I saw this post titled, The Day That Einstein Feared Has Arrived, at zerohedge.com. It has a quote from Albert Einstein saying, “I Fear The Day That Technology Will Surpass Our Human Interaction. The World Will Be A Generation Of Idiots”. Look at the photos in this post. You’ve seen versions of these pictures in your everyday life, haven’t you? It’s kind of scary. I wonder if people today are aware of what’s going on around them? And, would they be able to see a discernible pattern of events, even if they were paying attention????
France Waves Discreet Goodbye To 75% Super Tax, at yahoo.com. Here is a quote from the article, “The reform clearly damaged France’s reputation and competitiveness,” said Jorg Stegemann, head of Kennedy Executive, an executive search firm based in France and Germany. “It clearly has become harder to attract international senior managers to come to France than it was,” he added. Nobody could have predicted this, could they?
Gun Violence In America (In Six Uncomfortable Charts), at zerohedge.com. I don’t know how you can consider fire arm violence a health problem. In the last chart it says, “the United States has high mortality rates from firearm homicide and suicide”. By definition doesn’t homicide and suicide mean that the mortality rate is 100%?
Murray Rothbard On Confused Intellectuals, I saw this video at economicpolicyjournal.com. This is what is happening today in America. Keep capitalism and markets, and just allow state intervention to correct the flaws.
How Japan Bankrupted Itself – Lessons For Europe, at zerohedge.com. Not just lessons for Europe, but hopefully lessons for ourselves. Two and a half decades of economic stagnation brought about by Keynesian proscribed spending and debt, can’t be overcome by more of the same.
Why The Butter Shortage In Japan?, at pretenseofknowledge.com. Who would have guessed that Government intervention in the dairy industry, would lead to unintended consequences down the road?
The Extraordinary Life Of Barack Obama’s Imaginary Son, by Stephen Miller, at ricochet.com. This is a good read if only to understand the rhetorical tactics used by politicians and bureaucrats who don’t have a real argument for their positions.
We’re stuck with the bill for this gift from our “leaders“.
Ryan McMaken’s article titled, Correcting Scrooge’s Economics (read here), takes a look at Charles Dickens’ classic novel, A Christmas Carol, through the lens of Austrian Economics.
Here are some excerpts from the article.
“As Charles Dickens himself admits, Ebenezer Scrooge is a thoroughly peaceful man, guilty of no true crime, who has robbed no one. Therefore, we must conclude that his wealth is a sign of his ability to please at least some people, and as Michael Levin notes: “Dickens doesn’t mention Scrooge’s satisfied customers, but there must have been plenty of them for Scrooge to have gotten so rich.”
Value is Subjective
“As Carl Menger demonstrated long ago, value is subjective and different persons value goods differently depending on the person’s goals in life. Does the person want to raise a family? Perhaps he wishes to be an independent scholar who devotes all his time to reading and research. Perhaps he wishes to be a hermit who prays most of the day….. A like or dislike of Christmas, for example, cannot be calculated this way.”
“Scrooge, who is apparently not a Christmas enthusiast, greatly values money, and likes to have plenty of it handy… In Human Action, Ludwig von Mises explained that human action stems from a desire to “remove unease” about one’s present situation. With Scrooge we see (if his fiancée is to be believed) that the thought of being destitute is a source of constant unease for him. Thus, he desires to build as much wealth as possible in the hope of being beyond the possibility of poverty.”
“As Scrooge’s primary goals is poverty avoidance, this colors how he views all economic action. His peers tend to not recognize this in him, either dismissing his as simply “odious,” as Mrs. Cratchit does, or as unhappy.”
“…. just as Scrooge’s colleagues and family members do not appreciate his ranking of values — Scrooge does not seem to appreciate that others might value money for different reasons.”
Poor Scrooge
“Ebenezer Scrooge asks very little of his fellow human beings. He only asks that they keep up their ends of the bargains in the business agreements they make. It was just his misfortune, then, that he is surrounded by a bevy of control freaks who are hell bent on making sure Scrooge enjoys Christmas in just the way they want him to.”
