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.
Tag: health
Voluntary Only
Among the whole world of ideological labels that I could potentially attach to myself, there is one in particular that I feel called to talk about. Voluntaryism. This is a label that I have for a long time now felt affinity with, and in recent times have been cozying up to more and more.
Careful Who You Believe
If a person does a good job of fixing my car, but believes disease is caused by evil spirits, I may still trust his automotive expertise, but I’m not going to take his health advice.
Words Poorly Used #73: Avoiding War
There were a post and a thread of discussion on Facebook today covering the POTUS-Elect’s nomination for Secretary of State. Someone ventured that we (the USA, I suppose) would “avoid war with Russia.” One, we never avoid war, it is the health of the state (per Randolph Bourne), and it is the wealth of the oligarchy. And it is the joystick of the powerful. Two, haven’t every POTUS and SOS always avoided war with Russia, or did I miss an episode? Give a little, take a little, but don’t break up the game.
Are We Really Worse Off than our Parents?
Ask yourself this: even if you make less than your parents, would you go back in time to the world they lived in when they were your current age even with their higher real money income? My guess is no, and that’s the most powerful evidence that whatever your income, you perceive yourself as better off today than they were then.
Entrepreneurship in Cuba
Will entrepreneurship flourish in Cuba, and will it bring the same increases in the quality of life as elsewhere in the world? I am cautiously optimistic.
Taxation Isn’t Only Theft, It’s Destruction
Where the state is, there also is the growth of the state. Why does a state’s scope enlarge? One theory is that interest groups seek to use the state’s taxing power for their own benefit. I would like to suggest a complementary theory. When the power to tax is conferred upon rulers, many harmful incentives necessarily are conveyed with it. These encourage the rulers to expand their destructive acts.
How Do You See Reality?
Dilbert’s Scott Adams says our brains are not good at seeing reality, but only at seeing a “movie” in our minds that is good enough to keep us alive long enough to reproduce. I’ll assume that’s true.
The Trouble With Socialist Anarchism
Written by Per Bylund. The new movie “V for Vendetta” has provoked public discussion of the meaning of anarchism. Murray Rothbard was an advocate of the stateless society, but he was never accepted by the anarchist movement and is still considered more a “capitalist lackey” than anarchist thinker. Indeed, anarcho-capitalism has always been considered an…
Property and Ownership
To claim ownership of your body implies independent agency and liberty. It also implies that you have a right to exclude others from possessing, using, or controlling your body. In other words, your body is your property.