Libertarianism from a practical, consequentialist perspective.
According to Thomas Sowell, the War on Poverty did nothing to help African Americans. An excerpt:
I'm back from vacation. Unfortunately, My summer break is over so I probably won't be blogging as much as I'd like to, but I'll get around to it as soon as I find the time.
One last post before I actually leave for my vacation. I want to link to this article. Remember folks, it's production, not consumption, that drives an economy.
I bet you didn't know that today is Kenneth Arrow's Birthday. Arrow is a Nobel prize winning economist who figured out that it's impossible for legislators to come up with optimal decisions. This theorem is called Arrow's Impossibility Theorm.
Adam Thierer made a sketch of what the Telecom Act of 2006 should look like. Here's my favorite part:
I've received over 3000 hits since I started my blog. To all of my loyal readers, thank you.
There's a big debate over at Catallarchy about the ethics of profiting off suffering. A lot of people consider profiting off suffering a self-evident evil. Naturally, I disagree. Let me offer a Reductio ad Absurdum to show the flaw in this position. Let's say someone with a migraine headache goes to a pharmacy and the pharmacist sells the suffering patient some aspirin. Is that wrong? No doubt the patient is in terrible pain. If so, then much (if not all) of our health care system is based on evil. The Catallarchy debate is a bit different though, since they're discussing excess profits being made because of the storm and the urgency surrounding it drives up demand and thereby driving up the price. First of all, from a consequentialist perspective, the profits might be good since the seller will likely use them to restock inventories in case another big storm comes. Plus there's another problem, what happens if you try to introduce the government into the mess so the state can regulate profits? I'm no expert, but to the best of my knowledge, if profits are regulated many economic transactions will go into the black market. If you disagree with me or if you want to debate further, feel free to discuss your opinions in the comments of this post.
Here is an open letter addressed to all free-traders. The author explains that, while tariffs hamper division of labor, other taxes do as well. He encourages everyone to spread this letter out to as many people as possible, so don't be shy about mentioning this letter on your blog.
Colorado is considering changing its electoral system from the traditional winner-take-all approach to awarding electoral points via proportionality. I'd like to see this enacted on the federal level. It would eliminate some of the flaws in our electoral system, while still maintaining indirect election of presidents. While we're on the subject of proportionality in voting, I'd like to have the House of Representatives reformed to have some sort of proportional representation system, preferably via choice voting (sometimes referred to as the Single Transferable Vote). It would be easier to enact proportional representation in the House because it would require a constitutional amendment to have electoral reform in the Senate.
Here's one example of excessive regulation:
A post at GNXP argues that we should fight fire with fire. The left often uses Sweden as a model for egalitarianism and prosperity, why not fight back and show how prosperity has come to Sweden via liberalization. Sweden is, after all, the ranked #12 in the Heritage Institute's Index of Economic Freedom.
Huey Lewis from the 80's pop group Huey Lewis & the News has endorsed John Kerry. Well I was considering voting for Badnarik, but now this changes things. ;)
The government distorts words as an attempt to fit its own perception of reality, for example:
Tyler Cowen has a number of policy suggestions for Bush here. I highly doubt Bush will follow Cowen's plan, which is unfortunate because they're all good ideas. It's good to see that he put the elimination of trade barriers first, I agree that should be a major priority. The second idea is good as well, Europe free-rides on our huge defense budget. He doesn't give any specifics about how to end the free-rider problem, but I would say withdrawing bases from a number of countries (such as Germany) would do the trick. Regarding idea number three, means-testing would be good, but he misses something. I'm surprised he didn't mention anything about privatizing Medicare. Something I would like to see are Health Savings Accounts (sometimes referred to as HSAs). Cowen mentions two departments he wants to see abolished, namely the departments of Education and Energy. That's a good start, but we should also consider abolishing the departments of HUD, Labor, Commerce, and Agriculture. Regarding idea number eleven, I think he's just scratching the surface when he advocates getting rid of corporate taxation and the AMT. I would like to see a move towards a flat tax or national retail sales tax to replace our current system. Still, his ideas are a good start. Maybe Cowen can consider running as a write-in candidate?
Okay, technically I'm still supposed to be on a break, but this is too interesting to ignore. There's a fascinating article about the fractional reserve system and free banking at Exploit the Worker. Many Austrians don't like the fractional reserve system and look down upon it, often dismissing it as fraudulent. David Friedman, on the other hand, thinks it's a good idea.
I'm going to take a little time off from blogging. I'll be back in maybe a week, possibly later. See ya!
The Property and Environment Research Center advocates individual fishing quotas (also known as IFQs) as a solution to over-fishing. Other countries such as New Zealand, Iceland, and Canada use similar systems.
Dingel at Exploit the Worker discusses a recent study in Economic Journal Watch that argues that, not only does economic liberalization lead to growth, but more growth can also lead to more liberalization. Unfortunately there's a caveat, "This circle is obviously not a spiral toward minimal government". So we're not going to reach utopia anytime soon, but I think we should still welcome more liberalization, especially as a tool for growth.
Neal Boortz is planning on writing a book about the Fair Tax, see here for a preview of one chapter about how the poor might benefit.
The satirical web-site ScrappleFace has the top 10 reasons why homeschooling should be criminalized. One of my favorites:
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