Government 'Science'

The Washington Post provides a revealing look at how a consensus (backed by government force via grants and educational appointments) is made. In the long run, in my opinion, the absolute separation of state and science is as important as the separation of state and economy, or state and religion -- for basically the same reasons.

HT Crossfit

August 2009 OActivist Compilation

August's compilation is now available.

Nothing Less than Victory

Diana has good news on John Lewis' forthcoming book. I must say that I can't ever remember looking forward to a new book as eagerly as I am this one.

Government 'Independence'

Gus Van Horn has a good post today which includes an excellent quote from Stephen Bourque.

Concepts as Tools of Thought

This article on, of all things, lego naming, is interesting because it confirms the Objectivist view that concepts are primarily tools of cognition, not tools of communication. (In other words, even on a desert island, you'd have a crucial need of concepts held as words.) Here's the salient paragraph (emphasis added):

Our small, international cast (half Brits, half Americans) is made up of four children. First, my seven-year-old son Barney, who surveyed the list as if it was another piece of homework. His friend, Jem, also seven, went through the list and then wanted to do it again. Five-and-a-half-year-old Max didn’t hesitate to name every piece. Six-year-old Raimi often builds spaceships, but has never referred to the pieces by name, until prompted by his father—at which point he revealed that he possessed names for all of them in his head.

HT: TUEditors

Cascades or Consensus by Secondhandedness

In going through some of my papers I ran across an article I'd meant to blog. I think it's still relevant in explaining how a consensus by itself doesn't mean much, and how having government enforce a consensus makes it that much more difficult to correct. The article in question is by John Tierney introducing Gary Taubes' book "Good Calories, Bad Calories". Here's an excerpt of Tierney's lucid writing:

He was caught in what social scientists call a cascade.

We like to think that people improve their judgment by putting their minds together, and sometimes they do. The studio audience at “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” usually votes for the right answer. But suppose, instead of the audience members voting silently in unison, they voted out loud one after another. And suppose the first person gets it wrong.

If the second person isn’t sure of the answer, he’s liable to go along with the first person’s guess. By then, even if the third person suspects another answer is right, she’s more liable to go along just because she assumes the first two together know more than she does. Thus begins an “informational cascade” as one person after another assumes that the rest can’t all be wrong.

Because of this effect, groups are surprisingly prone to reach mistaken conclusions even when most of the people started out knowing better, according to the economists Sushil Bikhchandani, David Hirshleifer and Ivo Welch. If, say, 60 percent of a group’s members have been given information pointing them to the right answer (while the rest have information pointing to the wrong answer), there is still about a one-in-three chance that the group will cascade to a mistaken consensus.

Let's End the Fed

It still amazes me how intellectually corrupt that paragon of financial wisdom, the Fed, truly is. How anyone can maintain that we need a Fed because somehow a few men behind closed doors can successfully machinate the economy is beyond me. Or hold that such politically appointed men can remain politically independent. A few excerpts from today's NY Times story:

Voters had become suspicious and unnerved by the Fed because of its trillion-dollar efforts to bail out the financial system, Mr. Frank warned. If the Fed really wanted to survive the disgruntlement in both parties, he continued, Mr. Bernanke would have to step back and let him devise a compromise.

[...]

"Ben Bernanke turns out to have better political instincts than anybody thought," Mr. Frank said in an interview last week. "They accept the fact that I know what I'm doing up here."

[...]

At one recent meeting, Senator Sherrod Brown challenged Mr. Bernanke's bona fides as a regular guy by giving him a pop quiz on baseball statistics. Mr. Bernanke, a passionate fan, passed.

[...]

To fight illustrates Mr. Bernanke's political challenge better than the one over Mr. Paul's bill to audit the Fed.

The maneuvering is still under way, involving intricate negotiations outside of public view. But, aided by the pledge of help from Mr. Frank and backing from the administration, Fed officials cautiously predict they will get what they want.

Peddling Pull in Healthcare

The WSJ has an good editorial out showing how the new health bill will create dependence on government and thereby increase what Ayn Rand termed "Pull Peddling" (see her essay in Capitalism the Unknown Ideal). A few excerpts:

The vote was 220 to 215, with 39 House Democrats joining all but one Republican in opposition. Mrs. Pelosi had to cajole and bribe her way to the magic 218, and the list of her promises must be stacked to the ceiling.

The lone Republican, Joseph Cao, represents a Democratic-leaning Louisiana district and extracted a promise that Mr. Obama would increase Medicaid payments to his state, and even then he only voted after Democrats had already hit 218. Let no one suggest this was the "bipartisan" health reform that Mr. Obama has long promised.

...

The real importance of the abortion uproar is as preview of the politics that will dominate every medical coverage issue if ObamaCare becomes law. Every decision of what to insure or not—when an MRI can be used, or whether a stage-four breast cancer patient can get Avastin or some future expensive drug—will become subject to political intervention over moral disputes or budget constraints. Heretofore, these decisions have largely been made between a doctor and patient. This is the real "right to life" issue.

Krening on Health Care

Congrats to Hannah Krening for having this excellent editorial published in the Denver Post! I particularly enjoyed this section, but be sure to read the whole piece:

What kind of health care will this system provide to you when you have a life threatening condition? How will it compare to what you have come to expect? I can tell you.

During my months of treatment for breast cancer in my early forties, my caregivers used their minds to make hundreds of important decisions that helped me win my battle. Their focus was on me, not government bureaucrats looking over their shoulders. Without their ability to freely exercise their judgment, I would not have survived.

Ask yourself: who do you think should be in charge of these kinds of decisions and work? Our smooth-talking president and his minions? Or medical personnel thinking and working for the benefit of their paying patients? Is it really in your best interest as a patient to have your doctor's mind forced by government?

Von Mises in the WSJ

It's nice to see Ludwig Von Mises getting some attention.

Virtuous Advice

Here's a second passage from William Zinsser's On Writing Well. I think his advice illustrates the importance and practicality of the four derivative Objectivist virtues which, to me, are most central in living one's life (independence, productiveness, integrity and pride). (Set aside the fact that it's written in terms of competitiveness, the same ideas hold without that element.)

[...] We're all working with the same words and the same principles.

Where, then, is the edge? Ninety percent of the answer lies in the hard work of mastering the tools discussed in this book. Add a few points for such natural gifts as a good musical ear, a sense of rhythm and a feeling for words. But the final advantage is the same one that applies in every other competitive venture. If you would like to write better than everybody else, you have to want to write better than everybody else. You must take an obsessive pride in the smallest details of your craft. And you must be willing to defend what you've written against the various middlemen--editors, agents and publishers--whose sights may be different from yours, whose standards not as high. Too many writers are browbeaten into settling for less than their best.

I've always felt that my "style"--the careful projection onto paper of who I think I am--is my main marketable asset, the one possession that might set me apart from other writers. Therefore I never wanted anyone to tinker with it, and after I submit an article I protect it fiercely. Several magazine editors have told me I'm the only writer they know who cares what happens to his piece after he gets paid for it. Most writers won't argue with an editor because they don't want to annoy him; they're so grateful to be published that they agree to having their style--in other words, their personality--violated in public.

