I’m not sure how the Catholic Church’s revolt against its principles being trampled by the central government will play out. But here is a reflection. As simply as I can understand it, Obama’s first position was: Here is what you have to do, whether you like it or not, and you have to pay for it. Obama’s “compromise” is: Here is what you have to do, whether you like it or not, and everyone else has to pay for it. The second half of the second position is ridiculous. It implies that the only...
How Government Policy Impacts Our Lives
Economic Democracy
Any method of allocating resources other than the free market price system ultimately leads to tyranny. Yet the Occupy Wall Street Non-Leaders, presumably opposed to tyranny, have said many times that they want a “democratic economy”. There simply is no such thing. It’s impossible. The only alternative to prices is force: either political force, business leverage (big business/unions or political cronies/monopolies), or violence. In those environments the winners are not those with the best...
Size Matters
I believe that many of our worst and very real problems are caused by the size of government, some businesses and some unions—they are all too big. Economies of Scale make sense, to a point. But Too Big to Fail, or close to it, makes no sense. Because then the interlocking elites who keep these big three in power benefit from “cozitition”, not competition. We should move quickly to break up the big banks. And reimpose the Glass-Steagall Act’s separations on bank activities. And perhaps...
Tinkering With Business
When I was a graduate student in London right after the earth cooled, 1968-1970, Harold Wilson was the Prime Minister, and Keynesian Economics ruled his Labor Party from Cambridge. At London School of Economics the teaching was more ChicagoSchool, so our professors watched and reported regularly on economic policies. In a smaller nation, about one third the size of Texas with 50 million people, policies took effect quickly and had measurable consequences. I remember that the government would...
I’ve Read Good Essays, but This May Be the Bastiat
Thanks to a personal introduction from Gene Tullio (https://facebook.com/gtullio1), I’ve discovered the French economic philosopher Frederic Bastiat and his great work, The Law, originally published in 1850. As with my late-in-life reading of F. A. Hayek, I am embarrassed that I had never heard of Bastiat, and embarrassed that no one that I can recall either at UNC or LSE ever mentioned either man while I was earning two degrees. Anyway, Bastiat has it right on the profound connection between...
The Addictors: How Much Pain?
I am wrestling with and may change my position on legalizing drugs, which I never would have imagined just a few years ago. Let me explain. Addictions, when acted upon, usually hurt people, cost a lot, and destroy relationships. The worst addictors today appear to be drugs, alcohol, pornography, and gambling. For different people each of these can be debilitating and destructive. The addict knows it. But he or she goes ahead anyway—that is the definition of an addiction—unless transformed...
The Time Bomb of a Nation without Fathers
Over the last several years I’ve worried about the underappreciated critical value of fathers to families, but a recent experience has multiplied that concern exponentially. Up until now I’ve been concerned about two situations: 1. In societies where multiple current wives are permitted, the problem is the competition between the children of the various wives, all vying for the attention and approval of the aloof father. Some are pegged as winners in this contest, and others as losers. In our...
2020 Vision: How to Fix the Next Ten Years in Ten Steps: Step Ten
10. Enact term limits for the House and Senate of three consecutive terms, to eliminate the current tendency toward a permanent political class which is out of touch with the rest of the nation.
2020 Vision: How to Fix the Next Ten Years in Ten Steps: Step Nine
9. Focus decisions for primary and secondary education back to the local level, and fund them in the same way as colleges and universities, with a mixture of direct local government funding, vouchers, grants from foundations and businesses, etc. Let decisions on expenditures, teacher retention, etc., be made by those closest to the students.
Tax Leadership Begins at Homes
My career focus has been on commercial real estate for almost forty years, and I am therefore tangentially interested in the housing market—and I also own a home with a mortgage. I must be missing something about the home mortgage interest deduction (MID). Real estate people are supposed to stand for free enterprise, individual initiative, and fair dealing. How does a vested-interest tax break help further those ideals? I’m disappointed in our industry’s business-as-usual reaction to the...
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