“Scrooge returns the favor by maintaining a ferociously low opinion of most others around him, concluding quite often that others are simply fools for choosing to enjoy the company of friends and family when there’s money to be made.”
I saw the video below on economicpolicyjournal.com, and it reminded that nobody writes more clearly about race and culture than Thomas Sowell. His book, The Economics and Politics of Race, was written in 1983. I read this book after I had read Race And Culture, Migration and Culture, and Conquests and Cultures, which make up his three book cultural trilogy which was written in 94, 96, and 98 respectively. As much as I liked the cultural trilogy, I think I liked The Economics and Politics Of Race better, although the fact that I read the other books first may have had something to do with it. What I took away from the book is that some cultures are superior to other cultures, in specific areas, at specific times in history. And even though past cultural tendencies seem to follow and influence ethnic groups over time, superiority and inferiority are always subject to change.
Here are some excerpts from the book.
“The human race has, throughout history, differed greatly in its component parts. At various periods of history, some groups have been far ahead of others in military power, scientific achievements, or organizational skills. But often those who were far behind in one era became far ahead in another era. The Chinese, for example, had a huge and complex empire thousands of years ago, when Nordic Europe was living a primitive, tribal existence. It has been only the past two or three centuries that their roles have been reversed…..The Arabs conquered parts of Europe in the Middle Ages but have suffered conquest by Europeans in more recent times.”
“Virtually every portion of the human species excels at something. From an economic point or view, this means the mutual benefits can result from cooperation among different racial and ethnic groups, whether through domestic markets, international trade, or the migration of peoples. From a Political point of view, however, it is very difficult to get acceptance of these intergroup differences and their beneficial economic consequences. The conflict between the economic consequences and the political consequences of these group differences is one that appears again and again…..”
In this video Thomas Sowell discusses his book, The Economics and Politics Of Race, on the TV show, Tony Brown’s Journal.
Here are some excerpts from the book.
“History is a treasure of experience, available without paying the high price often inflicted on those who lived through it. But history is not free, however. It conflicts painfully with many cherished beliefs and shatters many carefully built theories. At best it is untidy and complex, and often it is a battleground for those with differing visions of the world today. Yet history remains a massive fact and a massive influence on out lives: “We do not live in the past, but the past in us”.”
“To seek to look ahead into the future is to seek to understand the momentum of the past and the choices available to us in the present. We live in a world of options constrained by decisions already made and actions already taken – as well as constrained by mutually competitive and perhaps irreconcilable goals among contemporaries.”
“The history of racial and ethnic groups around the world is a story of the heights and depths of the human spirit – the glory of its perseverance in the face of every kind of adversity and the vileness of its brutality against the helpless. Whether the future brings great advancements or succumbs to wretched agonies, it will have ample precedents. How well we understand the past can be an important factor in decisions to shape that future.’
THOMAS SOWELL QUOTE – “Each group tends to trail the long shadow of its own cultural history as well as reflecting the consequences of external influences”.
The pen is mightier than the sword… (Photo credit: mbshane)
Elvira Nabiullina: Central Banker Of The Year, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Russian central bank chair Elvira Nabiulinna raised the interest rate from 10.5% to 17% in order to reign in inflation and also to stop the collapse of the ruble which was caused when the central bank stopped its previous multiple billion dollar intervention. Here is an excerpt from the article, “The Central Bank has yet to hint they would start a stimulus project, or money printing, to avoid recession…..Contrast this coolness with the panic in the eyes of Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson during the 2008 financial crisis, when they caused the US government to intervene one hundred different ways and bail out the banksters.”
Can we trade Fed Chairman Janet Yellen, a couple billion of electronically printed counterfeit U.S. dollars, and a player to be named later for Elvira Nabiullina.
