Politics and Tea

An excerpt from a good article by Briggs Armstrong at mises.org: "If we are to believe that monopolies are bad because they do not have the best interest of the consumer in mind and have little incentive to improve their product, then why are we to believe that a government monopoly over schooling is good? It can be reasonably argued that this particular government monopoly is worse than private-sector monopolies, because citizens are forced to pay even if they do not consume the service. To illustrate the point, consider a hypothetical shoe monopoly. If the government declared that shoes are a practical necessity of life in this country, and that there are people unable to afford the best-quality shoes available in the free market, would we then support a "shoe tax" to allow the government to manufacture and distribute shoes free of charge to everyone? In this scenario, citizens could still purchase shoes from other providers but would be forced to pay their share of th...

I think that this quote from Murray Rothbard nicely follows from the below post: When capital investment takes place in the free market, it deprives no one of consumption goods; for those save who voluntarily choose investment over some present consumption. No one is required to sacrifice present consumption who does not wish to do so. As a result, the standard of living of everyone rises continually and smoothly as investment increases. But a Soviet or other system of compulsory investment lowers the standard of living of almost everyone, certainly in the near future. As Chris Brown points out in his article at http://mises.org/story/3214, this can also be applied to Obama's big plans for job creation "investment".

From the Economist: "A deadly mix of falling prices and high leverage could foment a “debt-deflation” of the type first described by Irving Fisher, an American economist, in 1933. In this schema, debt-laden firms and consumers rush to repay loans as credit dries up. That hurts demand and leads to price cuts. The deflation in turn increases the real cost of debt. It also means that real interest rates can’t be negative, and so are undesirably high. That spurs yet more repayment so that, in Fisher’s words, the “liquidation defeats itself.” Fisher’s theory is of more than just academic interest. Recent lending surveys by the Federal Reserve and the ECB showed a larger share of banks tightened their lending criteria in October than in July. Such is the concern in America that on November 12th regulators said they would scrutinise the dividend policies of banks that did not increase lending." What? scrutinise the dividend policies of banks that don't increase lending?????? Wha...

This is something that I posted to my facebook like a week ago, and I thought that I should have it here to, for reference: First, I remain respectful and deferent to my leaders. There were a few points of interest I found in this interview that I just couldn't let slip by without demonstrating my distaste for the philosophy of economic control that Mr. Obama seems to so obviously espouse (obvious to me anyway... you'll have to judge for yourself). So here I put those points that he made in quotations, and following I put what I think he may mean (based on the fundamental assumptions of the philosophy from which his propositions follow). Hopefully I'm WAY off on my translations. Hopefully he was speaking a language that I don't really understand and I'm totally 100% wrong in my analysis. Because if I am not, perhaps we are destined to see another FDR rather than another Lincoln (to use the two presidents that Mr. Obama is being compared to). Who, even Berkeley socia...

http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi-bin/D.PL?xct=gd.e081027 Why do I read this stuff? It just freaks me out.

I mean, I always knew that waitresses were smarter than congress, but this one REALLY proves it. Thi s is from a cnn.com article, and she is a waitress at a mom-n-pop restaurant near an auto plant... only this plant is Honda, which would actually stand to gain big time from GM bankrupcy. Anyway, here's the quote :) "I don't think they should bail them out because ... obviously something's not right in the way they're running their business, and why should the American people have to bail them out if they can't figure out how to do it right?" September Quinn, the busy waitress, said after the lunch rush at the Inn Between. She holds the unions just as accountable as the companies for the industry's problems. "People agree with the unions because the workers want to be backed on everything, but then again, there aren't people striving to do their job better," said Quinn, whose father works at the nonunion Honda plant. "They've just...

I went to log in to the AllAroundDanville.com forum today, and found out that I have been banned for life from participation in the forum. I had only written 1 post. It was in regards to a thread about price gouging which had been started back when gas was over $4 a gallon. So I wrote: "why no talk of price-gouging now? maybe because that is ridiculous. its just market forces. I'm pretty sure gas station owners would still be charging $4.25 if they thought they could get away with it."

In discerning economic theory, sometimes common sense turns out to be all you need.

Noam Chomsky's view of the Democratic nature of Capitalism: "Personally, I'm in favor of democracy, which means that the central institutions of society have to be under popular control. Now, under capitalism, we can't have democracy by definition. Capitalism is a system in which the central institutions of society are in principle under autocratic control. Thus, a corporation or an industry is, if we were to think of it in political terms, fascist that is, it has tight control at the top and strict obedience has to be establishedat every level--there's little bargaining, a little give and take,but the line of authority is perfectly straightforward. Just as I'm opposed to political fascism, I'm opposed to economic fascism. I think that until the major institutions of society are under the popular control of participants and communities, it's pointless to talk about democracy" Ludwig Von Mises's view of the Democratic nature of Capitalism: ...

