Must Reads For The Week 5/7/16

Posted May 6, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Must Reads For The Week
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Government Busybodies

300 Hours Training Required To Shampoo Hair In Tennessee, by Elizabeth Nolan Brown, at reason.com. Licensing laws to shampoo hair! Shouldn’t individuals contracting in a free market make these decisions on who should and shouldn’t shampoo hair? No say the busybodies.

California The Ultimate Nanny State, by David Harsanyi, at thefederalist.com. Go to the article and look at the list of activities you are not allowed to do. Here are a few examples: “No one can use foam takeout containers or plastic carryout bags or play online poker. You can’t purchase raw milk or caffeinated beer, and E-cigarettes are treated as if they were tobacco even if they are not.”

FDA Imposes A Slow-Motion Ban On E-Cigarrettes, by Jacob Sullum, at reason.com. I haven’t understood why the powers that be have a problem with e-cigarettes. This is just a way of getting your nicotine fix without inhaling the carcinogens that are present when smoking cigarettes. It’s safer. What’s the problem.

The FDA’s New Tobacco Rules Will Be Terrible For Cigar Smokers Too, by Jacob Greer, at reason.com. There is nothing that government won’t try to regulate out of existence.

Airbnb: Regulation Without Government, at fee.org. Most people think that if there is not government regulation through the political process, there is no regulation at all. Not true. There is private regulation through the free market if there is no government regulation. This private regulation is less contentious and costly than government regulation.

Economic Reality

Puerto Rico Says Will Default Tomorrow, Begs Congress For Help, at zerohedge.com. You do know that Congress means you and me the U.S. tax payer. When you incur more debt than you can pay off, you have to default and start over. Getting “Help” (more money), will only make the eventual default more costly. Take your medicine sooner rather than later.

This Is The End: Venezuela Runs Out Of Money To Print New Money, at zerohedge.com. This socialist paradise has printed so much money they don’t have enough money to pay for printing more money.

Elon Musk Crony Capitalist, by Veronique de Rugy, at reason.com. Musk’s Tesla Motors, Solar City, and Space X are subsidized by the government (you and me). In a true free market, these companies either made it on their own or they cut their losses and went out of business. Musk has said in the past that these companies would be profitable without the subsidies. How do we know unless they actually try to make it on their own? Could you be a successful businessman if the government gave you enough money?

Federal Bureaucrats Are Paid 78% More Than Private Workers, at fee.org. We are paying high salaries to people to do not just nonproductive work, but  in most cases it is destructive work. When these people make it more difficult for free market businesses to be productive, that is destructive. We would be better off if we paid these people to do absolutely nothing every day.

It Finally Happened: 500 Euro Notes, Will No Longer Be Produced, at economicpolicyjournal.com. When central banks artificially set interest rates it leads to this. Central banks can only implement negative interest rates if they get rid of cash. Rational people will hoard cash rather than pay to have it kept in these banks. Central bankers can’t let this happen.

U.S. Jobs Growth Slows Down In April, at marketwatch.com. I think it is amusing to here it reported that 160,000 jobs were created in April. In reality there was only a net of 10,000 jobs created. There are 150,000 jobs lost every month under normal economic conditions because of the creative destruction of the free market. So each month there has to be 150,000 jobs created just to break even. The starting point for counting jobs is 150,001. That is one job.

Is Donald Trump The Second Coming Of FDR?, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Just because you know how to make money in your chosen field, doesn’t mean you know anything about economics. Now that Donald Trump is the Republican nominee I suggest that he read Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. That’s just for starters. I can suggest other books after he gets a base of knowledge from Dr. Sowell’s book.

 

 

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Thomas Sowell: Random Thoughts

Posted May 3, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Miscellaneous

Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell’s random thoughts always make you think. Here are some examples of his most recent thoughts. Click here for the rest.

–“What is “economic power”? What can Bill Gates stop you from doing?”

-“Some people seem to think that Donald Trump has great abilities because he is a billionaire. But being born rich and getting richer is not exactly a Horatio Alger miracle.”

–“One of the most richly rewarded skills in politics is the ability to make self-interest sound like idealism. Nowhere is this tactic more successful than in so-called “campaign finance reform” laws  – spending restrictions that prevent challenger candidates from buying enough publicity to offset the free publicity that incumbents get from the media.”

