Unlike climate change, this event and its consequences are not matters of speculation; the future that will follow the elections is, in its main outlines, as predictable as anything in human life can be.
Tag: science
Anarchy: The Science is Settled
In the latest issue of Nature, the world’s leading scientific journal, a team of paleontologists from seven top-rank universities has presented conclusive evidence from the fossil record that during the nearly 200 million years in which non-avian dinosaurs roamed the earth, anarchy was the prevailing political system.
Remember
In my life, I have seen the sky full of war planes, a polio epidemic, Vietnam, McCarthyism, Watergate (and subsequent scandals), Kent State, urban race riots, military adventurism (read quagmirism), 911, the seeds of past wars becoming the weeds of future wars. We have survived. We are surviving.
Optimality versus Fire
Public choice economists have long argued that conventional economists hold markets to far higher standards than they hold government. Markets “fail” unless they’re optimal. Governments “succeed” unless they’re on fire.
The Conclusion Comes Last
Discovering and doing what you love is analogous to dating. Before getting on bended knee to propose to a beautiful stranger, it might be wiser to flirt first and see where that goes.
What Do Judges Maximize?
Public choice analysts did not develop a standard way of analyzing the actions of judges. For the most part, judges were simply ignored. Of course, if the judges were elected, they could be analyzed in the same way as any other elected officials, but in regard to appointed judges, especially those appointed for life terms, as the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court are, public choice had little to say.
On Government Murder
R. J. Rummel estimated that the institution of government killed just over a quarter billion people last century. What is the institution of government? It’s the group of people in society who believe, without evidence, that they have the authority to impose their rules onto peaceful people.
On Utah Politics II
It should be obvious to any observer of the recent Mormon Church’s interference in Utah politics that this organization is thoroughly opposed to anything resembling liberty.
Are We Sure It Can’t It Happen Here?
One runs a risk whenever one cites the 20th century’s great terror states while discussing current ominous developments in the western democracies. Apparent comparisons of the United States or western and central European countries to Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia will inevitably be hooted down with accusations of alarmist conspiracy-mongering and worse, shameful ahistoricity. Nevertheless, that must not keep us from noticing and pointing to contemporary events that bear an eerie resemblance, however slight, to things that went on in those totalitarian terror states.
The Fatal Flaw
Most Americans come to conclusions randomly. They believe what they read in the newspapers, depending upon which newspaper they read. They see the corruption, lying and cheating that goes on before their very eyes and haven’t the foggiest idea of what goes on behind the closed doors of government.