I read yesterday that the Philosopher Seneca once said "Good luck is preparation meets opportunity." I don't think that I could have read that before the past week and really understand the implications of it. I happened to read it in a book called The Choice which I was browsing through at Barnes and Noble (while on a psuedo-date with Drew). The author of the book connected Seneca's idea to his own idea: that if you understand the fundamental laws governing the various aspects of life, then you will be very well prepared, and will have enough knowledge, to navigate pretty much everything that you might come across. And basically everyone has the brain power to do this. This very gracefully follows from my last post. And its really been making me think lately. Why is it that everyone wants to say something new, rather than go back and try to understand what those who have come before us have already figured out. Why is it that we are willing to revisit something when...

"When it's the data that rule, all things can be proposed, but are not all possible. When it's the fundamentals, all things can be understood, even when not observed." I read this quote in an article on the Mises.org website and found it well stated and profound. I would love to live my life by this pricinciple- that my fundamental knowledge would guide me rather than being swayed to and fro by whatever the current and fashionable data at hand. The relation is a bit of a stretch, but I may as well mention that last night I interviewed a midwife and after discussing it with Drew I have decided to hire her to deliver our child at home. I am very happy and at peace with this decision; a decision which is based on my deep-seated belief that birthing at home is normal and safe, because birth itself is normal and can be safe. I thank God for this opportunity to be an active participant in the birth of our second child, rather than being zoned-out and told to push. Righ...

Needless to say, neither ob in Danville will be a back up to my homebirth. So I took some advice from a friend and went somewhere that I knew would have resources on homebirth (I'm not telling where). So after a couple phone calls now I have a meeting scheduled tommorrow evening to interview a midwife. If I like her a lot, I'm gonna hire her and be an accomplice to her commiting a class 4 felony. If I do not like her, I will go ahead and use Medicaid and find an OB that will accept medicaid (not so easy) in Champaign. And forfeit all my principles about using Medicaid. And probably suffer from self-esteem issues for a while. But before I declare victory for the state of Illinois, I will interview my felon.

The Physician's License: An Achilles Heel? Henry Mark Holzer, J.D. Henry Mark Holzer, Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School and a constitutional litigator, currently represents physician groups in Massachusetts and West Virginia. Reprinted from The Journal of Legal Medicine, Vol. 12, pp. 201 - 220, 1991, by permission of Hemisphere Publishing Corporation, a member of the Taylor and Frances Group. Introduction Greek legend tells of Achilles, foremost of the Trojan War heroes, who was brought down by an arrow that struck his one vulnerable spot. There is a modern-day parallel, making physicians practicing in the United States today vulnerable to the power of the government in a way that few have noticed. Through each state's abuse of the power over medical licenses, private physicians may be made virtual servants to state-perceived medical care needs. Today, those needs transcend caring simply for the elderly, indigent, and other customary beneficiaries of state-provided health...

So, I've decided it is a good idea to chronicle my journey of trying to set up a safe and legal homebirth . In Illinois, one must obtain a certified nurse midwife who is has a nearby collaborating doctor. Just a certified midwife won't do, as they are open to a lawsuit by the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation for practicing medicine without a licence . The problem with this is that doctors will not collaborate with certified nurse midwives who do homebirth . Well, even though that is the rumour, I tried to locate an ob/ gyn who I could at least try to convince. So I started calling the two ob/ gyn's in Danville , IL . Ob #1 does not do interviews. In fact, you do not get to see this physician unless you are actually in the process of pushing a baby out from between your legs. So, considering my goal, I crossed her name right off my list. Ob #2 requires registration with the facility before a message can get through to him. And then I am only able to talk ...

This morning Mo and I had to take Kris to work, so I seized the opportunity by bundling up, stopping by Coffee Nation for Coffee and heading to Tipton Park to walk the trail. It was crisp and sunny and lovely. Before 9am is the best part of any day. While I was walking I began thinking about how, in all of those big gorgeous houses around Tipton there is such a disparity of wealth. One household may have a net worth of $150k, but the house next door has one of -$150k. It really struck me as interesting, and I wonder what those who speak incessantly of equality think. In the slum areas of India the difference in net worth is minuscule . This strikes me as a good way to demonstrate that equality of opportunity in the theoretical sense is what matters, rather than equality of real dollars. Now Mo is napping and I am attempting to study some Arabic. I would really like to find someone out there who can sit with me, have a cup of tea, and chat in basic Arabic. Somehow I doubt that I...