tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12237026724350318942024-03-13T08:04:20.836-07:00Tragedy of the Commons<BR>
Let's talk about real stuff...resources, the environment, books, the future, humor, et cetera...Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.comBlogger339125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-81130174620737623812011-10-22T10:25:00.000-07:002011-10-22T10:25:31.295-07:00Listen to Mustn'ts<BR>Listen to MUSTN'TS, child, <br />
Listen to the DON'TS<br />
Listen to the SHOULDN'TS<br />
the IMPOSSIBLES, the WONT'S<br />
Listen to the NEVER HAVES<br />
Then listen close to me -<br />
Anything can happen, child,<br />
ANYTHING can be.<br />
<br />
- Shel SilversteinChiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-30864400928908053742011-07-16T13:33:00.000-07:002011-07-16T13:33:16.832-07:00Good Advice for Debt Limit Increase<blockquote>The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies.<br />
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Over the past 5 years, our federal debt has increased by $3.5 trillion to $8.6 trillion.That is “trillion” with a “T.” That is money that we have borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, borrowed from China and Japan, borrowed from American taxpayers. And over the next 5 years, between now and 2011, the President’s budget will increase the debt by almost another $3.5 trillion.<br />
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Numbers that large are sometimes hard to understand. Some people may wonder why they matter. Here is why: This year, the Federal Government will spend $220 billion on interest. That is more money to pay interest on our national debt than we’ll spend on Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. That is more money to pay interest on our debt this year than we will spend on education, homeland security, transportation, and veterans benefits combined. It is more money in one year than we are likely to spend to rebuild the devastated gulf coast in a way that honors the best of America.<br />
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And the cost of our debt is one of the fastest growing expenses in the Federal budget. This rising debt is a hidden domestic enemy, robbing our cities and States of critical investments in infrastructure like bridges, ports, and levees; robbing our families and our children of critical investments in education and health care reform; robbing our seniors of the retirement and health security they have counted on.<br />
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Every dollar we pay in interest is a dollar that is not going to investment in America’s priorities.</blockquote><br />
Sen. Barack Obama, Congressional Record, S.2237-8, 3/16/06Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-72654019514717720332011-07-14T18:23:00.000-07:002011-07-14T18:23:18.590-07:00Stuff I Find in Books<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2C8BuWfoO8Y/Th-WKrYUAiI/AAAAAAAAA3A/x6YnGbFY8v4/s1600/012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="79" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2C8BuWfoO8Y/Th-WKrYUAiI/AAAAAAAAA3A/x6YnGbFY8v4/s320/012.jpg" /></a></div>I have started a new <a href="http://stuffifindinbooks.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">blog</a> that chronicles my adventures in used bookselling. Basically, anytime I find anything funny or strange I will scan it and make a post about it. Check it out.<br />
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<a href="http://stuffifindinbooks.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Stuff I Find in Books</a>Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-18442438942187498362011-07-14T18:14:00.000-07:002011-07-16T08:48:50.357-07:00Corn Sugar<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hvGMgI5Fm6M/Th-UOdi-oJI/AAAAAAAAA2w/9lPT3osSowg/s1600/CornFieldSunSpot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="144" width="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hvGMgI5Fm6M/Th-UOdi-oJI/AAAAAAAAA2w/9lPT3osSowg/s200/CornFieldSunSpot.jpg" /></a></div><br />
As I was scanning an ingredient label recently (unfortunately, I can't recall the product), I noticed something that I'd never seen before - corn sugar. I did some googling, and it seems that it is merely a new name for high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). I've covered HFCS <a href="http://tragedy-of-the-commons.blogspot.com/2008/09/high-fructose-corn-syrup.html
" target="_blank">(here)</a>, and I'm not convinced of the extreme evils for which it is blamed. However, I would recommend limiting all simple carbohydrates and getting plenty of excercise. This is easier said than done, of course. <br />
<br />
Here are two sources that explain more about corn sugar:<br />
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First is an <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129971532" target="_blank">NPR article</a>, from 2010:<br />
<blockquote>Would "high fructose corn syrup" sound so sweet by any other name? The Corn Refiners Association sure hopes so. Last week, the industry group applied to the federal government for permission to use a new name for the ingredient on food labels: "corn sugar."<br />
<br />
