Have the dogged determination to follow through to achieve your goal;
regardless of circumstances or whatever other people say, think, or do.
Paul Meyer
Chart of the Day: Contra Donald Trump
Somehow a non-Trump story found its way to the front page. Our sincere apologies. Writer will be reprimanded. pic.twitter.com/rnk84wpgCh
— Trumpbart News (@Trumpbart) September 16, 2015
Bernie Sanders is killing the hen laying golden eggs. The fatal conceit: central planning improves on free markets. https://t.co/Vl42rtbgsZ
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 16, 2015
"You've got to vote for @realDonaldTrump to find out what he's really all about" Hint:do you ever wonder what happens to regifted fruitcake?
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 16, 2015
Tonight's DebateI'll publish my full thoughts on a coming one-off post where I'll go into more detail; I don't think Trump came across that well at all; for the most part, the others on the stage dominated policy discussions--I saw legitimate multi-part debates arise, which I think made for a better debate than the first one. Off the top of my head, I honestly think Rand Paul won the night, although I have a couple of problems with a couple of his responses (birthright citizenship, vaccinations); better than expected: Rubio, Christie, Bush. Worse than expected: Fiorina, Carson. I'm really pissed off at the relevant GOP candidates who seemed to back some variation of a minimum wage increase. More detailed discussion later.
One of My Favorite Videos: The Hen That Lays Golden Eggs
Donald "Four Bankruptcies" Trump
Facebook Corner
(Reason). Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent-socialist Vermont senator running for the Democratic presidential nomination, has something to say to all youse fat cats out there: "I've got a message for corporate America: if you want us to buy your products, you better start producing them here in the United States."
Sanders has a nativist streak that extends to both economics and immigration policy.
Recall, for instance, that he tut-tutted about "open borders" as a "right-wing" plot hatched by the Koch brothers "that would make everybody in America poorer." (It's not a small point, but he's wrong about the effects of larger levels of immigration on Americans' standards of living.)
And when it comes to straight-up economic policy, Sanders is the sort of guy who can't say no. The Wall Street Journal just touted up his campaign proposals and found they would add $18 trillion in new spending over the next decade if implemented.
At the same time, his you-better-build-it-here-or-else Twitter threats are nothing new. Back in 2011, Sanders declared war on Chinese bobbleheads that were being sold at Smithsonian Institution museum gift shops in Washington, D.C. (Off topic but worth tossing out there: Why don't protectionists ever insist that Americans can only use American ideas and policies? It's weird that the one thing that right-wing and left-wing protectionists will always allow into the country of their minds is ideas that got from somewhere else.)
"In the gift shops," Sanders said, "we should not be selling statues of the founding fathers of this country that were made in China." At the time, the Smithsonian was selling items both made in America and in China. The foreign items cost almost half as much, partly because they were labor costs were lower and the quality more iffy. But thanks to Sanders' intervention and economic jingoism, the Smithsonian agreed to sell more American stuff. At higher prices, naturally. Who exactly is that good for? The customers who buy less stuff? The domestic manufacturers who move less merchandise? The shop staff whose hours are cut due to slumping sales?
But that's egghead-talk. "A museum owned by the people—a museum which talks about our own history—cannot even have products manufactured in the United States by our own workers?" said an exasperated Sanders. "We've got some very serious, serious problems."
Yeah, no. As Sallie James, a trade policy analyst at the Cato Institute explained, there's absolutely no reason to bemoan the loss of jobs in the on-the-grow souvenir thimble and bobblehead sectors.
"Why is it embarrassing that we no longer manufacture trinkets here?" James countered. "We still manufacture plenty of stuff in America. It's just not the stuff you see on the gift-shop shelves."
If and when Sanders wins the Democratic nomination and then the White House itself, expect to see him pushing for all sorts of closed-border actions. He's on the record denouncing China for selling us things at low, low prices and he hates trades deals such as NAFTA, CAFTA, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (this last, by the way, is an attempt by a dozen countries to create a countervaling force to China's economy, the largest on the planet).
I'm willing to grant that when it comes to war and many social issues, Sanders is as close to libertarian positions as anyone currently running. He's against elective wars and is pro-marriage equality. When it comes to the drug war, he's not the pot-legalizing hippie Hillary Clinton and most Republicans assume him to be, but he's serious about loosening the leash on pot and emptying the prisons of non-violent offenders.
Good for him on all that.
But when it comes to basic economics, Sanders is totally out to lunch, which I assume he also believes should be free.
Indeed, his understanding of how markets work doesn't even rise to the level of off-base zero-sum economics. Not long ago, he went on an inspired rant built on the idea that consumer choice somehow meant that children must go starving: "You don't necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants or of 18 different pairs of sneakers when children are hungry in this country." This is not the type of guy you want helping to make rules for a country whose economy is not only complex but already burdened with a never-ending series of large and small regulations while battling increased competition from around the world.
Exit question: Would a President Sanders demand that the National Zoo's pandas be returned to China so that two American bears can get those jobs?
The economically illterate zero-sum economics, the morally corrupt Politics of Envy, the advocacy of failed European welfare state policies... He's for the unproductive parasitic government ruling class, the political whores and their bureaucratic acolytes, after they collect their tolls from legalized plunder in trickle-down morally hazardous government welfare, creating a permanent underclass of dependents. By attacking capitalism, the only force which has lifted billions out of poverty, Sanders is illogically eating the hen laying the golden eggs--and then can't figure out what happened to the golden eggs.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of the original artist via Ron Paul |
Lionel Richie, "Hello". His third #1 hit.
