Must Reads For The Week 12/17/16

Posted December 17, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

OPEC MONOPOLY?

What OPEC Cut? Iraq Is Boosting It’s January Oil Exports By 7%, at zerohedge.com. OPEC’s “monopoly” never really existed. A cartel can only work if members follow the rules. Many of these countries can’t afford to cut production because oil is the resource they exchange for resources they do not or cannot produce. Cartels are only as good as there weakest links.

MCW Energy Group Limited Lowers Cost With New Oil Sands Extraction Technology, at mcwenergygroup.com. The ability to find new sources of oil, as well as new technologies to extract this oil, are also reason OPEC has lost whatever illusory monopoly power they and we thought they might have had. As long as competitors are allowed to enter a market, their can be no monopoly. Monopolies can only exist because of Government sanctions. If a supposed cartel tries to control price by constricting supply, the price will go up which in turn makes it profitable for competitors to enter the market at the higher price. The increased supply will bring the price down. Market prices are a double-edged sword for cartels who think they have a monopoly. They want a higher price for their resource, but the higher price makes it profitable for marginal suppliers to enter the market. This eventually brings the price down. Free markets work

Fortune 500 Firms 1995vs. 2016: Only 12% Remain Thanks To The Creative Destruction That Fuels Economic Prosperity, by Mark Perry, at carpediemblog. This has nothing to do with oil, but it has everything to do with monopoly. The market isn’t concerned with propping up the status quo that exists at the moment. Government is concerned with that. The market is what results when individuals are free to decide what they will produce, consume, exchange and save, according to each individuals subjective valuations, in a world of scarce resources. The market is about the future, Government intervention is about propping up the past.

ELECTION SHENANIGANS

Mass Detroit Voter Fraud? 37% Of Precincts Counted More Ballots Than Voters, at zerohedge.com. + More Detroit Voting “Irregularities”. 95 Poll Books Missing For Days, 5 Still Nowhere to Be Found, at zerohedge.com. This is what real election tampering looks like.

“Bullet In The Mouth” – Trump Electors Flooded With Death Threats, at zerohedge.com. Another example of tampering with an election.

NY Times Hires Reporter Who Sent Stories To Clinton Campaign For Approval, at tammybruce.com. This Clinton hack reporter’s misdeeds were a resume enhancement. Who’s worried about fake news from the NYT now?

So It Was Not Hacking, Apologies Now, Or Get Out, at theburningplatform.com. NSA Whistle Blower Destroys Obama’s Russian Hacking Narrative, at zerohedge.com. Julian Assange Crushes Obama Narrative. “Our Source Is Not The Russian Government, at zerohedge.com. Who has more credibility, Obama or …. pick someone.

Obama Vows Retaliation Against “Russian Hacking”, at zerohedge.com. I’m sure Putin is quacking in his boots because of this threat. Who would take this threat seriously? Besides the fact that Obama is a wimp, he will be out of office in 4 and a half weeks.

INTERFERING WITH THE MARKET

HEROIC Uber To California Regulators: Drop Dead, at economicpolicyjournal.com. I love it when the status quo is basically told to go  #+(%  yourself.

Portland Asks Businesses To Move Elsewhere, by Per Bylund, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article: “Businesses in Portland, or, who pay “Too High” of Salaries to their CEOs will be hit by a 10% surcharge on their taxes.”  Two things will happen. Either these businesses will move, or they will find creative ways to compensate their CEOs without calling it a salary.

Single Mother Facing Prison For Selling Homemade Mexican Dish To Undercover Cop, by Robby Soave, at reason.com. These undercover cops are risking their lives. They are real heroes! Raise your hand if you think there is too much Government regulation.

A New Victim In The War On Small-Biz Bakeries, by Michelle Malkin, at townhall.com. A bakery employee stopped a shop lifter from stealing two bottles of wine. Since the perp was black, local college students organized a protest against the bakery for racial profiling.

EPA Rushing Through Regulations After Trumps Election, by John Sicliano, at washingtonexaminer.com. Unelected bureaucrats will push their ideology through regulations. Government agencies in general and the EPA in particular have to be reigned in.

Has “Market Failure” Caused High Health-Care Prices? by Dale Steinreich, at mises.org. The high cost of healthcare is a result of decades of government intervention into the healthcare market. The final straw was Obamacare. Healthcare and health insurance are economic goods produced by individuals, not government bureaucrats.

This Is What Hyperinflation Looks Like, at economicpolicyjournal.com. This is what an economy that is centrally planned by government bureaucrats eventually looks like.