Whether it's called high fructose corn syrup or corn sugar, the ingredient makes up a significant part of Americans' diets. According to the Agriculture Department, the average American ate 35.7 pounds of high fructose corn syrup last year. That's not such a surprise considering it's used as a sweetener in everything from fruit-flavored drinks and energy bars to jams, yogurts and breads.</blockquote><br />
The second, <a href="http://www.cornsugar.com/" target="_blank">www.cornsugar.com</a>, is put on by the Corn Refiners of America, who say:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>Health and nutrition experts—including doctors, dietitians, researchers and professional organizations — are in agreement that whether it’s corn sugar or cane sugar, your body can’t tell the difference. Sugar is sugar.</blockquote><br />
One issue I have concerns this statement, as it conveniently omits the large amounts of government subsidies to produce corn and tariffs that keep cane sugar less competitive: <br />
<br />
<blockquote>If high fructose corn syrup is the same as sugar, then why don’t we just use sugar?<br />
The introduction of high fructose corn syrup into the food supply was intended to overcome periodic shortages in sugar availability and resulting price increases (as is the case now). High fructose corn syrup also avoided the problems posed by sugar’s instability in acidic soft drinks and fruit preparations, bagged sugar’s handling difficulties, and sugar’s functional limitations in certain foods and beverages.</blockquote><br />
Much of the debate over the overuse of HFCS could be alleviated by allowing free market forces to determine the true prices of food.<br />
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It also appears that corn sugar is used in home beer brewing:<br />
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<iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=tragofthecomm-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B000MBW7IK" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe><br />
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Other sugar posts:<br />
<a href="http://tragedy-of-the-commons.blogspot.com/2008/06/evaporated-cane-juice.html" target="_blank">Evaporated Cane Juice: Part I</a><br />
<a href="http://tragedy-of-the-commons.blogspot.com/2008/08/evaporated-cane-juice-vs-sugar-part-ii.html" target="_blank">Evaporated Cane Juice: Part II</a><br />
<a href="http://tragedy-of-the-commons.blogspot.com/2008/09/carmel-apples.html" target="_blank">Caramel Apples</a><br />
<a href="http://tragedy-of-the-commons.blogspot.com/2008/11/sugar-and-environment.html" target="_blank">Sugar and the Environment</a><br />
<a href="http://tragedy-of-the-commons.blogspot.com/2009/06/alternative-sugar-names.html" target="_blank">Alternative Sugar Names</a><br />
<a href="http://tragedy-of-the-commons.blogspot.com/2009/08/look-at-agave-nectar.html" target="_blank">A Look at Agave</a><br />
<a href="http://tragedy-of-the-commons.blogspot.com/2009/12/where-to-buy-evaporated-cane-juice.html" target="_blank">Where to Buy</a>Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-38092765595528988482011-04-16T17:14:00.000-07:002011-04-16T17:28:37.830-07:00Justice Department Deals Ultimate Bad Beat<br />The <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105263210">federal government</a> has frozen more than $30 million in the accounts of payment processors that handle the winnings of thousands of online poker players.<br /><br /><p></p><blockquote>Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We <em>want</em> them broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against—then you’ll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We’re after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you’d better get wise to it. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one <em>makes</em> them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted—and you create a nation of law-breakers—and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.</blockquote><p></p><p style="font-style: italic;">Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand, 1957</p>Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-57049094335764805602011-03-30T18:09:00.000-07:002011-03-30T18:13:36.645-07:00Basketball Ides of March<i> </i><span style=""><i><br />The gym lights gleam like a beacon beam<br />And a million motors hum<br />In a good will flight on a Friday night;<br />For basketball beckons, "Come!"<br />A sharp-shooting mite is king tonight.<br />The Madness of March is running.<br />The winged feet fly, the ball sails high<br />And field goal hunters are gunning.<br /><br />The colors clash as silk suits flash<br />And race on a shimmering floor.<br />Repressions die, and partisans vie<br />In a goal acclaiming roar.<br />On a Championship Trail toward a holy grail,<br />All fans are birds of a feather.<br />It's fiesta night and cares lie light<br />When the air is full of leather.<br /><br />Since time began, the instincts of man<br />Prove cave and current men kin.<br />On tournament night the sage and the wight<br />Are relatives under the skin.<br />It's festival time, sans reason or rhyme<br />But with nation-wide appeal.<br />In a cyclone of hate, our ship of state<br />Rides high on an even keel.