“I hope our generation may have learned that it has been perfectionism of one kind or another that has often destroyed whatever degree of decency societies have achieved.”
Read MoreLike all ideologies capitalism evolves with experience and adjusts to failures and social evolution. It never achieves perfection, but its endurance indicates a strength that competing ideologies lack. We can learn much from the ones that failed, though it seems every generation is cursed to try them again. The ones that succeed are subject to be taken for granted. It is the job of the educational institutions to transfer the understanding of our critical institutions, and their failure is crippling.
Read More“Though democracy is probably the best form of limited government, it becomes an absurdity if it turns into unlimited government. Those who profess that democracy is all-competent and support all that the majority wants at any given moment are working for its fall. “
Read MoreThe elite have remained in outrage mode, blaming everything for this upset except their own complicity in marginalizing a very large segment of the nation, first with neglect and then compounded with contempt.
Read More“A relatively small number of high-growth firms has accounted for a very large share of economic growth in the United States in the past several decades. That represents wealth creation, not a wealth transfer.”
Read More“If anything has been demonstrated by modern experience in these matters, it is that, once wide coercive powers are given to governmental agencies for particular purposes, such powers cannot be effectively controlled by democratic assemblies. If the latter do not themselves determine the means to be employed, the decisions of their agents will be more or less arbitrary.”
Read MoreBy defying the relationship of health care to basic economics we passed a bill that defied basic economics- the outcome was very predictable. Another example of promising a benefit without paying for it; hiding the cost in a maze of cross subsidies, mandates, proxies and obscure regulations.
Read MoreWe judge ourselves by our best intentions and the others by their worst examples. (George W Bush) Reform is seductive because the faults of the status quo are visible and real and the faults of reform are theoretical, obscure and often counter intuitive until the historians survey the wreckage years into the future.
Read MoreImagine the compromises when 100 Senators and 435 Representatives bargain to get their piece of the health care allocation in an atmosphere where bitter partisanship rules every issue. In other words what seems to work in Europe is not easily transferable to a radically different political and economic environment. And the complete comparative picture is not as clear as we are led to believe. Maybe we spend more on health care because we want to.
Read MoreWarren is the epitome of the fatal flaw of our government; promising benefits without paying for them, hiding the costs in a maze of cross subsidies, mandates, taxes, regulations and proxies. Contending that she can execute this strictly on the backs of the rich is a grotesque lie that only fools would believe.
Read More“Mr. Philippon is no fan of regulation. On the contrary, in his view political lobbying ensures that regulatory regimes benefit the status quo by limiting the entry and growth of small firms that might become challengers to big market players.”
Read MoreRelative poverty is a very different problem from absolute poverty. If you were sitting in a room with a 100 executives making a six figure income and Bill Gates walked in, the inequality would skyrocket. Is that a problem?
Read MoreScience and politics mixes as well as religion and politics. Politics puts science in a box; but science functions best best when there is no damn box. Healthy skepticism is demonized. The strength of an argument can be measured in its tolerance of and response to dissent.
Read MoreThe federal government can put Social Security and Medicare on the credit card for as long as demand for U.S. Treasuries is high. States and municipalities don’t have that luxury. There is an upper bound to what even the most progressive mayors and governors can grant the lobbies that mobilize voters for their campaigns. But it’s a glass ceiling. Public sector unions are eager to break it.
Read MoreWhen you rob Peter to pay Paul you can count on Paul’s approval, but you can also count on Peter moving to another more friendly place. When you try to build a wall to keep Peter in, you also discourage Peters from moving here, and you encourage young and enterprising Peters to move away BEFORE they become wealthy enough to be worth robbing.
Warren’s policy is as destructive of our long term financial health as any policy we can imagine.
Read MoreBig ideas that expand the government’s power and domain into aspects of our lives where they possess neither the knowledge nor ability to succeed leaves them with only one tool; raw power. Big ideas that come at the expense of bigger and better ideas proven over time is not a sign of progress.
Read MoreA political party is a coalition of interests designed to convince a majority to trust it enough to let it govern. The Progressive Era in its aim to neuter the constitutional speed bumps to majoritarian democracy pushed for democratic primaries. Initially the parties retained some ideological commitment, but in the age of instant outrage media, they have descended into tribal warfare where emotions rule over ideas. The two sides do not share common information or common narratives that define us as a nation. There is no mere disagreement on how we arrive at common goals; we no longer agree on who we are.
Read MoreWarren uses ‘rich people’ as a scapegoat in the same way the classical bigots of history used religious and ethnic vulnerable minorities and the ‘others’. It is a form of intellectual bigotry and is clouded in the same lethal combination of ignorance and dishonesty.
Read More“Because Sweden is well-governed, it treats its tax regime as a question of revenue rather than a question of so-called social justice…”
Read MoreThe big question when Trump won in 2016 was whether his victory was the result of the rejection of the ideology of the left or the rejection of the deeply flawed Hillary Clinton. The question few of us considered was if it was the attractiveness of either the character or policies of Donald Trump.
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