If a man be gracious to strangers,
it shows that he is a citizen of the world,
and his heart is no island,
cut off from other islands,
but a continent that joins them.
Francis Bacon
Chart of the Day: The "Efficiency" of Public Education
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| Courtesy of John Stossel |
I remember visiting my maternal uncle priest when he was pastor of a parish on Martha's Vineyard. Just starting my work career in a low-paying job in northwest San Antonio, the first thing I immediately noticed was how much more expensive everything was--gas, food, etc. Of course, I knew it was a favorite summer vacation spot for the upper class, etc. Even most fast food deals have fine print exceptions for places like Hawaii and Alaska. Shipping costs have a lot to do with higher prices.
I have long opposed petty restrictions that arbitrarily filter out (especially foreign) competition. The intent seems laudable: who can argue against American jobs? But trade is a 2-way street: our trading partners know there are American jobs behind our exports, and they have jobs behind their own exports. How long are you going to go to lunch with a friend if you're always the one picking up the check?
Remember a favorite Bastiat quote I borrowed from Mark Perry of Carpe Diem? "Treat all economic questions from the viewpoint of the consumer, for the interests of the consumer are the interests of the human race." Restricting competition is a short-term gift to politically favored local producers, but unless they invest in more efficient production technology and provide new or improved products or services at attractive prices, they won't have a sustainable business model. Not to mention it's like squeezing a balloon: other countries tend to target compensatory successful American exports--costing American jobs.
Some countries/localities may have competitive advantages for certain industries/products, e.g., tropical for certain fruits, like bananas; coastal ports; cheap hydro-power; pools of skilled or educated workers; etc. Cheaper imports can make American consumers better off, stretching their dollars for other goods and services vs. having to spend artificially higher, noncompetitive prices for politically favored companies/industries. WE NEED TO REPEAL THIS ANACHRONISM,which favors the maritime vendors over shipping customers.
A Great Book Tease
Via Cato Institute:
In his new book, The End Is Near and It’s Going to Be Awesome, [National Review's] Kevin D. Williamson examines the crisis of the modern welfare state and demonstrates that the crucial political failures of our time, from education to health care, are the direct result of government monopolies providing and regulating these services. Entitlement programs have promised far more than they can deliver, and slow moving bureaucracies have stifled innovation and efficiency in attempts to deliver on these failed promises. There is, however, a light at the end of the tunnel, as millions of Americans reject the status quo and turn to their own ingenuity to create successful market-derived alternatives to these government monopolies.Community Self-Reliance: Supplemental Policing
What happens when the federal government displaces property-taxpaying private-sector companies (no property taxes paid by the Feds), the Feds agree to share timber revenue--but Dem-crony environmentalists then essentially kill timber harvesting? Okay, the familiar reader knows where I'm headed--it's time for the all-but-bankrupt federal government to start paying down debt, and a first step is to sell off surplus assets.
After hearing this private-sector response to streamlined public safety budgets, listen to the late great Milton Friedman below talk about more economically efficient private-sector alternatives to firefighting, the Post Office, garbage collection, the social security administration, etc.
Privatize It!
Obama LOVES Part-Time Workers
Well, the stock market loved today's April jobs news: nonfarm payrolls up by 165,000, official unemployment at the lowest rate at 7.5%. Some bright notes: the stronger private GDP eviscerated Democrat fear-mongering over budget cut; the Fed share of GDP has modestly dipped under 23% (still way above a more reasonable 18.5%). But Kudlow adds some sobering notes of caution:
- The bad news, however, is that the U.S. continues to fall further behind its own long-term trends for jobs and economic growth. And lately, hours worked — a key labor measure — have begun to fall.
- Total private hours worked are declining. This may be a harbinger of the ill effects of the job-killing Obamacare program, where rising tax, mandate, and regulatory costs penalize the fiftieth worker hired and the thirtieth hour worked in small business.
- the employment-to-population ratio, which peaked at 64.6 percent in April 2000, has dropped to 56.8 percent in the latest month. That translates to a loss of roughly 10 million jobs from the long-term trend line.
- the anemic 2.1 percent real GDP recovery of the last 15 quarters (compare that with the 4.4 percent post-WWII average) has thus far created an output gap of roughly $3 trillion, according to RDQ economist John Ryding.
Underscoring the second point is this telling example from the LA Times:
Consider the city of Long Beach. It is limiting most of its 1,600 part-time employees to fewer than 27 hours a week, on average. City officials say that without cutting payroll hours, new health benefits would cost up to $2 million more next year, and that extra expense would trigger layoffs and cutbacks in city services.
Part-timer Tara Sievers, 43, understands why, but she still thinks it's wrong.
"I understand there are costs to healthcare reform, but it is surely not the intent of the law for employees to lose hours," said the outreach coordinator at the El Dorado Nature Center in Long Beach.
If I'm Obama, I would be worried. Rasmussen has approval down to 45%--his lowest since last August. Already Senate Dems are fretting about a looming "train wreck" of ObamaCare; Sen. Schumer (D-NY) has conceded that ObamaCare compliance has had the unintended consequence of raising insurance premiums, etc. The idea that the House is going to bailout ObamaCare with massive subsidies is a state of denial. Probably the single best thing Obama could do for employment, short of repealing ObamaCare, is deferring it until we achieve full employment and historical long-term growth.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Ken Catalino and Townhall |
Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, "Born to Run". Even if the Boss never cut another track, this one alone would have made him a legend. The album and title song put him on the cover of major news magazines. I remember the first time I heard it; it was unlike any song I had ever heard before: a soaring arrangement, symbolism building from the history of rock and roll: youth yearning for freedom from a bleak existence and limited opportunities, cars, passion and women, etc. The Boss would constantly work these themes in other material (especially his follow-up album, one of my all-time favorites, Darkness on the Edge of Town). Around this time, Simon and Garfunkel briefly reunited to cut one of my favorite songs of the genre, My Little Town. Then there's Joe Cocker's brilliant take on the Bryan Adams' classic When the Night Comes. Absolutely glorious; why can't contemporary artists write and perform songs like these anymore?