<br /><br />With war nerves tense, the final defense<br />Is the courage, strength and will<br />In a million lives where freedom thrives<br />And liberty lingers still.<br />Now eagles fly and heroes die<br />Beneath some foreign arch<br />Let their sons tread where hate is dead<br />In a happy Madness of March.<br /><br />H.V. Porter - IHSA Magazine, 1942<br /></i></span>Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-11281327971075851532011-03-22T08:34:00.000-07:002011-03-22T08:34:00.921-07:00Excerpts from "The Law" - V<blockquote>What is law? What ought it to be? What is its domain?<br />What are its limits? Where, in fact, does the prerogative<br />of the legislator stop?<br /><br />I have no hesitation in answering, Law is common<br />force organized to prevent injustice;—in short, Law is Justice.<br /><br />It is not true that the legislator has absolute power<br />over our persons and property, since they pre-exist, and<br />his work is only to secure them from injury.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">It is not true that the mission of the law is to regulate<br />our consciences, our ideas, our will, our education, our<br />sentiments, our works, our exchanges, our gifts, our<br />enjoyments. Its mission is to prevent the rights of one<br />from interfering with those of another, in any one of these<br />things.</span><br /><br />Law, because it has force for its necessary sanction,<br />can only have the domain of force, which is justice.<br /><br />And as every individual has a right to have recourse to<br />force only in cases of lawful defense, so collective force,<br />which is only the union of individual forces, cannot be<br />rationally used for any other end.<br /><br />The law, then, is solely the organization of individual<br />rights that existed before law.<br /><br />Law is justice.<br /><br />So far from being able to oppress the people, or to<br />plunder their property, even for a philanthropic end, its<br />mission is to protect the people, and to secure to them the<br />possession of their property.<br /><br />It must not be said, either, that it may be philanthropic,<br />so long as it abstains from all oppression; for this<br />is a contradiction. The law cannot avoid acting upon our<br />persons and property; if it does not secure them, then it<br />violates them if it touches them.<br /><br />The law is justice.</blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">Frederic Bastiat - The Law(1850)</span><br /><br />Bastiat's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Law</span> can be found for free <a href="http://mises.org/books/thelaw.pdf" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://fee.org/pdf/books/The_Law.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>, or at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Law-Frederic-Bastiat/dp/1936594315?&camp=212361&linkCode=wey&tag=tragofthecomm-20&creative=380737" target="_blank">Amazon </a>.<br /><br />Other excerpts linked here: <a href="http://tragedy-of-the-commons.blogspot.com/2011/03/excerpts-from-law.html" target="_blank">I</a>, II, III, IV, VChiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-51480652239494639182011-03-21T01:29:00.000-07:002011-03-21T01:29:00.203-07:00Excerpts from "The Law" - IV<blockquote>Socialism, like the old policy from which it emanates,<br />confounds Government and society. And so, every time<br />we object to a thing being done by Government, it concludes<br />that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove<br />of education by the State—then we are against education<br />altogether. We object to a State religion—then we<br />would have no religion at all. We object to an equality<br />which is brought about by the State then we are against<br />equality, etc., etc. They might as well accuse us of wishing<br />men not to eat, because we object to the cultivation of<br />corn by the State.</blockquote><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Frederic Bastiat - The Law(1850)</span><br /><br />Bastiat's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Law</span> can be found for free <a href="http://mises.org/books/thelaw.pdf" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://fee.org/pdf/books/The_Law.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>, or at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Law-Frederic-Bastiat/dp/1936594315?&camp=212361&linkCode=wey&tag=tragofthecomm-20&creative=380737" target="_blank">Amazon </a>.<br /><br />Other excerpts linked here: <a href="http://tragedy-of-the-commons.blogspot.com/2011/03/excerpts-from-law.html" target="_blank">I</a>, II, III, IV, VChiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-82421842407233393632011-03-20T01:24:00.000-07:002011-03-18T08:28:39.697-07:00Excerpts from "The Law" - III<blockquote>You say, “There are men who have no money,” and<br />you apply to the law. But the law is not a self-supplied<br />fountain, whence every stream may obtain supplies independently<br />of society. Nothing can enter the public treasury,<br />in favor of one citizen or one class, but what other citizens<br />and other classes have been forced to send to it. If<br />everyone draws from it only the equivalent of what he has<br />contributed to it, your law, it is true, is no plunderer, but<br />it does nothing for men who want money—it does not<br />promote equality. It can only be an instrument of equalization<br />as far as it takes from one party to give to another,<br />and then it is an instrument of plunder. Examine, in this<br />light, the protection of tariffs, subsidies, right to profit,<br />right to labor, right to assistance, free public education,<br />progressive taxation, gratuitousness of credit, social<br />workshops, and you will always find at the bottom legal<br />plunder, organized injustice.