It is so much easier to blame someone else than to take responsibility for your own screw ups. Government and “laws” create drug problems and the gang violence that goes hand-in-hand with prohibition. So statists blame Mexican drug gangs. And gullible people buy it.
Tag: money
The Malevolence of The Right
As a libertarian, I consider myself outside of the “political spectrum” of left versus right. That said, if I must partner with either a liberal whose greatest sin is his willingness to steal money for humanitarian endeavors or a conservative who gleefully calls for the kidnapping and caging of peaceful people because they grow plants or ingest chemicals of which he does not approve, I will choose the liberal.
Should Governments Even Try to Solve Problems?
Otto von Bismarck famously described politics as “the art of the possible, the attainable.” People who like politics love this sentiment. It suggests workable pragmatism rather than impractical principles, compromise over conviction, action rather than inaction. I find this sentiment both hypocritical and misleading.
Our Trip to Ireland
This past Autumn, we finally made a trip to Ireland. It was so overwhelming that I could not decide where to start in writing about it. I’ve been fermenting the tale for nearly 4 months now.
UBI is Even Worse Than Welfare
The Universal Basic Income is much worse than the status quo. In fact, all the fundamental criticisms of the welfare state apply with even greater force.
Legalizing Weed Has Done What 1 Trillion Dollars and a 40 Year War Couldn’t
The $1 trillion War on Drugs launched by President Nixon in 1971 created the Mexican drug cartels, now legalizing weed is killing them.
The Infinite Regress of the Victim Mentality
Now aside from the fact that nobody living today has gone through the injustices of their ancestors, nor has anybody alive today perpetrated those injustices on any living or deceased person today, and therefore, they do not owe any so called “victim” anything, there is another problem with this line of victim based ideology. Namely, there is always another victim further back, to which a claim can be made for “justice.”
What Children Reveal About Human Nature
When a child doesn’t follow through on a promise to “never do it again,” it’s because of Social Desirability Bias, not because they lack self-control. Kids say stuff that sounds good to avoid negative consequences. In other words, they’re acting just like adults, minus the subtlety.
It’s Either Bullies or Balance Sheets
A wise man once told me that in this life, you can obey balance sheets or bullies. In the end, those are the only two paths. He was drawing attention to an unavoidable reality in a world of scarcity. All scarce things must be allocated among competing ends. This can be done top-down by people in control, or it can be accomplished bottom-up with the signaling system that emerges from voluntary exchange. The two approaches don’t mix well.
The Problematic Foundation of “Privilege”
The main problem with the concept of privilege is that it ignores how people generally acquire resources. We all acquire resources by trading with others. People are able to demand more resources when they have qualities that are highly valuable to other people. When we see people who are disadvantaged, we need to ask: How can we help make these people more valuable to others?