David Hume emphasized that commerce and trade were among the most important avenues to offer opportunities to raise people’s standards of living, and to bring refinement and cultural betterment to a growing portion of a nation’s population.
Tag: control
What Poker Can Teach You About Life
I know a lot of people shun gambling and card playing, but there are some valuable lessons that can be learned from poker. I find that playing a few rounds can be rather educational. Of course, I’m not suggesting that people take their mortgage payments to Vegas in hopes of coming back rich. This is just a list of a few life lessons that poker (specifically No Limit Texas Hold’em) can teach to those who are paying attention.
My Kids Are Better Teachers Than I Could Ever Hope To Be
I am in absolute awe of my children. For as long as I have known them, they have been teaching me, and helping me grow as a person. I owe them a debt that I can never repay, and I am deeply grateful to them.
What is Boredom, Why Do We Want It, How Can We Cure It, and Why Do We Quit Things?
My son comes to me about once a month complaining of boredom. I remember feeling this way when I was his age, and of course I’ve felt this way as an adult. After this last instance, I become a bit more thoughtful and began wondering where boredom comes from, why it exists. The world is full of amazing things, and as unschoolers my son has complete control over his time and what he does with it. Talking through this with my wife I made a few interesting realizations, which I’ll get to. But first, why the boredom? Here’s my theory: boredom is the absence of felt uneasiness.
Monetary System: Currency vs. Money, & Hyperinflation
Natural currency is that which is chosen by free and peaceful people to interact in. It is chosen because it has been demonstrated to be of superior value as compared with currencies of the past. The value of currency is its ability to lubricate transactions and facilitate trade. When it no longer effectively serves this function it must and will be summarily abandoned and replaced with a better alternative.
Why We Need Less Politics and More Private Governance
We’ve lived through another election season, and this year, as with every years, the candidates competed to tell us about all the ways they were going to use the power of government to make our lives better. Unfortunately, many voters appeared quite sympathetic to the idea that government action can improve living standards and generally make markets work better. That’s the bad news. But, there are also trends at work right now that are bigger than any single election cycle, and while the candidates this year provided little reason for optimism, the voters themselves may be growing skeptical of just how much the government can solve all their problems. Nevertheless, one of the most important things we can do is really explain and understand how markets, and not government intervention, are our best hope for an orderly and prosperous society.
Debunking Common Government Claims
It’s very rare to have parking bureaucrats respond to our defense with anything other than a curt, “DENIED”. So when I got the following from a friend I was really surprised. Not surprised at the content, just because there was a detailed response at all. Since it’s full of fallacies, and short of evidence, I thought it worthwhile to debunk.
Words Poorly Used #72: Oligarchy
I got in trouble last month for using the term “oligarchy” in, admittedly, a pejorative sense. Here’s what I wrote on Facebook: “No matter how one votes tomorrow, the winner will be oligarchy A or oligarchy B (where A = B).” Very good friends called me to task for this logic fallacy, justifiably so since I had committed several logic fallacies, the worst of which was the fallacy of begging the question. My premises assumed their own truth without establishment. Is the USA really run by an oligarchy?
The Extraordinarily High Burden of Proof for Violating Liberty
There are excellent observations and reasons for a presumption in favor of equal liberty for all – which led me to “therefore I am libertarian.”It is true that the libertarian political philosophy I have grown to believe greatly influences my policy analyses. However, it is not merely an opinion, no different in credibility than any other opinion held for any reason.
So-Called Intellectual Property
Property ownership is central to liberty and civilization. Property rights prevent conflict over the use of scarce resources. Ironically, the term “intellectual property” (aka “IP”) represents a hodgepodge of concepts that generally introduce artificial scarcity and needless conflict.