<br /><br />You say, “There are men who want knowledge,” and<br />you apply to the law. But the law is not a torch that sheds<br />light that originates within itself. It extends over a society<br />where there are men who have knowledge, and others<br />who have not; citizens who want to learn, and others who<br />are disposed to teach. It can only do one of two things:<br />either allow a free operation to this kind of transaction,<br />i.e., let this kind of want satisfy itself freely; or else preempt<br />the will of the people in the matter, and take from<br />some of them sufficient to pay professors commissioned<br />to instruct others for free. But, in this second case there<br />cannot fail to be a violation of liberty and property—legal<br />plunder.<br /><br />You say, “Here are men who are wanting in morality<br />or religion,” and you apply to the law; but law is force,<br />and need I say how far it is a violent and absurd enterprise<br />to introduce force in these matters?</blockquote><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Frederic Bastiat - The Law(1850)</span><br /><br />Bastiat's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Law</span> can be found for free <a href="http://mises.org/books/thelaw.pdf" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://fee.org/pdf/books/The_Law.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>, or at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Law-Frederic-Bastiat/dp/1936594315?&camp=212361&linkCode=wey&tag=tragofthecomm-20&creative=380737" target="_blank">Amazon </a>.<br /><br />Other excerpts linked here: <a href="http://tragedy-of-the-commons.blogspot.com/2011/03/excerpts-from-law.html" target="_blank">I</a>, II, III, IVChiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-29219050259383731552011-03-19T01:49:00.000-07:002011-03-19T01:49:00.149-07:00Excerpts from "The Law" - II<blockquote>It is in the nature of men to rise against the injustice<br />of which they are the victims. When, therefore, plunder is<br />organized by law, for the profit of those who perpetrate<br />it, all the plundered classes tend, either by peaceful or revolutionary<br />means, to enter in some way into the manufacturing<br />of laws. These classes, according to the degree of<br />enlightenment at which they have arrived, may propose to<br />themselves two very different ends, when they thus<br />attempt the attainment of their political rights; either they<br />may wish to put an end to lawful plunder, or they may desire to<br />take part in it.<br /><br />Woe to the nation where this latter thought prevails<br />amongst the masses, at the moment when they, in their<br />turn, seize upon the legislative power!<br /></blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">Bastiat - The Law(1850)</span><br /><br />Bastiat's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Law</span> can be found for free <a href="http://mises.org/books/thelaw.pdf" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://fee.org/pdf/books/The_Law.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>, or at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Law-Frederic-Bastiat/dp/1936594315?&camp=212361&linkCode=wey&tag=tragofthecomm-20&creative=380737" target="_blank">Amazon </a>.<br /><br />Other excerpts linked here: <a href="http://tragedy-of-the-commons.blogspot.com/2011/03/excerpts-from-law.html" target="_blank">I</a>, II, III, IVChiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-35755950187516718082011-03-18T04:25:00.000-07:002011-03-18T08:20:33.239-07:00Excerpts from "The Law"<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />What is Law?</span><br /><blockquote>It is not because men have made laws, that personality,<br />liberty, and property exist. On the contrary, it is<br />because personality, liberty, and property exist beforehand,<br />that men make laws. What, then, is law? As I have<br />said elsewhere, it is the collective organization of the individual<br />right to lawful defense.<br /><br />Nature, or rather God, has bestowed upon every one<br />of us the right to defend his person, his liberty, and his<br />property, since these are the three constituent or preserving<br />elements of life; elements, each of which is rendered<br />complete by the others, and that cannot be understood<br />without them. For what are our faculties, but the extension<br />of our personality? and what is property, but an<br />extension of our faculties?<br /><br />If every man has the right of defending, even by force,<br />his person, his liberty, and his property, a number of men<br />have the right to combine together to extend, to organize<br />a common force to provide regularly for this defense.