@BlogKCThe libertarian think tank The Show-Me Institute has added a blog at www.showmedaily.org. These are the folks championing the elmination of the earnings tax in KC and St. Louis, as well as repealing the state income tax, cable TV deregulation, and opposing minimum wage increases. It’s a very St. Louis-centric organization, with the ony non-STL board member being R. Crosby Kemper III of the UMB Bank Kempers and the current director of the KC Public Library.
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Thank you for the link. Just a quick correction: we actually have three board members from outside of the Saint Louis area. Ethelmae Humphreys is from Joplin, and Michael Podgursky is from Columbia. And although our president, Rex Sinquefield, spends a lot of time in Saint Louis, his primary residence is south of Jefferson City.
We’ve also done a number of events in Kansas City, including an event on our earnings tax study and a couple of education events at the Kauffman center.
With that said, it’s certainly true that our location in Saint Louis sometimes makes us more Saint Louis-centric than we ought to be. We are actively looking for additional opportunities to engage with the Kansas City side of the state, and we always appreciate tips on Kansas City-cenric issues we ought to be addressing.
Oy. There’s a reason these people finish dead last in every single election and have a hard time recruiting decent candidates. Libertarian ideas suck.
Of course, there’s no comment section because they really don’t want to be called on their bullshit. The first post on the minimum wage and colleges is blatantly dishonest.
Patrick,
Although our perspective on the issues could be described as libertarian with a lower-case l (we prefer the label “free market”) we’re not in any way affiliated with the Libertarian Party—or any political party for that matter. Our focus is on ideas, not parties or candidates.
You’re right. The little “l” makes all the difference. Now I know you’re just conservative Republicans under a different name.
Your ideas, however, are still terrible, particularly in this political climate. And your arguments for your pet causes are still dishonest. Even anecdotally, they don’t stand up well.
Wow, you’ve convinced me Patrick. The minimum wage increase just HAS to be a good thing, right? Don’t let facts get in the way of your beliefs. Yep, that money for the wage increase just grows on trees.
Look at it this way: libertarian ideas are often on the political fringe, but the political center has massively screwed up pretty much everything it has touched. What’s so bad about listening to the libertarian POV?
I appreciate the post.
Hmm … well Hippstar since the state overwhelmingly approved a minimum wage increase in October, I’d suggest that’s a resounding repudiation of the Show-Me Institute’s position on the minimum wage.
As for the facts, the Show-Me blog points to a single article and willfully misconstrues the comments of a single college student to make it appear she’s using her newfound windfall to pay for the typical drunken spring break trip. Instead the student, like many college kids, works to pay her rent and expenses. Anything extra goes toward funding a mission trip to Peru.
Abolishing public education, public support of the arts and the earnings tax aren’t new or particularly worthy ideas. They are the same tired ideas conservative Republicans push endlessly to no avail. There is no public support for this agenda.
Patrick, libertarian stances often have little public support, but that doesn’t mean their ideas aren’t important. Of course Missouri supports an increase in the minimum wage. It also supports the death penalty and a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, two positions on which the public disagrees with libertarians.
You can keep believing that if enough lefty politicians get elected, the schools will improve, poverty will decrease, global warming will stop, and world peace will descend upon the globe, but remember that the Democrats controlled Congress from about 1930-1996 and everything was just as messed up as it is now.
If someone makes a good argument that KC would be better off taxing property than income, why not listen? They might be right.
while I support the minimum wage increase, it is not a valid argument to say it must be a good thing if 70% of Missourians voted for it. 70% of Missourians voted to ban gay marriage and I dont think that was a good idea. And if the show-me institute are good libertatrians they wouldnt think so either.
“But remember that the Democrats controlled Congress from about 1930-1996 and everything was just as messed up as it is now.”
Wrong Hippstar. The Democrats controlled Congress form 1930-1994. And in that time they gave us things like Social Security, the GI Bill, real immigration reform and civil rights legislation.
From 1994 to 2006 the right-wing Republicans controlled Congress. They gave us obvious non-starters like the Whitewater and Lewinsky scandals, impeachment over a blowjob, 9-11, the Iraq War, a losing war in Afghanistan, Medicare reform that will cost us billions, fewer civil liberties, a botched Katrina cleanup, the loss New Orleans, and the Walter Reed medical scandal. And that’s just for starters.
They’ve been wrong all along. Why would I believe anything they offer has merit now?
Have you ever heard of Vietnam? How about the invasion of Cuba? The Iran hostage crisis? Have you ever been to Chicago or another eastern city and seen the dozens of abandoned, burned-out housing projects where the government liked to herd minorities?
My point is that you’re delusional if you think one party has a monopoly on bad policy and screwing things up. Far too often, government is the problem, not the solution. See: Katrina. Of course the government screwed that up.