Money For Nothing: Volcker, from Liberty Street Films. Below is a video clip about the Federal Reserve Bank from the movie “Money For Nothing”. The clip talks about Fed Chairman Paul Volker raising the interest rates to above 20% in order to kill inflation and cure the easy money sickness that plagued the U.S. economy during the 70’s and early 80’s. This is what Elvira Nabiulina is attempting to do in Russia by raising interest rates to 17%. The U.S economy will have to eventually go through the liquidation of economic activity artificially brought into existence because the Fed electronically printed trillions of counterfeit dollars, and also their zero interest rate policy. Sooner or later the correction has to come.
Where The ‘Great Recovery’ Is 25% Worse Than The ‘Great Recession‘, at zerohedge.com. We talked about companies using easy money to buy back their stock in order to raise its price. Here are some interesting charts about how Caterpillar has been doing during this great recovery.
Dead Weight Loss From The New California Gas Tax, by David Henderson, at econlog.econlib.org. California’s cap-and-trade regulations will cost consumers 10 cents more per gallon. I don’t understand this excerpt from the article. “When you buy one gallon of California gasoline, the seller will have to cover about 18 pounds of emissions. At the current price of allowances–about $12 per metric ton–that works out to about 10 cents per gallon of gas…” My question is; if a gallon of gas weighs 6.25 lbs, how can it produce 18 lbs of emissions? I have to ask my brother, who is a chemist, ow this works.
Socialist On The Line Caption Contest, at zerohedge.com. Their caption is, If Cuba is good socialism, and Venezuela is bad socialism, what does that make America. My caption: George Washington is thinking, “there’s a lot of credentialed ignorance in this room.”
If the rule of law is defined as 1) general rules, 2) known in advance, and 3) applying to the rulers as well as the ruled; than the breakdown of the rule of law is caused by government, 1) making laws that are micro managing, 2) so numerous we can’t possibly know them in advance, and 3) not applying to the rulers, only to the ruled.
When our Government betters think of themselves as being exempt or above the law, and act in a way that flaunts this attitude, regular people will start to push back against such lawlessness by disregarding laws. (There are examples in the related articles below). Here are some excerpts from the article by Dr. Williams.
“President Barack Obama said just before the recent Ferguson, Missouri, riots, “First and foremost, we are a nation built on the rule of law.” Most Americans have little or no inkling of what “rule of law” means. Many think it means obedience to whatever laws legislatures enact. That’s a vision that has led to human tragedy down through the ages…….“
“Let’s ask ourselves what the characteristics of laws in a free society should be. Let’s think about baseball rules (laws) as a way to approach this. Some players, through no fault of their own, hit fewer home runs than others. In order to create baseball justice, or what’s sometimes called a level playing field, how about a rule requiring pitchers to throw easier pitches to poorer home run hitters? Alternatively, we could make a rule that what would be a double for a power hitter is a home run for someone who doesn’t hit many homers…….“
“You say, “Williams, you can’t be serious! Can you imagine all the chaos that would ensue: players lobbying umpires, umpires deciding who gets what favor, and lawsuits — not to mention violence?” You’re absolutely right. The reason baseball games end peaceably — with players and team owners satisfied with the process, whether they win or lose — is that baseball rules (law) are applied equally to all players. They’re fixed, and umpires don’t make up rules as they go along. In other words, baseball rules meet the test of “abstractness.” They envision no particular game outcome in terms of winners and losers. The rules that govern baseball simply create a framework in which the game is played……”
“Laws or rules in a free society should have similar characteristics………. Laws envision no particular outcome except that of allowing people to peaceably pursue their own objectives. Finally, and most importantly, laws are equally applied to everyone, including government officials”.
The pen is mightier than the sword… (Photo credit: mbshane)
Why So Many Health Insurance Plans Canceled By Obamacare, by John Lott , at johnrlott.blogspot.com. This short video explains how insane the rules are in the The Affordable Care Act. The only reason you would make rules like this is if you want them to fail, so you can try to go to a single payer Government system.
