Students

Ten initiatives to help young people: 5. Youth start-up loans

Young people who opt for university education are eligible for loans at preferred rates.  They qualify for tuition loans of up to £9,000 per year, and for maintenance loans which could go as high as £8,200 per year for those from low income families.  Most students assume this is a good investment that will lead to higher salaries over the course of their working lives, and are cushioned by the fact that only those earning more than £21,000 per year have to start repaying those loans. But young people who do not qualify for university admission, or who decide against it, are not eligible for similar loans.  In fact young people starting out in work or seeking work find there and many associated costs.  They often have to face deposits for accommodation; they sometimes have to buy new clothes appropriate for their work or their job-seeking.  Most have no cushion of saving since few will have yet earned any money.

If young people not at university were given access to loans on terms similar to those available to students, many would find their lives much easier.  For some it would help cover the costs of moving into their first independent accommodation.  For others it might help pay for a bicycle to travel to work on.  

For others, loans such as these would offer the opportunity to start a small business.  Paying for driving lessons to pass the test and buying a car would be a real possibility for those who wanted to become professional drivers.  Others might find themselves able to rent premises to set up as independent hairdressers.  A range of small business possibilities would open up.  Far from the world of multi-million software businesses, there are small one-person businesses that operate as gardeners, window-cleaners, street traders, hairdressers, and the like.  

To set up a one-person business such as these takes initial capital, capital that young people simply do not have.  Some of the lucky ones might borrow from parents.  Some might persuade a bank to loan them money, but banks are wary of lending to those without collateral, so for most the possibility is ruled out by lack of available finance.   A scheme like that which provides student loans, but which made them available instead to non-university young people would open up countless opportunities for advancement.  For some it would help them with their move into the city to find work and accommodation.  For others it would open the possibility to start up their own small business.  It would reduce unemployment and encourage ambition.

Come and work for the ASI in your gap year!

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It's that time of year again: the ASI is looking for two new employees, to start in September 2015, and stay for 4-9 months. Our current crop—Sophie and Nick—are not quite finished (they are staying for the Summer before they go to Edinburgh and Cambridge respectively). But we are opening applications nice and early to make it easy for everyone to plan their gap years.

As last year, the crucial requirements are that you:

  • Are on a gap year; you must be 18-20
  • Are open-minded, inquisitive, friendly, intellectually curious, eager to learn and interested in policy
  • Know and have an opinion on the ASI's perspective and what it does
  • Have a broadly liberal perspective on the world

Your duties will include:

  • Organising lunches and dinners
  • Keeping the database up-to-date
  • Managing the blog
  • Reviewing and editing ASI publications
  • Selling ASI merchandise
  • Doing secretarial work for the directors
  • Logging RSVPs for events
  • Meeting a wide range of interesting & important people
  • Learning about social & political science
  • Socialising with the staff
  • Carrying out self-directed research
  • Writing blog posts
  • Setting up and cleaning up after events
  • Mailing out publications to subscribers

Previous interns have gone on to work with the Adam Smith Institute, including the ASI’s current Deputy Director, Sam Bowman, and Head of Digital Policy, Charlotte Bowyer, who was a Gap Year intern in 2009-10.

The role pays the National Minimum Wage. All applicants will interview with President Madsen Pirie and Deputy Director Sam Bowman at the Adam Smith Institute offices in Westminster during the summer.

Please send a CV and cover letter of around 500 words to gapyear@old.adamsmith.org by May 1st 2015.

Young Writer on Liberty Competition 2015

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  The Adam Smith Institute invites the under-21s to enter our annual 'Young Writer on Liberty' competition.

This year’s theme is: The road not yet travelled: Three paths the next government should take towards a freer United Kingdom

This is not a typical essay contest. Instead, entrants should submit three, ASI blog-style articles, each highlighting a different policy the incoming government (whoever they may be!) should adopt to make the UK freer, richer and happier.

You may argue to get rid of certain regulations, or a repeal a specific law. You might suggest reform of the banking system, the right to sell organs for money, or a move to direct democracy. You might even call to abolish politicians completely! No idea–however radical–is out of the question.

We are looking for entrants who can think creatively and express themselves clearly and succinctly. As such, winning entries will be thought-provoking, well-argued, and suitably researched.

Prizes: There are categories for the Under-18s and the 18-21s, with a winner and a runner-up in each.

The winner of the Under-18 category will receive £150 prize money and a box of liberty-themed books. They will also have their articles published on the Adam Smith Institute blog.

The winner of the 18-21 category will receive 2 weeks work experience at the Adam Smith Institute, £150 prize money, a box of liberty-themed books, and have their work published on the ASI blog.

