Avoiding Taxes
I stopped at a gas station in Darien, IL on Saturday to get gas. Why did I stop there? Well, I rarely get outside of Cook County and when I do, I’m like a soccer-mom on Supermarket Sweep. Yesterday though, I realized just how bad the situation has become. This gas station had a big sign in the window “NO COOK COUNTY TOBACCO TAX” and another on the marquee out front “NO COOK COUNTY TAXES”. For anyone who dismisses the willingness of people avoid taxes, you should need no further evidence. I snapped a picture but can’t seem to get it off my phone.
Noble Nobels
Filed under: Blog, Blog post
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Loading ...The awarding of the Nobel Prize in economics to Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson has brought positive responses so far from:
Peter Klein – Organizations and Markets
Edward Lopez – Division of Labour
Alex Taborrok – Marginal Revolution and here
Scott Beaulier – The Economic Way of Thinking
The bloggers emphasize that both economists have devoted their attention to voluntary forms of governance, Ostrom in commons and Williamson in firms. Regarding Ostrom, Taborrok notes, “[H]er work has explored how between the atomized individual and the heavy-hand of government there is a range of voluntary, collective associations that over time can evolve efficient and equitable rules for the use of common resources…. For Ostrom it’s not the tragedy of the commons but the opportunity of the commons.”
The relevance for advocates of the voluntary society is obvious.
Insurance Companies Want a Mandate with Teeth
The health-insurance lobbyist complains that under the proposed healthcare overhaul the penalties on individuals who don’t buy coverage would be too mild and would encourage people to wait until they are sick before buying a policy — at which point they couldn’t be turned down or charged more than healthy people.
That’s right. The industry wants the government to force us to buy its product and to impose harsh penalties on those who refuse. The companies, which oddly are demonized by the “reform” crowd, are happy to accept all kinds of coverage rules in return for captive customers and guaranteed income.
If I may be so presumptuous as to edit Adam Smith:
People of the same trade seldom meet together with government officials, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.
War Is Peace
Filed under: News, Uncategorized
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
We’ve come a long way since Frederic Passy.
TGIF: Liberty versus Social Engineering
So David Brooks, the New York Times‘ resident conservative intellectual, must think he’s a pretty clever fellow. In trying to characterize “the choices we face on issue after issue,” he presumes to enlist the aid of philosophers Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and David Hume (1711-1776). Considering that Bentham believed human beings could consciously design society and Hume did not, this might have been a worthwhile approach. Unfortunately, Brooks got Hume wrong — unforgivably so — and missed a chance to present a fresh alternative in the stale political debate.
The rest of TGIF is here.
Unemployment Still Rising
Filed under: News, Uncategorized
(+1 rating, 1 votes) Loading ...Unemployment hit 9.8 percent last month (a conservative estimate, to be sure). The Obama administration once said it would approach 9 percent — if the “stimulus” did not pass. With the “stimulus” it was supposed to be less than 8 percent by now. (See graph.)
When do we declare the “stimulus” a failure? Huh?
Richman & Bastiat in Poland
Here’s part one of my lecture at the PAFERE conference on Bastiat in Warsaw.
Chicago Dodges the Bullet
Filed under: News
(+2 rating, 2 votes) Loading ...The people–as opposed to the elites–of Chicago should be eternally grateful they will be spared the Olympics. They would have been in for a terrible time with the impositions produced by government’s idea of security and other acts of political opportunism. Especially lucky are the city’s poor, who would have been removed to spare the elite embarrassment when the world cast its eyes upon the games.
Had I been a resident of Chicago, I would have said, Barack, Michelle, Oprah, mind your own business.
Rio, you have my condolences.
TGIF: Being for the Free Market Isn’t Enough
Harold Meyerson, an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post, this week launched a devastating attack on what he calls “mainstream economists.” Too bad he’s oblivious of Austrian economics.
The rest of TGIF is here.
Polish TV Appearance
Filed under: Television
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...While in Poland last month I appeared on an Internet television program. From this, you’d think I can understand Polish but can’t speak it. Actually, the host translated the questions, but that was edited out.
Photo credit: Pawel Tobola-Perkiewicz
