Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
Chinese Proverb
Image of the Day
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| Via BCL |
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| Via Dollar Vigilante: Nice Horns, Barry |
Milton Friedman, FDR, and Social Security
One of the disappointments is hearing some of my favorite economists like Friedman and Hayek make unnecessary concessions to Statist responses. Friedman seems to concede that FDR was entitled to make some short-term emergency responses because, after all, the feds were ultimately morally responsible for horrendous Fed Reserve policy. I would also argue there were other violations of free market principles that exacerbated the problems, including "beggar thy neighbor" trade, wage policies (including the minimum wage, social security taxes, etc., which discouraged employment, etc.) Even if you argue for some government relief, centralizing it was not the answer. I don't like the way the social security question was handled, even if Friedman was right about pushing-on-a-string policy. The bigger issue is personal responsibility, including saving for one's retirement; there is moral hazard, not to mention the nationalization of retirement services which eliminates market competition.
One of my motivations for including this video is because Reason recently did a post on Ken Burns and his latest PBS project focusing on Teddy, Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt; I have not seen this yet and I'm not that anxious based on what I've heard. Although Burns does give the occasional nuanced perspective (including my favorite columnist George Will), he was clearly dismissive of Al Smith, who broke with FDR on domestic policy.
The Failure of Michelle Obama's School Lunches With Good Taste vs. Lunches That Taste Good
There are several reports of schools in Minnesota, Illinois, and New York dropping out of potential federal lunch programs and related funding, in part because they may not sell enough of guideline-qualified lunches to qualify. Many students have started brownbagging as an alternative to federal compatible meals, and all the schools have noted the high prices and correlated trashed food. In fact, some schools have found resorting to more traditional menus have gained sales even with increased prices.
Never Let a Good Crisis Go To Waste: Ripping Off the Taxpayer Over 9/11
Fascist File
- Army Officer Sherwood Baker was turned away from a Rochester (MI) high school because some authority deemed his uniform as potentially offensive to students. I find the self-appointed condescending politically correct police are actually offensive to any thinking adult.
(Independent Institute). Research Fellow Randall Holcombe: "Many government policies have prolonged the recovery from the 2008 recession, and one was the extension of unemployment benefits. In hindsight, it is easy to look at the data and see that once long-term unemployment benefits were eliminated, long-term unemployment fell, and because of the shorter duration of average unemployment, the unemployment rate has fallen."
Without looking at the specifics, I would argue the labor force participation rate is more compelling, and I would look more to public policy errors, like compensation mandates and regulatory growth, as more compelling than morally hazardous welfare net policy. We still have had little net job growth since 2000.
(Mercatus Center). Each day that we ignore the debt, our risk of drowning in it becomes more likely: http://bit.ly/1D1hSxT
Debt deniers--the ones who voted for every underfunded domestic entitlement and the $7 Trillion Dollar Man (and climbing).
(Independent Institute). Research Fellow Gabriel Roth: "Instead of introducing new electronic methods for charging road users, the federal government should step aside, phase out federal fuel taxes, and allow the states to develop new road pricing systems consistent with the principle that those who use the roads should pay for them."
Disagree! All toll roads should be eliminated. ........along with the corrupt democrats and republicans.
Idiot fascist. Instead of road users, you want taxpayers to pay.
(IPI). Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently signed an executive order requiring city contractors to hike wages to $13 for the city workers they employ. The current rate is already nearly 45% higher than the statewide minimum wage.
Illinoisans have two good reasons to take issue with the mayor’s proposal: bad policy and shameless politics.
I think City workers who work and live in a highly taxed region deserve at least $13 an hour. They are not out there flipping burgers for a career, they are picking up your trash, plowing the snow, Policing the streets, digging ditches and crawling through sewers give me a break! Now maybe if you specify people like the city dept of revenue workers who sit on their butts and look up how they can collect fines from people that are already overtaxed, and you take that group and others like them and cut their wages it would all be good!
Spoken like a business illiterate who has never had to meet a payroll. It's easy to vote for other people to receive above-market pay when you're stealing it from other people's pockets. There are plenty of people willing to work the low-skill jobs you list at market wages in the private sector.
Oh man you sure do hate the workers....how pathetic of you hedge fund managers to think people should only make as little as possible while you fleece the entire country.
Oh man, you populist whores make me sick--how pathetic of you to impose economically illiterate wage floors, which do nothing except systematically exclude low-skill/experienced workers from making a living. How arrogant you immoral, arrogant busybodies!
(IPI). According to the latest study from United Van Lines, a St. Louis-based moving company, in the last four months, “not only did considerably more people move to the Chicago area than away, but Chicago was the most popular locale for moves in the nation, trailed by Washington, Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, Dallas, Phoenix and New York.
Interesting. I would like to think that expiration of the income tax hike and defeat of the progressive income tax are part of the story. But, as the story points out, don't judge a trend by a single data point. From my view of the IT universe, I don't buy the high tech growth story; I had to move out of Chicago almost 10 years back to find professional work, and I haven't noticed a pickup in the area recently. (Of course, my line of work isn't necessarily representative, and I know better than to generalize from anecdotal data.)
Of course, most people these days can't afford full-service movers. Even most of the out-of-state opportunities I've considered rule out relocation. So I've had to look at self-moving over the past several years. You should be able to look at differing rates from each direction, say from U-Haul. I would expect a growing Chicago economy should lift all boats, and I haven't seen that evidence. There should be correlated signs, e.g., local/state governments seeing record tax receipts, running surpluses. We need more data before seeing if this is anything more than a dead cat bounce.
Proposals
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Glenn McCoy via IPI |
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| Courtesy of Steve Kelley via Townhall |
Barry Manilow, "I Write the Songs". Manilow's second #1. Magnificent arrangement and vocals. Manilow DID write hit songs, just not this one. He did have a way of making hits out of songs others recorded before him. I think the Captain & Tennille recorded this tune first, written by one of the Beach Boys. I also remember the Carpenters recorded "I Can't Smile Without You" and Helen Reddy "Somewhere in the Night" before Manilow's hit covers.
