MInimum Wage Nightmare

I just heard on the news this morning (accidentally while looking for today's weather), that California's politicians approved a $15 per hour minimum wage. They call it "economic justice". I call it "economic illiteracy". California politicians say they want to "be an example to the rest of the nation". OMG help us!

This is a sad example of "What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen", which the great economist Frédéric Bastiat wrote about over a hundred years ago. The benefit to those who get those $15 per hour jobs is highly visible and highly touted in the Political Theater. What remains invisible and are all the jobs that are lost when companies have to cut the bottom-end and entry-level jobs in order to pay the raised wages. What is not seen are the entry level jobs and new small business that simply never get started because labor costs are too high. 


What is hidden from view is the fact that higher labor costs force companies to automate much of their entry-level jobs that formerly were a step up for many of the most needy in our society. The automation we encounter at gas pumps and grocery store check-outs is a direct result of minimum wage laws. When government uses force to impose higher wage prices on business, owners and managers look for ways to cut costs. Automation is one way to cut labor costs. Minimum wage means jobs will be cut. The other invisible cost is the necessary increase in end prices to consumers - that mostly hurts those who can least afford it - the elderly, the disabled, and the poor.


And we sill haven't learned. Liberals haven't learned. Conservatives haven't learned. 
The Left claims to care about the poor and downtrodden and "economic justice". Yet they mostly care about what LOOKS like a good idea. Never mind that minimum wage laws hurt the most poor and the most helpless in society. Leftists wring their hands over the growing gap between the 1% and the 99%, yet minimum wage laws create and feed that unnatural divide between the haves and have-nots, a divide which the free market could NEVER create on its own.


The Right claims to be in favor of limited government and free markets. But, they contradict that principle by their belief in the need for a "mixed" or "controlled" economy. The minimum wage laws expand the power of Big Brother, and enable more and more regulations to be piled on top of the small businesses that the Right Wing claims to support.


Sorry folks, you can't make the world better with force.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/01/walter-e-williams/bunch-liars-minimum-wage/

Slavery, Government, Capitalism, and What Really Matters

Misleading questions with misleading answers.

There is a debate where one side focuses on the fact that business owners used chattel slavery to make money, while the other side focuses on the fact that without government support, slavery could not have been as profitable as it was.

In reply to a writers quip, "Libertarians would love to lay slavery at the feet of government precisely because slavery is a sin of capitalism", I gave this answer:

Libertarians don't need to "lay slavery at the feet of government". We lay slavery at the feet of aggressive individuals. "Government" is a collective term whose definition is slippery. The guilt of any crime is "laid at the feet" of individuals, not collections of individuals.

Instead of spending time arguing over words like "slavery", "government", and "capitalism", let's get down to the basics. I think a lot of confusion is stirred up when we frame the libertarian agenda as "anti-government". Libertarians are largely anti-government, but that's not a core principle. The core libertarian principle is non-initiation of force. Libertarians are against the "first use" of "non-defensive" force against person or property.

The Non-Aggression Principle is the root of all libertarian principles. When any individual (whether in a group or singly) uses aggressive force, libertarians are against it.

The goal of libertarianism is a peaceful and prosperous society based on individual liberty, property rights, and individual responsibility, instead of what we have now; a blood-soaked "might makes right" culture of dominance and force.

Fixing Government

Why is the wish to “fix government” so universal, and the wish to find an alternate system so rare? In my view, the alternative system is right under our noses. (hint: it starts with "Free" and ends with "Market")

This reluctance to search for what is right under our noses is what perpetuates the idiocy of big central government: it goes and goes, grows and grows... We keep searching for a way to make government work "the way it should work".

The hope that energizes this "political way of doing things" is that we can eventually find a way for "Representative Government" to work as a truly fair and just "representative" system. We've only been working on it since Greece 750BC. Just a few more years, and we'll get it right. How stupid are we??

I'm convinced it's not "stupidity", it's emotional blockage from being immersed in this idea through popular media, bad parenting, religion, education, and culture in general.

We have been taught from childhood that Representative Constitutional Democratic Central Government is the cat's meow. After we grow up, we see that things don't really work as well as we were led to believe. We see that all of our biggest problems can be traced back to government meddling.

Both Left and Right see this "broken system" clearly. But the solution is muddled by emotional thinking, which is not “thinking” at all. Each side is scared of the other side gaining power. But what both sides fear most is questioning the idea of “representative government”. They're happy to chop away at the branches of the problem, but they don't dare Strike the Root. That would require too much introspection and empathy.

Even after our political system lets us down so completely, we still can't bring ourselves to dare think about dumping the system. We feel like government is the framework of society.

Without government we would have no roads, no mail, no charity, no environmental protection, no protection from alien invaders, no communication, no protection from criminals, no recreational parks, no protection from greedy businessmen, no way to enforce private contracts. And on and on.

So, we spin our wheels trying to fix the system. We set up opposing parties, one that cares more about social justice and equality and another that cares more about protection and productivity (notice that liberal concerns are motherly and conservative concerns are fatherly).

One side blames the other side for every thing that is wrong in the world. This is just a foil to repress the consciousness of the answer under our noses. No conspiracy necessary. Our psychological block is so strong that we are blind to the big picture. We all grow up immersed in a culture of dominance - of "Might Makes Right".

"I have seen the enemy, and he is us".

The "let's try to fix it" foil has developed over the years to the point where both right and left actually admit that the answer lies under our noses. The Right asserts love for the free market and family values, the Left asserts love for community and charity. But it's a half-hearted assertion.

