A Great American Auction

    The Objectivist philosophy has a specific view on what a legitimate government should include.  Ayn Rand wrote:

"The proper functions of a government fall into three broad categories, all of them involving the issues of physical force and the protection of men's rights: the police, to protect men from criminals--the armed services, to protect men from foreign invaders--the law courts, to settle disputes among men according to objective laws." (Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, p.384).  It has since been clarified that an Objectivist government also requires diplomacy and treasury functions.  But, that's it!  These five sectors: police, military, judicial, diplomatic, and treasury are the only existing parts of a legitimate government.

So, how does one go from the present, to where a government should be?  That is the subject of this blog.

The current violations of individual rights by illegitimate government primarily involve the possession of "public property" where the government has no legitimacy being.  This should all be sold off at auction.  Of course, the five sectors will retain limited, necessary capital assets, (i.e., police stations, military bases, courthouses, embassies, and treasury holding structures).

It is my personal strategy to leave all of the five sectors and their assets completely alone for about 3-5 years, after which time important changes should be made.  This is to prevent petty quarrels over minor laws and the friction of downsizing sectors that are fundamentally good and on our side.

A Great American Auction involves two accumulations of piles of money in each State--the part of the Federal that goes towards the one enormous U.S. Federal pile, and the State pile.  Suppose one has resided and worked in Illinois for one's entire life.  The two piles that one receives exposure to are the Illinois State auction proceeds and the U.S. Federal auction proceeds.  The concept is that one should get back the fraction of what was taken according to the size of an auction proceeds.  However, generally, the only taxations on record are the State and Federal income taxes.  Because of this, I argue that only recorded income taxes should determine the returns.

There are a couple of preliminary government functions that must be exercised before a Great American Auction.  First, an income tax records processing office must be set up for each of the 51 auctions.  Between individuals and government compiling records, an auction pile percentage should be assigned to each individual who has had exposure to income tax in each of the 51 that is applicable.  Then, when the deadline for submissions and compilation expires, a fraction which represents the multiplier of the total auctioned proceeds in each of the 51 auctions must be assigned to each individual who qualifies.

The other ongoing task that will have to be sponsored is the identification and division of all "public property" that will be put up for auction to become private property.  This will include some systems that logically should be auctioned as one unit, and some parts that may be difficult, but necessary to divide.  For example, consider roads.  All non-legitimate government roads should be private.  But, this does not mean that a would-be Road Tycoon should be pushed into biding a much larger amount of money than what he wants to for the roads he wants.  To give an example of what the auction division officials could do is to separate road segments block by block.  Once private property is one's own, one can do what one wants with it.  One could even tear up the concrete of a former one block section of road and build more houses there, etc.

The identification of all individual parts up for auction will have to have a specific deadline, just as the auction itself will have to begin on a certain day and end on a certain day and at a specific time.  I propose that the auctions begin next year on April 15th, and the deadline for determining all pile fraction multipliers and the selecting of all parts up for auction be identified six months earlier on October 15th of this year.  This six month gap between knowing the parts that will be auctioned and having the auctions is important because it gives bidders time to speculate.  Those who have fractions of auction piles that one will get back should encourage speculation.  It means even more money to be returned.

There is a famous Ayn Rand Bookstore book, which I have read, called, The Commanding Heights.  It chronicles Margaret Thatcher's dismantling of some of England's socialized government parts that had no legitimate role in government.  Thatcher's method was to get rid of these sections, but not directly return any of the value back to those who had been taxed.  This is not the way to go about A Great American Auction.

I am calling my system of ideas in this blog: A Great American Auction.  But, this does not have to be specific to the U.S.A.  Any country on Earth can carry out my ideas which are rooted in Ayn Rand's philosophy.

Paul Wharton

Objectivist Capitalist Medicine Promoter