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Prager University: Democratic Socialism Is Still Socialism

Posted December 14, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Econ. 101
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Capitalism or Socialism - Traffic sign with two options - socialist centralized economic planning or capitalist liberated free market

Socialism is defined as Government owning the means of production. In a Capitalist economic system, the means of production are owned by individuals. Many systems today try to have a delicate balance between these two systems. They are similar to the economic Fascism that existed under Mussolini in Italy where the means of production are still owned by individuals, but Government politicians and bureaucrats make rules and regulations on how these means are to be used, as well as taxing away a high percentage of profits.

If a country is in the middle between Socialism and Capitalism the important question is; which direction is it headed? Is a country moving toward more economic freedom or toward more government central planning. The U.S. has been traveling, at varying speeds, down the road toward more central planning since the 60’s, with the accelerator pressed to the floor in the last 8 years.

This past election was a response to what has happened in the last 8 years. Lets hope Trump and Congress want to turn around and head in the direction of more economic freedom. But I wouldn’t count on it. I just hope they take their foot off the accelerator.

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM IS STILL SOCIALISM

Steven Crowder looks for the differences between Democratic Socialism and Socialism in this video from Prager University. Even though a majority of people vote for (sanction) this system, it doesn’t change the reality that it doesn’t work.

In 1848 Alexis de Tocqueville wrote this about Democracy and Socialism:

“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.”

 

Here are some statements about Socialism.

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.”

F. A. Hayek: “There can be no doubt that the promise of greater freedom as become one of the most effective weapons of socialist propaganda and that the belief that socialism would bring freedom is genuine and sincere. But this would only heighten the tragedy if it should prove that what was promised to us as the road to freedom was in fact the high road to servitude.”

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.”

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 of which agreement on such a common scale of values can be obtained or enforced.”

 

Related Article – Why Socialism Won’t Work, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Milton Friedman – “Socialism is Force”, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Drifting Toward Fascism, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Does Socialism Make People Selfish? at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Socialism Sounds Great, at austrianaddict.com.

 

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Must Reads For The Week 12/10/16

Posted December 9, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In Unprecedented Move, Dallas Pension System Suspends Withdrawals, at zerohedge.com. This is what happens when government can’t say no to public unions. Because tax dollars are being spent, there is no incentive to constrain the greed of public union workers. Ponzi schemes always end badly, even those funded by “unlimited”  tax dollars.

In an unrelated story. Meet California’s 218,667 Public Employees Who Make Over $100,000 A Year, at zerohedge.com. Public employees don’t produce anything that could be sold for a profit in the market. All they produce is red tape. How can these people be more important than the tax payers who pay their salaries, pensions, benefits, and yes even their taxes? This will end badly.

In an unrelated story. Stanford Study Reveals California Pensions Underfunded By $1 Trillion or $93k Per Household, at zerohedge.com. Another Ponzi scheme paid for by tax payers.

Pentagon Buries Evidence Of $125 Billion In Bureaucratic Waste, at thewashingtonpost.com. Those who don’t want to cut the military’s budget, should read this. Wherever there is a pile of money, especially tax dollars, there will be no shortage of  people waiting in line to get as much of it as they can. You could cut every government agency’s budget by 20% and still not get rid all the waste.

Tired Dem Donors Feel Like Their Money Got Burned, at thehill.com. Of course they feel this way. They bet on a sure thing and didn’t win. The DNC needs money to try to rebuild its image for the 2018 midterm elections and the Dem. donors aren’t in a giving mood.

U.S. Shale Greater Threat To OPEC After Oil Price War, at reuters.com. Fracking has lowered the price of oil from $100 plus to around $40. OPEC is going to try to raise the price by restricting the amount that member nations produce (think supply and demand). Unfortunately for OPEC, the fracking industry in the U.S. has lowered its cost of production to a point where most wells can be profitable at $40 a barrel. As OPED restricts supply, the price will rise. As the price rises, more frack wells will open up and supply oil at the higher price. As the supply rises, the price will go down. Market prices work in coordinating supply of and demand for scarce resources. HT carpediemblog.

Portland Adulting School Teaches Millennials How To Be Functional Grownups, at odditycentral.com. Parents and schools shirking their duty to turn children into adults has created a market for an adulting school. As long as there is a need, the market will do its best to fill it. I don’t know if this story is true, but I do know that there is a market for this service.

After ISIS Machete Attack, OSU Students Still Unable To Say The Word Terrorist, at zerohedge.com. The most dangerous place for your kids is a college campus. Not because of possible terrorist attacks like the one at OSU. No they are dangerous because of how they have been taught to think (feel) about a terrorist attack. God help us all.