Fighting Free Markets: Orlando Government Wants Uber To Charge 25% More Than Taxis, at economicpolicyjournal.com. This is one way Government tries to “level the playing field”. Orlando Fla. is trying to reclassify Uber rides as livery vehicles. Uber drivers would be forced to charge 25% more than the minimum taxi rate. Get this, taxi companies say they are afraid Uber drivers would ignore the new regulation; no, really, they wouldn’t do that. The next step would be to have the police enforce the new regulation. I can see the headline now: “Uber Driver Shot Dead By Police For Failing To Charge Rider A Higher Fare”.
N.Y.C. Would Have City Develop Its Own Taxi-Hailing App, by Eric Pfeiffer, at govexec.com. Here is another way Government tries to create a level playing field. City Council Member Ben Kallos is proposing a bill to authorize the creation of a city sponsored app for hailing traditional city cabs. First question, is there a reason taxi companies can’t create the app themselves? Answer, yes, because there is a New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission that regulates these businesses. The Taxi Cartel didn’t know that when they made their deal with the devil to protect their monopoly position, that the devil would some day prevent them from competing with an upstart competitor that could not be foreseen when the deal was made. Does anyone really think the Government can create a competitive app? Before you answer, think healthcare.gov. Ah: “Hoisted by one’s own petard“.
The Runaway Trillions, at targetliberty.com. The national debt is $18,000,000,000,000.00 (that’s 18 trillion), and growing exponentially.
Detroit West: California Pension Plans Are Running Dry, at economicpolicyjournal.com. This is what happens when you pay labor more than what it produces. The difference between California’s debt and the Federal Governments debt? The Federal Government can get the Fed to electronically print counterfeit money to finance their debt, and States can’t.
This infographic is from The Austrian Insider (click here). It gives a short outline of the differences between Keynesian Economics and Austrian Economics.
I’ve previously posted these two rap videos about Keynesian Economics vs The Austrian School, featuring F.A. Hayek vs. J.M. Keynes. Listen closely to the arguments from both sides, I forgot how well these were put together.
FEAR THE BOOM AND BUST: KEYNES vs. HAYEK
THE FIGHT OF THE CENTURY: KEYNES vs. HAYEK ROUND II
These are by John Papola and Russ Roberts from Econ Stories.
Go to The Ludwig von Mises Institute at mises.org for more information about the Austrian perspective.
I’ve figured out over the years that these congressional hearings are strictly political theater. One side trying to make political hay by hammering the person testifying, and the other side trying their best to protect him [which means protect their ideology}. Nothing of consequence ever comes out of these kinds of hearings other than political posturing.
APOLOGY NOT ACCEPTED MR. GRUBER
Here is Jonathan Gruber’s opening statement in front of a congressional committee concerning his comments about The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. Watch these comments under oath with his lawyer present.
Now watch his comments about the ACA when he felt he could speak freely.
Which Jonathan Gruber is telling the truth?
TORTURED DEFINITION OF TORTURE
In the stories I’ve read about the Senate report on torture that was released today, water boarding and sleep deprivation are the techniques mentioned as torture. They are also called, ‘harsh’ or ‘enhanced’ interrogation techniques. They can’t be both. My problem with this whole report is we can’t agree on what is and is not torture and what is and is not an interrogation technique. Pulling out fingernails, hamstringing, thumbscrews, tarring and feathering, pulling or drilling teeth, beating or physical violence, breaking bones, scalping, knee capping, and branding are what I would call torture. What John McCain went through in Viet Nam was torture. Sleep deprivation and water boarding are not torture.
Many of these Senators who are planting their flag on the political high ground against torture knew that these enhanced interrogation techniques were going on during the Bush Presidency. It is much easier to be righteously indignant after the fact than it is to do what you consider to be the right thing at the very moment it happens. Always remember, politicians view everything through the lens of politics.
The pen is mightier than the sword… (Photo credit: mbshane)
Opinions vs. Facts, by Thomas Sowell, at jewishworldreview.com. Dr. Sowell lends us his common sense analysis, so we can better understand the Ferguson situation. The must read of the must reads.
Race Hustler Eric Holder Called Out, at economicnoise.com. Milwaukee County Wisconsin Sheriff, David Clarke, unloads on race hustlers like Sharpton and Holder.