Yet to defend what you've written is a sign that you are alive. I'm a known crank on this issue--I fight over every semicolon. But editors put up with me because they can see that I'm serious. In fact, my crankiness has brought me more work than it has driven away. Editors with an unusual assignment often thought of me because they knew I would do it with unusual care. They also knew they would get the article on time and that it would be accurate. [...]

Send your Congressmen a NO on Socialized Medicine

Here's a link to make sending your congressmen a NO on socialized medicine easy. Please use it (it allows you to put in your own text or use theirs if you don't have time to compose your own). I used Jason Crawford's succinct message (via OActivists) which he has graciously allowed others to use too:

The Wall Street Journal calls Pelosi's bill "the worst bill ever". I agree.

Please vote NO to socialized medicine, to "universal coverage", to any "public option" or "single-payer" system, and to any expansion of government control over health care.

Please vote YES for real reform and increased *freedom* in health care, especially repeal of insurance mandates, opening insurance across state lines, and opening HSAs to everyone.

Please do NOT help pass a compromise bill! We don't need compromise with socialized medicine, we need to defeat it.

Health care is not a right! It is a service to be bought and paid for. And doctors, hospitals, and patients should have the right and the freedom to deal with each other any way they want.

Learning from RomneyCare

Paul Hsieh has another valuable editorial out. Check it out and feel free to leave supportive comments.

Vulnerability has a strength of its own.

On the advice of a Noodlefood commenter (PMB), I'm reading William Zinsser's "On Writing Well". In it I came across this passage which I thought was worth passing on both for its sentiment and its turn-of-phrase:

My encounter with the principals began when I got a call from Ernest B. Fleishman, superintendent of schools in Greenwich, Connecticut. "We'd like you to come 'dejargonize' us," he said. We don't think we can teach students to write unless all of us at the top of the school system clean up our own writing." ...

What appealed to me was the willingness of Dr. Fleishman and his colleagues to make themselves vulnerable; vulnerability has a strength of its own.

Honk if I'm paying for your golf cart

I sometimes wonder if politicians and economists get together behind closed doors and compete to see just how a great a sham they can foist on the public in the name of collectivism and altruism (e.g. "stimulus" in the name of the "public good")?

In South Carolina, sales of these carts have been soaring as dealerships alert customers to Uncle Sam's giveaway. "The Golf Cart Man" in the Villages of Lady Lake, Florida is running a banner online ad that declares: "GET A FREE GOLF CART. Or make $2,000 doing absolutely nothing!"

Golf Cart Man is referring to his offer in which you can buy the cart for $8,000, get a $5,300 tax credit off your 2009 income tax, lease it back for $100 a month for 27 months, at which point Golf Cart Man will buy back the cart for $2,000. "This means you own a free Golf Cart or made $2,000 cash doing absolutely nothing!!!" You can't blame a guy for exploiting loopholes that Congress offers.

Hyperinflation on the Horizon?

Though I don't make much of any one indicator or statistic, I thought this was interesting (from John Mauldin's weekly newsletter):

"There have been 28 episodes of hyperinflation of national economies in the 20th century, with 20 occurring after 1980. Peter Bernholz (Professor Emeritus of Economics in the Center for Economics and Business (WWZ) at the University of Basel, Switzerland) has spent his career examining the intertwined worlds of politics and economics with special attention given to money. In his most recent book, Monetary Regimes and Inflation: History, Economic and Political Relationships, Bernholz analyzes the 12 largest episodes of hyperinflations - all of which were caused by financing huge public budget deficits through money creation. His conclusion: the tipping point for hyperinflation occurs when the government's deficit exceed 40% of its expenditures.

"According to the current Office of Management and Budget (OMB) projections, US federal expenditures are projected to be $3.653 trillion in FY 2009 and $3.766 trillion in FY 2010, with unified deficits of $1.580 trillion and $1.502 trillion, respectively. These projections imply that the US will run deficits equal to 43.3% and 39.9% of expenditures in 2009 and 2010, respectively. To put it simply, roughly 40% of what our government is spending has to be borrowed.

Catching Up

I'm way behind on my reading and blogging and will be gone on a hiking trip next week, but I did want to post a few important links for those of you who haven't seen them yet. (I assume most readers here are regular NoodleFood readers, but since I know a few aren't I'll post some of the highlights along with an encouragement to become regular NF readers.)

...

Paul Hsieh has been on a productive tear, with two Op-Eds out, one in the Christian Science Monitor "Health care in Massachusetts: A warning for America" and one in the Denver Post "The Real Stakes". Thanks and congrats to Paul for all his hard work and success.

...

Freedom of speech is under attack in many ways. Here's a scary story of what happened to Dan Edge when he tried to lead a respectful and lawful protest against a curfew law in Greenville. (The comments to this post are also worth reading.)

Here's an example of the government telling private enterprise what they can and can't say (hint: disagreeing with the administration's viewpoint is on the prohibited list). It's worth reprinting the government's language in this matter:

CMS is concerned that, among other things, this information is misleading and confusing to beneficiaries, represents information to beneficiaries as official communications about the Medicare Advantage program, and is potentially contrary to federal regulations and guidance for the MA and Part D programs and other federal law, including HIPAA. As we continue our research into this issue, we are instructing you to end immediately all such mailings to beneficiaries and to remove any related materials directed to Medicare enrollees from your website.

Please be advised that we take this matter very seriously and, based upon the findings of our investigation, will pursue compliance and enforcement actions.

And here's a report on the FTC's new guidelines forcing bloggers to disclose any material connections to products they may discuss, review or endorse. The "guidelines" are necessarily and purposefully non-objective so that bureaucrats will have to weigh each instance on a case-by-case basis.

I don't think it's hyperbole to start wondering when we'll have a Speech Czar and when we do, that may mean the end of any peaceful and rational disagreement -- so speak up as forcefully and often as you can to help ensure that we can continue to argue for a better society.

...

Diana Hsieh has started a great new project (on top of her podcasting) . She's developed materials to help lead Atlas Shrugged reading groups. There are currently three such groups on-going in Colorado and she's generously made the material available to others who might want to follow suit. (BTW if anyone in the coastal Orange County, CA area wanted to start a group, I'd try to attend.)

...

Gus Van Horn brings us an inspiring story of a young entrepreneur in Malawi. Now imagine what that type of person could accomplish in a capitalist society.

...

The Financial Post has a good article on the causes of the financial crisis and the dangers of increased regulation. I liked this section (emphasis added) as well as those explaining how regulation forces homogeneity and therefore susceptibility to the same risks:

IT IS A FUNDAMENTAL misunderstanding that the market is rational and at some sort of equilibrium, where all information and wisdom are incorporated in decisions. Neoclassical economic models filled with unrealistic assumptions about humans and the economy should always have warning stickers attached to them. The market is nothing other than all the millions of decisions that we all take as we produce, act and invest -- and the tiniest bit of introspection is enough to realize that we do not behave like the textbook models. Since finding lots of information before acting takes time and costs money, we often go with our gut, following rules of thumb and copying what others have already done. That is why the market has a herd instinct. When others seem to be successful at something and get rich on it, you follow suit. After a while, the hollowness of the enthusiasm becomes apparent, and then it often changes into overblown fear that soon ushers in recession.

