How coercive are you?

When delving into your world view, one way of looking at it is from the perspective of where you fall on the coerciveness continuum. Coerciveness is simply a measure of how much you support coercive policies or the politicians who support such policies. Coercive policies are those which involve the initiation of force against others. The opposite would be someone who lives in accord with the libertarian non-initiation of force (NIF) principle. As it turns out, respecting the NIF principle also leads to a society that is far more peaceful, prosperous, fair, and free than a society in which people turn to government to solve their problems.

So go ahead and answer the questions honestly. Find out where my quiz places you on the coerciveness scale! And when you're done, come visit my blog (http://nocoercion.com) to learn more about the coercion surrounding you every day.

1. What is your age?
Under 18 Years Old
18 to 24 Years Old
25 to 30 Years Old
31 to 40 Years Old
41 to 50 Years Old
51 to 60 Years Old
Over 60 Years Old
2. What is your gender?
Male
Female
3. What is your stance on the general idea of rights?
I believe rights are a natural condition of intelligent life and are not 'given' to us by anyone or any thing.
I believe rights are given to us by political documents like the U.S. Constitution.
I believe rights are given to us by a supernatural being and can be defined and limited according to the particular holy book that I follow.
I believe rights are whatever the majority of society declares them to be via the actions of the current government.
I believe the concept of rights is inherently fallacious and unintelligible. Might makes right.
4. What is your belief about negative rights (like the right to be left alone) and what are known as positive rights (like the right to a certain wage or level of housing or health care or some government service).
Only negative rights are true rights since respecting them does not automatically lead to violating the same rights of someone else. No positive rights are morally acceptable since any such right necessarily implies the violation of someone's negative rig
Negative right are good, but we should also have positive rights to things like police protection, judicial arbitration, and national defense.
It's acceptable and appropriate for a majority of voters to create any positive rights they want and violate the rights of others (via taxation, prohibition of certain voluntary transactions, etc) in order to bring such positive rights into existence.
5. What most closely resembles your belief about currently illegal drugs?
There should be no laws prohibiting the trafficking, possession, or use of any drug. Nonviolent drug offenders should be pardoned.
There should be legalization for some drugs but others should remain illegal.
Possession and use of drugs should be legalized, but trafficking should remain illegal.
Full prohibition should remain in effect. It is acceptable for me to tell my neighbor what substances he can or cannot consume.
6. Which statement most closely matches your stance on abortion?
There should be no laws against abortion. Every individual has inherent self-ownership and sovereignty over his/her own body.
Abortion should be prohibited except under certain circumstances (like rape or the jeapordizing of the woman's life or health). Self-ownership is not an absolute and can be modified by government.
Abortion should be prohibited in all cases. I am justified in using force against my neighbor to prevent her from having certain options when making a very hard choice.
7. Which statement most closely matches your stance on the environment?
I recognize the health of the environment is important for the quality of human life, but I believe governmental environmental regulations are a violation of individual rights and are not morally acceptable. I also believe the market, based as it is on pr
I believe the market generally does a better job of protecting the environment, but because I have trouble imagining ways in which the market might evolve to keep things like air and water clean, I believe I am justified in sometimes using force against m
I believe individual freedom is not inherent and that it can be arbitrarily defined by government and restricted to whatever degree is necessary to enforce rules that I believe will protect the environment.
8. Which statement most closely matches your stance on taxation?
As a forcible confiscation of wealth and property, taxes are inherently immoral. Anything funded by taxes is likewise immoral. On top of that, taxes create deadweight economic loss, which decreases the overall wealth and quality of life of the entire popu
Taxes destroy wealth, but some are necessary to provide for basic government services.
Taxes should be used liberally to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor and fund robust government programs in many areas.
9. Which statement most closely matches your stance on Social Security?
It's a gross violation of individual rights, lulls people into a false sense of security, and is helping push the country toward financial disaster. It should be abolished immediately and replaced with nothing.
It is a ticking time bomb, but it should be somehow reformed so it can continue to exist and provide for retired people.
It should be replaced with mandatory, limited private retirement accounts.
10. Which statement most closely matches your stance on the use of the military?
The military should be used for defensive purposes only. All American troops should be on American soil and only repsond to an actual attack. Preemptive strikes are not acceptable.
The military should be enlarged, given more money, and used to seek out actual and potential enemies anywhere in the world and destroy them.
The military should primarily be kept at home but should remain an option on the table in dealing with possible threats around the world.
National defense should not be handled by the government, since that involves involuntary taxation and prohibition of competing defense firms. Voluntary market alternatives should be allowed to emerge freely.
The military should be mainly kept at home but used to peacekeeping and humanitarian missions around the world.
11. Which statement most closely matches your stance on the rights of telecom, power, and other companies that build out infrastructure to control the wires and cables they provide and charge what they want to consumers and other service providers?
Such companies have no such rights. It's not fair to charge rates of their own determining or prevent other service providers from using their infrastructure.
Infrastructure providers theoretically have the right to control their wires, but since it's not practical for every competing service provider or utility to build their own physical infrastructure, competition must be enforced by government mandates to a
It is a violation of property rights for the government to control how an infrastructure builder uses its wires. Competition and quality is actually diminished when the government gets involved because there is less incentive for new technologies to emerg
