January 2011 Blog Posts (12)

The statists’ argument that government intervention is necessary to correct market failures is easily defeated by asking just this one simple question: how many more architects do we need?



The belief that government must intervene to correct market failures rests on the assumption that government always knows the "right" answer; how else could it determine when the market has arrived at the wrong one? The absurdity of that notion is quite evident when we think about how the central…

While the President made decent jokes about salmon and TSA pat-downs in his State-Of-Delusion speech Tuesday night, the real howler came out on Monday, when he released the following statement on abortion:



"Today marks the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that protects women's health and reproductive freedom, and affirms a fundamental principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters. I am committed to protecting this…

While we are all in agreement that the Federal Reserve System must be abolished, with every passing day it seems to be more like focusing on a single spot on a Dalmatian's coat. As time passes I am coming to believe that auditing the Fed is not only a waste of time, but is totally unnecessary. This opinion is based on the US Constitution, which is a contract between "We the People" and the government that was ordained and established to safeguard our individual  rights. In the interest of…

The principle is not difficult to grasp: if you are the owner of you, then you have a right to work. If you do not have the right to work, then someone else owns you. If you oppose your right to work, but you don't know who else it is that owns you, may I suggest...me.



We'll call it the TimFL-CIO, and here is how it works: the government forces your employer to withhold dues from each pay check and send them to…me. That’s right - you will pay me to take away your…

Here is the difference: socialists fret over giving everyone an equal slice of the pie, while capitalists bake more pies. Which is better - abundance distributed unequally, or an equal ration of scarcity? Capitalists choose abundance.



Wealth is created when materials, labor, and capital are employed to add value. The baker takes $1 worth of ingredients (material) mixes and kneads and rolls and forms it (labor) and bakes in an oven (capital), and creates a pie worth $6 to the market…

For many years, the left has sought to deflect criticisms of its job-killing economic ideology with the false promise that government investment in green technology would create a renaissance in American manufacturing, as if more government could cure the injuries caused by too much government.



The problem with the socialists’ "green jobs" theory is that the contrived incentives designed by academics, politicians, and speculators who are overtly hostile to industry can’t overcome…

Wisconsin’s Republicans want to require a state-issued photo ID to vote in order to stop rampant voter fraud. Democrats oppose the measure, claiming that tens of thousands of voters would be disenfranchised – all Democrats, of course. Both positions are overblown, and neither can claim to be driven by noble principle with a straight face.



When all the partisan spinning, posing, and posturing are done, here’s the deal: Republicans don’t want elections decided by Mexicans, and…

When my libertarian friends railed against the FCC’s seizing authority over the Internet right before Christmas, I honestly didn’t get what all of the fuss was about. In the aftermath of the tragedy in Tucson, I get it. I really get it.



Imagine if Saturday’s shooting would have occurred in Internet-less world. The Sheriff would have linked the shooter to the Tea Party, and the mainstream media would run with it, embellishing the narrative to include Sarah Palin, talk radio,…

The federal government is teetering on the edge of total collapse. The trillions of dollars in debt that the best Congress money can buy can never be repaid. It's simply impossible, but it really doesn't matter; we the people are not responsible for these debts. I watched a video a short while ago that made the point clearly. Here is the gist of the message;

A plantation owner in the Old South has slaves whose labor produces his profits. He may decide to borrow money based on his…

If more government is the answer, as liberals argue, then the 50% more of it that we added over the past decade would have proved their theory beyond a shadow of a doubt and I would be a raving socialist now. It did not, and I am not.



In fiscal year 2000, it cost us $3.2 trillion to run the government at all levels – local, state, and federal. In 2010, our government cost us $6.4 trillion - double. And not all due to undeclared wars and federal bailouts; state and local government…

Congressional sessions have become like NBA games: they pose, sleepwalk, and talk smack for most of it, then play like they mean it for the last five minutes.



So in a flurry of activity that included every manner of legislative maneuver except for actually reading any of the bills that they passed, our 111th Congress wrapped up its lame duck session by passing a new arms treaty, an extension – sort of - of the Bush tax cuts, unemployment benefit extension, emergency funding to keep…

Stock markets staged an explosive rally following the Federal Reserve announcement of an additional $600 billion quantitative easing in its economic faith-based initiative to drive interest rates underneath already low historical levels and start a chain reaction that creates jobs and invigorates the economy.

The…