In April, a year after its introduction in the US Senate by Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the US House of Representatives passed the End Banking for Human Traffickers Act, “an act to increase the role of the financial industry in combating human trafficking.”
Tag: trust
Don’t Trust Government to Keep Deals
President Trump decided to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran Nuclear Agreement, and his critics are enjoying their opportunity to show concern. You can debate whether the deal had any legitimacy, whether it was a good idea, and what breaking the deal means, but you’d be missing the point. Agreements are meaningless to governments.
When You Have a Voice Telling You You’re Inadequate
This week I had conversations with a couple of loved ones who struggle with an inner voice that tells them that something is wrong with them. It made me think about many years where I felt this sense of inadequacy, a deep sense of not being worthy. I still struggle with it sometimes. So what can we do when we have this inner critic, this voice inside us that doesn’t seem to feel that we’re worthy?
Government Not Designed to Help
No government has ever protected life, liberty, or property when it meant scaling back its own power. Expecting government to do so is like hopping in your family SUV expecting to drive it to Alpha Centauri. That’s not what it was designed to do, and not in the realm of possibility, no matter how much you wish it were.
Think Like a Good Capitalist (and Become More Generous)
Maybe that boat you bought isn’t creating value for you because you don’t make the proper time to go out to the lake. Maybe your camera isn’t creating value for you because you never learned photography properly. Maybe your mountain cabin isn’t creating value for you because you’re allergic to mountains or something.
Band-Aid Solutions Are Lame and Nature is the Answer
The violations that plague us don’t come out of thin air one day. It is the result of the culmination of traumas inflicted onto us from day one (and actually before, while we are still in the womb) of entering into a world that profits and runs off of others people’s trauma. We literally live and operate in a place that is rooted in trauma and carries out traumatizing rituals on its most vulnerable people. So long as we passively accept these cultural narratives and practices, we cannot and should not expect better from our society.
Irrational and Negligent
What’s wrong with your intellectual opponents? One of the most popular answers is that they’re “stupid and evil.” Most of the thinkers I respect go out of their way to disavow this facile answer. Indeed, most of the thinkers I respect go out of their way to praise their opponents’ intelligence and virtue. They don’t merely opine, “We can disagree without being disagreeable.” They put those who disagree with them on a pedestal. My respect notwithstanding, this seems odd. If your opponents are so great, why are they still your opponents?
The Iran Nuclear Deal Isn’t Just a Good Idea — It’s the Law
On May 8, President Donald Trump announced US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, colloquially known as “the Iran nuclear deal.” While that decision has come under criticism for being both a really bad idea and a severe betrayal of trust, both of which are true, it’s worth noting that the US withdrawal is also a breach of treaty obligations, and that such obligations are, per the US Constitution and co-equal with it, “the Supreme Law of the Land.”
Love and Assertiveness
Love and Assertiveness are two sides of the same coin; one necessitates and depends on the other. Loving yourself requires asserting your rights to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Loving a partner requires assertiveness in creating and protecting an environment of honesty and communication. Loving a child requires asserting certain boundaries or limits around their behavior.
Social Security is the Titanic; 2022 is the Iceberg; Anybody See a Lifeboat?
Everything eventually comes to an end, and Social Security won’t be the single historical exception to that cold hard fact of reality. The big question is whether it winds down in the least damaging way or catastrophically implodes (cue images of the elderly living on cat food and so forth).