Ruwart Keynotes How Freedom Can Save America

Dr. Mary Ruwart, renowned Libertarian author and activist with a Ph.D in biophysics, highlighted the Missouri LP convention on May 18 with a keynote address listing the many ways in which freedom and liberty spearhead a free, safe, prosperous America. Dr. Ruwart illustrated how Libertarian’s views of freedom and personal responsibility can enhance the lives of all Americans, rich or poor, black or white, old or young.

Dr. Ruwart started by showing how Libertarian’s views of economic freedom lead to economic growth, higher incomes and less poverty. She graphically illustrated the findings of a study of 101 countries relating relative degrees of economic freedom to income. The correlation was profound and clear: more freedom means more prosperity. Moreover, in those same countries, poverty was reduced and life expectancy increased.

Countries that allow the government to intervene with “free market socialism” – using government to coercively redistribute wealth – such a Sweden, see their prosperity decline. And a country’s prosperity is not partitioned according to rich versus poor. Dr. Ruwart illustrated with another graph the correlation between the change in the poverty rate and the real growth rate of a country’s economy. Just as with a rising tide, a growing economy lifts many out of poverty.

Recognizing this, the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, started by a Libertarian high school instructor Steve Mariotti, teaches business to inner city youths. “The young in inner cities have qualities that help them succeed as business entrepreneurs”, according to Mariotti. “They want to make money, they are mentally strong, long suffering, willing to take risks, able to deal with uncertainty and have fundamental street smarts that are all useful in business.”

Government regulation is another factor that adds to society’s burden. Dr. Ruwart noted that government regulators kill jobs. On a statistical basis, “every additional government regulator kills 150-200 jobs”, she noted.

Racial discrimination is another area where the lack of freedom inhibits social progress. Two millennia ago the Romans who conquered a territory would inhabit, commingle, and marry into the population. This melded cultures. Today, even though American parents are willing to cross oceans to adopt children, regulations make it difficult for parents to adopt children of different races. Were mixed-race adoptions made more readily available, social integration would be enhanced and better accepted. Adoption is the time-honored way to end discrimination.

The availability of effective prescription medications is retarded by over-regulation and lack of freedom. “The FDA is between a rock and a hard place”, Dr. Ruwart noted. They are held accountable if a drug is released that is not 100% safe and effective. This is despite there being 7000 deaths annually attributable to aspirin, about the same number as with illegal drug overdoses.

The result is that the FDA, in order to avoid being wrong, drags its feet. This in turn increases the time from discovery to market from 31 months before 1962 to 168 months by the 1990s with no improvement in efficacy or safety. Thus, over 80% of the cost of new drugs is due to excess regulation. Had aspirin been subjected to the current FDA regulatory process, it never would have been approved.

Freedom also makes for a cleaner environment. The largest polluter according to Dr. Ruwart is the US Military. A dumpsite in Colorado, for example, is home to discarded jet fuel, munitions, de-icer and radioactivity. Even though the EPA cited the DOD, the government’s “sovereign immunity” shields enforcement of the Libertarian principle of “he who dumps it should clean it up”.

Big government expenditures also cause the crime rate to increase. Dr. Ruwart showed another graph positively correlating welfare spending with increasing crime rates. “The largest predictor in the crime rate” Dr. Ruwart stated, “is the lack of a male figure in the household”. Welfare rules eliminate benefits if a working male is in the household. The result of that Dr. Ruwart pointed out is to drive males out of the house and encourage women to be single mothers.

Gun laws prohibiting conceal and carry also appear to cause crime to increase. Across the board, rates of murder, rape, and property crime are lower in states that permit conceal and carry. “The greatest beneficiary in those states”, Dr. Ruwart noted, “is women – they benefit the most from the great equalizer”. And when crimes are about to occur “the prospective victims don’t even need to fire the gun – they just have to show it and that in most cases is sufficient to make the perpetrator run”.

Libertarians have long advocated ending the failed War on Drugs. After alcohol prohibition ended, the murder rate steadily declined to half of what it had been.  When drug prohibition started, it climbed back up.  Only during the last six years, with 31 states adopting concealed carry laws and major welfare reforms across the country has the murder rate once again started to decline.

Moreover, Dr. Ruwart asked, “won’t kids get hooked on drugs if we end prohibition? Well, they don’t in the Netherlands”. All across the board, drug use in the Netherlands where drug addiction is treated as a disease, like alcoholism, is vastly less than it is in the United States. “I want to get drugs out of school, too, and the way to do that is to get the pushers out. To get the pushers out, you eliminate the profit which would be the result of legalization,” Dr. Ruwart explained.

Finally, a culture of freedom is our best protection against terrorists. Dr. Ruwart noted the similarities of the 9-11 attacks versus Pearl Harbor. The US had an embargo on Japan 60 years ago. Now we have an embargo on Iraq. Earlier the US had aided the Chinese. Now the US is aiding Israel. Then we had a large presence of troops and ships in the Pacific. Now it is in the Middle East.

Were Libertarian ideas prevalent in America, we would have no embargo. Aid to Israel would be from private citizens. And our soldiers would be at home providing national defense, not international offense.

“Can Liberty Save America?” Dr. Ruwart asked in conclusion. “Yes – and nothing else will”.

Dr. Ruwart and state chair Bob Sullentrup were interviewed by Columbia, MO NBC affiliate KCMO.