<br /><br />Collective right, then, has its principle, its reason for<br />existing, its lawfulness, in individual right; and the common<br />force cannot rationally have any other end, or any<br />other mission, than that of the isolated forces for which it<br />is substituted. Thus, as the force of an individual cannot<br />lawfully touch the person, the liberty, or the property of<br />another individual—for the same reason, the common<br />force cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, the<br />liberty, or the property of individuals or of classes.<br />For this perversion of force would be, in one case as<br />in the other, in contradiction to our premises. For who<br />will dare to say that force has been given to us, not to<br />defend our rights, but to annihilate the equal rights of our<br />brethren? And if this be not true of every individual force,<br />acting independently, how can it be true of the collective<br />force, which is only the organized union of isolated<br />forces?<br /><br />Nothing, therefore, can be more evident than this:<br />The law is the organization of the natural right of lawful<br />defense; it is the substitution of collective for individual<br />forces, for the purpose of acting in the sphere in which<br />they have a right to act, of doing what they have a right<br />to do, to secure persons, liberties, and properties, and to<br />maintain each in its right, so as to cause justice to reign<br />over all.</blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Frederic Bastiat - The Law(1850</span><span style="font-size:85%;">)</span><br /><br />Bastiat's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Law</span> can be found for free <a href="http://mises.org/books/thelaw.pdf" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://fee.org/pdf/books/The_Law.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>, or at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Law-Frederic-Bastiat/dp/1936594315?&camp=212361&linkCode=wey&tag=tragofthecomm-20&creative=380737" target="_blank">Amazon </a>.Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-61507346816128499972011-03-12T13:51:00.001-08:002011-03-12T14:19:45.809-08:00Broken Windows and Japan<br />Lawrence Summers, president emeritus of Harvard University and former director of the White House National Economic Council, trots out the classic "<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/42002647">broken window</a>" fallacy, regarding Friday's horrendous tragedy in Japan:<br /><br /><blockquote>"If you look, this is clearly going to add complexity to Japan's challenge of economic recovery," Summers said. "It may lead to some temporary increments, ironically, to GDP, as a process of rebuilding takes place."<br /><br />After the Kobe earthquake in 1995 Japan actually gained some economic strength due to the process of reconstruction, he added.<br /></blockquote><br />When confronted with a contradiction, we should check our premises. If GDP does in fact rise due to tragedies such as these, perhaps we should question its validity as a measure of wealth, rather than assuming destruction leads to plenty.<br /><br />Let's hear from <a href="http://www.econlib.org/library/Bastiat/basEss.html">Bastiat</a> on the issue:<br /><br /><blockquote>But if, by way of deduction, you conclude, as happens only too often, that it is good to break windows, that it helps to circulate money, that it results in encouraging industry in general, I am obliged to cry out: That will never do! Your theory stops at <span style="font-style: italic;">what is seen</span>. It does not take account of <span style="font-style: italic;">what is not seen</span>.</blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Frederic Bastiat - What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen; Selected Essays on Political Economy (1848</span><span style="font-size:85%;">)</span>Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-65841880555295550312011-03-10T16:41:00.000-08:002011-03-10T16:43:52.916-08:00Imagine<BR><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/muHg86Mys7I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-82538563466280259532010-08-11T14:25:00.000-07:002010-08-11T14:32:17.528-07:00Depression in Color<BR><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8iSiVlJx_dw/TGMWsK3q-WI/AAAAAAAAAzo/nyQOrZ9kXQY/s1600/surplusproduce.sJPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 277px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8iSiVlJx_dw/TGMWsK3q-WI/AAAAAAAAAzo/nyQOrZ9kXQY/s400/surplusproduce.sJPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5504268117664790882" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://extras.denverpost.com/archive/captured.asp">These images</a>, by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, are some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations. The photographs are the property of the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color.Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-51449653957478677792010-03-23T11:15:00.000-07:002010-03-23T16:01:43.885-07:00What Could Possibly Go Wrong?<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8iSiVlJx_dw/S6lHDpAi91I/AAAAAAAAAyA/1ncLpdYYoGQ/s1600-h/healthbill1122.