A key lesson to be drawn from such events, however, is that borrowers, lenders, bankers and brokers are not the only ones to be affected. Politicians, bureaucrats and central bankers are at least as likely to succumb to the herd instinct -- and they have special power. If you act in a different way from what they have approved, they may take your money or even send you off to jail. This gives them the ability to head the march of the lemmings and set its pace.

Congrats

Congratulations to Burn Notice for being picked up for a fourth season! I'm delighted as it's my favorite show and one that really adds to my life. (And after the FireFly experience, a great show being renewed is truly a noteworthy and praiseworthy event.)

The Dangers of Arbitrary Government Force

Here's a scary concretization of the dangers of both non-objective law and unaccountable government agencies and bureaus:

Mr. Norris ended up spending almost two years in prison because he didn't have the proper paperwork for some of the many orchids he imported. The orchids were all legal - but Mr. Norris and the overseas shippers who had packaged the flowers had failed to properly navigate the many, often irrational, paperwork requirements the U.S. imposed when it implemented an arcane international treaty's new restrictions on trade in flowers and other flora.

There's more, read the whole thing.

Government Force as a Corrupting Influence

I enjoyed the opening of this article, as well as its warning. (HT John Lewis via OActivists). Here's the intro:

There are all kinds of corruption. Some are pretty easy to identify. You can’t miss it when a congressman sells the public’s vote for money, say, or a husband sets his personal promises at nothing in order to score some extracurricular sex. But the slow rot that enters the soul of individuals when the tendrils of the state overcreep the life of a society—that’s a little tougher to define. It may just be the toadying deference that steals into your behavior with the guard who searches you at the airport. Or it could be the baksheesh you pay the safety inspector to keep your business from being shut down. But as subtle as the effects may be, the rule is ironclad: the more areas of life are funded and regulated by government, the less free you are, and the more corrupt and servile you ultimately become.

Through the work of artist and blogger Patrick Courrielche, Andrew Breitbart’s new website Big Government—reporting the news so the mainstream media won’t have to—has just released a sickening transcript of an August 10 conference call jointly hosted by the National Endowment for the Arts, the White House’s Office of Public Engagement, and United We Serve, an initiative overseen by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency. The purpose of the call was to urge a group of pro-Obama artists to get out there and start creating art that would support the president’s agenda on health care, the environment, education, and community services. Speaking at the request of “folks in the White House and folks in the NEA,” Michael Skolnick, political director for Obama-mad hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, told the assembled artists, “All of us who are on this phone call were selected for a reason, and you are the ones that lead by example in your communities. You are the thought leaders. You are the ones that, if you create a piece of art, or promote a piece of art or create a campaign for a company, and tell our country and our young people sort of what do and what to be into, and what’s cool and what’s not cool.”

OActivist July 2009 Compilation

The compilation of OActivist activity for July 2009 is now up.

Will Your Doctor Shrug?

Paul Hsieh has an excellent editorial on the subject. Check it out!

Putting a Price on Freedom

The Undercurrent's Fall edition is now out. So far I've had a chance to read Noah Stahl's editorial which is truly excellent.

Physicians Poll

There's a lot of interesting facts and data in this story. E.g.:

-[In Massachusetts] The percentage of primary care practices closed to new patients is the highest ever recorded.
-The U.S. today has just 2.4 physicians per 1,000 population — below the median of 3.1 for members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the official club of wealthy nations.
-The AMA, in fact, represents approximately 18% of physicians and has been hit with a number of defections by members opposed to the AMA's support of Democrats' proposed health care overhaul.
-Four of nine doctors, or 45%, said they "would consider leaving their practice or taking an early retirement" if Congress passes the plan the Democratic majority and White House have in mind.

A Principle for Politics

I have a column out today entitled: We Need a Return to Principled Government. As always, comments and links welcome.

PS I submitted it with this post's title, any thoughts on which is better?

Announcement (1)

Dear Subscribers and Friends of The Objective Standard,

Given the Obama administration’s efforts to nationalize the health care industry—and the Republicans’ rush to capitulate on the matter—we are making Paul Hsieh’s article “How the Freedom to Contract Protects Insurability“ (from the forthcoming issue of TOS) accessible on our website early and for free. Dr. Hsieh’s article shows that, contrary to proposals being put forth by Republicans, a genuinely free market in health insurance is not only moral, in that it respects the rights of producers and consumers, but also practical, in that it enables businessmen to solve problems for profit—which leads to more and better products and services at lower prices for consumers. Please forward the link to everyone you know who might be open to reason.

Two other TOS articles pertaining directly to this national emergency are:

“Mandatory Health Insurance: Wrong for Massachusetts, Wrong for America,” which identifies the theory behind the Massachusetts mandatory health insurance program, exposes the program as a fiasco, explains why the theory had to fail in practice, and sheds light on the only genuine, rights-respecting means to affordable, accessible health care for Americans—and . . .

“Moral Health Care vs. “Universal Health Care,” which surveys the history of government interference in health insurance and medicine in America, specifying the rights violations and economic problems caused thereby; enumerates the failed attempts to solve those economic problems by means of further government interference; and shows that the only viable solution to the debacle at hand is to gradually and systematically transition to a rights-respecting, fully free market in these industries.

America is slipping into statism, and, if we do not reverse course soon, we are going to slip all the way. Please promote these articles—which provide clear, principled, moral arguments for a free market in health care—in whatever ways you can. Our freedom and health are at stake.

Thank you,

Craig Biddle, Editor
The Objective Standard
http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/
Phone: 804-747-1776
Fax: 804-273-0500

H. W. Jenkins Ghost Writes Obama's Health Care Speech

The WSJ has a humorous but trenchant take on how Obama's "reforms" are following a bipartisan path we've been on for many decades.

Health Care is neither a Right nor a Privilege

Here's another good editorial. A short excerpt:

Nor is medical care a privilege. A privilege is something authority figures permit us to do at their discretion. No one considers auto repair to be a right, but it’s absurd to consider it “a privilege.” No one grants you the “privilege” of having money to repair your car. Rather, if you want to own a functioning car, you must take responsibility to finance its repair by earning wealth. The same goes for medical treatment.

Typical Conservatives

It seems that everywhere I look, even the most conservative and fiscally responsible voices in our mainstream media have this kind of approach:

David Walker sounds like a modern-day Paul Revere as he warns about the country's perilous future. "We suffer from a fiscal cancer," he tells a meeting of the National Taxpayers Union, the nation's oldest anti-tax lobby. "Our off balance sheet obligations associated with Social Security and Medicare put us in a $56 trillion financial hole—and that's before the recession was officially declared last year. America now owes more than Americans are worth—and the gap is growing!"

So what do they propose?