Runners-up in each category will also receive a box of books, and have an article of their choice featured on the website.

How to enter: You should submit your three articles using our Young Writer on Liberty submission form.

The deadline for entries is 11.59pm on Friday, May 15th. Applicants must be under 21 on this date.

If you have any questions or queries, please contact schools@old.adamsmith.org

We look forward to reading your entries!

Teaching economics in schools

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At the weekend I spoke at a conference in Berlin organized by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation on teaching economics to teenage school students. I took them through my preferred method, which is to avoid jargon and equations, but to build up understanding instead by starting with first principles and building up logically upon them. Value, I said, is necessarily subjective. Because we are different we value things differently. Value is in the mind; it does not reside in the object itself, and it is because we value things differently from each other that we trade. From value I build up to price, and to specialization and trade, and so on. Those who have looked at my "Economics is Fun" videos on YouTube will see how this works. My audience took delight in the fact that my first 30 seconds dealing with value completely destroyed Marx's labour theory of value, and with it 'surplus' value and exploitation and all the class hatred that follows from it.

My aim fundamentally is not to teach students a set of facts or rules, but to inculcate a way of thinking. I take the view that understanding is more important than learning.

Sometimes I teach this in schools by working through ten widely held and widely propagated views that are in fact wrong. These include claims that the world is running out of scarce resources leaving none for our children, or that the world will become so over-populated that it cannot sustain the numbers.

In showing why and where these are incorrect, I try to have the students thinking things through for themselves and taking a more critical attitude toward popular nostrums. My experience has been that young people appreciate this approach, and that it armours them in the years to come against much of the nonsense that politicians in particular talk about economics.

Does the GOP need a new stool?

Does the GOP need a new stool?

This is the question that upcoming TNG guest Tim Stanley's been asking in a recent blogpost for the Daily Telegraph. To give a bit of context:

the Republican stool is at risk of losing its balance. As William F Buckley once argued, support for the GOP historically rests on three conservative legs: free market libertarians, social conservatives and foreign policy hawks.

However, in the absence of a strong anti-communist message American politics has drifted leftwards, whilst the GOP's 'Middle American' unity has been replaced with a "discordant alliance between wealthy grey technocrats and populist crazies". The legs of the Republican stool now look wobbly and unbalanced, leading to some uneasy and often contradictory politics. As a consequence, the Republicans fail to provide a convincing or consistent alternative to the liberals and Obamanomics.

So, what's the solution? Tim suggests that it lies in a 'rugged constitutionalism', where politics is conducted at a state level, individual freedom carries real significance, and Republican governments promise to largely get out of the way. Certainly, this has real appeal to libertarian-leaning conservatives both in America & the UK, but what's the likelihood of it actually becoming an election strategy?

Fortunately, under 30s are invited to ponder this question further at the TNG with Dr Stanley on this very subject tomorrow.

The event starts at 6pm in the ASI offices, and RSVP either on Facebook or to events@old.adamsmith.org.

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Freedom Forum 2014

It's that time of year again- building on last year's fantastic conference, Liberty League Freedom Forum 2014 is only a month away!

Put the 11th- 13th April in your diaries, and head down the the UCL Institute of Child Health for a weekend of seminars, workshops and socialising with liberty-minded individuals.

The line up for this year's Freedom Forum is looking the be the best yet, with speakers coming from across the world. Amongst those confirmed are Cody Wilson, creator of the 3D-printed gun and bitcoin annonymising DarkWallet, and fellow American and serial liberty-promoter Dr Tom G. Palmer. There's also world expert on the universal basic income Phillipe Van Parjis, Detlev Schlichter, author of Paper Money Collapse, director-general of the IEA Mark Littlewood, and pro-drug law reform ex-cop Tom Lloyd, with loads more to be announced - and of course, there's the ASI's own Sam Bowman. 

Seminars cover topics from lifestyle freedoms to macroeconomic policy, immigration to the age-old question: But who will build the roads? Plus, there's workshops in journalism from City AM's Mark Sidwell, public speaking from Peter Botting, and an entrepreneurial session curated by The Entrepreneurs Network. 

All of the above, plus meals, drinks and evening events from only £29- and accommodation tickets a mere £39.

To find out more visit the Liberty League website, and book your tickets here.

Event: Liberty League Freedom Forum 2014
Date: Friday 11th April (7pm) to Sunday 13th (5pm)
Location: UCL Institute of Child Health, and Clink78 Hostel

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Isn't it wonderful how student loans are starting to actually work?