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 280px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8iSiVlJx_dw/S6lHDpAi91I/AAAAAAAAAyA/1ncLpdYYoGQ/s400/healthbill1122.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451966951782020946" border="0" /></a>Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-12772841621395238272010-03-03T07:07:00.000-08:002010-03-03T07:07:00.447-08:00Desolation<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8iSiVlJx_dw/S4neBISyMbI/AAAAAAAAAx0/MORP7C6YymQ/s1600-h/Cole_Thomas_The_Course_of_Empire_Desolation_1836.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 258px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8iSiVlJx_dw/S4neBISyMbI/AAAAAAAAAx0/MORP7C6YymQ/s400/Cole_Thomas_The_Course_of_Empire_Desolation_1836.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443125735641461170" border="0" /></a>Cole Thomas - <span style="font-style: italic;">The Course of Empire</span>, 1836<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span>Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-67544210045280333282010-03-02T07:01:00.000-08:002010-03-02T07:01:00.072-08:00The Destruction of Empire<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8iSiVlJx_dw/S4ncxCxDfgI/AAAAAAAAAxk/-yznqTz9SnU/s1600-h/Cole_Thomas_The_Course_of_Empire_Destruction_1836.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 246px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8iSiVlJx_dw/S4ncxCxDfgI/AAAAAAAAAxk/-yznqTz9SnU/s400/Cole_Thomas_The_Course_of_Empire_Destruction_1836.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443124359768276482" border="0" /></a><br />Cole Thomas - <span style="font-style: italic;">The Course of Empire</span>, 1836<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span>Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-15433989782555965332010-03-01T07:04:00.000-08:002010-03-01T07:04:00.658-08:00The Consummation of Empire<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8iSiVlJx_dw/S4ndh1MY4eI/AAAAAAAAAxs/3QRHyjkJoOc/s1600-h/Cole_Thomas_The_Consummation_The_Course_of_the_Empire_1836.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8iSiVlJx_dw/S4ndh1MY4eI/AAAAAAAAAxs/3QRHyjkJoOc/s400/Cole_Thomas_The_Consummation_The_Course_of_the_Empire_1836.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443125197938418146" border="0" /></a>Cole Thomas - <span style="font-style: italic;">The Course of Empire</span>, 1836<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span>Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-74874991798446719222010-02-28T06:55:00.000-08:002010-02-28T06:55:00.205-08:00The Arcadian or Pastoral State<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8iSiVlJx_dw/S4nbgt8BqCI/AAAAAAAAAxU/lwIVURbnZys/s1600-h/Cole_Thomas_The_Course_of_Empire_The_Arcadian_or_Pastoral_State_1836.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 244px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8iSiVlJx_dw/S4nbgt8BqCI/AAAAAAAAAxU/lwIVURbnZys/s400/Cole_Thomas_The_Course_of_Empire_The_Arcadian_or_Pastoral_State_1836.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443122979787614242" border="0" /></a>Cole Thomas - <span style="font-style: italic;">The Course of Empire</span>, 1836<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span>Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-85806657041472566522010-02-27T09:19:00.000-08:002010-02-27T09:22:31.591-08:00The Savage State<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8iSiVlJx_dw/S4lUPZcvA3I/AAAAAAAAAxM/giuPaH8zfQ8/s1600-h/Cole_Thomas_The_Course_of_Empire_The_Savage_State_1836.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 258px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8iSiVlJx_dw/S4lUPZcvA3I/AAAAAAAAAxM/giuPaH8zfQ8/s400/Cole_Thomas_The_Course_of_Empire_The_Savage_State_1836.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442974248160134002" border="0" /></a><br />Cole Thomas - <span style="font-style: italic;">The Course of Empire</span>, 1836<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span>Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-56450642607848939482010-02-11T11:46:00.000-08:002010-02-11T11:46:00.046-08:00On the Minimum Wage<blockquote>All this is not to argue that there is no way of raising wages. It is merely to point out that the apparently easy method of raising them by government fiat is the wrong way and the worst way.<br /><br />This is perhaps as good a place as any to point out that what distinguishes many reformers from those who cannot accept their proposals is not their greater philanthropy, but their greater impatience. The question is not whether we wish to see everybody as well off as possible. Among men of good will such an aim can be taken for granted. The real question concerns the proper means of achieving it. And in trying to answer this we must never lose sight of a few elementary truisms. We cannot distribute more wealth than is created. <span style="font-weight: bold;">We cannot in the long run pay labor as a whole more than it produces.