Mr. Walker identifies the disease as having a basic cause: "Washington is totally out of touch and out of control," he sighs. "There is political courage there, but there is far more political careerism and people dodging real solutions." He identifies entrenched incumbency as a real obstacle to change. "Members of Congress ensure they have gerrymandered seats where they pick the voters rather than the voters picking them and then they pass out money to special interests who then make sure they have so much money that no one can easily challenge them," he laments. He believes gerrymandering should be curbed and term limits imposed if for no other reason than to inject some new blood into the system. On campaign finance, he supports a narrow constitutional amendment that would bar congressional candidates from accepting contributions from people who can't vote for them: "If people can't vote in a district not their own, should we allow them to spend unlimited money on behalf of someone across the country?"
[...]
As for health care, Mr. Walker says he had hopes for comprehensive health-care reform earlier this year and met with most of the major players to fashion a compromise. "President Obama got the sequence wrong by advocating expanding coverage before we've proven our ability to control costs," he says. "If we don't get our fiscal house in order, but create new obligations we'll have a Thelma and Louise moment where we go over the cliff." Mr. Walker's preferred solution is a plan that combines universal coverage for all Americans with an overall limit on the federal government's annual health expenditures. His description reminds me of the unicorn—a marvelous creature we all wish existed but is not likely to ever be seen on this earth. (emphasis added)

Despite being overt advocates of socialism, here's how they label themselves:

Despite an occasional detour into support for government intervention, Mr. Walker remains the Jeffersonian he grew up as in his native Virginia. "I view the Constitution with deep respect," he told me. "My ancestors and those of my wife fought and died in the Revolution, and I care a lot about returning us to the principles of the Founding Fathers."

I'm working on a new editorial which I hope will effectively challenge this all too typical attitude and approach.

Man Haters Strike Again

Environmentalists--who value wilderness over man--appear to be largely responsible for the fires currently raging here in California. Refreshingly, a mainstream media article actually points this out:

Some critics suggested that protests from environmentalists contributed to the disaster, which came after the brush was allowed to build up for as much as 40 years.

"This brush was ready to explode," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, whose district overlaps the forest. "The environmentalists have gone to the extreme to prevent controlled burns, and as a result we have this catastrophe today."

Prescribed burns are intended to protect homes and lives by eliminating fuel that can cause explosive wildfires. The wildfire that has blackened 140,000 acres — or nearly 219 square miles — in the forest over the past week has been fed by the kind of tinder-dry vegetation that prescribed burns are designed to safely devour.

The blaze has destroyed more than five dozen homes, killed two firefighters and forced thousands of people to flee. Firefighters reported modest progress Wednesday as investigators said the blaze was human-caused, though it was not clear exactly how the fire started or whether it was accidental or arson.

Figures from the California's South Coast Air Quality Management District suggested even less was protectively burned. The agency said it granted seven permits sought by the Forest Service to conduct prescribed burns on 2,748 acres in the forest this year. The agency reviews such requests to ensure air quality in the often-smoggy Los Angeles area will not be worsened by smoke from intentional fires. But records show only 12.8 acres burned.

Four of the permits, totaling 1,257 acres, were granted in areas involved in the wildfire, according to the air quality agency.

But the Forest Service disputed those figures. Bear said the plan was to burn 1,748 acres, and 193 were cleared.

Government firefighters set thousands of blazes each year to reduce the wildfire risk in overgrown forests and grasslands around the nation. Prescribed burns can also improve overall forest health and increase forage for wildlife.

Obtaining the necessary permits is a complicated process, and such efforts often draw protests from environmentalists.

A university professor, who lives off of our tax dollars, had this to say in rebuttal:

Ultimately, he said, the answer is to stop building in fire-prone areas instead of spending huge sums on firefighting.

That's the anti-man view in microcosm.

Rationing Violates Rights

Paul Hsieh has an excellent editorial out today on Pajamasmedia, be sure to check it out. (And congrats also on getting an Instapundit link!)

An Update on Government Waste

A quick update on the my editorial on government waste. First off, many thanks to Paul Hsieh (Noodlefood) and Lucy Hugel (The Undercurrent) for linking to it! I really wish I'd thought of the title Lucy used.

Also, a bit of data to support the idea that government has little incentive to contain costs.

Celebrating Oil

Congrats to Alex Epstein for having an excellent editorial published in IBD. The takeaway:

Nearly every item in your life would either not exist or be far more expensive without oil; there is simply no comparable source of practical, portable energy.

Yet today people increasingly label oil a pollutant that damages rather than enhances our lives and, even worse, an addiction — likening our consumption of oil to a junkie's self-destructive heroin habit. This is profoundly ignorant, not to mention unfair to the petroleum industry that tirelessly innovates, year after year, to find more oil and extract it more efficiently.

Ted Kennedy

I agree with the general sentiment of this short and well-written article.

Virtual Objectivist Club

Here's an announcement that might be of interest to students:

The Virtual Objectivist Club (VOC) is a weekly phone-based/online discussion group dedicated to the study of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. The VOC is being offered for the first time this 2009 academic year. It's open to any current students who would like to learn more about Objectivism.

During the Fall 2009 semester, we'll meet online to discuss essays and topics from either the Ayn Rand Reader or from free, online resources. Each meeting will be hosted by a rotating set of moderators, including Greg Perkins, Diana Hsieh, Kyle Haight, Andrew Dalton, and Kurt Colville. We'll meet on Wednesday evenings at 9 p.m. Eastern.

If you're a student who does not have access to a study group at your school, we may just be the group for you. If you're interested, you can get more information and our full schedule at http://www.oclubs.org/voc

Misconstruing the Cause of Waste

I have an editorial out today on the topic. Here's a short excerpt:

The ramifications to waste are threefold. First, by prohibiting certain activities, government eliminates competition. For example, private companies like FedEx are legally barred from competing with the Postal Service — creating that paragon of efficiency, the USPS. Next, because it can confiscate our money to pay its bills, government has little incentive to control costs. Should it overpay for services, salaries, or pensions, government simply takes more from helpless taxpayers. Finally, because the government has usurped their prerogatives, individuals no longer decide what is worthwhile and what isn’t. Government forcibly disconnects the decision of what’s valuable from the people who actually pay for the values.

Comments and links welcome.

Health Care is not a Right

Somehow I've neglected to link to Dr. Peikoff's fantastic essay available on the FIRM site. Sorry for my oversight, it's now rectified.

The Effects of a Government Monopoly

This WSJ article analyzing the performance of the postal service is quite interesting, and relevant to an editorial I hope to be posting next week. This section in particular is worth noting:

Here's a secret Washington doesn't want to admit: That 14 cent per letter cost hike after inflation over the past 60 years imposes a $20 billion a year toll on the U.S. economy. The government mail system is essentially a $20 billion annual income transfer from businesses and households to the postal unions.

About 80 cents of every postal dollar pays for employee salaries and benefits (compared to less than 50 cents for Fed Ex and UPS). What that means is that if you want to cut costs at the post office, you have to slash labor expenses. Mr. Potter has reduced Postal Service employment to 650,000 from 800,000 the past four years, largely through attrition. But he still employs 650,000 workers who have among the best wages and benefits in all of American life.