12. Going back to illegal substances, which statement most closely matches your stance on the regulation of pharmaceuticals?
The entire concept of a 'prescription' is a violation of the right of individuals to engage in volutary exchange. Both the FDA and 'prescription drugs' should be abolished. Anyone should be allowed to manufacture any substance they want and sell it to any
Prescriptions are a good way to make sure people don't get hurt by medications, but the FDA currently makes it far too expensive and time consuming to bring a potentially life-saving new drug to market.
People generally don't know what various drugs might do to them, so I am justified in using force (via government) to prevent my neighbor from entering into a voluntary exchange with a drug manufacturer.
13. Which statement most closely matches your stance on gay marriage?
Gay marriage should be permitted.
Gay civil unions should be permitted, but not gay marriage.
Gay couples should be given some of the benefits of marriage, but neither marriage nor civil unions should be allowed.
No marriage, civil unions, or any marital benefits for gays.
GAY marriage? The government shouldn't be involved in marriage at all! It's not the government's (i.e. my neighbor's) business who I choose for a partner or how we choose to describe and live such partnership.
14. Which statement most closely matches your stance on campaign finance?
The current campaign finance restrictions are appropriate.
The current campaign finance restrictions should be further strengthened.
The current campaign finance restrictions should be reduced.
Campaign finance restrictions are a violation of the free political speech our country was founded on and give immense advantages to incumbents. There should be no campaign finance restrictions other than full disclosure of donors. Let the marketplace of
Every candidate should have the option to have their campaign publicly financed, with strong restrictions on those who opt for traditional campaign financing.
All campaigns should be completely financed by the tax payer. No private contributions should be allowed, period.
15. Which statement most closely matches your stance on gun laws?
There should be reasonable gun laws to keep kids safe and keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill.
Civilians should only be prohibited from owning automatic weapons.
All hand guns should be banned for civilians, but rifles and shotguns (with certain restrictions) should be allowed.
All guns should be prohibited to civilians.
There should be no laws prohibiting or restricting guns, period.
There should not be laws banning guns, but there should be laws requiring gun registration.
16. Which statement more closely matches your stance on criminal justice philosophy?
It is better to let 1000 guilty men go free than to send one innocent man to prison.
It is better to send one innocent man to prison than to let 1000 guilty men go free.
17. Which statement most closely matches your stance on the death penalty?
The criminal justice system should never be given the power to take someone's life, no matter how sure the government thinks it is of the defendant's guilt. The death penalty should be abolished.
The death penalty is currently plagued by biases and other technical problems that may lead to the execution of the innocent, but it should remain an option once those problems are corrected.
The death penalty is perfectly acceptable and should be used to deter violent crimes.
The death penalty is perfectly acceptable and should be used to deter a wide variety of crimes, including drug trafficking.
18. Which statement most closely matches your stance on energy policy?
The government should eliminate subsidies for fossil fuels and increase subsidies for 'green' energy sources.
The government should not subsidize any energy production, but should fund research into alternative energy.
There should not be any such thing as "energy policy." The government should neither subsidize nor restrict (or tax or punish) any type of energy production. The government should not fund research for certain kinds of energy sources.
The government should take steps to get us off foreign oil.
The government should use taxes to discourage use of fossil fuels and offset negative externalities.
19. Which statement most closely matches your stance on the trade off between freedom and security?
In today's world, we must sacrifice some freedom for increased security.
With radical Islamists vowing to kill us, we must consider national security as paramount and can no longer afford the luxury of wide-ranging personal freedom.
We must not sacrifice freedom for security; we will end up with neither, and the terrorists will have won.
Liberty must always be paramount, even at the expense of security. It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees.
20. Which statement most closely matches your stance on professional and trade licensing (i.e. licensing of doctors, lawyers, real estate agents, plumbers, cosmetologists, etc).
Current licensing is appropriate. It protects consumers from disreputable and inept individuals in those fields that are licensed.
Additional fields should be subject to licensing.
Fewer fields should be subject to licensing. Why do I need the state to license my hairdresser?
Government licensing is the use of force to prevent two parties from entering into a peaceful, voluntary transaction. It is wrong at the most fundamental level and acts as a barrier to the most disadvantaged in society being able to get services they can
21. Which statement most closely matches your stance on health care?
The government should provide universal health care. I have the right to take money from my neighbor at gunpoint to pay for my (or someone else's) medical care.
The government should mandate health insurance the way many states mandate auto insurance.
The government should reduce it's involvement in health care but also provide some kind of safety net for people who really need it.
The government should get out of health care entirely, including the regulation of insurance, use of tax rules, licensing of medical professionals, regulation of drugs, and provision of Medicare, Medicaid, and other safety nets. Health care is not a right
22. Which statement most closely matches your stance on separation of church and state?
American was founded as a Christian nation, and the Founding Fathers never intended to banish religion from government. School-sanctioned or employee-led prayer should be allowed in public schools. Intelligent Design and Creation should be taught in scien
There is currently too much religious wording, symbolism, and ideology in government, but it doesn't need to be completely removed.
The Founding Fathers, many of whom were deists, made very clear their disdain for mixing religion and government. There should be no aspect of any supernatural belief system incorporated into our government.

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