Watch Obama Make The Case Against His Executive Order On Immigration.
The Worlds Biggest Chocolate-Maker Says We’re Running Out Of Chocolate, by Roberto Ferdman, at washingtonpost.com. I love chocolate so this article is important to me. Dry weather along with a fungal disease in West Africa has reduced global cocoa production by 30%. The demand for more cocoa is rising because of economic growth in China and more over all world demand for dark chocolate, {which contains 70% chocolate compared with 10% in regular chocolate bars). But don’t worry because the same economic forces of supply and demand that are bringing the price of oil and gas down, will eventually do the same thing for chocolate. As the price goes up individuals will produce {supply} more at the higher price, and individuals will consume {demand} less at these higher prices, eventually bringing the price down.
Forget High Minimum Wage Order Takers: Pizza Hut Will Just Read Your Mind Instead, at economicpolicyjournal.com. You can order based on what toppings your eyes look at the longest. We are at the beginning of big changes in the way we do everything. Individuals in Government won’t be able to keep up with, let alone try to regulate things that are about break through.
Vision For The Future: 1 Million Fewer Cars On The Road, by Kimiko, at uber.com. It’s Uber’s version of car pooling. When there are multiple trips that start and end at similar locations, or when there are riders along the route taken, they will take the same car and share the cost. Spontaneous activity in the market that will help ease traffic congestion in ways that the smartest central planners could never imagine.
Under Pressure From Uber, Taxi Medallion Prices Are Plummeting, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Once again the status quo monopoly is about to crack. Government regulations have artificially kept the prices for taxi medallions high for decades. Economic forces in the market always have a way of winning.
Jobs: Shale States vs. Non Shale States, at zerohedge.com. The President is trying to take credit for this, even though his administration has done everything in its power to shut down or limit oil production.
Uber Banned In Vegas, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Big taxi doesn’t like competition from the little guy, so they run to the Government for some help.
Here It Comes: Master Card Seeks “Level Playing Field” For Bitcoin Regulation, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Are we beginning to see a pattern: Status quo companies lobby their buddies in Government, in order to get rid of their upstart competitors. It is apparently less costly to do this, than compete in the market with these upstarts. The myth is, big business likes competition. In reality they liked competition when they were the up start competitors. They don’t like it as much once they get near the top.
"THE COORDINATION OF MENS ACTIVITIES THROUGH CENTRAL PLANNING OR THROUGH VOLUNTARY COOPERATION ARE ROADS GOING IN VERY DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS, THE FIRST TO SERFDOM AND POVERTY THE SECOND TO FREEDOM AND PLENTY."
"THERE IS NO SUBTLER, NO SURER MEANS OF OVERTURNING THE EXISTING BASIS OF SOCIETY THAN TO DEBAUCH THE CURRENCY. THE PROCESS ENGAGES ALL THE HIDDEN FORCES OF ECONOMIC LAW ON THE SIDE OF DESTRUCTION, AND DOES IT IN A MANNER WHICH NOT ONE MAN IN A MILLION IS ABLE TO DIAGNOSE."
Most Recent Quote
F.A. Hayek - "Since the value of freedom rests on the opportunity it provides for unforseen and unpredictable actions, we will rarely know what we lose through a particular restriction of freedom."
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Matthew McCaffrey - "Building a freer society means winning the battle of ideas, not the empty contests put on by the central Government every four years. Freedom is never obtained by endorsing the least offensive applicant for the position of chief villain."
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Ludwig von Mises - "The middle system of property that is hampered, guided, and regulated by government is in itself contradictory and illogical. Any attempt to introduce it in earnest must lead to a crisis from which either Socialism or Capitalism alone can emerge."
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F. A. Hayek - "While it may not be difficult to destroy the spontaneous formations which are the indispensable bases of a free civilization. It may be beyond our power deliberately to reconstruct such a civilization once these foundations are destroyed."
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Murray Rothbard - "The market promotes and rewards the skills of production and voluntary cooperation. The Government enterprise promotes the skills of mass coercion and bureaucratic submission...and those who get to the top will be those with the most skill in that particular task."