Most employees have no-layoff clauses, the starting salaries are about 25% to 30% higher than for comparably skilled private workers, and the fringe benefits are so expensive that the Government Accountability Office says $500 million a year could be saved merely by bringing health benefits into line with those of other federal workers. Mr. Potter has to set aside $5 billion a year just to pay for health insurance. Postal management now wants to "save" money by not advance-funding those obligations, and Congress is likely to say yes. But that doesn't save a dime; it simply creates even larger unfunded liabilities down the road.

Advocating Slavery

Gus Van Horn noted this terrible LA Times column a few days ago. It was too late to have an LTE published, but I sent one in anyways with the idea that it's always worthwhile to make editors aware of reader's reactions to their stories. Here's my unpublished letter:

After reading D. Lazarus’ Aug 16th column, I quickly ran to my dictionary to see if I’d misunderstood. But no, “mandate” does mean “to force” and “slavery” is still defined as “forced unpaid labor”. So Lazarus’ call for mandated medical labor is indeed a call for slavery. Welcome to liberalism in the 21st century.

Spread the Wealth Until It's Gone

Via the OActivist list comes this amusing site.

Lest We've Forgotton, Health Care is not a Right

Another good article on the subject, this one from OActivist Wendy Milling.

"California Disease"

This story, which purports to show how "California Disease" is affecting Oregon, does a good job of summarizing the problems with California. Too bad it doesn't mention the only solution: a renewed respect for individual rights.

From the story:

Some might call this California disease. This refers to a chronic inability to make hard decisions as well as a general disregard for business and economic activity.

California's inability to plan or create new public infrastructure affects every part of the state's economy. California was once a leader in building infrastructure, but that was in Pat Brown's gubernatorial administration in the 1960s when California last planned a major infrastructure project.

There are consequences to California's inability to deal with infrastructure. Its freeways are parking lots. Its water problems are threatening the viability of Central Valley agriculture, one of the key drivers of the state's economy. Its electrical system is so bad that every summer brings the fear of interruptions in the supply of electricity. Its universities are in decline. Its prisons are overcrowded.

Another symptom of California disease is regulation and red tape that increases the uncertainty for any project and raises the cost.

California projects can be in planning for years, and at the end of that planning process they may still be denied. The long delays are expensive. And as many would-be California developers will tell you, the uncertainty is a strong detriment to economic activity and development.

We also see symptoms of California disease in tax policy. California no longer has the United States' highest income tax rate. Big deal. With a top income tax rate of 10.3 percent, sales taxes that can reach 10.25 percent and a 33.9 cents-per-gallon gas tax, its total taxes are among the highest in the country.

California's regulatory climate also reflects the disease. Even as the state endures its most brutal recession in decades, it persists in unilaterally imposing new regulation, making the state less competitive with other states.

OActivist June 2009 Compilation

It's a bit late, but the OActivist compilation for June is now up.

Well Done Video

For those with a mechanical bent, Paul Hsieh has posted a really good video explaining how a differential works.

Town Hall Meetings

I thought this was a good story on town hall meetings. It seems worthwhile to attend if you the time and are willing to speak up.

Fishy Behavior

There have been many good letters written, some posted as comments to Diana's post, others posted to the OActivist email list. I particularly liked Hannah Krening's from the latter list, which I reprint with her permission.

To: flag@whitehouse.gov
Subject: fishy behavior

Good morning!

You asked for reporting of "fishy" behavior. I see fishy people everywhere (and they don't even know they're fishy!).

I have seen actual videos on YouTube of people protesting your plan to provide health care for all. They all seem to think that you will not run this program well. They ignore the astounding success of Medicare and military health care, which any senior citizen or member of the armed forces knows is the best in the universe.

I've seen seniors who fear that they will be shelved, and people with medical conditions who believe that pursuing the options of their choosing is actually something they should reasonably be able to do as free citizens. Imagine the nerve of these mobs of undesirables in our country! Perhaps you will move them to the bottom of the waiting list when your wonderful plan goes through. It will serve them right!

I know of a soldier who is actually concerned because the Army dentist told her before she deployed to Afghanistan that all those little tiny cavities in her mouth could wait until after she has been away serving her country for a year. I'm sure you will agree that this soldier is simply expecting too much from her government-supplied health care.

And you need to add some Canadians to your list of suspected dissidents. They actually have the nerve to go to the US and pay out of pocket for care when they are told their heart problems and cancers will need to continue to progress in their bodies while they work their way up the waiting list (and slip down a bit sometimes when More Important Government People are moved to the top of the list). How unreasonable and just plain impatient of them!

I certainly hope you will budget for gulags and re-education camps for all these terribly unreasonable people. After all, the government can always get more funds -- from somewhere....

Sincerely,
A Fan of Slavery

The Myth Of Free Market Health Care In America

This Forbes article is wealth worth reading. As Ms. Dalmia rightly notes and then debunks:

...both ObamaCare's supporters and opponents believe that--unlike Europe--America has something called a free market health care system. So long as this myth holds sway, it will be exceedingly difficult to prescribe free market fixes to America's health care woes--or, conversely, end the lure of big government remedies.

Read the whole thing.

Obama's Thought Police

Diana points out this white house blog page which urges us to turn in neighbors who might hold opinion's different than the administration's. As our new thought police put it:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

I urge everyone to immediately respond to this, because once government takes our freedom of speech, we're doomed (or at least there's nothing left but violent revolution).

Here's my letter:

Dear Mr. President, Mr. Macon and the Whitehouse Team,

I have to hand it to you! Even though I’m extremely contemptuous of your administration’s policies and approach, I thought it would take you a while to come up with something more repulsive and anti-American than your attempts to socialize medicine. You’ve proven me wrong! Setting up a thought police and a Stasi-style informant campaign is much worse.

Ayn Rand once observed: “Intellectual freedom cannot exist without political freedom; political freedom cannot exist without economic freedom; a free mind and a free market are corollaries."

Now granted you’ve chosen coercion and subjugation instead of freedom in each of these key realms, yet the consistency of your policies still serve to substantiate her insight. Indeed it seems that every step and action you take highlight the accuracy of Rand’s analysis and conclusions.

So for what it’s worth, I thank you for doing your part to so dramatically show the nation the life-and-death contrast between your philosophy and Rand’s. It will be the one redeeming part of your awful legacy.

Amit Ghate

Click on the link to Diana's post to see other good examples of people "turning themselves in".

Gaining Traction

Dr. John Lewis on the OActivist list points to this great endorsement of ARI:

Dodge: Is there any required reading for budding right-of-center types to advise them on how to deal with socialists?

Irving: On reading, I would recommend Madsen Pirie’s book on debating techniques. Young people are attracted by ideology, and I still find Rand to be a good start — novels then non-fiction.

The Ayn Rand Institute has changed direction under Yaron Brook who impressed me greatly when I met him. ARI has moved into outreach and invested heavily in new websites. The commentary — videos, op-eds, press releases — is the best around. It is the main advocate of capitalism around. Cato and Reason are wishy-washy by comparison.