</span><br /><br />The best way to raise wages, therefore, is to raise marginal labor productivity. This can be done by many methods: by an increase in capital accumulation — i.e., by an increase in the machines with which the workers are aided; by new inventions and improvements; by more efficient management on the part of employers; by more industriousness and efficiency on the part of workers; by better education and training. The more the individual worker produces, the more he increases the wealth of the whole community. The more he produces, the more his services are worth to consumers, and hence to employers. And the more he is worth to employers, the more he will be paid. Real wages come out of production, not out of government decrees.<br /><br />So government policy should be directed, not to imposing more burdensome requirements on employers, but to following policies that encourage profits, that encourage employers to expand, to invest in newer and better machines to increase the productivity of workers — in brief, to encourage capital accumulation, instead of discouraging it—and to increase both employment and wage rates.</blockquote><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Economics in One Lesson</span> - Henry Hazlitt p. 139Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-64611788568753635232010-02-10T09:51:00.000-08:002010-02-10T09:51:00.353-08:00On Government Price Fixing<blockquote>The government may try to assure supply through extending its control over the costs of production of a commodity. To hold down the retail price of beef, for example, it may fix the wholesale price of beef, the slaughter-house price of beef, the price of live cattle, the price of feed, the wages of farmhands. To hold down the delivered price of milk, it may try to fix the wages of milk truck drivers, the price of containers, the farm price of milk, the price of feedstuffs. To fix the price of bread, it may fix the wages in bakeries, the price of flour, the profits of millers, the price of wheat, and so on.<br /><br />But as the government extends this price-fixing backwards, it extends at the same time the consequences that originally drove it to this course. Assuming that it has the courage to fix these costs, and is able to enforce its decisions, then it merely, in turn, creates shortages of the various factors — labor, feedstuffs, wheat, or whatever—that enter into the production of the final commodities. Thus the government is driven to controls in ever-widening circles, and the final consequence will be the same as that of universal price-fixing.<br /><br />The government may try to meet this difficulty through subsidies. It recognizes, for example, that when it keeps the price of milk or butter below the level of the market, or below the relative level at which it fixes other prices, a shortage may result because of lower wages or profit margins for the production of milk or butter as compared with other commodities. Therefore the government attempts to compensate for this by paying a subsidy to the milk and butter producers. Passing over the administrative difficulties involved in this, and assuming that the subsidy is just enough to assure the desired relative production of milk and butter, it is clear that, though the subsidy is paid to producers, those who are really being subsidized are the consumers. For the producers are on net balance getting no more for their milk and butter than if they had been allowed to charge the free market price in the first place; but the consumers are getting their milk and butter at a great deal below the free market price. They are being subsidized to the extent of the difference—that is, by the amount of subsidy paid ostensibly to the producers.<br /><br />Now unless the subsidized commodity is also rationed, it is those with the most purchasing power that can buy most of it. This means that they are being subsidized more than those with less purchasing power. Who subsidizes the consumers will depend upon the incidence of taxation. But men in their role of taxpayers will be subsidizing themselves in their role of consumers. It becomes a little difficult to trace in this maze precisely who is subsidizing whom. <span style="font-weight: bold;">What is forgotten is that subsidies are paid for by someone, and that no method has been discovered by which the community gets something for nothing.</span></blockquote><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Economics in One Lesson</span> - Henry Hazlitt p. 121-122Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-59380921009747423422010-02-09T17:37:00.000-08:002010-02-09T17:41:53.686-08:00The Price System<p></p><blockquote><p>Everything, in short, is produced at the expense of forgoing something else. Costs of production themselves, in fact, might be defined as the things that are given up (the leisure and pleasures, the raw materials with alternative potential uses) in order to create the thing that is made.