Menos autos, más bicis

Carmen

2013-10-13T12:04:00.001-03:00

vuelve la leica x1

2013-08-28T18:33:00.003-03:00

Wild Dogs

2013-01-02T10:54:00.000-03:00

Victoria Falls (Zambia)

2012-12-26T15:12:00.000-03:00

Fleurs II

2012-10-13T09:31:00.001-03:00

Evil

2012-09-16T20:03:00.002-03:00

“I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.”
― W.H. Auden, Collected Poems

El viejo truco

2012-08-20T22:39:00.002-03:00

“One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are necessary.”

—Ayn Rand, 1975

If a man proposes to redistribute wealth, he means explicitly and necessarily that the wealth is his to distribute. If he proposes it in the name of the government, then the wealth belongs to the government; if in the name of society, then it belongs to society. No one, to my knowledge, did or could define a difference between that proposal and the basic principle of communism.

“The Dead End,” The Ayn Rand Letter

Argentina K

2012-08-01T06:25:00.002-03:00

"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against-then you'll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted-and you create a nation of law-breakers-and then you cash on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with".

(Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand)

Neon

2012-07-27T09:09:00.001-03:00

La Ciudad

2012-06-29T07:14:00.000-03:00

Here comes that rainbow again

2012-04-14T14:34:00.000-03:00

The scene was a small roadside cafe.
The waitress was sweepin' the floor.
Two truck drivers drinkin' their coffee,
And two Okie kids by the door.

"How much are them candies?" they asked her.
"How much have you got?" she replied.
"We've only a penny between us."
"Them's two for a penny," she lied.

And the daylight grew heavy with thunder,
With the smell of the rain on the wind.
Ain't it just like a human?
Here comes that rainbow again.

One truck driver called to the waitress,
After the kids went outside.
"Them candies ain't two for a penny,"
"So what's it to you?" she replied.

In silence they finished their coffee.
Got up and nodded goodbye.
She called,"Hey, you left too much money."
"So what's it to you?" they replied.

Interference with prices

2012-03-29T07:09:00.000-03:00

6.XXX.21

Economics does not say that isolated government interference with the prices of only one commodity or a few commodities is unfair, bad, or unfeasible. It says that such interference produces results contrary to its purpose, that it makes conditions worse, not better, from the point of view of the government and those backing its interference. Before the government interfered, the goods concerned were, in the eyes of the government, too dear. As a result of the maximum price their supply dwindles or disappears altogether. The government interfered because it considered these commodities especially vital, necessary, indispensable. But its action curtailed the supply available. It is therefore, from the point of view of the government, absurd and nonsensical.

Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, L. Von Mises

Where do I go from here

2012-03-25T10:45:00.001-03:00

Doomed

2012-03-20T10:14:00.003-03:00

¿Quiere saber si ese día se acerca? Observe el dinero, pues es el barómetro de las virtudes de una sociedad. Cuando vea que el comercio se hace, no por consentimiento de las partes, sino por coerción; cuando advierta que para producir, necesita obtener autorización de quienes no producen nada; cuando compruebe que el dinero fluye hacia quienes trafican no bienes, sino favores; cuando perciba que muchos se hacen ricos por el soborno y por influencias más que por el trabajo, y que las leyes no lo protegen contra ellos, sino, por el contrario, son ellos los que están protegidos contra usted; cuando repare que la corrupción es compensada y la honradez se convierte en auto-sacrificio, entonces podrá afirmar, sin temor a equivocarse, que su sociedad está condenada.

El nuevo intelectual, Ayn Rand (citando La Rebelión de Atlas)

Estatismo

2012-03-08T14:01:00.000-03:00

De allí que el estatismo -es decir, la absorción de las tareas y la ejecución de las acciones concretas en materia económica, tanto en la producción como en los servicios- es un cómplice directo de la perpetuación del subdesarrollo, que a su vez, impone su ineficiencia al sector privado. La ideología estatista justifica que el sector público concrete actividades que realiza mal, impidiendo con ello su despliegue por parte de los componentes genuinos de todo lo nacional. Asimismo, profundiza la contradicción de quien debe, dirigir, orientar, estimular y quien debe llevar a la práctica lo que se propone como necesario para asegurar el tránsito hacia el desarrollo.