–“People who want to redistribute wealth often misunderstand the nature and causes of wealth. Tangible wealth can be confiscated, but you cannot confiscate the knowledge which produced that wealth. Countries that confiscated the wealth of some groups and expelled them, destitute, have often seen the economy collapse, while the expelled people become prosperous again elsewhere.”

–“If what you want from politicians are quick and easy answers, someone is sure to supply them, regardless of which party you follow. History can tell you where quick and easy answers lead. But, if you don’t want to bother reading history, you can just wait and relive its catastrophes.”

–“At one time, it seemed as if the free world had defeated the world of totalitarian dictatorships twice – first the Nazis and then the Communists. But, with the slow but steady expansion of government control over our lives and the spread of the idea that people who deny “climate change” should be punished as criminals, it seems as if totalitarianism may be winning, after all.”

–“One of the problems of being a pessimist is you can never celebrate when you are proven right”

 

More Random Thoughts Articles-at austrianaddict.com.

–Random Thoughts by Thomas Sowell.

–More Random Thoughts by Thomas Sowell.

-More Random Thoughts by Thomas Sowell.

–Random Thoughts by Thomas Sowell.

–Thomas Sowell’s Random Thoughts.

 

 

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Must Reads For The Week 4/30/16

Posted April 30, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Must Reads For The Week
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Why Did The Industrial Revolution Occur In The United States And Not China? at economicpolicyjournal.com. Technological advance requires financing. U.S. capital markets provided the funding for these projects. But saving provided the funding of the capital markets. Being able to produce and save wealth is important if a society is to continue to advance. How much of the funding in today’s capital markets is from printed money by the Fed, and not real savings from production.

Obama Admits He Couldn’t Convince Americans About Recovery, at zerohedge.com. Obama can’t convince us because he is the only President to not have a single year of his Presidency reach 3% GDP growth. And that’s including the 4 plus trillion dollars printed by the Fed. We can’t even print our way to a high GDP number. If the President would look at the charts in this article, he would understand why we aren’t buying his propaganda about the economy.

UC Berkley Touts $15 Minimum Wage Law, Then Fires Hundreds Of Workers After It Passes, at investors.com. Hoisted on its own petard. No surprise here. You can’t pay labor above what it produces for any length of time before it gets liquidated. The economic reality that less will be consumed at a higher price is always in play. When the cost of labor is artificially set higher, fewer will be working.

Judge Decides Seattle’s ‘Trash Police’ Violates Privacy And Is Unconstitutional, at tammybruce.com. Another example of leftists trying to force their morality on the rest of us. You can’t give in to this kind of tyrannical stupidity or it will never go away.

PA Cops Have Woman’s Rectum, Vagina Searched After Traffic Stop, at copblock.org. A violation of this woman”s fourth amendment rights. She was finally released 5 hours after she was pulled over.

Social Justice Warrior Madness: USC Cancels  ‘Legends Of The Games Industry’ Event For Not Including Women  (On A Seven Man Panel), at targetliberty.org. They postponed this event, ‘In the interest of promoting diversity and inclusion’. This is the kind of nonsense that should be laughed at and mocked.

Opposition Grows To Liberal AGs Targeting Global Warming Skeptics, by Michael Bastasch at cfact.org. In response to democrat politicians and environmentalists calling for RICO investigations into groups seen as casting doubt on the theory of catastrophic global warming, Republican AGs have come out against any such investigations. By the way global warming is a ‘theory’. Isn’t it?

Obama Targets Electric Grid For Power Grab, by Larry Bell, at cfact.org. Obama said he would bankrupt coal power plants with EPA emission regulations. Look out fracking industry if Queen Hillary gets into office.

Taliban Bomber Accidentally Triggers Explosive Early, Killing Himself And 8 Other Terrorists, at tammybruce.com. My first thought when I saw this was; will this guy get the 72 virgins anyway. Does he get rewarded for his good intentions of trying to blow up infidels even though he failed? These are questions that need to be answered.