Nomiki Konst: OSU Cop’ Rushed To Judgement’ By Shooting Attacker, at miloyiannopoulos.net. When I heard about this story, I thought it was from the Onion. It is real. This is what some ignorant people really think. Watch the video.

University With History Of An Anti-Christian Bias Denies Credits To Students Volunteering At Church, at theblaze.com. No surprise here.

Congress Urges Criminal Prosecution Of Planned Parenthood For Baby Body Parts Scandal, at lifesitenews.com. Do you remember the undercover videos? Watch undercover video of PPH trafficking in baby parts here, Human Capital Episode 3: Planned Parenthood Trafficking In Baby Parts, at austrianaddict.co.

Hollywood Loves Abortion Films, But Rejected This One; Here’s Why, at newsbusters.org. Remember the trial of convicted Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell? Hollywood is shying away from the movie titled, Gosnell, because it shows the reality of abortion. Just like media bias, it isn’t so much what they show, it’s what they don’t show.

2015 FBI Data: Jews Were Nearly 3X More Likely Than Blacks, And 1.5X More Likely Than Muslims To Be A Hate Crime Victim, at carpediemblog. Once again reality doesn’t fit what the press reports. Sins of omission!

CARTOONS

Political Cartoons by Dana Summers

Political Cartoons by Henry Payne

Political Cartoons by Dana Summers

 

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Let’s Fight Tyranny – Walter E. Williams

Posted December 6, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Government and Politics
Tags: , , , , , , ,

In a world of subjective value, there is a high cost of agreement. Our founders understood that voluntarily cooperate under general rules produced the highest amount of satisfaction for the most individuals. When people are forced into cooperating using Government power, the vast majority of people aren’t satisfied.

Our constitutional government put shackles on government power and made the individual sovereign. Politicians and government bureaucrats don’t want us to understand that the individual is the ultimate threat to state power. We need to wake up and claim it.

Walter E. Williams talks about the high cost in this article titled Let’s Fight Tyranny (click here). Here are some excerpts from the article.

“For more than a half-century, it has become abundantly clear that our nation faces increasing irreconcilable differences. At the root is the fact that there is one group of Americans who mostly want to be left alone and live according to the rule of law and the dictates of the U.S. constitution while another group of Americans wants to control the lives of others and ignore both the rule of law and constitutional restraints on the federal government. Should those Americans who favor the rule of law and constitutional government fight against or yield to those Americans who have contempt for the rule of law and constitutional government?”

“Some Americans  prefer to manage their own health care needs. Others wish to have the federal government dictate their health care. Some Americans want their earnings to be taxed only for the constitutionally mandated functions of the federal government, which are outlined in Article 1, Section 8 of   the Constitution. Others think American earnings should be taxed for anything on which Congress can muster a majority vote……The list of irreconcilable differences among the American people is nearly without end. These differences survive because of the timidity of those offended and the brute power of the federal government.”

“I think reconciliation is impossible; therefore, separation is the only long-term peaceful solution. Separation and independence do not require that liberty-loving Americans overthrow the federal government.”

“You say, “All those government acts that you say violate the rule of law and the Constitution have been ruled constitutional by the courts!” That’s true. The courts have twisted the Constitution, but Thomas Jefferson warned, “To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions (is) a very dangerous doctrine indeed and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy.”

“State governors and legislators ought to summon up the courage our Founding Fathers had in their response to the fifth Congress’ Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798. Written by Jefferson and James Madison, the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798 and 1799 stated that those states’ legislatures considered the Alien and Sedition Acts unconstitutional……the several States…….are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government….and ….whensoever the general government assumes delegated powers, its acts are authoritative, void, and of no force.” The 10th amendment holds, “The powers not delegated to the U.S. by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

“The federal government should not be permitted to determine the scope of its own powers. Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist No. 28, said, “The State government will, in all possible contingencies, afford complete security against invasions of the public liberty by the national authority.“
“Former slave Frederick Douglass advised: “Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them. …. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” We Americans appear to have very limited endurance in the face of tyrannical oppression.“
RELATED ARTICLE FROM MISES.ORG
Here is another great article from mises.org titled Secede And Decentralize: An Open Letter To Clinton Supporters.
Here is an excerpt from the article:”What your feeling (Clinton supporters), this hopelessness, this feeling that you’re no longer represented, this feeling that people other than you are now able to dictate your way of life, this is all a result of the massive expansion of the Federal government. Elections have long ceased being voting for someone you think represents the lifestyle you want to live and are, in practice, an exercise on determining whether or not you get to impose you preferred lifestyle on someone else.”
“A weak federal government would produce little divisiveness because there is little to be divided over. A strong Federal government would produce significant divisiveness since there is much to be divided over. It also goes to say that an absolute government would create absolute division while the absence of government would not produce a division because there isn’t any risk of having your life dictated by distant populations.”

