Anecdotes from the Abolishment 2 | UNR Students for Liberty

22Feb11 Anecdotes from the Abolishment 2

By: Barry Belmont

I’ve noticed this troll “Chris” who seems to only comment upon Abolish ASUN stuff that the Nevada Sagebrush presents (see here and here for instance). This time he’s at it again with this delightful exchange with some anonymous poster:

One would think that after all this time, the poor fellow would figure out that it is indeed “the game” he should play, and not the adept (and cocky) player who excels at it. Just because we’re good at what we do — showing the inherent inefficiencies and hand binding policies intrinsic to all organizations based upon arbitrary rules — and just because that happens to irk you a bit does not in anyway mean we’ll stop.

The point of the Abolish ASUN movement is to plant the seed in the minds of those who hear about it with the idea that all governments must necessarily be wasteful. If you bothered to come to either the Festival or the Carnival or merely listened to the whispers around campus after they happened, yuo would immediately notice that the complacency many people felt about government before the events was irrevocably changed afterward. This is because one can’t look upon a pony bought with coerced funds and take the institution as seriously as they used to.

Unfortunately the world we were born into is a tad sick, and until this fever called government passes, we’re just going to keep applying the medicine…

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View Comments Posted by Barry Belmont in Abolish ASUN

Justin

Your stance may represent your perspective well but that doesn’t mean its “right”.

Granted, I agree that the amount of funding provided by students to the ASUN may be a little excessive, I also don’t believe that the funding provided by student tuition is wasteful.

Did you ever think about the international students and scholars on campus who benefit from being able to organize and share their culture with the domestic students at UNR? Check this link to learn more about internationals at UNR:

http://www.unr.edu/oiss/internationalization/demographics/Student%20Demographics%20Spring%202011_OISS.pdf

This provides a simple example of a demographic other than yours (and a perspective other than your own) that may benefit from the funds taken from the general student population.

If you feel that the ASUN is wasteful and those groups of which you don’t belong don’t necessitate such a large budget then why not propose effective change? Propose an option for students to choose to fund the ASUN or clubs; propose to amend the ASUN so that the government is slimmer yet more responsive. If students value the option of a study body government or the ability to organize and create events funded by tuition, it will remain intact.

Just because the ASUN may be wasteful doesn’t mean destroying the entire body would be a better option.
http://analogdilemma.blogspot.com Barry Belmont

You seem to assume the point you wish to prove, namely that “a demographic … may benefit from the funds taken from the general student population” is a good thing. What we’re saying is that *that* is what is wrong with ‘coercively pooled funds’ to begin with: they can never be optimally/fairly redistributed.

You need only ask yourself Why are international students more important than the taco eating club, or Abolish ASUN for that matter, to see your own inherent bias? Ultimately it boils down to Why is Student A more worthy of funds than Student B even though both paid the same amount? This is the question you must ask yourself if you are in favor of such a position. You must say to yourself that you (or those you vote for) know more about spending people’s money than they do, as that is what this entire experiment is intended to prompt.

To answer your question “Why don’t you do X, Y, and Z,” I need only say that we have already tried X, Y, and Z. We’ve attempted reform, told them where their weaknesses are and how to fix them, tried to work with senators (even tried getting ourselves elected) to enact policy that would slim down ASUN. We’ve already tried all the ‘legitimate’ ways of reforming our student government that critics try to bolster and they have all been to no avail.

The point is that unfortunately the ASUN operates just as all governments operates. By the very nature of governmental institutions, the ability to “reform” them is nothing short of wishful thinking. We try to underscore this reality about coercive enterprises by merely calling for their entire abolishment.

We’re trying to show that a society operating on voluntary means is better than one where a monopoly exists in coercive means. And that’s why, like it or not, “destroying the entire body would be a better option.”