The Real Meaning Of Competition, by Peter G. Klein, at mises.org. It’s not about having the proper number of competitors in a particular industry that makes it competitive. As long as government isn’t restricting or placing  costs on the entry into these industries you have competition. We’ve written about Uber on this site. The taxi cartel trying to get government to restrict Uber’s entry into the market is an example.

The Problem Of ‘Hoarding’, by Murray Rothbard, at mises.org. Rothbard explains why the velocity of money is an answer in search of a problem.

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Social Justice Warriors Feel The Micro (Macro) Aggression Of Steven Crowder

Posted April 29, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Hall of Fame
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At an event at UMass College called, “The Triggering: Has Political Correctness Gone Too Far”, Steven Crowder was called on to give his opening statement after the speakers were shouted down by Social Justice Warriors.

Enjoy!

 

From the video: “…your head pops off the pillow in the morning with “oh, how can I be a professional victim today”. Let me go in and screw with their act just because your parents didn’t tell you your opinion wasn’t worth that much. Look..there confused. Why? Because I’m not your gender studies professor who has to cater to your trigger warning, micro-aggression, safe space Bull S*#t….”

It is our fault that there are Social Justice Warriors because, as Crowder said, we haven’t told them their opinion isn’t worth that much.

 

Related Article, Political Correctness Produces Pusillanimous People, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article, Political Correctness Produces Petulant People, at austrianaddict.com

Related Article, Political Correctness, A Civil Society, And The Rule Of Law, at austrianaddict.com.

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Must Read “Leftovers”

Posted April 28, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Leftovers
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“Affordable” Care Collapses: Top Crony Healthcare Firm Starts To Pull Out Of Some States, at econmicpolicyjournal.com. This is no surprise. A single payer government healthcare system was the original goal of our progressive central planners. Obamacare was the first step on the road to a single payer system.

Minimum Wages Were First Designed To Keep Women And Minorities Out Of Jobs, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Excerpt from the article:  “When California legislators voted to raise the statewide minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2022, labor activists cheered. Discounting fears that a $15 minimum might cost some low-wage workers their jobs, activists and their political allies celebrated a victory for fairness and economic justice.  Progressive labor activists took a very different view 100 years ago, when 15 states established America’s first minimum wages. Labor reformers then believed that a legal minimum would hand a raise to deserving white Anglo-Saxon men, and a pink slip to their undeserving competitors: “racially undesirable” immigrants, the mentally and physically disabled, and women.”

U.S. Judge Rules Sandy Hook Victims Can Sue “Military Style” Gun Maker, at zerohedge.com. If this is true, I guess GM and Ford can be sued when an individual uses the car they produced and kills someone in an accident. I thought the person who committed the crime is the responsible party. This judge should be impeached.

From Ironic To Asinine: Global Gun Control Developments, by Dan Mitchell, at freedomandprosperity.org. Evidence is showing that law-abiding people are safer in well-armed societies.

How Central Planners Crippled Japan’s Economy, by Yonsthan Amselem, at mises.org. State regulation along with money printing by Japans central bank have created this mess. Freedom is the cure.

China Launched Yuan Gold Fix To Exert More Control Over Price Of Gold, at zerohedge.com. While we are caught up in the question of who should be on the $20 bill, China moves closer to adopting Gold as its currency.

Fundamentally Transforming America, at zerohedge.com. This cartoon is sad but true. Before Obama became  President said, “we are five days away from fundamentally transforming America.” No one asked the question, “transform it into what.”

The Progressive “Consensus” Is Dictatorship For Rest Of Us, by George Will, at jewishworldreview.com. Progressives know what is best for us, and we will not be allowed to question what they’ve chosen. This isn’t micro-aggression, this is macro-aggression.

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Government: Is It Ever Big Enough? by Prager University

Posted April 26, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Government and Politics
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Will Government ever stop its intrusion into our lives?

How can the growth of Government be stopped?

Here some excerpts from the video.

“A government powerful enough to give you everything you want, will also necessarily be powerful enough to take away everything you have. Including your freedom. Government power must be limited because the alternative is unlimited Government.”

(Modern day) “Liberals believe that if there is a societal problem they believe the best solution is a new Government program. If it fails to achieve its goal, which it invariably does, the solution is a bigger Government program – More – and when does more become enough? The honest answer is NEVER“.