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Must Reads For The Week 12/03/16

Posted December 3, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dear Media: Please Stop Normalizing The Alt-Right, by David Harsanyi, at thefederalist.com. Why would the media cover a 150 person gathering of white nationalists and try to say this is who Trump voters are? Anyone who is for smaller government will be painted as a member of the Alt-Right. This is SOP by the mainstream media.

Fashion Designers Are Boycotting Melania Trump, Shouldn’t Bakers And Florists Have The Same Right?, by Stephanie Slade, at reason.com. Another example of do as I say not as I do. This is a property rights issue. I own what I produce. No one can force me to sell my property if I don’t want to.

After Trump University, Why Not Sue All Colleges? by Brian Joondeph, at americanthinker.com. This is a great Idea. Colleges don’t deliver the results they advertise. Students get out of college with huge student loan debt, and job prospects that won’t produce enough income to pay the loans back.

Failure: Obama Blew $150 Billion To Increase Renewable Energy By 1%, by John Hoft, at thegatewaypundit.com. Obama failed as a venture capitalist. Wind and solar are not viable sources of energy compared to low-cost fossil fuels, although they might be at some point in the future. But trying to make them viable by subsidizing them with billions of tax payer dollars wastes scarce resources that could be used in more productive activities. Economic forces always win.

USGS Announces Largest Oil And Gas Deposit Ever Assessed In U.S. by Rebecca Hersher, at npr.org. This is one of the reasons green energy isn’t a viable energy source. Fracking technology has made oil and natural gas less expensive. New technologies also allow us to find more oil and gas deposits. As long as carbon based fuel can produce more power at a lower cost than green energy, green energy will remain on the back burner. Economic forces always win.

July Makes It Official: Americans Buy More SUV/Crossovers Than Cars, by Timothy Cain, at thetruthaboutcars.com. As long as gasoline prices remain low people will purchase SUVs. Economic forces always prevail.

Heh: Dem Senator Suddenly Regrets The “Reid Rule” On Filibusters, by Guy Benson, at townhall.com. When the Democrats were in the majority they voted to take the filibuster away from the minority party. Now that they are in the minority they don’t think it is such a good idea. The Democrats are going to be hoisted on your own petard. Karma’s a bitch.

Students’ Reaction To Trump Win, “Suck It Up Pussies.” Police Are Investigating This Hate Crime, by Robby Soave, at reason.com. We live in a world that has gone insane. Time-outs, conflict resolution, participation trophies, not keeping score, etc have produced a generation of….., well there is no better way to say it, pussies.

Hungry Venezuelans Flee In Boats To Escape Economic Collapse, by Mark J. Perry, at Carpe Diem Blog. Do you ever wonder why people don’t flee free market countries for a better life in socialist paradises like Cuba? Neither do I.

Progressives Demand Gun Control After Knife Attack At Ohio State, by Bre Payton, at thefederalist.com. When the first “fake” news accounts came out and said there was an active shooter loose on the OSU Campus, political hacks couldn’t wait to condemn this most recent example of gun violence and ask for gun control. I later found out the perp drove his car into a crowd of people and then got out and started stabbing people with a knife before an OSU security cop shot and killed the perp. At first I laughed at how the political hacks jumped the gun (so to speak) on this story. But upon further analysis, I thought maybe, just maybe, these hacks actually didn’t like the fact that the cop used a gun on a guy who only had a knife. Maybe they thought the cop should have used a taser, a billy club or just wrapped his leather jacket around his arm and fought the guy like James Dean in the movies. The crazy thing is, some of these progressives might actually be thinking this.

Safe Driving Where The Deer And The Antelope Play, by Jerry Reynolds, at lewrockwell.com. It is the season for deer colliding with cars. Here are some tips to either avoid hitting a deer or surviving when you do.

 

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What We’ve Done To Our Young People Could Be Considered Child Abuse

Posted December 1, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Miscellaneous
Tags: , , , , ,

Mother scolds her son crying in the park

The recent reaction by many young people over the election of Trump tells us more about us than it tells us about them. We have not prepared this generation to live in the real world. We’ve done a poor job of teaching young people how to deal with adverse situations. In the real world you don’t always get your way. In the protective bubble world we’ve created for them they are protected from adverse conditions. Not allowing them to face everyday life situations has stunted their growth into adulthood. When you protect young people from reality, you produce unrealistic people.

This quote: “Each generation born is an invasion on society of little barbarians who must be civilized before it is too late,” tells us our most important job.

