May 2010
25 posts
Thomas Sowell →
Once you buy the argument that some segment of the citizenry should lose their rights, just because they are envied or resented, you are putting your own rights in jeopardy – quite aside from undermining any moral basis for respecting anybody’s rights. You are opening the floodgates to arbitrary power. And once you open the floodgates, you can’t tell the water where to go.
“Politicians are like diapers. They both should be changed regularly,”
– Marc Coleman 41, a Philadelphia primary voter.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on...”
– Upton Sinclair
iPhone Deconstruction →
Free Markets: Pro-Rich or Pro-Poor →
Restricted, regulated and monopolized markets are especially handicapping to people who are seen as less preferred, latecomers and people with little political clout. For example, owning and operating a taxi is one way out of poverty. It takes little skills and capital. But in most cities, one has to purchase a license costing tens of thousands of dollars. New York City’s taxicab licensing...
“Mother’s Day Proclamation
Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all...”
– Julia Ward Howe 1870
A Mother Speaks for Peace
Sovereign Debt →
Once again the vast majority fails to see a crisis in the making, even as it stares at them from close range. Just as market observers in 2007 told us that the credit crisis would be confined to the subprime mortgage market, current analysts tell us that sovereign debt problems are confined to Greece, Spain, Portugal, and perhaps Italy. They were wrong then, and I believe that they’re wrong...
America, Hello From Soggy Nashville
john:
jimreams:
America, we had a pretty bad flood happen here in Nashville. We noticed that you didn’t notice. That’s OK, there was a bomb that didn’t explode in Times Square and and oil spill in the Gulf. It took up all the news space. Seriously, it’s OK.
Here’s the deal with our town. We have one particular industry here, the music industry, which isn’t really that big in the grand scheme...
AA and Government Debt →
This is basic for properly understanding economists. If you do not understand this, you will not understand why economists, who should see the devastating cumulative effects of government debt, invariably say that things are not beyond the point of no return. For an economist, now is not the day of salvation. That day is always in the future. For an economist, there is always enough time for...
correction
There was a typo in my last post. It said 4000,000. It should have read 400,000 (4 hundred thousand). I added one too many zeros before the comma. My mistake.
Statistical Scam →
It sounds dreadful. After drifting down consistently since last fall, the unemployment rate has suddenly shot up again, from 9.7 percent in March to 9.9 percent in April. But don’t despair: A rising unemployment rate is actually one of the best signs yet that the economy is bouncing back.
The unemployment rate rose for the right reason. Instead of shedding jobs, employers added 290,000 jobs...
Joint Venture:2 →
Limits of Power →
Most slaves performing most tasks were of course not paid, but were simply forced to work by the threat of punishment. That was sufficient for galley slaves or plantation slaves. But there were various kinds of work where that was not sufficient.
Tasks involving judgment or talents were different because no one can know how much judgment or talent someone else has. In short, knowledge is an...