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John Adams - "Government is instituted for the common good: for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people. And not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men..."
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Milton Friedman - "Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself."
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Chris Rossini - "The state is a monster that destroys. Those who gain control of the levers, choose the targets."
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Murray Rothbard -"It is no crime to be ignorant of economics...but it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance."
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Murray Rothbard -"Democracy can be only a possible route toward a free society rather than an attribute of it. In a purely free society there would be nothing for democratic electors to vote about."
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Robert Bradley Jr. - "When Government tries to pick winners and losers, it typically picks losers. Why? Because the Free market consumers pick winners to leave the losers for Government."
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Benito Mussolini - "Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."
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Ludwig von Mises - "Men must choose between the market economy and socialism....some agency must determine what should be produced. If it is not the consumer by means of demand and supply on the market, it must be the Government by compulsion."
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F. A. Hayek - "The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know, about what they imagine they can design."
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Detlev Schlichter - "Any intervention in the market (by the state) must direct resources away from how private owners would have employed them and toward how state officials and their economic advisers would like to see them employed."
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Henry Hazlitt - "The question is not whether we wish to see everybody as well off as possible....the real question concerns the proper means of achieving it. And in trying to answer this we must never lose sight of a few elementary truisms. We cannot distribute more wealth than is created. We cannot in the long run pay labor as a whole more than it produces."
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Murray Rothbard - "Whether or not man lives at the level of poverty or abundance depends upon the success that he and his ancestors have had in grappling with nature and in transforming naturally given resources into capital goods and consumers goods.... Free markets tend to lead to abundance for all of its participants.... violent intervention in the market and a hegemonic society tend to lead to general poverty."
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Ludwig von Mises - "Inflation and credit expansion are the means to obfuscate the fact that there prevails a nature-given scarcity of the material things on which the satisfaction of human wants depends. The main concern of capitalists private enterprise it to remove this scarcity as much as possible and to provide a continuously improving standard of living for an increasing population.....but however remarkable these improvements may be, there will always be a strict limit to the amount that can be consumed without reducing the capital available for the continuation and, even more, the expansion of production."
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Ludwig von Mises - " It is impossible to grasp the meaning of the idea of sound money if one does not realize that it was devised as an instrument for the protection of civil liberties against despotic inroads on the part of Governments. Ideologically, it belongs in the same class with political constitutions and bills of rights."
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Murray Rothbard - "To reduce the working population while the consuming population remains undiminished is to lower the standard of living."
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Murray Rothbard - "Increasing the money supply confers no social benefit. It relieves no economic scarcity. It simply benefits some at the expense of others."
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Ludwig von Mises - "Political ideas that have dominated the public mind for decades cannot be refuted through rational arguments, they must run their course in life and cannot collapse otherwise than in great catastrophe."
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Milton Friedman - "A society that puts equality- in the sense of equality of outcome- ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests."
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F. A. Hayek - "It has already been suggested that it is not necessary, for the working of this free market capitalist system, that anybody should understand it. But people are not likely to let it work if they do not understand it."
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C. S. Lewis - "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; But those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
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Ludwig von Mises - "For the naive mind there is something miraculous in the issuance of fiat money. A magic word spoken by the Government creates out of nothing a thing which can be exchanged against any merchandize a man would like to get."
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Ludwig von Mises - "Many think that governments are free to achieve all they aim at without being restrained by an inexorable regularity in the sequence of economic phenomena....they maintain that the state is God."
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George Gilder - "Under capitalism, economic power flows not to the intellectual, who manipulates ideas and basks in their light, but to men who gives himself to his ideas and tests them with his own wealth and work."
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Thomas Sowell - "Perhaps the greatest achievement of market economies is in economizing on the amount of knowledge needed to produce a given economic result. That is also their greatest political vulnerability."