SHACKLE  THE GOVERNMENT TO SOUND MONEY

The Constitution was supposed to control the size of government. Since “the Constitution is no threat to our current form of government,” as Joseph Sobran has said, the only way to shrink Government is to get back to sound money. As long as Government can fund itself via The Fed’s electronically printed counterfeit money, there isn’t much that can be done. Cutting the size and scope of government is the real solution to the problem, but we all know that shrinking government is almost impossible because of our political process. No matter who gets in control of congress and/or the presidency, government keeps growing.  In this article by Paul-Martin Foss titled, Sound Money And Fiscal Policy (read here at mises.org), he talks about the relationship between the growth of government and a central banks ability to print money. Here are some excerpts from the article.

“Sound money….. is the most important check on government spending. If money is sound, meaning that the government cannot inflate the money supply at will, then government spending will be limited. Remember that governments can fund their operations through three methods: 1.) Taxation; 2.) Bonds, or borrowing; 3.) Inflation.”

“Taxation is self-limiting because at higher tax rates there will be massive tax avoidance and tax revenues will fall, or the government might be voted out or overthrown if people are angry enough. Bonds have to be repaid, which comes from future taxation, so we are back to the self-limiting aspect of tax funding. Bonds also require interest payments, and if a government isn’t creditworthy then the interest payments may make borrowing money prohibitively expensive.”

“This leads us to the third and preferred method, inflation. By creating more money, the government decreases the value of each monetary unit. But it normally does so in a slow enough manner as to be barely perceptible to the average person. And where does this newly-created money go? Why, to the government’s coffers, of course. There it gets spent on wars, welfare, and other boondoggles. In the meantime, the newly-created money causes the prices of goods to increase, driving up the cost of living for the average person. In this way, inflation is a stealth tax. Its effects are just as insidious as direct taxation in that it takes money from citizens and deposits it into government coffers, but it does so in such an imperceptible way that very few people realize that they are being fleeced. That allows governments to spend far more money than they otherwise would be able to by relying on taxes and borrowing alone, which is why governments prefer it.”

Sound money and the Fed are subjects not many people had heard about, let alone understood, until Ron Paul shed light on them during his run for president. More people have to understand the concept of sound money, on the one hand, and how the Federal Reserve produces counterfeit fiat money on the other, if there is any chance of reigning in Leviathan.

 

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Must Reads For The Week 4/23/16

Posted April 23, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Must Reads For The Week
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EARTH DAY THOUGHTS

18 Spectacularly Wrong Predictions Made Around The Time Of The First Earth Day In 1970, Expect More This Year, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog.  How about this prediction; “Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support…the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution…by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half….” The rest are also amusing.

On Earth Day, We Can Celebrate Being The Only Country To Significantly Reduce CO2 Emissions -Thanks To Fracking, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. Natural gas from fracking is being used in power plants instead of coal. Natural gas burns cleaner than coal. This is a free market solution to pollution.

On Earth Day, Let’s Celebrate Fossil Fuels, at austrianaddict.com.

THE REST OF THE ARTICLES

Bernie Sanders Meets Pope Francis, at economicpolicyjournal,com. Bernie took some time off the campaign trail to travel to Italy and meet the Pope. These two Marxist central planners have a lot in common. If they could have had their meeting coincide with the Obama Castro meeting, they could have had one heck of a foursome.

More Than 3 Dozen Cuban Migrants Caught At Sea, at nbcmiami.com. The Coast Guard caught and turned back  39 Cuban defectors (lets say what they really are) in a boat on their way to the US. These defectors think there is the possibility of normal diplomatic relations between our countries, since Obama’s recent visit, which could mean  their status of automatic residency if they get to US soil might be a thing of the past. This has incentivized more Cubans to take the risk of crossing the ocean to get here.  I guess our government has to keep anyone who despises government central planning from entering the country. These people might be able to enlighten US citizens about what lies ahead as we travel down the current central planning road aka. the road to serfdom.

The Terrorist iPhone Snow Job, by Adam Dick, at targetliberth.com. This is another example of why we should be pushing back against government at every turn. Once they get their foot in the door, you’re freedom disappears.