CHILDREN IN COLLEGE

In this article by Walter E. Williams titled, Trump And College Chaos, Dr Williams says: “Cornell University held a campus wide “cry-in”, with officials handing out tissues and hot chocolate…..The College Fix reported that “a dorm at University of Pennsylvania….hosted a post-election ‘Breathing Space’ for students stressed out by election results that included cuddling with cats and a puppy, coloring and crafting, and snacks such as tea and chocolate.”

The fact that things like this are happening on campuses is all the evidence needed for us to be indited on charges of child abuse.

Dr. Williams continues: “Whether you are a liberal of conservative, Democrat of Republican, you should be disturbed and frightened for the future of our nation based on the response of so many of our young people to an election outcome. We should also be disturbed by college administrators and professors who sanction the coddling of our youth. Here’s my question to you: does a person even belong in college if he cannot handle or tolerate differing opinions? My answer is no.”

Williams continues: “Many of today’s college students are not only academically incompetent but emotionally so, as well, and do not belong in college. These college snowflakes and their professors see themselves as our betters and morally superior to ordinary people. George Orwell was absolutely right  when he said, “There are notions so foolish that only an intellectual will believe them.”

JUST SAY NO

Here is a short video titled: Is Your Child Getting Enough Vitamin N, from Prager University.  This is exactly what we need to be doing for our kids today.

 

MANIPULATING CHILDREN ON CAMPUS

Victor Davis Hanson has an article titled: “The Progressive Disintegration”. It’s a little different look at the same problem. Here is an excerpt from the article:

“Start with the melting snowflake millennials, all those “cocksure women and hensure men,” …… have become used to throwing tantrums whenever they don’t like something or they feel “unsafe.” Most of them are spoiled brats, the pampered detritus of the middle class. But don’t forget the Alinskyite activists who manipulate these juveniles and bus them in on George Soros’ dime. These two-bit Leninists are adept at using “useful idiots” in order to further their aim of destroying America’s political and social order. They’re skilled at manipulating empty slogans like “income inequality,” “fair share,” “social justice,” “diversity,” “inclusion,” and all the other bumper-sticker bromides in order to consolidate and increase their power and influence.”

“Millenials, look at yourselves. As Piers Morgan––no conservative he––said recently, “The tragic truth is that America’s millennials are a bunch of phone-addicted, selfie-obsessed, hashtagging, snapchatting, kale-munching, twerking, lazy, whining, ill-informed, politically correct, cossetted narcissists who find absolutely everything mortally offensive and believe there are 165 ways to sexually identify.” It follows that your politics are merely symbolic, expressions of your inflated self-regard, privileged life-style, and arrogant pretensions to sophistication and intelligence. Unsurprisingly, as Morgan points out, according to the National Institutes of Health, 40% of you think you should be promoted every two years despite performance, 77% of you can’t name a senator from your home state, and 80% of you think you’ll be richer than your parents, even as you pile up student debt earning junk “studies” degrees utterly useless for employment in the real world.”

Millenials are not all like this. But there are enough of these squeaky wheels to make it seem as if they are a majority. I know many young people who would never act like this. They actually hate the fact that these snowflakes are the face of their generation.
The reason they turned out like this is because we have shirked our duty. Adults have to start doing their job of “civilizing these little barbarians”. Lets hope it isn’t too late.

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Must Reads For The Week 11/26/16

Posted November 26, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Healthcare Stocks Are Crashing As The End Of Obamacare Looms, at zerohedge.com. The Republicans have said they want to repeal and replace Obamacare. The problem is if they replace it with their version of government mandated healthcare it will also be a failure. The only way to lower the cost of healthcare is to allow a free market to exist in healthcare and healthcare insurance. What are the chances of politicians allowing this to happen?

Landlords, Not Government, Should Police Airbnb, by Jared Mayer, at economics21.org. Government is always trying to prop up the status quo. Government bureaucrats and politicians don’t like the free market, no matter how much lip service they pay to it.

Car2Go To Suspend Twin Cities, at startribune.com. The car sharing app is suspending service because of government regulations. Another example of how anti free market government officials are.

Nebraska Strikes A Blow For Liberty; Bans Civil Asset Forfeiture, at redstate.com. More states have to take this action. Civil asset forfeiture is a violation of peoples fourth amendment rights.

Dallas Bankruptcy Threat, at economicpolicyjournal.com. It’s not just the Federal Government that makes poor economic decisions. Dallas hasn’t fully funded their police and fire pensions. The city is close to bankruptcy because it over promised and under delivered on these pension programs.

‘Feminist’ Snow-Plowing System Brings Stockholm To A Standstill, at heatst.com. Instead of using the tried and true methods that have worked for years, progressive politicians are sending snow plows to areas that are most used by women. Of course the unintended consequence is gridlock.

