Category: Two Cents

On Airplane Reclining Seats

Skyler J. Collins (Editor)

The one thing that makes flying just a tiny bit more comfortable is the reclining seat. If I were perusing airlines and prices and saw the offering of a ticket without a reclining seat, I would refuse to purchase that ticket! The fact that the airline offers and that I expect a reclining seat means that you can be damn sure I am going to use it. I will not ask permission from any other customer to use my product as I see fit. If you don’t like it, then you may offer to pay me a sum of money to stop using it. I always entertain such offers. What you may not due is attack me or my contracted property for doing so. And that’s today’s two cents.

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On Good Government

Skyler J. Collins (Editor)

Here is the beginning and then end of so-called good government: the adjudication of disputes (torts and contracts) and keeping the peace. If that’s all government was and did, I’d probably have no complaints. The problem arises when government moves beyond dispute adjudication and peacekeeping because doing so necessarily entails the creation of conflict and an end to peace. Nothankyou, and that’s today’s two cents.

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On Business

Skyler J. Collins (Editor)

Just as companies accept their employees labor in exchange for money, they also accept their customers money in exchange for goods and services cooperatively produced by their employees. Companies do not and may not take their customers money. We must never forget these salient facts. Companies accept, they do not take. Conversely, governments do precisely the opposite: they take our money in the form of taxation, and they take our labor in the form of conscription. (They also take our property in whole or in part in many other ways.) It breaks my heart that my fellow human beings can be so bamboozled into believing that the institutions who plunder and pilfer them must be used (and has their best interests in mind) to save them from the institutions who do not. It’s tragic, and that’s today’s two cents.

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On Wages

Skyler J. Collins (Editor)

It’s a common cry across social and popular media to deride one business or another for the way they model their wage structure. Most of my current income is earned by delivering food for companies like DoorDash and GrubHub. I do pretty well, but I’ve also spent a year and half learning how to do pretty well in my particular market. When these companies offer deliveries for amounts and distances below my professional standard, I simply reject them. What I don’t do is write articles decrying “predatory pay models” or other such signaling buzz words. It’s nonsense, and this is why: businesses do not and may not take our labor. Rather, they accept our labor in exchange for their money. We do the job at the wage agreed upon up-front, we get paid (at least) that amount. If we don’t agree, we don’t do it. If someone else does, good for them. If they can’t find anyone to agree, they increase the offer until they do, or cancel it. So long as it’s accepted willingly, everyone benefits. Third party opinions about it are totally irrelevant. If these companies are no longer profitable for you in your market, find a new company. Nobody’s forcing you to work for them. And that’s today’s two cents.

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On Entitlements III

Skyler J. Collins (Editor)

Human sacrifice to the gods for the promise of blessings differs only in degree to the sacrifice of liberties for the promise of entitlements. Both require unjustified acts of coercion by the sacred authorities against your peaceful neighbors. Both disregard the preferences of those whose lives or liberties are to be sacrificed for your security. Both require manipulation or coercive indoctrination from an early age to make the sacrifice acceptable (superficially, at least) to most people so that the practice persists over generations. Both look at your fellow human beings as expendable cattle to be milked or butchered for the supposed benefit of everyone. For these reasons, and probably more, both are evil and wrong. And that’s today’s two cents.

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On Diversity

Skyler J. Collins (Editor)

The desire by so many for racial diversity seems to trump all other types of diversity. Can it be said that those who clamor for racial diversity “only see color”? Can it also be said that in their pursuit of racial diversity that they are tokenizing individuals as representatives for their race? If the goal is to produce a mix of different skin tones and facial features, then how can the goal also be to respect each person as an individual with individual merit and an individual perspective? What gives a person value in this mix is not their individuality, who they are on the inside and what they have accomplished, but rather, something superficial and virtually uncontrollable, who they are on the outside. It’s as if their only worth is as a member of a certain group (race, gender, sexual orientation). This seems strange to me at best, very cruel at worst. What do you think? And that’s today’s two cents.

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