7 Libertarian Themes for the Christmas Eve Table

Traditionally, Christmas Eve is an occasion for many Bulgarian families to sit down at the same table and, at least for a short while, forget about television or social media. Such an atmosphere of domestic idyll and communication between generations is a great opportunity for evangelical fans of the market economy and personal freedom to bring political clarity to the ranks of their relatives and friends. Here we offer you a list of seven juicy topics for each dish on the table, which can serve as an enlightening red pill for your aunts, uncles, brothers-in-law and aunts.

1. KONPI civilly seizes Prokopiev's assets (bean soup)

Like bean soup, the topic of Ivo Prokopiev's confiscated property and the inadequate statements by the leadership of the Commission for the Confiscation of Illegally Acquired Property is hot and everyone has heard something about it - in other words, you can immediately wedge yourself in with the clear libertarian position on the topic.

Basically, we are talking about power here. Empowering any state bodies with not very limited powers (let's not forget that soon the KONPI will be able to eavesdrop on everything) never works. The idea that a lot of power, but in the hands of the "good guys", will be the solution to all our problems has been tested enough times in history and surprisingly , somehow the bad guys still come out on top and take it as a club. Corruption is not cured by giving politicians the opportunity to circumvent the legal order "in the name of good". Corruption is eliminated when these same politicians or empowered individuals have less opportunity to regulate how we live, how we work and what we do with our money.

Corruption exists when there is someone to corrupt. Remove a politician or a civil servant and the opportunities for bribery are drastically reduced. Extraordinary committees to combat "public evil X" usually end up with the Cheka and their masters taking over.

2. Belene NPP (lucky cake)

We identify the project for the construction of a nuclear power plant with the cake, because in both cases the steam will sink. In one case we will have a coin of one or two leva, in the other we are talking about 20 billion leva of taxpayers' money. In the cake we have redistribution, the hostess puts the precious piece of metal and after a joyful ceremony it will go to the happy grandchild, for example.

A similar, albeit much more distorted, situation is with the Belene NPP – we taxpayers will pay billions over the course of decades, and a group of crony capitalists in and around the government (along with their Russian patrons) will be in the place of the winning child. In fact, in an even sweeter way, in years to come, this same child will pay off the debts that enthusiastic politicians and lobbyists will consume if this NPP continues to be implemented.

If you are interested in additional information about Belene, we offer you several interesting articles: HERE, HERE and HERE.

3. Cash ceiling, Bitcoin and banks – (grape rolls with raisins)

This is perhaps the most delicate topic we will bring to your attention for the Christmas Eve table. As with the taste of grape sarmi, the full picture with bitcoin and banks is revealed in stages, and each individual flavor, from the marinated wrapper, to the rice, to the sweet raisins, works on its own, but also as a harmonious whole.

The sharp reduction of the cash payment ceiling creates certain inconveniences for households and limits economic freedom– while at the same time empowering the government and the banks. It is no coincidence that this site and the Bulgarian Libertarian Society, which I have the honor to chair, led an active campaign with publications, media appearances, protests, communication with MPs against the two attempts of the government to remove the ceiling – in July and in September (the whole story here ). And for now at least – cash freedom has won.

At the same time, the massive war on cash is not only being waged in Bulgaria. It is a policy throughout the European Union, led by the ECB governor himself – Mario Draghi. Central bankers do not want a single euro to be outside the control of their toolkit – regardless of whether they will “stimulate” consumption by making interest rates negative or decide to “rescue” banks with depositors’ money through the so-called bail-in and its variations. The authorities want our money under control, under account, not a penny outside the fragile system of monetary monopoly and fractional reserve banking.

And while gold and cash are old obstacles to total control, socialism in money creation (i.e., total control of monetary policy by the state) has a new formidable competitor – Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Satoshi Nakamoto’s invention has turned the entire krona system upside down because it is completely independent of it. It is no coincidence that all the banks in the world are closing the accounts of Bitcoin businesses – the war for the future of money is already underway.

