Wealth is not the Problem

The Problem with Democracy

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:59:00 +0000

It's why we need to scrupulously limit government to the protection of non-contradictory individual rights.

"If it be admitted that a man, possessing absolute power, may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries, why should a majority not be liable to the same reproach? Men are not apt to change their character by agglomeration; nor does their patience in the presence of obstacles increase with the consciousness of their strength. And for these reasons I can never willingly invest any number of my fellow creatures with that unlimited authority which I should refuse to any one of them."

-- Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) French historian

HT Liberty Quotes

Friedman: How Wealth Works

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 04:32:00 +0000

The Myth of "Running out of Resources"

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 02:35:00 +0000

Richard Epstein on the Benevolence of Inequality

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:28:00 +0000

Watch Does U.S. Economic Inequality Have a Good Side? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Talking in Circles

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:12:00 +0000

The above graphic is a network analysis of linking patterns of liberal (blue) and conservative (red) blogs.
Discussing issues with people who generally agree with you can help to flesh out the details--but if you don't interact with people who disagree, you may miss a part of the skeleton required for structural stability.

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:33:00 +0000

Coca-Cola chief criticises US tax rules

Coca-Cola now sees the US becoming a less friendly business environment than China, its chief executive has revealed, citing political gridlock and an antiquated tax structure as reasons its home market has become less competitive...
“In the west, we’re forgetting what really worked 20 years ago. In China and other markets around the world, you see the kind of attention to detail about how business works and how business creates employment.”High quality global journalism requires investment...
Mr Kent said that US tax burdens and political polarisation were creating uncertainty for businesses and hurting investment.

--FT By Alan Rappeport in New York

YES!

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:47:00 +0000

Welfare and Tyranny

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:04:00 +0000

"The welfare of the people in particular has always been
the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage
of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience."
-- Albert Camus
(1913-1960) French Algerian author

HT Liberty Quotes

I will never forget.

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:03:00 +0000

The Statues of Liberty

American Jobs Bill: Takes money from those who could create wealth and gives it to those who consume it.

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:38:00 +0000

The President gave a very effective speech....if you listened only to what he said and ignore what he didn't say. He continues to operate from the erroneous Keynesian perspective that the economic problem to solve is not enough consumption, ignoring the fact that without efficient production of real value, there is nothing to consume. Consumers must first produce value if what we want is wealth-creating, win-win exchanges. Instead, what President Obama offered last night is more wealth redistribution: take money from those who know how to create wealth and give it to people who know how to spend it. It's a recipe for continued economic stagnation.

Our country is in an economic pickle after decades of massive public funding of economic goods such as roads, bridges, education and health care. It is all too easy to see what currently exists and ask for more. It is much more challenging to see what could have existed if government had stuck to its proper limits and allowed the market to supply these goods. What we need is a president with more confidence in freedom, a better understanding of the benevolent benefits of capitalism and a greater appreciation of the destructive effects of central planning.

When is rationing not rationing?

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:46:00 +0000

Healthcare Rationing George Orwell-Style

by yours truly on Townhall.com 9-4-11

When is rationing not rationing, a mandate not a mandate and price-fixing not price fixing?

When the government says so.

Steve Jobs, Philanthropist

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:54:00 +0000

There have been a lot of articles recently about Steve Jobs, but so far, this is my favorite.

Steve Jobs, World's Greatest Philanthropist

The word philanthropy comes from the Greek philanthropos which comes from philein for "to love" and anthropos for "human being." Philanthropy means love of humanity. Which brings me to Steve Jobs....What a loss to humanity it would have been if Jobs had dedicated the last 25 years of his life to figuring out how to give his billions away, instead of doing what he does best...

What's important is how we use our time on this earth, not how conspicuously we give our money away. What's important is the energy and courage we are willing to expend reversing entropy, battling cynicism, suffering and challenging mediocre minds, staring down those who would trample our dreams, taking a stand for magic, and advancing the potential of the human race.
On these scores, the world has no greater philanthropist than Steve Jobs. If ever a man contributed to humanity, here he is.

Be sure to read the whole article and click through on the links which show how Apple's technology is revolutionizing what the rest of us can accomplish. Talk about economic multipliers!!

Then, read this piece by a doctor-turned-patient and how his iPad made a huge difference in how he experienced his recent injury, surgery and hospitalization.

Now, think about all the other heroes of the business world who are currently vilified as the "greedy rich" who need to be taxed more because they aren't contributing their "fair share."

Ludicrous, isn't it?

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Not just tyranny, Alexis, but also the nanny state

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:13:00 +0000

"[Tyrannical] power is absolute, minute, regular, provident and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?"

-- Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) French historian

Even when the stated intent is security and protection, the end result of the nanny state is to "spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living."

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Market vs. Government Failure

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 23:16:00 +0000

Excellent WSJ editorial by a Nobel laureate in economics----not that that always means anything.

The Great Recession and Government Failure

When comparing the performance of markets to government,

markets look pretty darn good.

Uncertainty = Slow Growth = Unemployment

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 03:15:00 +0000

And the health care low is a significant contributor to all three.

Why the down-grade had to happen

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:26:00 +0000

Individualism and Community

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:18:00 +0000

As a principled supporter of individual rights, I am frequently accused of not caring about "society" or "community." As this clip points out, I think that people who put community before the individual are getting it backwards. Without putting the lives and rights of autonomous individuals first, there is no community, just gang warfare.

(HT Ideas Matter)

Francisco D’Anconia published in Ecuador

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 17:37:00 +0000

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed.