Obama To Butt In To Britain’s Business, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Great Britain will decide in a couple of months if it will stay in The European Union. Obama is trying to persuade them to stay in the EU. Critics of Obama say Americans would never agree to an EU type of arrangement. What they don’t understand is that Obama would just make an executive order and bypass the American people.

Horror At A Maryland Barber Shop, by Thomas J. Dilorenzo, at targetliberty.com. I think this article shows the subjectivity of value. Different people place different levels of value on the same or different thing.

Emails Reveals AG’s Colluding With Al Gore And Greens To Investigate Climate Skeptics, at eelegal.org. This is what happens when scientific battles are fought in the political arena. Politics trumps facts.

The 50 Year Disaster Of Government Trains, Buses, And Street Cars, by Daniel Beir, at fee.org. This is a great article. Here is an excerpt from the article: “Ronald Reagan quipped that “government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. and if it stops moving, subsidize it.” There in a nutshell you have a short history of mass transit in America.”

Why Don’t Bernie And Progressives Live Communally Here And Now, by Jeff Deist, at mises.org. Bernie and his socialist supporters actually have a choice. They can build and move into their own socialist commune. No one is stopping them. They don’t have to win an election to start their socialist utopia. But you can bet the house that if Bernie was the President he wouldn’t allow us to opt out of social security, medicare, Obamacare etc.

Here is an excerpt from the article:  “So while pro-Bernie progressives are free to create their own communities in a libertarian world, libertarians are compelled by force to participate in Bernie’s world. That is the fundamental difference between liberty and socialism, between voluntarism and collectivism, between statism and private property. Nothing prevents progressives from living as they wish now, except the very things they viciously oppose: decentralization, secession, and local control.  Progressives hate hearing that taxation is theft, that government is force, and that every rule and regulation implies violence for noncompliance. It offends them on a visceral level, because their entire worldview hangs on the myth of social contract. But their currency is violence, and real contracts — in the form of voluntary, private communities — are not allowed.”

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Earth Day 2016

Posted April 22, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Miscellaneous
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On Earth Day 2016, let’s look at environmentalism, climate change and fossil fuels.

FOSSIL FUELS: THE GREENEST ENERGY, by Alex Epstein, from Prager University.

Some excerpts from the article:

“What if I told you someone had developed an energy source that could help us solve our biggest environmental challenges, purify our water and air, make our cities and homes more sanitary and keep us safe from potential catastrophic climate change? What if I also told you that this energy source was cheap, plentiful, and reliable? Well there is such a source. You probably know it as fossil fuel; oil, natural gas,and coal.”

“Fossil fuels don’t take a naturally safe environment and make it dangerous. They empower us to take a naturally dangerous environment and make it cleaner and safer.”

CLIMATE CHANGE: WHAT DO SCIENTISTS SAY, from Prager University. MIT atmospheric physicist, Richard Lindzen, summarizes the science behind climate change.

Excerpt from the article:

“Global warming alarmism provides politicians, environmentalists and media, more than any other issue, with the things they most want. For politicians its money and power. For environmentalists its money for their organizations and confirmation fo their near religious devotion to the idea that man is a destructive force acting upon nature. For the media its ideology, money and headlines, doomsday scenarios sell.”

RATIONAL DISCUSSION ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE? NO CHANCE

Alex Epstein spoke in front of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee which was holding a hearing examining the Role of Environmental Policies on Access to Energy and Economic Opportunity. If you want to watch his 5 minute speech click here It is definitely worth watching. What I want you to see is how Barbara Boxer acts when she gets to ask questions of the panel. Watch the video and compare her antics to the logical calm arguments made by the two gentleman in the first two videos in this post. Her actions are exactly what Richard Lindzen was talking about in the video above.

 

SAVING THE PLANET – GEORGE CARLIN

Senator Boxer, I know he is not a scientist, but he makes a lot of sense when talking about the possibility that man can destroy the planet. Not only is this really funny, but it will make you think.

 

Recycling: Uneconomic Is Wasteful, by Robert Bradley Jr, at masterresource.org. Excerpt from the article;

“…if costs are greater than the revenues of a produce, then economic value is lost: if revenues are greater than the cost, economic value is created. Enter Recycling, which has turned (even more so) into an economic loser in the current era of low commodity prices. What this means is that the cost of sorting and transforming trash into useful products is less than the revenue-and recycling should not be done.”

