Mr. Hedberg, please contact me at
ralphs at dos32.com

Randy Luallin, running for Boulder County Commissioner, and I would like to communicates with you.

Ralph Shnelvar
Chair, Libertarian Party of Boulder County www.lpboulder.org www.facebook.com/lpboulder

This opinion piece is worthy of a long reply.

I view the issue of vaccination through two lenses: the lens of libertarian philosophy and the related lens of the mathematics of the Prisoner’s Dilemma.

From the view of the Prisoner’s Dilemma, if everyone else’s kid is vaccinated then my kid will not get whooping cough (or whatever). Thus my child won’t suffer the risk of adverse reactions.

Of course, if everyone did that, then my kid will not have the benefit of herd immunity and, well, that puts my kid at risk.

What’s a libertarian to do?

We argue that parents have a personal responsibility to the community to vaccinate their children so that everyone is better off.

Ralph Shnelvar
Chair, Libertarian Party of Boulder County www.lpboulder.org www.facebook.com/lpboulder

4¢ on 10$ for WHAT?

Fiscal conservatives like the Libertarians warned that this was going to be a huge boondoggle.

Not surprisingly, it has turned into a huge boondoggle.

Paying protesters is deceitful. There is a protest, the media covers it.

Paying signature gatherers is an indication that someone with money wants to put something good or bad on the ballot.

Consider Amendment 66. Vast sums of money were spent trying to convince voters of some absurd things and the voters voted it down 2:1. Financial opposition was almost nonexistent.

Paying protesters is, in effect, the end of the line. Paying signature gatherers is only one step in a process.

"You want to "curb escalating medical costs". One key way to do that is price controls. "

No, price controls do nothing to curb costs. Price controls only hide the price increases by lowering quality.

Instead of raising taxes, why not do this:

In 2011 we spent about $8700 per student according to the U.S. Census Bureau:
www2.census.gov/govs/school/elsec11_sttables.xls

For every student who goes to a private or charter school, the parents get a $4,000 voucher and the schools get to keep $4,700?

For the students who stay in the traditional system, the amount spent per capita goes up and there is no tax increase.

Let's do some simple numbers. Let's say we had a school with 100 students. The school received $870,000 in 2011 for a per capita expenditure of $8,700.

25% of the students leave because their parents want to send them to Our Mother of Scientology Reformist Christianity Madrasa schools. The parents each get $4,000 for education vouchers and the schools get to, uh, keep $4700 per student. 25 x $4700 = $117,500.

That $117,500 gets spread around to the other 75 students, for an increase of $1566 per student. That would raise the per capita spending on the remaining students to $9,966.

No need for a tax increase. The insane right-wing anti-government-schooling parents get a voucher.

Everyone is happy except the teachers who now have institutional competition.

Ralph Shnelvar
Chair, Libertarian Party of Boulder County <a href="http://www.lpboulder.org" target="_blank">www.lpboulder.org <a href="http://www.facebook.com/lpboulder" target="_blank">www.facebook.com/lpboulder

If you want to know how much we detest DHS, TSA, and NSA please come to one of our lunches and talk to us about it.

We would be louder about these issues if people like you help us.

I guess it's difficult for you to see the difference between social engineering and civil engineering.

Do you really think it takes the force of government for everyone to agree to drive on the right side of the road ? That it takes government to mandate that cell phones be able to call each other? That it takes government to mandate that cars have brakes? That it takes government to have people stand in line to buy movie tickets?

Libertarians know that government is bloated and incompetent compared to private interactions and social convention.

social engineering: management of human beings in accordance with their place and function in society : applied social science

Libertarians do not use the force of government to manage human beings. Nor - except for children - do we use the force of government to distinguish people based on "place and function in society".

In 2008 in a 3-way county commissioner's race with Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians, we pulled an average of 9% of the vote. http://data.denverpost.com/election/results/count...

That's a far cry from "a fraction of a percent". I pulled 8.2% in that election.

We are a political force even in liberal Boulder County.

Ralph Shnelvar
Chair, Libertarian Party of Boulder County