The above quote was published in Ecuador to protest the imprisonment of newspaper publishers and editor for an op-ed critical of the Equadorian president. Freedom of speech and economic statism can not co-exist. In Ecuador, statism is expanding.

What will we tolerate in the U.S.?

If you think it is far fetched, remember Sebelius' threats and Waxman's subpoena to companies who revealed inconvenient truths about the effects of ObamaCare.

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The World is Getting Richer

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 17:48:00 +0000

Developing Economies Fall from 58% to 39% of All Countries in 15 Years

HT Carpe Diem

Free Market University---in Guatemala

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 01:00:00 +0000

What a cool thing!!

HT Ideas Matter.

The President is Wrong About Taxes.

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 03:07:00 +0000

from Carpe Diem:

During Monday night's national address, President Obama recited the Buffet line that millionaires and billionaires pay lower tax rates than their secretaries. Democrats in Congress routinely cite Mr. Buffett's tax confessions as irrefutable evidence that tax rates on the very rich are too low and the system is unfair.

Except it is not true.

(Data is from the IRS.)

2008 Crash--unfettered government, not unfettered capitalism

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:08:00 +0000

Washington and Wall Street: The Revolving Door

The recent report of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission blamed all the usual suspects — Wall Street banks, financial regulators, the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and subprime lenders — which is tantamount to blaming no one. “Reckless Endangerment” concentrates on particular individuals who played key roles. --NYT Sunday Book Review

In particular, "when the Clinton administration called for a partnership between the private sector and Fannie and Freddie to encourage home buying...[T]axpayers were unknowingly handing Fannie billions of dollars a year to finance a campaign of self-promotion and self-protection."

In our mixed economy, statists like to blame capitalism---when it is actually the toxic mixture of free markets and government intervention that is so destructively destabilizing.

For explanations which counter "market failure" theories of our recent financial crash, read the rest of the book review, and then consider reading the book.

Presidential Ignorance, or Duplicity?

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 18:18:00 +0000

[W]hen the president says that thanks to the debt ceiling "there may simply not be the money in the coffers" to send out the $20 billion in August Social Security checks, he either does not understand the way the system works, or the administration intends to spend the money on something else.

--Thomas Savings, WSJ, Obama's Debt-Ceiling Scare Tactics

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The Other Important Lesson from 1776

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 17:27:00 +0000

Economist John Taylor reminds us that another very important document was published in 1776: Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations.

Time To Renew the Principles of 1776
What’s the best way forward for American economic policy? On Independence Day it’s natural to look to the country’s founding principles—political freedom and economic freedom—for an answer. 1776 was not only the year when Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, it was the year when Adam Smith wrote the Wealth of Nations. We can learn what to do by studying the alternating periods in American history when careful attention was paid to these principles and when they were recklessly neglected.

Read the rest here.

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Celebrating Individual Rights: The foundation of civilization

noreply@blogger.com (HaynesBE) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 16:07:00 +0000

Two hundred and thirty five years ago, Americans cast off the bonds of tradition and stood up for liberty based on inalienable individual rights. At the time, we were the only nation of the then-developing world to take this principled stance. What the rest of the world was doing was irrelevant. What was important was acting on what was right.

Thanks to the courage, foresight and principled thinking of those early citizens, a country was created which made the rights and lives of individuals the basis for placing limits on the power of the community. Eventually, a constitution was written limiting the power of government and protecting the wide and grand sphere of individual freedom. America set the standard for respecting human dignity.

In the subsequent two centuries, America led the world toward freedom and prosperity. Progress occurred commensurate with our loyalty to those founding principles. Where we strayed, painful lessons were learned at the cost of great suffering. A civil war. A lingering great depression. Where we stayed true, liberty was extended.

We need to reclaim those founding principles. Listening to the ideas of other nations is fine—but when they take us in the direction of increasing government control over our private lives, we must ignore the childish cries, “But Mom, everyone else is doing it.”

In particular, we need to find our own unique solution to the problem of rising health care costs, one that respects the rule of law and the property and liberty rights of individuals. In the long run, abandoning those ideals will not bring us peace, prosperity—or for that matter, affordable health care.

If some future study unquestionably demonstrated that we could achieve universal access to medical care at a sustainable cost--if only we would be willing to reinstate chattel slavery—all men worthy of respect would turn away in horror and disgust. The civilized world understands that slavery is never justified.

So too must we turn away from all solutions which entail coercion in place of persuasion and voluntary exchange—for exactly the same reasons that we reject slavery. The fundamental premise of the new health care law--that a proper function of government is to coerce one man into being another man’s keeper—must be rejected outright. Nobody has a moral claim to another man’s life or honestly earned property—not even to a little of it.

This country has recently seen the revival of the sentiments of the Boston Tea Party. It is time to move on to the next step and once again declare to the world: We will live in freedom. We will honor each individual’s right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness—and the political solutions we craft will stay within these bounds, even if the rest of the world does not.

Our founders began with what they held to be self-evident moral principles, and then looked for solutions consistent with those principles. Mistakes were made, but by holding to the standard of individual rights, legal protection has been extended to people of all races, to women as well as men—not as members of a class, but as individual human beings.

We must do the same with the challenges we face today—start with what is right. We must be ruthlessly loyal to equality before the law and the respect the rights to life, liberty and property. Any solutions to our sluggish economy or costly health care must be consistent with these fundamental principles of a moral and civil society. An individual mandate to purchase health insurance initiated and enforced by government should not even be in the tool box.

It’s time to recommit to our original oath and once again be leaders of the world in the cause for human dignity.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Let us live, not just celebrate, the meaning of July 4th.

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