Media Alert: Charmaine vs CATO on Gambling on CNBC

CNBCCharmaine will be debating gambling today, Friday at 4:30pm on CNBC. [Update: This is a time change.]

Our libertarian friends from the CATO Institute will be the pro-gambling side. The ‘do your own thing’ institute. CATO is silent on abortion. And slavery, I think.

Charmaine, who received her doctorate in government/political science from Mr. Jefferson’s University, UVA, will be challenging the convention wisdom of “gambling does no harm — harms no one.”

Thomas Jefferson

and the CATO InstituteThese are the guys who don’t like traffic control signals. Government control, you see. Encroaches too much on our personal freedom.

CATO motto: “Whatever.”

Individual Liberty

Limited Government

Free Markets and Peace

Tune in and let us know what you think. Should be a terrific conversation. Among friends.

Really.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

CATO is (usually) one of the good-guys. Nobody’s perfect.

Charmaine blogs at Reasoned Audacity and FRCBlog.

Read more on CATO in the extended entry

CATO:

Cato’s Mission

The Cato Institute seeks to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets and peace. Toward that goal, the Institute strives to achieve greater involvement of the intelligent, concerned lay public in questions of policy and the proper role of government.

Cato’s Publications and Events

The Cato Institute undertakes an extensive publications program dealing with the complete spectrum of public policy issues. Books, monographs, briefing papers and shorter studies are commissioned to examine issues in nearly every corner of the public policy debate. Policy forums and book forums are held regularly, as are major policy conferences, which Cato hosts throughout the year, and from which papers are published thrice yearly in the Cato Journal. All of these events are taped and archived on Cato’s Web site. Additionally, Cato has held major conferences in London, Moscow, Shanghai, and Mexico City. The Institute also publishes the quarterly magazine Regulation and a bimonthly newsletter, Cato Policy Report.

How Cato Is Funded

In order to maintain an independent posture, the Cato Institute accepts no government funding or endowments. Contributions are received from foundations, corporations, and individuals. Other revenue is generated from the sale of publications. The Cato Institute is a nonprofit, tax-exempt educational foundation under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. Cato’s 2004 revenues were about $15 million, and it has approximately 95 full-time employees, 70 adjunct scholars, and 20 fellows, plus interns.

How to Label Cato

Today, those who subscribe to the principles of the American Revolution–individual liberty, limited government, the free market, and the rule of law–call themselves by a variety of terms, including conservative, libertarian, classical liberal, and liberal. We see problems with all of those terms. “Conservative” smacks of an unwillingness to change, of a desire to preserve the status quo. Only in America do people seem to refer to free-market capitalism–the most progressive, dynamic, and ever-changing system the world has ever known–as conservative. Additionally, many contemporary American conservatives favor state intervention in some areas, most notably in trade and into our private lives.

“Classical liberal” is a bit closer to the mark, but the word “classical” connotes a backward-looking philosophy.

Finally, “liberal” may well be the perfect word in most of the world–the liberals in societies from China to Iran to South Africa to Argentina are supporters of human rights and free markets–but its meaning has clearly been corrupted by contemporary American liberals.

The Jeffersonian philosophy that animates Cato’s work has increasingly come to be called “libertarianism” or “market liberalism.” It combines an appreciation for entrepreneurship, the market process, and lower taxes with strict respect for civil liberties and skepticism about the benefits of both the welfare state and foreign military adventurism.

The market-liberal vision brings the wisdom of the American Founders to bear on the problems of today. As did the Founders, it looks to the future with optimism and excitement, eager to discover what great things women and men will do in the coming century. Market liberals appreciate the complexity of a great society, they recognize that socialism and government planning are just too clumsy for the modern world. It is–or used to be–the conventional wisdom that a more complex society needs more government, but the truth is just the opposite. The simpler the society, the less damage government planning does. Planning is cumbersome in an agricultural society, costly in an industrial economy, and impossible in the information age. Today collectivism and planning are outmoded and backward, a drag on social progress.

Market liberals have a cosmopolitan, inclusive vision for society. We reject the bashing of gays, Japan, rich people, and immigrants that contemporary liberals and conservatives seem to think addresses society’s problems. We applaud the liberation of blacks and women from the statist restrictions that for so long kept them out of the economic mainstream. Our greatest challenge today is to extend the promise of political freedom and economic opportunity to those who are still denied it, in our own country and around the world.