When the average, well-trained statist says, “I’m proud to pay my taxes, because I like to have roads!” they are demonstrating not only a serious degree of Stockholm Syndrome (it’s pretty stupid to be “proud” of being forced to buy a product, even if the product is good), but they are also demonstrating profound economic ignorance.
Tag: class
The Lament of the Merely Decent Economist
The first eye-opening moment for an attentive student in a good introduction-to-economics class occurs when that young man or woman learns to see – or learns to look for – that which remains invisible to most people. Such a student starts to search for the unseen jobs lost as a result of the ‘seen’ jobs created or protected by tariffs. He or she begins to understand that government-imposed prohibitions on the free movement of prices and wages have unseen consequences – invariably bad, and typically borne disproportionately by the very persons the prohibitions are ostensibly meant to help. The man-in-the-street has lots of wrong-headed ideas about economics.
Voluntaryism is the Love for Humanity
As a Voluntaryist my love and compassion extends to the totality of the human race. I make no preference or distinction towards any one group of people. We do not have women’s problems, black problems, rich problems, poor problems, Islamic problems, Christian problems, Hispanic problems, Mexican problems, Korean problems, or Russian problems. We have human problems because we are all human beings! Recognize your common heritage with your fellow human being. This is the source of true prosperity and peace.
Fuzzy Thinking Creates Fuzzy Communication
Unclear thinking creates unclear communication. The majority of “debates” I see consist of one person saying something (whether true or false, smart or stupid), followed by someone else misunderstanding and/or misrepresenting what the first one said, and then flinging back something logically irrelevant. I see two main causes of this.
Only Behaving “Good” Because Government Says To?
One of the creepiest things about statism is that it seems to actually convince a bunch of otherwise good, rational people that if there were not a political ruling class telling them how to behave, that they themselves wouldn’t behave as they should.
Why Our Coercive System of Schooling Should Topple
I’ve been called a crazy optimist, a Pollyanna, a romantic idealist. How can I believe that our system of compulsory (forced) schooling is about to collapse? People point out that in many ways the schooling system is stronger now than ever. It occupies more of children’s time, gobbles up more public funds, employs more people, and is more firmly controlled by government—and at ever-higher levels of government—than has ever been true in the past. So why do I believe it’s going to collapse—slowly at first and then more rapidly—over the next ten years or so?
Minimum Wage? Won’t Someone Think of the Children!?
I was quite proud of my 12 year-old recently. She bought her own iPad with money she had saved from babysitting her younger sisters (a joint-effort with her 13 year-old sister) on the nights that I have class. It reminded me of my first job working at the gun range where my dad shot skeet & trap. I earned about $55/week, paid the same way; in cash. I would do simple stuff, like load targets, ‘pull’ for shooters, maintain the grounds, etc. At its core, the minimum wage is a coercive extraction of resources from one party to be given to another.
Spanking As a Prejudice Against Children
It’s been said that kids benefit from a good spanking. Some people justify this practice by claiming that today’s kids’ are getting out of control, and need to be punished more severely. Some folks might be surprised to learn that this generational view has been expressed throughout our history with regard to a number of specific populations of people within our society.
Monopolies Don’t Listen
The only reason anyone still puts up with the US Post Office is because of ridiculous “laws” forbidding anyone from competing with them in “first class” mail delivery. This government-mandated monopoly offers poor, and sometimes surly, service.
My Political Objectives
A month ago I shared my result of “The Political Objectives Test” by Hello Quizzy. I was branded an “anarchist” with the summary beginning with this very true statement, “Liberty is so overwhelmingly important to you that you wish to eliminate anything that can interfere with it.” I found the test to be rather helpful in contrasting my views with others on the various topics it questioned me about. For that I wanted to present the questions here with emphasis (underlined) on the statements I selected, followed by some commentary and resources.