I was asked to lead a presentation on "ageism" and youth rights at the ACLU's College Freedom Tour, which took place in Madison, WI today.  The presentation went really well, though I'm not certain that it was exactly what they had in mind. There were 60 students signed up for my workshop; unfortunately less than half that number showed.  (Most of the students in attendance were there on field trips from schools around the state.  One of the busses from upstate broke down, causing a couple classes to not make it to Madison.)

Still, there are now at least a few more high-school-aged market-activists out there tonight than there were last night.  My "voting without voting" message went over very well, and my two co-presenters (both high-school students) were very receptive.  Though a couple of the adults in the audience squirmed a bit when I described my theory of market activism over legislative action, the students that made up the bulk of the crowd listened with interest and open minds.

I demonstrated the difference between the effort needed to pass legislation to regulate business v. the effort needed to persuade businesses via market activism by staging a mock meeting with a fictitious legislator:

I went to the legislator (one of my co-presenters), and said that I wanted her to pass a law that forbid company x from selling fake chicken in its restaurants.  Of course, the legislator responded that she'd like to help, but couldn't do anything for me.

I then went to the audience and had 10% of the people stand up, representing the number of people that I'd managed to persuade to side with me.  I returned to the legislator.  Still nothing.

Then I had 20% stand.  Then 30%.  Then 40%...and, of course, still nothing, though the legislator's reaction was more sympathetic & understanding each successive time.  Finally, I had 50% +1 stand, and had everybody take a look around to see what it would take to ensure the passage of a law that would get me what I was asking for.

Then we talked about what people thought it would take to convince a business to change its ways through the "voting w/o voting" method of applying economic, rather than legislative pressure.  I started by asking if anyone was familiar with the group of activists who were trying to demand that fast-food chains start providing healthier alternatives to the oversaturated products they usually sell.  One brave soul was willing to fill the group in on the details of the activists' demands; for this he was rewarded with one of the LPWI's "Bill of Rights: Void Where Prohibited By Law" t-shirts I had with me.

I explained that though many of the fast-food activists were seeking a solution through legislation, the situation never came to that.  Almost every fast food chain in business now has some form of "healthy" (healthier) menu available -  Be it Arby's with its "Market fresh" deli style sandwiches, or McD's with its new salads, it seems that everybody has listened to the small group of activists, and responded to settle their concerns.

Why did this happen??

I asked them to think about the stock report on the nightly news and the fact that that very minor losses in value trigger severe responses from businesses, and explained that businesses become concerned when they loose the support of only a small fraction of their consumers.  I explained that, for the stock market, anything over a 20% loss in total value was considered a "crash" - a rare & major event - and used that as the upper bound for what it could possibly take for an individual business to respond.  We decided that, if a business lost 10% of its customer base due to a specific practice, that it would definitely be enough for that business to change the practice.  (I illustrated/exaggerated the response, describing the sirens & flashing lights that would be going off in Bill Gates' office; the pneumatic tubes sending messages screaming from room to room.)  Again I had 10% of the room stand while I was making my point.  They seemed to agree that it looked much easier to persuade 10%, rather than 50%+1.

I then gave a couple examples of how this knowledge could not only be used to put pressure on businesses, but also on governments.  One of the examples I gave was an idea discussed at a meeting of the Alachua County Liberty Project, which involved promulgating the fact that students in our college town were organizing a boycott of businesses that refused to publicly oppose a proposed ordinance that we disagreed with.  The plan was to ask business owners whether or not they supported this "dance-hall ordinance", explaining our opposition, and our desire to only spend our money in businesses that stood with us.  Those who agreed with us would be asked to display a sign stating their opposition to the ordinance, which would be the signal to students that it was okay to shop there.

The idea seemed to go over well.  Almost all the students there are subject to some sort of curfew law where they live, and liked the idea that they could try something like this to empower themselves and gain a voice.  (I threw in a plug for the PNV "Stop the Mayfair Mall Curfew" campaign:  www.PoliticalNonviolence.org/?groupid=LPWI -- click "campaigns" to get there.)

The focus of the workshop was supposed to be "ageism" and youth rights; the other speakers had originally planned to focus on the ACLU's proposal for lowering the voting age (to some other arbitrary age??), but I think my presentation may have convinced many of the attendees that, whether you have the right to vote or not, market activism is a more efficient method for making change.

Along with this knowledge, each person took home a packet that my co-presenters and I put together, which included (among other things) copies of Bureaucrash's "Liberty is the soul's room to breathe" and "Let Each Person Decide" flyers; a copy of the SP's "Sustainable Solutions to Social Challenges" booklet, which explains that "education and not legislation is the real liberal solution to our problems"; a copy of ISIL's "Libertarianism is the path to peace..." booklet; and a "Selective Slavery" card (a parody created by the LPWI) for all the young men to fill out on their 18th birthdays.  Not a bad take for a class field trip, and not a bad way to spend an unemployed afternoon!