Shannon Bray on Administrative Bloat, The Deficit, Restoring The Gold Standard, Digital Currencies and Libertarian Politics

North Carolina Candidate for Lieutenant Governor Shannon Bray is the man to ask when you have questions about the economy, technology, and the future of policymaking. With his background as a Navy veteran and a technology contractor Shannon Bray has a lot of experience with how administrations think, work, and (dis)function. He joined Philosophisnt co-hosts Roman Raies and Mathew Girardin with his how bureaucracy often creates perverse incentives, why he believes restoring the gold standard is needed, and his personal experiences of facing inefficient and unjust court proceedings. 

As a Libertarian, Shannon Bray argues for his conviction that protecting the natural agency held by individuals is the best way to do good for society. His philosophy for governing is to manage affairs the same way a CEO would manage a business and to leverage technology as much as possible to bring voluntary transactions into public affairs. His idea for city coins aims to allow individuals the means to fund the projects they want to see happen in their cities by choice. The implementation of City Coins may also allow governments to lower taxes. Some of Shannon Bray’s ideas such as issuing a State of North Carolina currency separate from the US. dollars would, if implemented, go against the grain of regulatory precedent so much that they may seem impossible or at the very least destined to attract significant opposition from Federal agencies. In a day and age when the right to issue currency has been maintained exclusively through the Federal Reserve charter for over 100 years, a state currency could significantly impact the status quo of the financial system. Yet, nothing seems too difficult to fathom Shannon Bray who exudes optimism and energy when advocating his cause.