Socialized Medicine

Yaron Brook has an excellent editorial out on the subject. Please forward it to anyone who might find it of interest.

A Lesson for Activists

Though I don't agree with the conservative ideology of these professors, their battle is very interesting, as it shows how much of the oppressive and seemingly intractable bureaucracy one can fight if one puts one's mind to it. In particular, a principled, open and direct approach is just what our opponents fear, as that forces them to give reasons for their positions and to set firm precedents -- something which is anathema to their "fluid" thought processes. Here's the authors' summary of their activism approach:

So we responded with boldness and openness in every public venue we could.

We publicized the investigation thoroughly through opinion columns and letters to the editor. We proposed and began to work through university governance on an amendment to the Anti-Discrimination Policy to better protect free speech. We brought the movie Indoctrinate U to campus and leafleted students on the campus Library Bridge urging them to attend. We also began meetings with representatives in the state legislature who were becoming interested in the problem.

The defiance and vigor of our response was almost certainly a shock to the Office for Inclusion and to the university administration generally. And worse still for them was out (sic) outreach to the state legislature. In fact, the investigation (then going on six months) ended the day after Allen and I met with one of the leaders of the majority Senate Republicans in Michigan. The investigation report released in March 2008 concluded that no discrimination had taken place at a "level" that called for any action against the student groups or the advisors.

HT: TU editors

The Sprit of the Crossfit Games

I enjoyed this spectator's description of what Crossfit and the crossfit games meant to him. I share his view that:

Remember when you were a kid, how long you could play outside in the mud and in the snow? Running up hills, down hills, through the woods, throwing snowballs, throwing footballs in the snow? Remember that? It was hard work! But we don't remember it as work, because it was fun. I get that feeling when I CrossFit.

Indeed, I think that regularly participating in games or sports of some type helps one stay young, so crossfit serves a bigger purpose for me than simply staying fit (bouldering is also an important activity for me in this respect).

Pull Peddlers

In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand describes in great detail the type of bureaucratic leaders who emerge when the wall between economics and state is broken. (She uses the term "pull peddlers" to denote these men, and points out that they become more prevalent and more powerful as the mixed economy slips towards outright statism.) Today's NY Times article describing the new head of Calpers provides a concretization of this type of person and his qualifications:

He was hired in large part for his management skills and political savvy — honed in Washington, where (sic) headed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the Clinton years. He does not have an M.B.A. or any other advanced degree in finance. Harvard, Yale or Wharton is not on his résumé. Instead, his lone degree, in political economy, is from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash.

“My career sort of culminates in this job, where this combination of investment and political management and organization management come together because that’s what Calpers needs,” he said in his expansive corner office decorated with a photo of himself and Bono. (Bono was a general partner in an equity fund in which the Washington State fund invested.)

(And as an aside, notice the NYT's double standard in its reporting: if private pension funds took significant risks to "double-down" as it were, they'd be crucified by the media; when a quasi-public official does it, he's admired and praised for his "daring". Only the unquestioning acceptance of altruism and the transmorgrifying effect of the term "for the public good" can explain this type of inconsistency.)

The Federal Health Care Muggers

Paul Hsieh has another excellent editorial out at PajamasMedia. Please stop by and leave supportive comments, and/or forward the piece to anyone who'd benefit from reading it.

Keynes on the Power of Ideas

I'm surprised to be favorably quoting Keynes, but I ran across this quote in Sowell's "on Classical Economics" and found it to be both true, and of a much wider application than just economics and politics (philosophy being the most important realm of its application).

The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back.

More on the Tea Parties

Here is OActivist Neil Erian's excellent tea party speech (in two parts). It's perhaps my favorite of the ones I've heard.

Part 1


Part 2


Also, Dr. John Lewis has announced that he and other Objectivists will be speaking and giving educational seminars at the next Virginia Tea Party being held in Richmond on July 25th. Check it out and help spread the word.

How Vulnerable is California?

If a particular set of 144,000 people left California -- a state of 38,000,000 inhabitants -- half of its income tax revenue would be lost. This is the result of the state's "stick it to the productive" mentality and says much about the nature of its populist democracy. I personally hope that all these productive giants leave, both to save their own skins and to perhaps force the state into a position where it will have to begin examining the nature and purpose of man's rights, and then implement them to the great benefit of any productive resident (after which hopefully those who were forced to flee would come back).

Moreover I hope that California's situation puts the rest of the nation on guard, as Obama's policies are sure to put the country in the same position California now finds itself in.

Here's hoping for more cuts to public education

One of the good things about the California fiscal crisis is that the State is being forced to leave, or reduce its presence in, certain areas, thereby reducing spending and taxes and perhaps more importantly, making room for productive and efficient private parties to take their place. As an illustration of how the public sector thinks, consider this quote from the president of the University of California.

“It’s important not to take money from enterprises that are really entrepreneurial,” Mr. Yudof said, “and it wouldn’t help us with our deficit. Maybe this will encourage people to be entrepreneurial and go out and get those grants.” (emphasis added)

How many private educators do you think would characterize entrepreneurship this way and how much harm is done to students who are taught this type of “entrepreneurship”?

Every reduction in public education is a twofold benefit, it reduces the State’s ability to propagandize for whatever consensus views it happens to want to foist on its citizens, and it allows the private sector a better chance to bring proper education back. Let’s hope we see many more cuts...

John Lewis' Excellent Tea Party Speech

Part 1


Part 2

Den. Roy Tokunaga x Polysema

Good Post

I enjoyed this post over at 3 ring binder on why LB is an Objectivist. It's very personal, self-interested and concrete -- exactly the approach that I think is necessary to benefit from the philosophy on a daily, "real-life" level. I particularly liked this section:

It is unfortunate that the immediate gratification stage of a child is most often mistakenly identified as “selfishness”. As we begin to interact with others, and more importantly, to appreciate some people as values in and of themselves, we learn that achieving our own happiness may often include the happiness of those we hold as valuable (as in friendship and love). When I value someone, their happiness is also important to me. I want them to be happy for selfish reasons. This is in keeping with my desire to be happy rather than in conflict with it.

The Nature of Paternalism

In a recent editorial, Mark Steyn quotes this description of paternalism written by Tocqueville in the 1830's. I've never seen a more apt and eloquent characterization, and I particularly like how he differentiates what a father does from what a "paternal" state does:

Over these is elevated an immense, tutelary power, which takes sole charge of assuring their enjoyment and of watching over their fate. It is absolute, attentive to detail, regular, provident, and gentle. It would resemble the paternal power if, like that power, it had as its object to prepare men for manhood, but it seeks, to the contrary, to keep them irrevocably fixed in childhood … it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their needs, guides them in their principal affairs…

The sovereign extends its arms about the society as a whole; it covers its surface with a network of petty regulations—complicated, minute, and uniform—through which even the most original minds and the most vigorous souls know not how to make their way… it does not break wills; it softens them, bends them, and directs them; rarely does it force one to act, but it constantly opposes itself to one's acting on one's own … it does not tyrannize, it gets in the way: it curtails, it enervates, it extinguishes, it stupefies, and finally reduces each nation to being nothing more than a herd of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

It's also interesting to note that Tocqueville singled out the dangers of the supposedly modern discovery of "nudging" 170 years ago. Is it possible that during Cass Sunstein's years at Harvard and U of Chicago he never ran across Tocqueville's admonitions?

