(the crisis of democracy #2)
The January 18th 2020 issue of The Economist has a special report on housing. It is troubling in more ways than I can say, but it is also a perfect illustration of some points I was trying to make in my previous post about epistocracy. The Economist prides itself on being a leading publication on economic questions in the English language world. It has a prestigious history, but in the past decade it started to shift dangerously toward the left. Continue reading →
The following two PragerU videos made me realize that I have to expand on the points I made about the stupidity of socialists when it comes to money.
The first of the videos, What Creates Wealth, makes the simple point that knowledge is the main source of our wealth; the second, Why Private Investment Works & Govt. Investment Doesn’t, explains what it says in its title. While knowledge is undoubtedly the most important element and while incentives make a lot of difference, what I consider to be the most basic, the most generic function of money seems to be missing from any discussion of the subject I can find. Continue reading →
It is fascinating to watch disagreements where both sides are spectacularly wrong. It usually involves a fair bit of dishonesty.
Free trade is supposed to be a good thing, and trust me, it is. Any reasonable economist would tell you that it is. It brings peace and prosperity. Usually. Continue reading →
The tax season is over. If you do your taxes yourself, you know how incredibly stupid, complicated and convoluted the system is. Continue reading →
What will it take to get it through the thick skulls of libertarians that taxation is NOT theft? Continue reading →
The Uber problem is a classical Libertarian one, but not only in the sense you may think it is. Continue reading →
Did you read my post “A pinch of communism”? It is one of my favorites because I cannot even imagine a better illustration of Hayek’s pretence of knowledge than the one described there from my personal experience. Reading this week’s Economist I got another dose.
I started working when I was 15, as an apprentice of the culinary arts. Four days of work, 2 days of school.
I was working in this pride of communist achievements, the then brand new Hotel Budapest.
(No, not the Grand)
…….. Well, what is it exactly? Sleaze or stupidity?
Whenever I see dangerous stupidity with an obvious political agenda from supposedly intelligent people, I become suspicious. What is more likely? That they are actually as stupid as their arguments make them appear to be or are they just cynical political opportunists?
My friend from New York works for a credit rating agency. I would like to see her expert opinion about the financial prospect of an imaginary company.
There is an exchange in the September 2013 issue of the Freeman wherein Gary Chartier argues that
We Should Abandon the Term “Capitalism” while Tibor Machan says that We Should Stand By the Term “Capitalism.” The question has been debated before, I was planning for a long time myself to write this post to make the argument against using the term because I consider it a most fundamental hindrance in the battle against the enemies of freedom.
As I was sitting in the sky on my way to Thailand, I had to watch several times the same commercial for Air Canada. It was boasting about their achievement in improving ‘sustainability’. They shed some weight from their airplanes to improve fuel efficiency by 30%. They did it for the planet.
It seems that my comments on the Rasouli case hit some nerves. Off-blog, unfortunately, one nasty commenter was missing not only the ability to understand my point but also the balls to do it in public. Maybe it was my fault, so let me try again so that even leftists can comprehend it.
The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to
obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with
the smallest possible amount of hissing
Jean Baptiste Colbert
I did not plan it this way, but this post will be a continuation of the previous one in some respects.
I tortured myself yesterday for nearly two hours listening to this debate.
The motion was as follows: “The Rich is taxed enough”
The following is a reply to this comment that just grew too long. (Chris is a Canadian ex-pat living in the US)
Chris,
I love this conversation. We very quickly got to the heart of the big libertarian question. I do not think that I will be able to answer it for you in this comment, but I hope I will get there at some point.
All I can do here and now is answering the easy questions and asking some difficult ones.