I thought this was an amusing little complaint from some recent student. They seem to have rather missed the entire point of having student loans to pay the tuition fees in the first place:

I see friends of mine recently out of university struggling to find graduate schemes, permanent jobs or anything beyond zero-hour contracts. My degree has been vital to my job, but it saddens me to say that, were I 18 again, I wouldn't choose the subject about which I felt passionate – I'd make my choice based on job opportunities and pay.

What amuses me about this is that of course this is the very reason that the system was changed.

There was indeed a time when it didn't matter all that much which subject you did at university. And it was also at that time that you not only didn't have to borrow to pay the fees, you got a government grant to support you while there. But the other side of that system was that only 10% of the age cohort went. Thus a degree was indeed a signifier of having some brains to get in and further, the persistence to then graduate as well.

Now we have near 50% of the age cohort going. And thus the simple possession of a degree is not going to be a useful signifier to future employers. And it's also true that with 50% going it's not going to be the taxpayer that picks up the entire bill. Which leads us to our system of loans to pay the fees. And look at what then happens as a result of that.

Students start to think about where the pay will be good after they graduate. Good pay for any particular job of course being a signal that there is a (relative) lack of people both qualified to and willing to do that job. So by making the students responsible for their own costs (in however subsidised and dilatory manner those loans are collected) we have actually provided them with the incentives to study something that is of use to the rest of us.

Isn't it wonderful, introduce market signals into the university system and we get people preferentially studying for those careers where we've a shortage of good people? My word, quite remarkable, markets and incentives work.

One more thing we might note: there have indeed been some governmental actions over recent decades that can be said to have worked just as this one has. They're always when the government decides to bring in more of those market incentives and price signals though. There might be a more general lesson in that somewhere....

Liberty comes home to Manchester

For those not living in or around the London area it can be difficult to attend the top events on the libertarian calendar. It makes sense for the capital to be our focus, but it doesn’t have to be to the detriment of elsewhere.

The Liberty League is currently organising its first one-day regional conference. It takes the best quality speakers to create a day-long event much larger than the average libertarian society social.

Our first one will be held in Manchester on Saturday, the 26th of October. This city was a natural choice given its liberal heritage and the emergence of a strong libertarian society in the last few years. The conference is open to all not just students and we're sure that the bargain ticket price of £4 and brilliant speaker list will be a big attraction.

Make sure to put the date in your diary as we have:

Jamie Whyte on 'Tax Evasion and Democratic Predation’

John Meadowcroft on 'Prostitution: for and against'

Kevin Dowd on 'Private Banking’

Steve Davies and Tim Evans: A panel discussion on the case for private healthcare

If that isn’t enough we have a room with a buffet dinner included in the ticket cost and a final speech from the ASI’s very own Sam Bowman. Tickets are available from UKLibertyLeague.org.

It’s important to keep reaching out to those on our periphery. Part of doing this is making libertarian events as accessible as possible to as many as possible, and Liberty League is committed to helping to do so. These one-day events are a great way to kick-start libertarian groups in towns or cities and refresh those that are not as active. We need a strong broad and inclusive movement right across the UK, and the more chances people have to network and interact the better. 

Rothbard Summer University is coming

 

The Murray Rothbard Institute and Institute for Economic Studies Europe are this summer holding the Rothbard Summer University, a 5-day seminar in (beautiful) Ghent, Belgium.

The seminar features such prominent lecturers such as Tom Palmer (Atlas Network), Tim Evans (Adam Smith Institute), Adam Martin (King's College London), Lawrence Reed (President of Foundation for Economic Education) and Stephen Davies (Institute for Economic Affairs).

The event is held from 17th to 21st September, scholarships are available and free books distribution will also be organized.

More information can be found on www.rothbard.be/rsu, and any remaining questions should be directed to lode@rothbard.be.

Gap Year work at the Adam Smith Institute

The Adam Smith Institute is looking for a bright, enthusiastic student on their gap year between school and university to come and work for us. The role would be a mixture of administrative work around the office and helping the ASI team with their research and policy work on an ad hoc basis.

It’s a great opportunity if you want to gain some experience in an exciting think tank. We are nice, fun people to work with, so candidates should enjoy working with others as part of a team. You should be interested in our work and willing to roll up your sleeves to do some of the less glamorous work around the office too.

This position pays £6.31/hour, and depending on the candidate is either a six-month or year-long position.

If you’d like to apply, send the following to tng@old.adamsmith.org:

  1. an up-to-date CV;
  2. two hundred words about yourself and why you think you’d be good for the job;
  3. a four hundred word blogpost in the style of the ASI blog about why liberty is the best policy in an area of your choosing.

Applications close on June 22nd.