The Remarkably Coordinated Global War On Cash, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Government loves the idea of a cashless society. It’s all about control.

Trump’s Student Loan Plan Treats Symptoms, Not The Disease, by Blaine Conzatti, at mises.org. Here is an excerpt from the article: “In the face of increased demand for student loans, unless supply keeps pace with demand, prices will inevitably rise. Millions of students have become burdened with previously unimaginable levels of student loan debt needed to finance schooling that has been made artificially expensive by government intervention.” Trumps plan exchanges his government solution for the existing government solution that caused the existing problem. It is similar to healthcare. If you repeal Obamacare and replace it with another government solution, you are treating the symptom and not the problem. A market provides the only opportunity to have the highest quality healthcare at the lowest possible cost. The same is true if there was a student loan market.

Brexit Leader Nigel Farage Reacts To Trumps Victory

 

Nigel Farage Post Brexit Vote Address:

KEEP SPREADING THE WORD

The battle for freedom and liberty must be fought everyday. You never know how close you are to getting the big government barge stopped and turned around. In the U.S. a turning point was the rise of the tea party and liberty movements in response to Obamacare. It has taken four election cycles to get to where we are today. If we continue to teach people about the superiority of free markets and individual liberty, over socialism and central planning, who knows where we could be in the next four election cycles. Now is the time to push harder because big Government central planners won’t give up their power this easily.

CARTOONS

More from The Burning Platform (click here)

Political Cartoons by Bob Gorrell

Political Cartoons by Steve Kelley

Political Cartoons by Nate Beeler

Political Cartoons by Glenn McCoy

Political Cartoons by Henry Payne

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Lessons From The First Thanksgiving

Posted November 23, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Econ. 101, Miscellaneous
Tags: , , ,

Hand drawn Thanksgiving vintage card. Maple and oak leaves, branches and berries, pumpkin, indian corn, lettering

Richard Ebeling’s Thanksgiving article titled: Thanksgiving Was A Triumph Of Capitalism Over Collectivism, tells the real lesson of the first thanksgiving. The basic idea of government central planning whether it is called collectivism, socialism, communism, et al,  has been around forever. The evidence that collectivism doesn’t produce results that match the rhetoric has also been around forever. But somehow the lure of collectivist ideology still remains strong in spite of the evidence.

Here are some excerpts from the article.

“The English Puritans, who left Great Britain and sailed across the Atlantic on the Mayflower in 1620,……. wanted to erect a New Jerusalem that would not only be religiously devout, but be built on a new foundation of communal sharing and social altruism. Their goal was the communism of Plato’s Republic, in which all would work and share in common, knowing neither private property nor self-interested acquisitiveness……..Two years of communism in practice had left alive only a fraction of the original number of the Plymouth colonists.”

“What resulted is recorded in the journal of Governor William Bradford, the head of the colony. The colonists collectively cleared and worked land, but they brought forth neither the bountiful harvest they hoped for, nor did it create a spirit of shared and cheerful brotherhood.”

“The less industrious members of the colony came late to their work in the fields, and were slow and easy in their labors. Knowing that they and their families were to receive an equal share of whatever the group produced, they saw little reason to be more diligent their efforts. The harder working among the colonists became resentful that their efforts would be redistributed to the more malingering members of the colony. Soon they, too, were coming late to work and were less energetic in the fields.”

“Because of the disincentives and resentments that spread among the population, crops were sparse and the rationed equal shares from the collective harvest were not enough to ward off starvation and death.”

“Realizing that another season like those that had just passed would mean the extinction of the entire community, the elders of the colony decided to try something radically different: the introduction of private property rights and the right of the individual families to keep the fruits of their own labor.”

“The Plymouth Colony experienced a great bounty of food. Private ownership meant that there was now a close link between work and reward……..When the harvest time came, not only did many families produce enough for their own needs, but they had surpluses that they could freely exchange with their neighbors for mutual benefit and improvement.”

“Hard experience had taught the Plymouth colonists the fallacy and error in the ideas of that since the time of the ancient Greeks had promised paradise through collectivism rather than individualism.”

“Was this realization that communism was incompatible with human nature and the prosperity of humanity to be despaired or be a cause for guilt? Not in Governor Bradford’s eyes. It was simply a matter of accepting that altruism and collectivism were inconsistent with the nature of man, and that human institutions should reflect the reality of man’s nature if he is to prosper.”

