A person's maturity consists in having found again
the seriousness one had as a child, at play.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Image of the Day
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| Via the Independent Institute |
A few days back in my FB Corner segment I was dealing with a pro-Massachusetts troll whom read his state's "investment" in education and healthcare as a validation of Big Government. I pointed out that healthcare costs in MA are among the highest in the country, and I wondered just how efficient Massachusetts was in throwing taxpayer money at public schools, hence the second chart below.
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| Courtesy of Cato Institute |
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| See where your state results stack up here |
Make Wealth, Not Economic Malaise...
Eliminate Anti-Growth Policy: Flatten the Tax Code
Facebook Corner
(Stossel). Last week, when the NBA banned racist team owner Donald Sterling, some said: "What about free speech? Can't a guy say what he thinks anymore?" The answer: yes, you can. But the free market may punish you. In America today, the market punishes racists aggressively. http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/05/07/can-still-speak-your-mind-in-today-america/?intcmp=trending
John is confusing political correctness with the free market. The real test is whether Sterling's teams can draw, etc. Now consumers can make decisions for any reason they choose, including the public revelation of wiretapped phone conversations. Personally, I would not buy my groceries from a merchant whom discriminates. But let's face it: the NBA commissioner threw Sterling under the bus. Yes, it might be a voluntary association and Sterling may not be entitled to due process under the league's rules. But Sterling's personal life/opinions are not salient in general to market transactions.
(LFC) But who will paint the crosswalks?
Do you mean "who'll paint over the crosswalks"? It's like a bastardized version of Keynes' idea for government to have workers dig holes and fill them up again. It's government's way of stimulating the local economy... After all do free crosswalks add to local GDP? The rationale is laughable--a clear violation of the principle of subsidiarity (i.e., the Tenth Amendment)....
Uh-oh. Tom Woods finally replied to one of my posts, and he wasn't happy...
(Tom Woods). A killer episode of The Tom Woods Show today: Pat Buchanan on Winston Churchill. Have a listen! And while you're at it, subscribe to the show: http://bit.ly/1jOramK
Like most paleos, Buchanan is an unconscionable, unrepentant protectionist: “Behind a tariff wall built by Washington, Hamilton, Clay, Lincoln, and the Republican presidents who followed, the United States had gone from an agrarian coastal republic to become the greatest industrial power the world had ever seen — in a single century. Such was the success of the policy called protectionism that is so disparaged today.” I know Woods doesn't believe in this crap; I was hoping he would clean Buchanan's clock.
Thomas E. Woods Jr. The show is about Winston Churchill. You really wanted me to yell at him about tariffs?
I know that (I haven't had a chance to hear the show yet, but I will soon), but as you know mercantilism goes beyond tariffs. Buchanan is a former serious Presidential candidate whom waged a war against NAFTA. I think we should call out certain "conservatives" whom preach free enterprise but like Big Government to intervene in commerce--at least across the borders.
I'm against NAFTA too. It's really anti-freetrade, not pro. Come on, you know how this stuff works! Give it a name that sounds great but is the opposite of what it really is!
There is no doubt that NAFTA isn't perfect (there are some thoughtful critiques, e.g., on mises.org), but the issue was the arguments made by economics-illiterate demagogues like Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot--which were explicitly protectionist. NAFTA was undeniably an improvement and a liberalization of existing trade among the partners. As Cato Institute points out, within 5 years, Canada and Mexico were our biggest trading partners with nearly a 50% increase in two-way trade, over 10 percentage points higher than the increase with other trading partners. "By their fruit you should know them"--NAFTA was doing something right.
In principle, I am deeply suspicious of convoluted managed trade pacts. All government needs to do is get the hell out of the way of cross-border transactions. But even a measured step forward is better than "beggar thy neighbor" madness.
(Reason) Last week's botched lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary raises serious questions about the purpose of medicalizing executions. The point is not to make condemned murderers comfortable; the point is to make *us* comfortable by concealing the true nature of the act.
Read more: http://reason.com/archives/2014/05/07/a-lethal-injection-of-reality
For any country recognizing the unalienable right to life, executions by the State are an abomination.
(IPI). In a House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations subcommittee hearing, a major health insurance trade association representative testified that the administration is reporting inflated enrollment numbers.
Why should we be surprised? This is the same party that engaged, as Rep. Ryan pointed out, in double-counting Medicare cuts....
(Drudge Report). FEDS WARN DRUDGE FACES REGULATION
Any attempt by the "progressive" fascists to promote disparate ideological treatment, whether the IRS or FEC, violates equal protection and is unconstitutional, never mind First Amendment considerations.
A lot of "progressive" trolls on an Independent Institute thread... Just a sample:
To bad Vulture capitalists like mitt Romney like to buy the companies and fire the employees to make more money by moving the company to another state.
This is crackpot nonsense. You can't perpetuate a failing business model. Technology constantly improves. We now have record agricultural production at maybe 2% of the population. You fundamentally don't understand economics. The economy doesn't exist to generate jobs that don't pay for themselves. When we spend less money on goods and services, that stretches our money to save, invest or consume other goods and services.
I can name some mixed market economies that have a single payer healthcare system where they only spend 7% of GDP on healthcare and have better outcomes. I don't think you could name a successful country that doesn'ttax it's citizens. You know redistribute the wealth
It's impossible to write a concise post to respond to such a delusional post. You are comparing apples to oranges. The US has the world's leading, state-of-the-art health care services and technology, innovation in medicines, etc. We have government price fixing, insurance tied to tax-free benefits, violations of insurance underwriting with community rating and morally hazardous guaranteed issue, medical occupation cartels, etc. The solution to our health sector problems is to get incompetent government out of the picture. As to the last piece of nonsense, we had a stable currency and higher sustained growth in the post-Civil War era with a small central government..
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Gary Varvel via Townhall |
The Beatles, "Here, There and Everywhere"