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Ludwig von Mises - "Anti capitalistic policies sabotage the operation of the capitalist system of the market economy. The failure of interventionism does not demonstrate the necessity of adopting socialism. It merely exposes the futility of interventionism. All those evils which the self-styled "progressives" interpret as evidence of the failure off capitalism are the outcome of their allegedly beneficial interference with the market."
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F.A. Hayek - "The battle for freedom must be won over and over again, the socialists of all parties must be persuaded or defeated if they and we are to remain free men."
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F. A. Hayek - "Planning, or central direction of economic activity, presupposes the existence of common ideals and common values; and the degree to which planning can be carried is limited to the extent to which agreement on such a common scale of values can be obtained or enforced."
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Thomas Sowell - "In political competition accurate knowledge has no decisive competitive advantage, because what is being sold is not an end result but a plausible belief about a complex process"
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Thomas Sowell - " Taxing away what other people have earned, in order to finance one's own moral adventures via social programs, is often depicted as a humanitarian endeavor, while allowing others the same freedom and dignity as oneself, so that they can make their own choices with their own earnings is considered pandering to greed. Greed for power is no less dangerous than greed for money, and has historically shed far more blood in the process."
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Peter Earle - "In a world of infinate desires and limited means, choices must be made; a study of history and economics reveals that, while markets make no promises, they never lie. The only choice is whether distribution, or redistribution as the case may be, is to be accomplished by the organic, apportioning hand of the price system, or by the corrupt, spoilative claw of states."
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Thomas Jefferson - "....To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with public debt....we must make our choice between economy and liberty or confusion and servitude....if we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and comforts, in our labor and in our amusements.... if we can prevent the Government from wasting the labor of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy."
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F. A. Hayek - "The democratic statesman who sets out to plan economic life will soon be confronted with the alternative of either assuming dictatorial powers or abandoning his plans."
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Jean Baptiste Say - "...The encouragement of mere consumption is no benefit to commerce, for the difficulty lies in supplying the means, not in stimulating the desire of consumption; and we have seen that production alone, furnishes those means. Thus, it is the aim of Good Government to stimulate production, of bad Government to encourage consumption."
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Ludwig von Mises - "The middle-of-the-road policy is not an economic system that can last. It is a method for the realization of socialism by installments."
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Thomas Sowell - "What is politically defined as economic planning is the forcible superseding of other people's plans by Government officials."
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Thomas Sowell - "The market is simply the freedom to choose among many existing or still to be created possibilities. The Government establishes an army or a post office as the answer to a given problem.... The diversity of personal tastes insures that no given institution will become the answer to a human problem in the market."
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Thomas Sowell - "Just as a poetic discussion of the weather is not meteorology, so an issuance of moral pronouncements or political creeds about the economy is not economics."
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Paul Craig Roberts - "We should all be thankful to the Soviets, because they have proved conclusively that socialism doesn't work. No one can say they didn't have enough power or enough bureaucracy or enough planners or they didn't go far enough."
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Alexis de Tocqueville - "Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man, socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality, but notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude."
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George Gilder - "The Real Issue is between the rule of law and the rule of leveler egalitarianism, between creative excellence and covetous "fairness", between admiration of achievement versus envy and resentment of it'.
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Thomas Jefferson - "The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite."
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Judge Leonard Hand - "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; if it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it."
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Ludwig von Mises - "Modern civilization is a product of the philosophy of laissez faire, it cannot be preserved under the ideology of Government omnipotence."
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Ludwig von Mises - "The issue is always the same: the government or the market. There is no third solution."
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H.L. Menken - "Government is a broker in pillage, and every election is an advance auction on the sale of stolen goods"
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F.A. Hayek - "Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one's Government is not necessarily to secure freedom."
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Detlev Schlichter - "Economics is the science of how we use social institutions such as private property and voluntary exchange on free markets to make the best use of scarce resources. The printing press tries to do away with scarcity."
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Thomas Sowell - "The God like approach to social policy ignores the diversity of values and the cost of agreement among human beings."