And while I'm not a proponent of "State's rights", I find much of the rest of the editorial worthwhile, particularly the fact that there is no innate desire for freedom, and that no society can be good without the active participation of good citizens.

PS Sorry about the "read more" at the bottom of the posts. Something has changed in blogger's handling of some HTML codes and I haven't figured out how to work around it yet.

Washington Tea Party

Another excellent tea party speech, this time by Michelle Minton of the Competitive Enterprise Institute:

Tea Party Speeches

Thanks and congrats to OActivists Tim Peck and Doug Reich for seizing the opportunity of speaking at Tea Parties on Independence Day. Click the links to see their excellent speeches (Tim's includes a video of his).

Dendrobium Aggregatum

SLC Little Pet 'SVO' x SLC Cherry Country 'SVO'

Citizens Oust Gangs in Japan

A culture and a nation are only as good as the principles and resolve of its citizens. So I found this story about Japanese citizens no longer tolerating criminal gangs an encouraging development. (Obviously it's only one tiny data point and no real conclusions can be drawn from it alone, but it's rare to see stories of citizens anywhere taking more responsibility, so I thought it was worth posting here.)

Tolumnia Red Berry

Want better healthcare? Try the free market.

I enjoyed this WSJ article, not only because it presents a businessman who is actually advocating policies that make business possible, but also for the concrete details on how a free market applies to the question of healthcare. A few snippets, but read the whole thing:

As most of corporate America sits on the health-care sidelines -- issuing vague statements, trying not to offend a new U.S. president -- Mr. Burd has charged into the political debate. "I'm here because health-care simply isn't a partisan issue," he says. There is what works, and what doesn't. "I'm genuinely concerned someone might try to solve this by nationalizing health care, at the moment we at Safeway have proven that it is the market that reins in costs."

[...]

Today, Safeway has accomplished what Washington claims is the goal: The company's per-capita health-care expenses have remained flat, compared to the near 40% increase experienced by the rest of corporate America over the past four years. This has not been done by cutting care or shifting costs to employees. Nearly 80% of the 30,000 nonunion Safeway workers who take part in the program rate it good, very good, or excellent.

Magic? Not even. Mr. Burd explains that the "cure for today's ills is simply removing the obstacles to a free health-care market."

Three Wolves

Sorry that I haven't had time to post anything substantive in a while, but if you're looking for a little humor, check out the reviews to this Amazon product.

Escaping to an Island

Gus Van Horn has an excellent post up on why one must engage in an intellectual battle for freedom, not simply try to run and hide. I particularly like his closing:

Principles are like maps. If I had to flee an oncoming hurricane, I'd take a good map and a working Model T over a blindfold and a Lamborghini any day. The island-builders are spending too much time ogling fancy technology and ignoring the theoretical basis that makes it -- and their lives as free men -- possible.

Yaron Brook as the Keynote Speaker at the Republican Convention

Yaron hit one out of the park at this very important venue.

SLC Jewel Box "Scheherrazade"

OActivist May 2009 Compilation

The latest compilation is now available.

C. Chocolate Drop 'Kodama' x L. Millerii 'Dr. Koopowitz Red'

Polystachya Ottoniana

The EU's Antitrust Action against Intel

Galileo Blogs has a good post on the subject over at the New Clarion.

Phalaenopsis

Speal - a Paragon of Fitness

One of the areas in which I find inspiration and motivation is athletic performance. I've posted a few profiles or stories of pro athletes here, but today I wanted to highlight an amateur competitor. As a bit of background, when I started following the crossfit workouts, I'd compare my times to other posters'. Crossfit suggests scaling workouts according to bodyweight which is what I did. So after learning the movements, my typical experience was to do a workout in 30 minutes, then check the website and see that most people completed it in 20-25 minutes with a few standouts finishing in 18 minutes. Then there'd be the inevitable post: 12 minutes as RX'd (meaning unscaled) signed by "Speal" who happens to weigh 140 lbs. I never really doubted the veracity of the posts, but as they say, seeing is believing. There are a number of videos of Speal on the crossfit site, but for a taste of his fitness level, check out the videos of the crossfit game qualifiers: first wod, second wod, finals (the first and last are particularly impressive when you see the size of some of his competition). I'm definitely cheering for him to win the overall games.

Yaron Brook on Islamic Totalitarianism

I haven't been able to keep up with all the interviews ARI has been doing for PJTV and other media outlets (which is a great problem to have), but I did manage to see this interview by Dr. Brook which is fantastic. Check it out for yourselves!

Questioning the Value of Regulation

My editorial "Questioning the Value of Regulation" has been published by Pajamas Media. Please feel free to leave comments or to pass it on to others who might be interested. More comments and views help the article become one of the "most popular" on the site, thereby increasing its visibility -- and my chances of being published in the future.

Dendrobium Rainbow Dance 'Akazukin'

Dr. Bingswanger on the Beck Show

I very much enjoyed his appearance and hope he's invited back to do more of them.

Cause and Effect

George Will has a good column out on California's economic crisis and its cause: the high regulatory and taxation costs levied by the state coupled with an exploding government bureaucracy.

California’s business costs are more than 20 percent higher than the average state’s. If, since 1990, state spending increases had been held to the inflation rate plus population growth, the state would have a $15 billion surplus instead of a $42 billion budget deficit, which is larger than the full budgets of all but 10 states.

Since 1990, the number of state employees has increased by more than a third. In Schwarzenegger’s less than six years as governor, per capita government spending, adjusted for inflation, has increased nearly 20 percent.

Liberal orthodoxy has made the state dependent on a volatile source of revenues — high income tax rates on the wealthy. California’s income and sales taxes are among the nation’s highest, its business conditions among the worst, as measured by 16 variables directly influenced by the Legislature. Unemployment, the nation’s fourth highest, is 11.2 percent.

HT Instapundit

Fascism Comes to America

First it was Bush's team forcing Ken Lewis to takeover Merrill Lynch. Now it's Obama's aptly-named czars who are robbing and threatening Chrysler's bond-holders.

The brazenness of these attacks -- and the very muted protest they elicit -- suggest that full-blown fascism is a very likely possibility in the not too distant future.

I strongly suggest you make your voice heard before it's no longer possible.

Government Destroying Science

I found this discussion by Donald Miller to be quite informative. It shows the pernicious effect of having science regulated via the grant system. (Caveats: in my opinion he doesn't go far enough with his proposed solutions, and he seems to be associated with Lew Rockwell which makes me hesitate to even link to him.)

