Advocates of economic egalitarianism, those who fight against so-called “income inequality” fail to understand what achieving their goal entails.
Tag: value
For the Love of Reason
Far be it from me to divide humankind in two, but were I so inclined, I’d divide it into those who love reason and those who are indifferent if not outright hostile to it. Members of the first group adore the reasoning process and their own reasoning faculties. The others find the process burdensome and discomforting, something that threatens long-held beliefs and intuitions.
The Enemies of The People?
National press and media are complaining today, in a bunch of coordinated editorials, about being thought of (or rather exposed) as the enemies of the people. Is it a truthful accusation?
The Danger of Discipline without Direction
The value of finishing a task is relative to what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. If finishing a task makes you a better human being and you genuinely believe that it’s the right choice for you, then you should finish what you started even it’s uncomfortable. If sticking with a task robs you of your time, your money, your health, your joy, or anything else that really matters to you, then it’s self-defeating to keep going merely for the sake of proving to others that you’re a disciplined person.
On Pushing Boundaries
Boundaries are useful toward the goal of protecting what’s considered valuable. What people, places, things, ideas, and customs a person values is likely the result of both their nature as human beings and their nurture as being raised in a particular socio-cultural and economic environment. Often the boundaries we encounter as we explore our world are not set as we would like them, and so we push against them.
Radicalism Without Revolution
“Radical” is a scary word, but radicals are (fundamentally) just very consistent people. If they believe in a principle, they believe that it applies to the very root (“radix” – a Latin term) of things. If they believe in non-aggression as a social norm, for instance, they think the value of non-aggression holds true for everyone – including the police officers and bureaucrats and military members whom we normally excuse from this rule.
The Cost (and Rewards) of Generosity
A life of service forces you to pay the price of abandoning your scarcity mindset and all the sympathy that comes with it. When you walk around with an “it’s just little ole me” attitude or when you carry yourself as someone who doesn’t have enough to share, no one expects anything of you and they extend pity in your direction.
Cheap Tricks and Parenting Hacks
I’m not a fan of most parenting hacks or special ways to phrase stuff. Your kids can tolerate no. Your kids don’t need to be coddled or manipulated into cooperation. You shouldn’t practice slight of hand and try to distract them or focus on positivity or something.
The Voluntaryist Premise
Once a person adopts the label of voluntaryist (or the like) for their political identity, they assume, with good reason, the following premise: human suffering is terrible and should be prevented; aggression and coercion necessarily create human suffering. This premise leads the voluntaryist to hold a number of hypotheses with varying degrees of accuracy in some form or fashion within their minds at all times. Here are several of those hypotheses.
What Taxation Means
There is certainly no shortage of libertarian types who will gladly tell why they believe that the practice of taxation amounts to robbery or extortion. Likewise for those who will tell you why they believe that the practice of taxation is good and necessary. Personally, I side with the former belief that the practice of taxation is illicit and criminal. But let’s look at it another way, shall we?