Summary of political beliefs

[InquilineKea]

For the record, I read blogs like ParaPundit, FuturePundit, Gene Expression, Bryan Caplan, and Overcoming Bias. So many of my ideas may come across as radical to the mainstream. My biggest gripe is the equation between legality and morality. Let people privately enforce moral standards, rather than force taxpayers to subsidize prison time for actions others may disapprove with. And let people choose who they want to associate with.

At the same time, I also have a gripe with how some libertarians moralize welfare. Yes, laziness is genetically inherited to *some* degree. Okay, so don't condemn it as a moral problem - find creative ways to make people do work even when they feel like they're having fun - the crowdsourcing/data-mining capabilities of the Internet might help with that.

Social issues: Quite libertarian (however, I can be more authoritarian on some of the more "hidden" issues).
Abortion: Pro-Choice but not passionate. Far more important to subsidize birth control (lots of people, especially teens, don't like condoms) so that # of abortions can be reduced.
Immigration: Canada's policy is good (give preference to educated immigrants)
Marriage: Abolish it and leave it as a private arrangement
Flag Burning: Decriminalize. Criminalizing it won't do anything other than waste resources
Free Speech: Completely support.
War on Drugs: Decriminalize all drugs (it's a complete utter waste to punish people for victimless crimes). It's not going to make society turn into chaos.
Affirmative Action: Unnecessary discrimination, repeal it
Gun control: No passion on issue (but yeah, punishing people for guns is irrational in the same way as punishing people for drugs), research shows that more guns *don't* lead to more crime.
Death Penalty: No opinion
Voluntary Euthanasia: Probably legalize
Draft: No draft except under dire circumstances (if the US is threatened *and* the threat was truly "evil")
Patriot Act, domestic spying, etc.: Illegal unless a warrant is obtained from a federal judge.
Stem Cell Research: Continue funding stem cell research in hopes that it may help lead to medical breakthroughs.
States Rights: Generally support. Let people choose what laws they want to live under. This might lead to interesting natural experiments too/
Three Strikes Law: When people commit repeat crimes, it's a neurological problem related to lack of self-control, not a moral problem. Get neuroscientists to draft proposals on how to treat repeat offenders (will probably involve some creative solution involving dopaminergic neurons).
Prostitution: Legalize; it's irrational to punish
Separation of Church and State: Support
Electoral College: No opinion
Foreign Policy: Free trade, foreign aid should only be used as an investment
War on Terror: the U.S. has overreacted. it's not going to do anything since new independent groups will simply form up again.
Palestine: No opinion
Israel: No opinion; don't know enough.
War in Iraq: Waste of taxpayer dollars, withdraw
Iran: Not a threat to us
North Korea: Not a threat to us
9/11: Overreaction on part of US. Try to find ways to make it so that people won't be so resentful at the US (actually, a stronger China might reduce unique animosity towards the most powerful country)
Afghanistan: Leave as soon as practically possible.
Pakistan: Don't know enough
Torture: No opinion. Probably doesn't work right now.
Diplomacy: No opinion
Free Trade Agreement: Leaning towards free trade.
Military involvement: Usually unnecessary

Economic Issues: also quite libertarian (not in the same way as the libertarian party)

Taxes: Don't know enough. Progressive income tax might maximize net utility/happiness. But recognize that private individuals can fund philanthropic pursuits that are better targeted than what the government can fund (do find a creative ways to make the rich happy with donating their money).
Welfare: Don't know enough. But definitely reduce benefits if people are using it for their large families.
Trade: Don't know enough; leaning towards free trade
Health Care: Leaning towards privatization, give vouchers to those who don't have enough money, subsidize health care for catastrophic conditions. But regulations are still completely compatible with a free market - strictly enforce regulations on health care providers (including regulations that make nurses/doctors wash their hands - which they frequently don't do)
Spending: Huge cuts to defense and entitlement spending. Increase spending on scientific research and other investments (this money would still account for a very small fraction of defense spending)
Education: The current educational system is a complete mess that holds back the gifted/talented, and forces weaker students through agonizing years of repeated material, much of it that they won't remember. Privatize it, give vouchers to those who don't have enough money, fund research into alternative educational systems (like computer-aided learning) that might work more efficiently both for gifted and weaker students. Allow vouchers to be spent on educational materials so that competition can reduce the cost of textbooks (and promote homeschooling/unschooling as a completely viable alternative). Allow private corporations to set up their own educational systems and regulate them to make sure they're not too specialized.
Regulations: Privatization can work with regulations. With regulations, we don't have to risk the worst effects of privatization. Environmental regulations are completely necessary (due to tragedy of the commons), but pollution credits might work more than firm limits (I don't know enough yet - definitely fund research to see if it works)