Fitness and Aging

I enjoyed this article on Willie Gault. It confirms some of the ideas which crossfit and Art de Vany espouse. I also liked Gault's attitude as expressed here:

In this steroid and HGH-obsessed age, it’s a fair question to ask: Is Gault on the juice? He said he’s clean, and his consistently swift performances the past 30 years without the injuries associated with drug use would argue against any chemical shortcuts.

“What would I have to gain?” he said. “I’m not getting any money from running. I do this because it keeps me in shape. This is the only body I get. I understood that in high school.” (emphasis added)

OActivist April 2009 Compilation

A summary of April's OActivity is now available. Great work everyone!

Public Sector Benefits

A common justification for the exorbitant pension and benefit plans public workers get is that these employees are relatively underpaid during their working careers (and thus they have to make up for it during retirement). This article disputes this notion:

In defending the pensions, supporters say public workers, especially professionals in high-paying fields such as lawyers, doctors and engineers, earn less than private employees in exchange for better job security and benefits. Most also will not get Social Security, having not paid into the federal plan.

"City employees give up a lot to work for the city," said former Cincinnati Safety Director William Gustavson, an attorney who represents retirees watching City Council as it considers possible changes to pension and health benefits. "Being able to count on a good pension and benefits is part of the trade off."

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data contradict that argument, showing that local and state workers earn an average of $25.30 an hour, 33 percent more than the private sector's $19. Among professionals such as lawyers and teachers, public-sector hourly salaries averaged $31.51, almost identical to the private sector's $31.75, according to BLS figures for 2007. Blue-collar public employees easily out-earn private workers, averaging $16.72 per hour compared to $9.87.

A 2008 study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a nonpartisan Washington study group, found that including wages and benefits, total compensation costs for local and state workers were 51 percent higher than those of private employees.

If we added studies of government worker productivity to this, I bet that public workers get paid more than double what private workers do on an output basis.

Economically, it stands to reason that government can only over-pay for its workers: if they offer less than market rates, they’ll have no employees, since candidates will go elsewhere. And because there’s no market mechanism to make governments care about their costs (i.e. governments don’t work for a profit) there’s no constraint on how much they’ll spend. So the easy way to get employees is to offer (way) above-market rates to its employees, with the taxpayer footing the bill. And according to this article, that’s exactly what governments do. (Guess how this plays out with all the “stimulus” spending government is doing in your name?)

But although the outcome was predictable by economic arguments, the real question is, why is government engaged in most of its activities anyways? (I.e. why is it doing anything beyond maintaining the peace via the police, courts and armed services?) That question is fundamentally a moral one, because to answer it, one first has to answer the question “what is good for man?”. Objectivism answers that the good is that which permits each individual man to survive, viz. the free use of his rational mind. The political organization of society follows from there, including the very limited role of government. Were we to adopt these ideas, there would be no issue of determining the pay of most current public workers — they'd be part of the private sector and thus would have to prove their worth on a market just as do most of us.

Sarc. Sweetheart 'Martha' x Sarc. Fitzhart 'Red'

Setting the Agenda

Citizens today, particularly the young, are told that their greatest civic responsibility is to vote. I think this is ridiculous — the most important responsibility is to educate oneself and then add one’s voice to the debate. One way to do this is to pick a topic of particular personal interest, learn about it, and then participate in the early legislative policy debates (which are normally open to public commentary). In this way, instead of simply casting a vote for the limited choices others have saddled you with, you get to shape the choices that millions or even hundreds of millions will vote on.

This article supports this approach:

A new study in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management demonstrates that public commenters who participate during the early phases of regulatory policymaking play an important agenda setting role. Results suggest that these “public” participants—who are often interest groups—can help shape the content of regulatory proposals as they move through the regulatory process and may thwart unwanted regulations.

HT OActivists

Cymbidium Mauve-Burgundy

Tea Party Roundup

Diana has a roundup of various OActivist's tea party activities and reports. It's very encouraging to see how many people are out there on the ramparts (so to speak) and how welcome their message seemed to be.

Forbes on Beal and his Bank

For those interested in the absurdity and injustice of our regulatory landscape, particularly in banking, this article is a must read. (I tried to think of possible excerpts to post, but none could do the whole article justice.)

Legal Precedent?

I was encouraged by this VfR blog post announcing the first time that Ayn Rand's stance was used explicitly in a published appellate opinion. We're chipping away on all fronts...

How would you run the economy?

I thought a comment I left on Noah Stahl's Undercurrent blog post might be of general interest, so here it is:

In response to Rebecca who comments: “Its easy to criticize and point out the errors in what someone is doing. More difficult, however, is coming up with a different, better option. Do you have a proposal?”

While I can’t speak for Noah, I’d suggest that the crucial principle to uphold is freedom — as enshrined and protected by individual rights.

Under such a principle, the answer to the question: “How would you run the economy?” becomes: “I wouldn’t.” And neither would anyone else. Instead the “economy” would simply be the sum of all the voluntary production and trade between individuals and groups of individuals (a.k.a. corporations). Given such freedom, the market would allow the most efficient and rational processes and products to emerge, without any “commander” or “czar” (to use today’s jargon) to “guide” it.

While the role of the government in such a system is limited, it is also essential, viz. to preserve individual rights via the courts and the police.

And by the way, this system is not just a “proposal”, it was very nearly implemented in early nineteenth century America — in fact it even has a name: laissez faire capitalism.

Tea Party Activism

Congrats and thanks to all the OActivists who will be participating in Tea Parties tomorrow. A few examples: the Ohio Objectivist Society and Rational Jenn in Atlanta.

Maxillaria Rufescens

Very fragrant with a vanilla-ish scent

Editorial: Ayn Rand as "Prophet"

I'm happy to report that my editorial Ayn Rand as "Prophet" has been published by Pajamas Media (with some edits). Check it out, and please feel free to leave a comment.

Special thanks to OEditors Lucy Hugel and Paul Hsieh for many valuable comments, suggestions and criticisms. Thanks also to WM for several improved formulations. (Of course, any errors or flaws are my own.)

Simplifying Taxes

Although our ultimate goal must be to abolish the income tax and other forms of taxation, there would be significant benefit in just simplifying the tax code. Consider a few stats from a recent WSJ editorial:

- According to my office's analysis of IRS data, U.S. taxpayers and businesses spend about 7.6 billion hours a year complying with the filing requirements of the Internal Revenue Code.

- If tax compliance were an industry, it would be one of the largest in the United States. To consume 7.6 billion hours, such a "tax compliance industry" would require the equivalent of 3.8 million full-time workers.

- Compliance costs are huge both in absolute terms and relative to the amount of tax revenue collected. Based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data on the hourly cost of an employee, my office estimates that the costs of complying with individual and corporate income tax requirements in 2006 amounted to $193 billion -- or a staggering 14% of aggregate income tax receipts.

- More than 80% of individual taxpayers find the process of filing tax returns so overwhelming that they pay for help. About 60% of taxpayers pay preparers to do the job, and another 22% purchase tax software to help them perform the calculations themselves.

Imagine if we had an extra 3.8 million workers doing productive activities like searching for cures for cancer, or advocating for a better philosophy, instead of complying with byzantine tax rules?