Concern should drive us into action
and not into a depression.
No man is frëe who cannot control himself.
Pythagoras
Barack Obama, Former Lecturer of Constitution Law
(His Ex-Students Deserve a Full Refund):
Yet Another Lawless Edict
Washpo in 2011 reported that Obama issued an executive order authorizing indefinite detention of Gitmo prisoners (HT Lew Rockwell). You remember Gitmo, right? In 2008 the future Nobel Peace Prize winner campaigned on shuttering Gitmo....Holding someone without charges? Under what constitutional, never mind international principle?
America's Most Unwanted:
Statist Plunderers Living Large Off the Public Dole
Can you name all these professional political parasites? Unfortunately, I can...
Thomas Jefferson is rolling over in his grave from how the plunderers have perverted the party he created:
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| Courtesy of Patriot Post |
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| Courtesy of LFC on FB |
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| Courtesy of the Bastiat Institute on FB |
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| Via LFC on FB |
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| Courtesy of Jeffrey Tucker vi Bastiat Institute on FB |
(Comment on FB: The failed Obamaian prophecy of FY2013 doom on sequestration has undermined the credibility of self-serving "progressive" Chicken Little's.)
Here's an extract of how various agencies actually handled the sequestration (via the Economic Freedom blog):
- the FDA chose to trim down travel, training, and conference costs, instead, and inspections resumed.
- The FBI cut $227 million in expired funds (money that could not be spent on new projects without congressional approval), instead, keeping the 2,285 FBI personnel, including 775 agents, fully-employed as well as keeping all FBI offices open.
- the U.S. Coast Guard reduced operations by 25 percent by letting officers choose which missions are the most important to American safety and cutting public relations stunts such as fly-bys at sport games.
From LFC:
Help! I am having some issues reconciling some of my thoughts here. Question is, in a free market private economy what would happen to those who choose not to or who cannot purchase private insurance? I realize that charity could account for some of the resolution as well as the improvement of the economy in a more favorable environment however I am having trouble imagining a scenario where some intervention is not needed.
Keep in mind that the concept of true insurance is to handle catastrophic conditions, like cancer. We also have perverse public policy where employer-based insurance is tax-exempted, but individually-procured insurance is paid from after-tax dollars, which is a violation of equal protection principles. Dysfunctional government regulations discourage insurance, e.g., by forcing younger people to cross-subsidize older people or older couples having to subsidize pregnancy expenses. The fact of the matter is before government mandates, we had market solutions to these problems; for example, doctors often discounted or donated services to people on fixed or limited income. The one exception I consider a legitimate concern would be something like guaranteeing or reinsuring emergency or catastrophic care, which are relatively low frequency and which costs can be spread across the population, e.g., as a consumption tax.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but in a free market, insurance cannot be mandatory and that will lead to medical expenses getting cheaper?
First, realize that "health insurance" has come to mean bundled health services with an assortment of "use it because you already paid for it" bundled medical products and services. In addition, you have obfuscating of costs--for many people, say under company plans that are pre-tax, they only "see" their gross wage deduction (if any) and any relevant deductibles and co-pays. The effect is that the insured only see a fraction of the real cost; now enter the familiar law of supply and demand. The smaller prices drive demand, but keep in mind we are dealing with relatively scarce resources. This is driving part of the inflation, one which can mediated by free market reforms in public policy. Inflation to some extent is also being exacerbated with an aging, longer-living population which is directly related to health sector demand. We can't control that, but we can free the health care industry to devise real market-based solutions. Government regulations, compliance costs, etc., also add to unnecessary costs. For a simple example, suppose the government mandates an overnight stay for something that could be handled on an outpatient basis.
From the Milton Friedman group: How would you classify Milton Friedman in this chart?
I criticized this chart when it appeared in an earlier group, e.g., social security, Medicare, etc. did not spawn from the Old or New Right but from the modern/social liberal (vs. classic liberal) tradition. Most of us in the minarchist group, and yes, Friedman is in the group, are somewhat more reformist and pragmatic. I think, for instance, most of us would want to see more of a free market in education and banking, but we face obstacles. Look at the fact last session the Senate killed a simple measure to audit the Fed, never mind end it. So, yes, Friedman wanted voucher policies, not in the sense he believed in government taxing for schools, but in a way allowing taxpayers more control over their taxed dollars to promote school competition vs. the monopolistic public school system.
Competition produces customer service. The government is, by definition, a monopoly. You never see signs like this in mall parking lots. Any private business that imposed such insane bureaucracy would be committing suicide. Everything government touches becomes an expensive, shoddy joke. "Bureaucratic management is management of affairs which cannot be checked by economic calculation." - Mises (LFC)
This was posted on Bastiat Institute:
Police in American Fork, Utah, have issued an abandoned-vehicle ticket to a Barbie Jeep owned by two young girls.
The toy was left overnight on the sidewalk next to the family’s driveway, and when the father of the two girls who left it there woke up, he found it parked behind his SUV — with an abandoned vehicle ticket on it(progressive troll) this picture of signs is your best case against government?
The picture is an unintended parody of Statist rule-making obsession. It's not even reasonable for a driver to read the work of control freak busybodies. One of my favorite examples is I had to be back on the interstate in the Milwaukee suburbs. I thought I had a reservation at a hotel just off the interstate, but I found that my reservation had been cancelled. The hotel outlet was just past the interstate left turn entry, so I had to go under the highway and double-back to an entrance from the other direction. This was at 11 PM and there was no traffic in the other direction. I got into the left turn lane for the first intersection past the highway; I didn't see any no U-turn sign, but sitting at the intersection was a police car (it turns out the local police station was a block away), and I found myself pulled to the side of the interstate ramp (I thought he was trying to get past me, but he pulled in behind me.) I managed to get off with a warning, but he made it clear if I got flagged down a second time, my ass would be in jail. (I ended up driving like a granny until Milwaukee was in my rear view.) This was totally unnecessary "rules are rules", "ignorance of the law is no excuse" and so many rules and regulations get promulgated, no person can escape a "white glove" test, and you can lose your liberty arbitrarily through an abuse of authority.
Political Humor
The other day California's health insurance exchange said that over 5 million people went to their website on the first day of Obamacare. It turns out they were off by 4.4 million. It got only 645,000 hits. It turns out those were from the same guy just trying to log on over and over. - Jay Leno
[And you thought the Indian call center operators were hard to understand before ObamaCare...]
Today the Nobel Prize for literature went to Alice Munro, regarded as the "master of the short story." The Nobel Prize in literature is very important because the winner is guaranteed huge sales and interviews that will be talked about for years. No, wait, that's Oprah's Book Club. - Craig Ferguson
[Harry Reid lost... He was nominated as the "master of long legislation"...]
Terms of Engagement
Note: I recently talked about a Cato Institute event where the author discussed his book; highly recommended.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of the artist and LFC on FB |
Stevie Wonder, "Uptight (Everything's Alright)"
