of the universities who held the most political sway getting all the research dollars, those who did the best job with the least waste would tend to get the most donations. If they must lobby people to give their hard-earned money to them, they must also show that they are using said money productively.
Rest assured, wealthy people who wanted to lift their egos (by having university wings or even entire universities named after them) or get good publicity or even simply do something good for the world would donate large sums of money to good causes. And ordinary people whose paychecks were suddenly twice as large (due to tax not being extracted from them) would also have money to donate. Those who had friends or relatives dying from cancer would happily donate to promising research. And then there are celebrities who come down with debilitating conditions (i.e.Michael J. Fox or Christopher Reeve) whose appeals to the public would bring in vast sums of money.
Yes, it is hard to see how things would work in a world without taxation because we have never had such a world. But surely the time has come. We have thrown off monarchies and rejected blatant slavery. It is now time to move to the smallest government possible: self government.
The views expressed in this
article are those of Jeremy West only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Jeremy West is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
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