Welcome to Gaia! ::

My name is Kevin, I'm a double major in Economics and Political Science (concentration in Public Policy) at a prestigious East Coast University, where I am currently a junior. I am involved in my college's Liberty Society, which is a self proclaimed intellectual and academic society to promote classical liberalism, the DC Liberty Forum, Students for Liberty, routinely show up for Cato, GMU, and other local DC liberty speeches,and actively read Reason, Friedman, and Hayek. However, I believe the lot of them are a bunch of crazies, and that my brand of neoliberalism is better.

Truthfully I align most strongly the the Democratic Leadership Council, which saw it's heyday back while Bill Clinton was president, which was a strong mix of social liberalism and economic conservatism, triangulation, free trade, yet still saw a role of government intervention into private markets. I have issues with the philosophic underpinnings of libertarianism, and classical liberalism, since it removes economic and social pragmatism from the equation.

I'm a business student from Toronto who is focusing on a marketing stream as part of my business administration major.

I'm not a libertarian. I'm an economically center-right liberal. More or less also known as "neoliberal".

That being said, I'm not a fan of what the Bretton Wood's institutions have become. The Washington Consensus I argue gets the job done well for the most part if you are a first world nation (as done by Jean Chretien); but try implementing that in a developing nation and you have a recipe for disaster.

Also, I'm pro-UHC. You probably will not find a Canadian who isn't regardless of ideology.

I also hate the GOP in its current manifestation and I think Obama sucks so far.

I'm also a registered Liberal and I moderate the Pirate Party of Canada's forums.

Im Dan, but you can call me Darth. Im an econ student at Colombia's ( and one of Latin America's) best university, where I still do nothing but smoke weed all day. Im a pragmatist libertarian who does agree with moral arguments against the state and all its actions, but also understands the concept of a necesary evil. In short, Im not a libertarian because the government shouldnt do certain things ( though in most I cases I certainly beleive it shouldnt) but because its not, and will never, be able to do them well. I will always be more of an anti-regulation and anti-law libertarian than an anti-spending or anti-welfare libertarian.

My formation stems from Hayek, Rothbard, Von Mises, Friedman and Rand ( basically, the economists + Rand) Though I am usually more moderate in most issues than the aforementioned thinkers. I beleive "the communist manifesto" to be the most harmful bok ever written, and that if western civilization ever ends, it can probably be blamed on Keynes, Galbraith and FDR. I dont beleive anyone can be made responsible for anyone else's decisions or actions, or that an innocent person can rightfully be forced into doing anything.

I dont beleive the current econometric and models to be completele valid, and using gaussian methods of probability in economics is generally a mistake. I think most faculty in econ departments wish they were working in the physics department,, but economics is not a natural science.

That does not mean, of course, that I am an adherent of the whole behavioral economics bullshit. People may not be rational actors, but a system that assumes they are creates an incentive to act rationally. What it means is that academics worldwide have rejected the Austrian proposals because they basically leave them without a job.

If government becomes too entrenched, too corrupt and too intrusive, I will not fall short of advocating agorism ( those who break just laws are criminals. Those who break unjust laws are the resistance) or even revolution. The ultimate right is that of self-defense, regardless of who the offender is. I beleive it was a kennedy who said: those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

Hey, I'm Liz and I need to update this introduction. Remind me.

I'm from Massachusetts, and yeah he is. I hate this whole "popular candidate" thing. He's a hack, and I hope he gets kicked out of office in 2012. Then again, Coakley wasn't much better.

Oh yeah? I was a history major in college, though my concentration was American history. Any idea as to where you might attend?

Also, I lol'd at your sig's FAFSA comment.

I feel a bit odd making this post since everyone who's posted so far knows who I am, but eh:

I'm Danguy. If you can't guess my name from that you have some issues to sort through. I'm a Film Major at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, but am originally from the Bahamas. Like Mito, I'm more anti-authoritarian than libertarian and my understanding of economics barely goes beyond the basics.

I'm loathe to identify myself with any established school of thought since none accurately represent my beliefs and leanings, but I suppose I fall into the liberal category.

I try not to take much of anything too seriously, let alone politics, so my responses to just about anything are usually short and to the point . Me sticking around in a thread is rare and I usually only do it if I find a topic or poster in need of a lashing.

I'll add more later. Time to get to work. Selah.