Naive Environmentalism Is Like Religious Fundamentalism, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. Economist Steve Landsburg tells how he dealt with his daughter being indoctrinated into environmentalism. Here is an excerpt from the article;

“…my daughter’s teachers are honestly oblivious that there is a diversity in politics. Let me then make that diversity clear. We are not environmentalists. We ardently oppose environmentalists. We consider environmentalism a form of mass hysteria akin to Islamic fundamentalism or the War on Drugs. we do not recycle. We teach our daughter not to recycle. We teach her that people who try to convince her to recycle, or who try to force her to recycle, are intruding on her rights. The entire program of environmentalism is as foreign to us as the doctrine of Christianity ( Note: Landsburg is Jewish). We face no current threat of having Christianity imposed on us by petty tyrants; the same can not be said of environmentalism. My county government never tried to send me a New Testament, but it did send me a recycling bin.”

Central Station Solar: Ivanpah Fail ($2.2 Billion Bust), by Stanislav Jakuba, at masterresource.org. It makes no sense to use a more expensive power source when there is less expensive power sources. Solar is not competitive even with government subsidies. Central station solar power is a scam. Solar will not be a viable alternative, until the real cost, without subsidies, is lower than the cost of power produced by fossil fuels or nuclear.

Natural Gas Use Slashes Air Emissions, by Joe Massaro, at energyindepth.org. The fracking boom has created a natural gas boom. Natural gas burns cleaner than coal. As power plants switch from coal to cleaner burning natural gas, CO2 emissions will start to decrease. But this isn’t why natural gas is being used. Natural gas is being used because it is simply cheaper. Lowering CO2 emissions is a serendipity phenomenon of using the cheaper alternative. Markets work.

RICO For Government Climate Deniers, by Paul Driessen, at cfact.org. When the left can’t convince people of its position on global warming, it will use RICO statutes to make you comply with their vision. This is what tyrants do.

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Rights Versus Wishes – Walter E. Williams

Posted April 20, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Government and Politics
Tags: , , ,

In this article titled Rights Versus Wishes, the great Walter E. Williams explains the difference between rights, defined historically, and rights, defined by the political left. Many many people have told me they think healthcare is a right. When I say healthcare is not a right, they are shocked. I go on to explain what I mean by “a right”. I tell them healthcare is not a right, it is an economic good that is produced by individuals in the market. It is the property of the individual who produced it, and you have no “right” to that individuals property. Unless they give it to you, out of goodness of their heart, or you mutually agree on a fee for service, the only way you can acquire it is by theft.

The difficulty in talking with people about issues starts when a particular word or phrase means something different to both parties. If there is no agreed upon meaning of words, we talk past each other and nothing gets accomplished. When I talk to people, I’ll ask them what does (ie) “a right” mean to you in order to find a starting point to have a conversation. You can’t talk logically to a person unless you have a starting point understood by both parties.

EXCERPTS FROM THE ARTICLE

“In the standard historical usage of the term, a “right” is something that exists simultaneously among people. As such, a right imposes no obligation on another. For example, the right to free speech is something we all possess. My right to free speech imposes no obligation upon another except that of noninterference. Similarly, I have a right to travel freely. Again, that right imposes no obligation upon another except that of noninterference.”

“Contrast those rights to free speech and travel with the supposed rights of medical care and decent housing. Those supposed rights do impose obligations upon others…..If one does not have money to pay for a medical service or decent housing and the government provides it, where do you think the government gets the money?”

“…Congress does not have any resources of its own, the only way for Congress to give one American something is to first take it from some other American. In other words, if one person has a right to something he did not earn, it requires another person’s not having a right to something he did earn.”

“…this bogus right to free speech and travel imposes obligations on others to supply me with an auditorium, microphone and audience. My right to travel freely would require that others provide me with resources to purchase plane tickets and hotel accommodations. If I were to demand others sacrifice so I can exercise my free speech and travel rights….most Americans would say, “Williams, yes, you have rights to free speech and traveling freely, but I’m not obligated to pay for them!”