El ejemplo del petróleo tal vez muestre con evidencia lo que decimos en abstracto. Durante cincuenta años el país concentró en manos estatales (Y.P.F.) la tarea de explorar y explotar los hidrocarburos argentinos. El resultado fue que la importación alcanzaba, en 1958 las dos terceras partes del petróleo consumido por la Argentina. Con la política petrolera desarrollista llevada a cabo con el gobierno presidido por el doctor Arturo Frondizi, que incorporó el capital privado a la actividad de prospección y extracción, se triplicó la producción y logramos el autoabastecimiento en cuarenta meses, con un consumo en acelerada expansión, propio de un país que crecía a paso firme. Bien distinto es, por cierto, el autoabastecimiento con el que se encontró a poco de andar el gobierno del doctor Alfonsín, producto del estancamiento impuesto al país y que "alcanza" pese a que cada vez se produce menos petróleo; pero esto. tarde o temprano, desemboca en nuevas importaciones, tal como efectivamente ocurrió en 1987.

Ciencia, Tecnología y Futuro (Camino nacional al siglo XXI), Rogelio Frigerio.

Libertarianism

2012-02-01T20:04:00.003-03:00

The central idea of libertarianism is that people should be permitted to run their own lives as they wish. We totally reject the idea that people must be forcibly protected from themselves. A libertarian society would have no laws against drugs, gambling, pornography —and no compulsory seat belts in cars. We also reject the idea that people have an enforceable claim on others, for anything more than being left alone. A libertarian society would have no welfare, no Social Security system. People who wished to aid others would do so voluntarily through private charity, instead of using money collected by force from the taxpayers. People who wished to provide for their old age would do so through private insurance.

David D. Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom

Jakarta dusk

2012-01-08T11:44:00.002-03:00

His faith had been faith in mankind, and he'd lost it, ending up in the darkness, a badly injured, shipwrecked man on a shore of bones at the end of the world.

(We, the Drowned, Carsten Jensen)

No 4

2012-01-03T11:33:00.002-03:00

No 4, 14, 24.
(No 13)

A propósito de Hormuz

2011-12-30T09:56:00.002-03:00

"By any measure –physical volume, monetary value, or strategic importance- petroleum is the most critical product carried, occupying at any given moment almost half of the planet’s commercial tonnage. The world currently pumps and ships about eighty million barrels per day, of which the United States uses one-fourth: twenty million barrels. About three-fifths of this, or twelve million barrels per day, must be imported. Petroleum not only powers the world but also lubricates it, fertilizes it, and supplies the major ingredient of the modern world’s most ubiquitous manufacturing material, plastic. Were oil supply lines seriously interrupted, much of the planet’s activity would quite literally grind to a halt, and hundreds of millions of people would starve.
The volume of American oil imports roughly corresponds to the amount of crude passing daily through the Persian Gulf entrance at the Strait of Hormuz. A smaller, but still strategically important amount also passes through the Dardanelles and Bosphorus…, Bab el Mandeb, the Suez Canal, the Sumed pipeline (which parallels the Suez Canal), and the Panama Canal. Finally, most petroleum that exits through these Middle Eastern Straits bound for East Asia must also pass by Malacca. The sudden closure of any of these passages would throw the world economy into turmoil.
Within the next few decades, such an event is not mere possible or probable, but nearly certain.
…
Hormuz is even more problematic. In his 1980 State of the Union Address, President Carter enunciated what came to be known as the Carter Doctrine:

An attempt by an outside force to gain control of the Persian gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United states of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force."

(A Splendid Exchange - How Trade Shaped the World, William J. Bernstein, 2008)

Brutal

2011-12-29T10:40:00.000-03:00

Over the following decades, the Portuguese cursed the northern Moluccas with a series of increasingly brutal governors... Without provocation, Menese had the man's hands cut off, his arm tied behind his back, then set upon with dogs. The victim somehow managed to escape into the water, where he grasped the canines one by one with his teeth and drowned them before slipping below the waves himself.

(A Splendid Exchange - How Trade Shaped the World, William J. Bernstein)

Lucky ride

2011-12-27T23:26:00.003-03:00

Bali

2011-12-26T23:01:00.001-03:00

Montevideo

2011-12-10T12:40:00.001-03:00

Lion tamer

2011-12-02T09:10:00.001-03:00

No lion-tamer would ever remind the lion that the lion is stronger than he

El Perro de Rocroi

2011-11-28T20:38:00.001-03:00

Y pese a todo, arrogantes hasta el final, fieles a su reputación, temibles hasta en la derrota. Peligrosos y homicidas como la madre que nos parió.