If these sparsely populated settlements couldn’t make socialism work, how could our present day leaders think that trying to implement socialist policies (like Obamacare), incrementally to a population of 330 million possibly work? Politicians and bureaucrats are heavily invested in the ideology of centrally planning an economy. They will never give up this vision of how the world works, even though the lessons of history are their for all to see.

 

Related Article – The Real Thanksgiving Story, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Thanksgiving Proclamations, at austrianaddict.com.

What I wrote last year seems even more appropriate this year.

“Even though it seems we are in conflict about everything. Each of us should be thankful that we live in a country that protects our right to complain. We should be thankful our founding principles have led to the creation of a standard of living that other countries could only dream of.”

“We take our individual freedom and our countries wealth for granted, even though they are rare indeed when compared to other countries throughout the history of the world. Be Thankful!”

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Must Reads For The Week 11/19/16

Posted November 19, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

To Our Readers, From Publisher And Executive Editor Of The New York Times, at nytimes.com. This is all you need to know about the mainstream media. Here is an open letter to the readers of The New York Times from Arthur Sulzberger Jr. the publisher of the Times. This letter was published in the Times the Sunday after Trump was elected President. Sulzberger Jr. admits dishonest reporting by the Times. Here is an excerpt from the letter:

“As we reflect on the momentous result, and the months of reporting and polling that preceded it, we aim to rededicate ourselves to the fundamental mission of Times journalism. That is to report America and the world honestly, without fear or favor, striving always to understand and reflect all political perspectives and life experiences in the stories that we bring to you. It is also to hold power to account, impartially and unflinchingly. You can rely on The New York Times to bring the same fairness, the same level of scrutiny, the same independence to our coverage of the new president and his team.”

If you say you are going to “rededicate” yourself to do a specific thing, doesn’t that mean you weren’t dedicated to doing that specific thing in the first place? This letter proves what growing numbers of people already know, and that is the mainstream media is biased toward big government central planning. Freedom of the press was supposed to check government power, not promote the increase of government power.

It’s good to know the Times has miraculously found the religion of honest reporting just as a Republican President is about to be sworn in. Does anyone think their reporting on Trump during his upcoming Presidency will be any different from how they reported on Trump during the Presidential campaign?

The MSM has lost all credibility.

Mainstream Media Goes Full McCarthyite, by Hunter Lewis, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article: “Senator Joe McCarthy perfected the technique in the United States: whenever you disagree with anybody, don’t debate ideas, go right into name calling. In McCarthy’s day, the epithet of choice was  “Communist.”  In recent years, it has morphed into  “racist, sexist, homophobe, latinophobe, Islamophobe, xenophobe etc., etc“. If you want smaller government you are a racist, sexist, bigoted, homophobe……….

Who’s Behind The Portland Riots? 60% Of Arrested Anti-Trump Protesters Were From Out Of State, Didn’t Vote, at zerohedge.com. All these rent a mob riots are happening in cities that are controlled by Democrats. Which means I don’t care.

Soros And Liberal Mega-Donors Plot For War With Donald Trump, at zerohedge.com. Should we believe anything we read in the MSM about Trump?

Ryan Slams Brakes On Vote To Bring Back Earmarks, at cnn.com. This article is why I really don’t want to defend Trump and the Republican party. There are a bunch of status quo elites in the Republican party who want  government to grow. This vote was postponed, which means it probably will be brought up again. We have to hold their feet to the fire.

Profs, Students Want UVA President To Stop Quoting Jefferson: It Creates A Hostile Environment, by Robbie Soave, at reason.com. Two points. 1) Do they know Jefferson  founded the University of Virginia? 2) How is their inability to handle opposing views our problem? Isn’t it their problem?

GM Slashes 2000 Jobs, Suspends 3rd Shift On Bloated Inventories, Slowing Sales, at zerohedge.com. And in an unrelated story: A Record 25% Of Used Car Trade-Ins Are Under Water, at zerohedge.com. Using sub prime loans to stimulate demand doesn’t end well. Look at the housing bubble. As false signals are sent to car manufactures, they ramp up production to meet the false demand. When the bubble pops, jobs and hours are cut. The increased inventory has to be sold off before production is ramped up again. The coordination between production and consumption that happens naturally in a free market is distorted in a hampered market. Scarce resources, time, labor, and capital are wasted in the hampered market. In a free market this waste is kept to a minimum.

Four States Vote To Punish Low-Skilled Workers With Minimum Wage Hikes, by Ryan McMaken, at mises.org. How many ties do we have to show the folly of minimum wage laws? Here is an excerpt from the article: “..the only way to sustainably increase the wages of workers is to increase their productivity. If a worker’s wages are to go up, there must either be an increase in the demand for that worker’s services, or the worker must be able to produce more in less time.” This is a great article.