“....I do not have a right to take one person’s earnings to give to another. Because I have no such right, I cannot delegate it to government. If I did take your earnings to provide medical services for another, it would rightfully be described and condemned as an act of theft. When government does the same, it’s still theft, albeit legalized theft.”

“If you’re a Christian or a Jew, you should be against these so-called rights. When God gave Moses the eighth commandment — “Thou shalt not steal” — I am sure that he did not mean “thou shalt not steal unless there is a majority vote in Congress.” The bottom line is medical care, housing and decent jobs are not rights at all, at least not in a free society; they are wishes. As such, I would agree with most Americans — because I, too, wish that everyone had good medical care, decent housing and a good job.”

Related Article – The Economics of Healthcare vs The Right To Healthcare, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – The Reality Of Obamacare, Socialism In Installments, at austrianaddict.com.

 

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What Are Your Options When Both Political Parties Are Based On Socialist Ideals

Posted April 19, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Government and Politics
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

This video, by LibertyPen, is an appearance Margaret Thatcher made on Firing Line in 1977, which was two years before she became Prime Minister of Great Britain. She was talking about ‘Capitalism and a Free Society’. The whole video is great but the part that really jumped out at me starts at 4:27. Mrs. Thatcher talks about the difference between American politics and British politics. Below is the money quote from the video. Oh how times have changed.

“I think in many ways American politics are very different because you have two parties based on a free society, or free enterprise society and economic freedom. We have one party based on that, one main party, and another one based on socialism.”

Mrs. Thatcher’s statement about American politics couldn’t be uttered in 2016. Today we can safely say the Democratic parties ideals are in harmony, if not goose step, with socialistic ideals. And since around 2000, the Republican party has and is basing its actions on socialistic ideals, even though its platform doesn’t reflect its new direction. The inside the Washington beltway Republican establishment talks a good game when it comes to smaller government but its actions don’t back up its rhetoric. If what a person values is revealed by his actions, then we can safely say that both parties value ideals that are based on socialistic thinking.

Over the last seven years President Obama has increased the size and scope of Government with no opposition, and in some cases help, from the “small Government” Republican party. When both parties increase the power of Government, what are the options for people who understand individual liberty, the rule of law and free markets?

Since it is hopeless to change the Democrat party, your options are, either start a third-party, or take over the Republican party and purge it of the big government established leaders like Boehner, McConnell, McCain, Graham, Cantor et al. Since election cycles are every two years, this will take a long time. I think the third-party option has a higher cost in terms of time and credibility. Incrementally taking over the Republican party is the best option, and the seeds of this take over have already taken root around the country. How important is this job? This quote from F.A. Hayek spells it out.

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.”

Where would we be today if the insurgency against big government hadn’t started in 2009 with the tea party and liberty groups? The gains by Republicans at the State and local levels (click here Republican Stranglehold On State Government) is a direct result of the grass-roots insurgency. The insurgency is led by people who believe in such radical ideas as individual liberty, free markets, and constitutional limits on government. It will take time for this limited government insurgency to trickle up to the Federal level. Senators Cruz, Lee, and Paul, along with the forty or so members of the freedom caucus that forced Boehner out of the House speakers position were born out of this bottom up change.

Bottom up change has a better foundation than top down change. Most peoples world view is based on the shifting sands of emotion not logic. Changing a persons vision of the world is difficult, which is why it happens at the individual level. It is personal. It starts and ends one conversation at a time, one person at a time, and it isn’t easy.

Just remember, as you start to walk through a tunnel, it gets darker and darker with every step. Just keep in mind that when it’s darkest, you are half way to your destination. Don’t give up. Keep moving forward, because you don’t realize how far you’ve traveled when you’re in the dark middle of the journey. Take some motivation from this quote by Ludwig vonMises.

Ludwig von Mises: “The history of mankind is the history of ideas. For it is ideas, theories and doctrines that guide human action, determine the ultimate ends men aim at, and the choice of the means employed for the attainment of these ends. The sensational events which stir the emotions and catch the interest of superficial observers are merely the consummation of ideological changes. There are no such things in rather misleading terms, a “turning point in history” is the coming on the scene of forces which were already for a long time at work behind the scene. New ideologies, which had already long since superseded the old ones, throw off their last veil and even the dullest people become aware of the changes which they did not notice before.“

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