Folks, My brother has a friend at Princeton who devised this test not too long ago. It should be noted that the test's author scored a 160 (yours truly came in at around 100, my brother at 54). Look it over and score yourself if you like. I'm interested to know what others think about it. If you have crticisms of the test, please post them here rather than mailing me directly, as I really don't have any connection with the test or its creation. Later, Joe Libertarian Purity Test by Bryan Caplan Part I (1 point each) 1. Are taxes too high? 2. Is government spending too high? 3. Are we over-regulated? 4. Are you for free trade? 5. Should the minimum wage be abolished? 6. Should rent control be abolished? 7. Are zoning laws too strict? 8. Do we spend too much on Medicare? 9. Do we spend too much on Social Security? 10. Should we privatize the Post Office? 11. Would school vouchers be an improvement over government schools? 12. Should we relax immigration laws? 13. Would housing vouchers be an improvement over government housing? 14. Should the government sell off more of the public lands? 15. Are worker safety regulations too strict? 16. Does drug-approval take too long? 17. Do you think we spend too much on anti-poverty programs? 18. Is occupational licensing (for doctors, plumbers, and other professions) too strict? 19. Does the government spend too much on higher education? 20. Does the Federal Reserve have too much discretionary power? 21. Should marijuana be legalized? 22. Should all sex between consenting adults be legal? 23. Do you believe in freedom of expression, even for offensive and unpopular views and subject matters? 24. Should private clubs have sole authority to select their own members, even if they are discriminatory? 25. Are you against national service? 26. Are you against the draft? 27. Does the U.S. intervene too much in other countries? 28. Should the military budget be cut? 29. Should the U.S. refuse to pay for the defense of allies that are rich enough to defend themselves? 30. If it has to fight a war, should the U.S. try harder to avoid civilian targets? Part II (3 points each) 31. Should taxes be cut by 50% or more? 32. Should spending be cut by 50% or more? 33. Would you abolished at least half of existing federal regulatory agencies? 34. Should we abolish anti-trust laws? 35. Should we abolish public schools and universities? 36. Should we abolish welfare? 37. Should we abolish Social Security? 38. Should we abolish Medicare? 39. Should all of the public lands be privatized? 40. Should we privatize sanitation, fire, and other local services? 41. Should immigration laws be abolished? 42. Should the FDA and medical licensing be abolished? 43. Should all of the Federal Reserve's discretionary powers be eliminated and the monetary base frozen? 44. Should we abolish worker safety regulation? 45. Should the Supreme Court strike down economic regulation as unconstitutional? 46. Should all drugs be legalized for adults? 47. Should anti-discrimination laws be abolished? 48. Should the military budget be cut by at least 75%? 49. Should the U.S. withdraw completely from Europe, Asia, and other foreign bases? 50. Is bombing civilians in an enemy country morally equivalent to first-degree murder? Part III (5 points each) 51. Should all taxes be abolished? 52. Should highways and roads be privatized? 53. Should the Fed be abolished and replaced with free banking and private competing currencies? 54. Should all legislation be replaced by judge-made law, arbitration, and other private rule-suppliers? 55. Is all government inherently evil? 56. Is government an unnecessary evil? 57. Should police be privatized? 58. Should the courts be privatized? 59. Should the law itself be privatized? 60. Should the state be disarmed and its military disbanded? 61. Is is morally justifiable to assassinate government leaders? 62. Is all government essentially exploitation of the productive members of society for the benefit of a parasitic ruling elite? 63. Should the state be abolished? 64. Would you call yourself an "anarchist" or "anarcho-capitalist?" Scoring: Give yourself 1 point for each "yes" in Part I, 3 points for each "yes" in Part II, and 5 points for each "yes" in Part III. (Maximum Score 160) 0 points: You are not a libertarian by any stretch of the imagination. You are probably not even a liberal or a conservative. Just some Nazi nut, I guess. 1-5 points: You have a few libertarian notions, but overall you're a statist. 6-15 points: You are starting to have libertarian leanings. Explore them. 16-30: You are a soft-core libertarian. With effort, you may harden and become pure. 31-50: Your libertarian credentials are obvious. Doubtlessly you will become more extreme as time goes on. 51-90: You are a medium-core libertarian, probably self-consciously so. Your friends probably encourage you to quit talking about your views so much. 91-130: You have entered the heady realm of hard-core libertarianism. Now doesn't that make you feel worse that you didn't get a perfect score? 131-159: You are nearly a perfect libertarian, with a tiny number of blind spots. Think about them, then take the test over again. 160: Perfect! The world needs more like you.