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Henry Hazlitt - "Whenever men are allowed liberty, and freedom of choice, they will make mistakes. Liberty is not a guarantee of omniscience. But neither are the mistakes of free men a valid excuse to take away their liberty, and impose Government controls in its stead, on the ground that all wisdom and disinterestedness resides in the people who are going to do the controlling."
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Thomas Sowell - "Nothing is easier than to confuse broader powers with deeper insight. But almost by definition, those with the broadest powers are the most remote from the specific knowledge needed for either deciding, or for knowing, the actual consequences of their decisions."
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Ludwig von Mises - "Credit expansion is the Government's foremost tool in their struggle against the market economy. In their hands it is the magic wand designed to conjure away the scarcity of capital goods, to lower the rate of interest or to abolish it altogether to finance lavish Government spending."
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Ludwig von Mises - "Economic history is a long record of Government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for the laws of economics."
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Chaderov - "Since the State thrives on what it expropriates, the general decline in production that it induces by it's avarice foretells its own doom. Its source of income dries up. Thus in pulling society down it pulls itself down."
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Thomas Sowell - "If an informed citizenry is the foundation of democratic Government, than an uninformed citizenry is a danger."
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Thomas Sowell - "The free market works best when there is a level playing field but politicians win more votes by tilting the playing field to favor particular groups."
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Thomas Sowell - "However dramatic or attractive a particular vision may be, ultimately everyone must live in the world of reality. To the extent that reality has been filtered to fit a vision, this filtered information is a misleading guide to making decisions in an unforgiving reality, to which we must all adjust because it is not going to adjust to us."
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Thomas Sowell - "Envy was once considered to be one of the seven deadly sins before it became one of the most admired virtues under its new name "Social Justice"."
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Murray Rothbard - "Bureaucracy incompetent enough to plan a stationary system, is vastly more incompetent at planning a progressing one."
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Ludwig von Mises - "Freedom is incompatible with equality of wealth and income. Men are born unequal and it is precisely their inequality that generates social cooperation and civilization."
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Murray Rothbard - "Government subsidy systems promote inefficiency in production and efficiency in coercion and subservience, while penalizing efficiency in production and inefficiency in predation (plundering)."
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Francisco Capella - "The right of property is a negative right of noninterference. Humans do not have natural positive rights that imply that others must do something for them, and there is no natural duties towards others (present and future). Positive rights and duties arise by means of contracts."
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Victor Davis Hanson - "Social justice sees the Government's proper moral obligation not as ensuring equality out of the starting gate, but as guaranteeing that we will all reach the finish line at the same exact moment."
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F.A. Hayek - "A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a Government with totalitarian powers."
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Thomas Sowell - "People who are very aware that they have more knowledge than the average person are often very unaware that they do not have one tenth of the knowledge of all of the average persons put together. In this situation, for the intelligentsia to impose their notions on ordinary people is essentially to impose ignorance on knowledge."
"Credentialed ignorance is still ignorance."
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Thomas Sowell - "People have to be aware of the dangers in letting economic decisions be made through political processes."
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Winston Churchill - "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."
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George Gilder - "Socialist and totalitarian Governments are doomed to support the past, because creativity is unpredictable, it is also uncontrollable. If the politicians want to have central planning and command, they can not have dynamism and life. A managed economy is almost by definition a barren one.
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George Gilder - "The ambitious agenda of contemporary liberalism simply ensures that Government will do nothing well, except to expand itself as an obstacle of growth and innovation. Government best supports the future by refraining as much as possible from trying unduly to shape it."
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Francisco Capella - "Markets are never perfect because human beings are limited in their abilities; proposing state fixes to alleged problems that individuals cannot solve freely seems to forget that the state is also made up of humans; and perhaps not the best ones. ( Bureaucrats are not disinterested angels, and the worst might get to the top.)"
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George Washington - "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force, like fire it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master."
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Thomas Jefferson -- "I think we have more machinery of Government than is necessary, to many parasites living on the labor of the industrious."
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Thomas Jefferson -- "I sincerely believe with you that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, it's but swindling futurity on a large scale."
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Thomas Jefferson -- "The two enemies of the people are criminals and Government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first."
AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT 