Social-Libertarian & Truly Free

What reform-conservative parties must openly tell their members

Prosperity is not a stock but a flow. The primary claim to the social product should not lie with those who hold guaranteed rights, but with those who must be motivated to provide performance and create prosperity.

Before 2010, conservatives were structure-conservatives; afterward, they transformed into normalization-conservatives. But errors in structures cannot be justified merely by pointing to good intentions, nor can they be glossed over in the long run by historical narratives.

What reform-minded economic-liberal parties must openly tell their members

The tendency toward political self-interest cannot be curbed by appeals to reason, but only through institutional safeguards and balances of power. These, in turn, require state regulation and a shared social narrative.

Radical individualism destroys the institutional foundations indispensable to a liberal economy. Where wages are too low or labor becomes scarce, the liberal path is to be content with maintaining capital rather than demanding a return on it.

What reform-minded national-populist parties must openly tell their members

The claim that ethnic or other forms of homogeneity automatically lead to a “golden age” of harmony and efficiency is untenable.

Answering political problems with enemy images and schadenfreude is a coping strategy for the frustrated, but no step forward toward constructive solutions.

A Commitment to the Future of the West

Institutions willing to liberate themselves from their complexes and reorganize anew are warmly invited to join the social-libertarian movement for part of the journey. The visible sign of this willingness consists in incorporating the SLB logo into their own.

Since regulations act as cost drivers that hinder economic activity and thereby the creation of positive externalities, regulations should only be permitted to prevent significant negative externalities.

It is not the task of the state to force small-scale economic structures out of the market in the interest of higher economies of scale. The steering of innovation and the economy — apart from national military defence — is solely the responsibility of free enterprise.

If regulatory burdens impair international competitiveness, the state is obliged to impose tariffs on foreign products produced under lower standards or to provide compensation in the form of subsidies.

It may be necessary to protect a high wage level by restricting immigration, while it may be impermissible to aim at depressing wage levels by promoting immigration.

The strategy of planned immigration to counteract aging should be avoided insofar as such immigration can only be achieved through illegitimate and destabilizing interventions in the countries of origin.

Instead, a pronatalist policy should be prioritized, particularly through the creation of jobs aligned with family life.

The demographic subsistence minimum — which especially includes the means necessary for the acquisition of residential property — must be entirely exempt from direct or indirect taxation.

Otherwise, a work obligation akin to slavery would be enforced through the instruments of pauperization and precarization, which would only lead to more poverty and precarity.

If an unexpectedly poor economic development leads to a shortfall in state revenues, this shortfall must not be compensated by an undue increase in the tax burden. Instead, creditors must be referred to a reduction of their claims. Maintaining the solvency of the state is not an end in itself.

If a state bankruptcy proves necessary, it must be managed with social considerations in mind — freezing currently non-disbursable funds into escrow accounts rather than cancelling them outright.

To the extent that public social administrations prove to be financially unsustainable, a revival of the original personalized obligations of charity and aid should be considered, integrating current welfare regulations that focus on personal responsibility.

Once a certain level of net wealth is attained, there should automatically be an obligation to establish and operate charitable foundations or educational institutions. Social security contributions collected from below-average incomes over the past ten years are to be reimbursed by the state.

To prevent the merging of state power and financial interests into an oligarchic-ochlocratic creditor class, capital should be subject to an inheritance tax, the rate of which should be based on the average state spending ratio over recent decades.

It would be counterproductive to include capital tied to individual or family enterprises that depend on exceptional intelligence or skill.

It is not the state’s role to protect certain groups of citizens from emotional distress by educating all others accordingly, as this infringes on civil rights such as freedom of speech and freedom of conscience.

The state guarantees the equality of its citizens by treating them equally regardless of irrelevant personal characteristics and, in particular, by ensuring equality before the law. Positive discrimination is only permissible if it produces a general benefit.

Neither a particularly homogeneous population nor a tribal society is a value to be promoted by the state — nor, conversely, is a particularly heterogeneous society — so long as a just and functioning state can exist independently of these factors.

Persons who share the values of the destination state should be actively encouraged to emigrate to it. The fate of those who choose to perish as wolves among wolves is tragic — but even more tragic is the fate of those who never had a choice.