</p> <p>It follows that it is just as essential for the health of a dynamic economy that dying industries should be allowed to die as that growing industries should be allowed to grow. For the dying industries absorb labor and capital that should be released for the growing industries. It is only the much vilified price system that solves the enormously complicated problem of deciding precisely how much of tens of thousands of different commodities and services should be produced in relation to each other. These otherwise bewildering equations are solved quasi-automatically by the system of prices, profits and costs. They are solved by this system incomparably better than any group of bureaucrats could solve them. For they are solved by a system under which each consumer makes his own demand and casts a fresh vote, or a dozen fresh votes, every day; whereas bureaucrats would try to solve it by having made for the consumers, not what the consumers themselves wanted, but what the bureaucrats decided was good for them. Yet though the bureaucrats do not understand the quasi-automatic system of the market, they are always disturbed by it. They are always trying to improve it or correct it, usually in the interests of some wailing pressure group. What some of the results of their intervention are, we shall examine in succeeding chapters.</p></blockquote><p></p><span style="font-style: italic;">Economics in One Lesson</span> - Henry Hazlitt p. 108-109Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-91141005412177092972010-02-09T17:15:00.000-08:002010-02-09T17:36:31.751-08:00Economics in One Lesson<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.amazon.com/Economics-One-Lesson-Shortest-Understand/dp/0517548232?&camp=212361&linkCode=wey&tag=tragofthecomm-20&creative=380737"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8iSiVlJx_dw/S3INfn4t-SI/AAAAAAAAAxE/6eTHdo5zFzI/s200/onelesson.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436422537123592482" border="0" /></a><br />By far the most concise and easy to digest economics book I have read is <span style="font-style: italic;">Economics in One Lesson</span> by Henry Hazlitt. It deftly dispatches a wide range of well worn economic fallacies in a little over 200 pages. It, along with an amazing amount of other economic literature, can be found for <a href="http://fee.org/doc/economics_in_one_lesson/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: bold;">free</span></a> at the Foundation of Economic Education (<a href="http://fee.org/" target="_blank">FEE.org</a>). It is a classic cornerstone of any economic library, and after reading the pdf, I certainly recommend getting your own copy.<br /><br /><br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Lesson</span><br />...<br /><p>In this lies the whole difference between good economics and bad. The bad economist sees only what immediately strikes the eye; the good economist also looks beyond. The bad economist sees only the direct consequences of a proposed course; the good economist looks also at the longer and indirect consequences. The bad economist sees only what the effect of a given policy has been or will be on one particular group; the good economist inquires also what the effect of the policy will be on all groups. </p><p>The distinction may seem obvious. The precaution of looking for all the consequences of a given policy to everyone may seem elementary. Doesn't everybody know, in his personal life, that there are all sorts of indulgences delightful at the moment but disastrous in the end? Doesn't every little boy know that if he eats enough candy he will get sick? Doesn't the fellow who gets drunk know that he will wake up next morning with a ghastly stomach and a horrible head? Doesn't the dipsomaniac know that he is ruining his liver and shortening his life? Doesn't the Don Juan know that he is letting himself in for every sort of risk, from blackmail to disease? Finally, to bring it to the economic though still personal realm, do not the idler and the spendthrift know, even in the midst of their glorious fling, that they are heading for a future of debt and poverty? </p><p>Yet when we enter the field of public economics, these elementary truths are ignored. There are men regarded today as brilliant economists, who deprecate saving and recommend squandering on a national scale as the way of economic salvation; and when anyone points to what the consequences of these policies will be in the long run, they reply flippantly, as might the prodigal son of a warning father: “In the long run we are all dead.” And such shallow wisecracks pass as devastating epigrams and the ripest wisdom. </p><p>But the tragedy is that, on the contrary, we are already suffering the long-run consequences of the policies of the remote or recent past. Today is already the tomorrow which the bad economist yesterday urged us to ignore. The long-run consequences of some economic policies may become evident in a few months. Others may not become evident for several years. Still others may not become evident for decades. But in every case those long-run consequences are contained in the policy as surely as the hen was in the egg, the flower in the seed. </p><p>From this aspect, therefore, the whole of economics can be reduced to a single lesson, and that lesson can be reduced to a single sentence. <em><br /></em></p><p style="font-weight: bold;"><em>The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.</em></p></blockquote><p style="font-weight: bold;"><em></em></p>Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1223702672435031894.post-51670608676738417502010-01-25T15:33:00.000-08:002010-01-25T15:34:05.752-08:00A Battle For the Ages<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/d0nERTFo-Sk&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/d0nERTFo-Sk&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01314751382463369802noreply@blogger.com0