Cartoons

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The Election Is Over! What Happens Now?

Posted November 17, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Government and Politics
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

United States of America elections 2016 word cloud

Now that the dust has settled, or is settling, after the presidential election, lets look into the crystal ball and see what the future brings.

FOUR THINGS THAT WILL HAPPEN

1) We will see a true opposition party to the party in power. The democrat party will use every parliamentary tool available to them, in the House and Senate, to stop everything the majority party, lead by Trump, wants to pass. They will also use every political and rhetorical trick (lying) for the same purpose. There is nothing wrong with this. The  minority party is supposed to be a check on the power of the majority party.

The Republicans should take notes on what the Democrats will do, because they certainly didn’t use their power and political rhetoric to thwart the agenda of Obama and the Democrats the last eight years.

2) The leaders in the Democrat party will do everything politically and rhetorically to chip away at the Trump Presidency. Even though they may talk about the parties coming together, they don’t mean it. How can a party lead by people who want to centrally plan every aspect of peoples lives, agree with people who want to cut the size and power of government? Government gives central planners their power. These planners don’t want that power taken away. Of course I’m assuming that the Republicans want to cut the size and scope and government. We all know that there many big government Republicans. Many of Trumps stated policies will expand government power and the debt. In fact some of these policies will not work because they disregard the laws of economics. But more on this some other time.

3) Being anti-war will be back in vogue. Where has code pink been for the last eight years? Obama has intervened in Egypt, Libya, and Syria. He has ordered 10 times more drone strikes than Bush. We are still in Afghanistan. Gitmo remains open. Where have the protesters been? Or are these groups purely political?

4) Investigative journalism will make a come back. After taking an eight year break, the main stream media will again start doing their job of being a check on government power and corruption. They will do this because their vision of the world doesn’t coincide with the party in power, not because of some new found fidelity to their job. I wish the MSM would treat every President, Senator, Congressman, and bureaucrat like they treat Republican Presidents. If you thought they hammered Trump during the election, you haven’t seen anything yet.

WILL IT WORK?

One of the most important things that has happened because of this election is the MSM has cut it’s own throat. This election has pulled back the curtain on the MSM. People have finally witnessed what they thought was true all these years. The MSM has discredited itself in the minds of enough people, that no one trusts them. The propaganda they use to advance their world view doesn’t have the effect that it used to, because they don’t have a monopoly on information anymore. The marginal straw has finally broken the camels back when it comes people trusting the MSM. And that’s a good thing.

Keeping government power in check is the job of the opposition party, the press, and the people. Unfortunately this doesn’t happen when the Democrats are in power. Why? Because the MSM is biased toward the world view of the Democratic party, people are too busy with the daily grind to stay informed, and the Republicans are too afraid of the media and the Democrats to mount any real opposition. Presidents, Senators, and Congressmen of both parties should be treated like the MSM treats Republicans. People not trusting people in positions of power is a good thing for individual liberty.

 OBAMA HAS CREATED MORE REPUBLICANS THAN THE GOP HAS CREATED

At the start of the Obama presidency the Democrat party had 57 Senators plus two Independent Senators caucusing with Democrats. The Republicans had 41. Democrats had 255 congressmen. The Republicans had 179. Democrats had a lock on all three branches of government. Democrats also had 29 Governors. The Republicans had 21. Democrats had control of 27 State legislatures. Republicans had control of 14, with 8 split.

As Obama tried to push through the Affordable Care Act (what an oxymoron), tea party and liberty groups started to organize politically. After the last 4 election cycles, 2010, 2012. 2014, and 2016, we are seeing the fruits of their labor. Here is how the score card reads now. The Republican party now controls the Presidency, 52 Senate seats, 239 house seats, and 34 Governorships. The Republicans control both the senate and house in 32 states, 3 states are split (read here).

Candidates who want smaller government have been beating establishment Republicans in primary elections since 2010. The Republican party is slowly turning more libertarian in its thinking. What’s left of the old establishment Republicans will eventually loose in a primary or retire. Their replacement will be a more liberty minded candidate. Purging the Republican party of leaders who think solutions come from big government takes time.

The Democrats can blame their losses on Obama and themselves. Obama pushed his big government central planning agenda (namely the Affordable Care Act) and the Democrats helped get it passed. They are now reaping their just rewards.

CONCLUSION

We know the Democrats and the main stream media will oppose Trump and the Republican majority in congress. It is our job as followers of Austrian economics to oppose Trump and the Republicans when they try to pass legislation that expands the size and power of Government. We don’t want Republicans to “get something done” if that “something” goes against the laws of economics, takes away individual liberty, and increases the power of Government.

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