4. Cannabis, single dose and designer drugs (patatnik)

The main reason for choosing Patatnik for this topic is that the author firmly stands behind the position that the legalization of cannabis in Bulgaria will come from/through the Rhodope Mountains and specifically the city of Smolyan. It is especially appropriate to raise it if there are adolescents or teenagers at the table, who, no matter how much their parents scared them, already have a much better idea than adults about what drugs are.

If the topic of dangerous designer drugs and the serious health consequences of their use becomes part of the conversation, you can confidently mention that the existence of such substances is only possible thanks to the ban on the use of real, plant-based cannabis and other traditional and known as “drugs”. Young people resort to dangerous substitutes because they can hide from the tests of police officers and parents. Weed is still dangerous to carry - a police officer can immediately cause you huge problems for even one joint, because there is simply no single dose.

As for the single dose itself, in a new study we published last week, we clearly show that the abolition of the single dose has not led to the promised capture of major drug dealers, but quite the opposite - to harassment of young, working men who simply use marijuana instead of, for example, drinking whiskey or vodka. Resources are being wasted on dealing with real crimes - more information and the full study HERE.

And yet, most importantly, if there are young people, direct them to Liberty420, just look at the information and services there that saved their lives.

5. The pension system is bankrupt (köpoolu)

The köpoolu is both a simple dish and a big spread (like any other puree). The same situation is with pensions – the system is simply bankrupt, because it is cost-effective, and the revenues manage to cover only about half of the costs. In other words, everything that is collected from pension insurance by the state (18.3% of the salary) is only half enough, while the rest is filled by other taxes.

The situation will continue to worsen because the pay-as-you-go systems depend on a large number of young workers to pay the smaller number of pensioners. Our current demographic picture and the NSI's projections for the future show a further deterioration in the ratio of young workers to older pensioners, which is already quite low. On top of all this, the little that is saved in personal accounts in private funds is constantly under attack for nationalization or other forms of seizure or merger. There is also the additional problem that the funds themselves do not inspire enough confidence in the ways in which they secure the personal savings of workers.

The rub is that solving such a problem requires politicians who look far into the future, which, as we know from public choice theory, contradicts any incentives influencing these same politicians. And the bigger this problem becomes, the more attempts will be made to ignore it or even gloss over it, as successive governments have tried to do.

Even worse, there is no money saved. Neither for current retirees nor for those coming. And if a person does not take his financial future in his old age into his own hands while he is still young and productive... there may be no pension for him. No matter how much the politicians and shamans of statism promise him.

6. Borisov's government is left-wing (pumpkin)

We will simply list a few things here, no comment is needed:

• Privatization review
• Construction of Belene NPP
• Continuous increase in costs
• Increase in quasi-taxes (most recently on pension insurance)
• Constant increase/expansion of regulations (e.g. cash ceilings, but dozens more in places)

7. Secondary education is a prison with forced labor (dried peppers stuffed with beans)

"State" is the word that is certainly missing at the beginning of the last seventh course, but for the moment its presence is so strong and influences even private education to such an extent that the generalization would not be so wrong.

Convincing people who have internalized their school experiences and nostalgically remember their friendships and parties is not easy. It is also not easy to speak out against the powerful propaganda about how education is “impossible” without officials deciding what every Bulgarian child will learn, without locking up 30 or so people for hours every day and forcing them to do things that are boring or incomprehensible to them, without demonstrating forcefully to the “future of Bulgaria” for years in the most waking part of their lives that listening and following commands without complaining (expecting them to become independent people) is important.

And then the surprise is complete about how the results are low (40% of ninth graders are functionally illiterate), violence is everywhere, runaways are widespread, escapism with drugs and alcohol is mandatory, and even those who don't engage in the above simply grit their teeth and go through the boredom and difficulties.

There are no reforms, we grumble about more money. And there shouldn't be any because "education is a conservative system". Or in fact, it has been a state monopoly for more than a century, and state monopolies don't innovate, they don't change. They just slowly churn out a mediocre product and ruin the quality of life for their consumers...at least as long as there is someone's stolen money to finance it.

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