If they really had this great faith in community, charity, free markets, and family values, they would stop supporting the iron fist of the government, and let these things blossom on their own. Society would thrive without government programs "assisting" these natural and voluntary arrangements of mutual assistance.

The War on Immigrants

The war on immigrants is the same as any other war.

Governments use wars to distract from problems they have created at home. Riding on the wave of mob-hysteria created by their wars, they expand their power, wealth, and dominance.

War is the health of the state. Even if there seems to be good reasons for going to war, as in WWI & WWII, it's not worth the price we pay in lost freedom, wrecked lives, and ruined economies.

Americans fought the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 to avoid the single-digit taxation from England. How is America's level of taxation now?

Americans fought WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the Cold War, in order to fight the spread of Socialism, Fascism, and Communism. How is America's level of Socialism, Fascism, and Communism now? Things get worse with every war and with every election cycle.

Every war, large or small, is used as an excuse to expand the dominance of the state and shrink the rights of individuals. War is just a way to get the populace riled up and running to their masters for protection. And the Spin-Doctors keep Waggin the Dog!

Strong borders will cost billions of dollars, and those billions will go to the usual military-industrial corporations, making those corporations more dominant in US policy-making.

Those corporations already own the big media, the Pentagon, the White House, big pharma, big politicians, etc. They get money from big-government programs like the "border war", the "drug war", the "war on climate change", the "War on Terror", and so on. And then they use that money to drum up new wars and worries - false flag operations, whatever it takes, ... Whatever they think they can get away with.

I suggest We Don't Get Fooled Again.

The R's & D's play "good cop, bad cop" in a sleazy display of Political Theater, and everyone lines up to cheer their team. No matter which side you are cheering for, big government and big corporations are always the winners, while tax-payers and basic human rights are always the losers.

Better to admit that Constitutional Representative government is a failed experiment, many times over. Let's start looking for ways to dismantle the biggest, most expensive government in the known universe.

Modern Medicine

I have a bad attitude toward most of Modern Medicine. I explained my medical skepticism in a recent e-mail to a friend:

You need to know that I'm not just picking on modern medicine. These doubts are warranted for ANY heavily goverment-funded, regulated, and licensed industry. For example, ... now that I mention it, let's examine something very mundane, Consider the tow-truck or cab industry. Without the government in the way, any schmuck could put a sign on his car or truck and go out picking up people who need a ride or hauling someone's broke-down car somewhere. You could probably get a tow or cab ride for 10 bucks, anytime, anywhere.

If I'm towing my Mercedes, I would call the more expensive and reputable company. But for hauling my winter beater, I'd call the cheapest thing I could find. Same with cabs; If I'm out on a fancy date, I go with the better reputable cab company. If I need a ride to work, who cares? Instead of having a wide range of towing and cab services and innovations, we pretty much have the one-size-fits-all government-licensed cabs and tow-trucks. And only so many are allowed per city, so competition is almost non-existent. Innovation is almost non-existent, because competition is not there to make innovation necessary to cab and towing companies.

Same with the medical system. Very little competition. All possible free-market innovations are not even thought of. There's no incentive. And medical research is completely crippled and steered in the wrong directions by billions of dollars of government funding. So, medical science is probably as screwed up as climate science. Only, we have no way of knowing the actually truth, since the studies are usually government-funded. Because of Medicare, Medicaid, and sweet insurance plans for government employees, at least 3/4 of all medical care is directly paid for by government. Add that to medical regulations, medical subsidies, government's medical research funding, and the government-controlled medical schools.

Have I forgotten anything? You get the idea. The biggest things controlled and monopolized by government are ALL worthy of skepticism; public safety, medicine, public utilities, airlines, zoning, public parks, state-funded research, state grants, roads, space exploration, wars, courts, schools, . . . When you start thinking outside of the "only the government can do these things" box, incredible new ideas start springing to mind. And, if money could be made coming up with non-government solutions in these areas, the ideas would multiply exponentially.

Excuses for Obama's war

It seems incredible to me that I should have to point out the evil of keeping a war going that has lasted longer than WWI and WWII combined.

On Oct 17, 2009, my friend wrote to me:

The Real Problem is that conservative republicans got us neck-deep in Afghanistan and then conveniently hid it behind the Iraq mess. Then left both disasters for Obama to try to clean up.

Yeah, the old "if only the leaders I like were in charge, things would be great" argument.

The fact is that liberals love government more than they hate war, and your reaction proves that, ... sad to say.

Obama has the power to stop the carnage now - withdrawing is the only compassionate thing to do.

The same argument is always used to keep wars going indefinitely; "we can't stop now, there would be chaos and death". You don't see the irony of that? We'd still be in Vietnam today if everyone followed that line of irrational thinking.

Can Obama do anything wrong in your eyes?

Sometimes I think that the best thing America can do is quick, complete withdrawl from the whole region. Let them all kill each other and we'll deal with whoever is left standing after the carnage. But then, I'm too compassionate to advocate that. Damn it.

Keeping a war going because of your "compassion"? That's Orwellian double-speak to the max.

But if we continue what we've been doing the last 10 years, is that better? No, I'd say.

Obama is ramping things up and spilling the war over into Pakistan. And you still refuse to admit that Obama is a war monger.

He is beholden to the corporate entities and politicians who got him elected, and most of them want war to continue. It's good for business and good for the politicians.

Liberals love a war when it's started by a liberal, conservatives love a war that's started by a conservative.

And around and around it goes. When the killing will stop, nobody knows. - All in the name of "peace" and "compassion".

Perhaps, read some history about wars, and the popular arguments of the time - they are no different now than they were a hundred years ago when the US invaded the Philippines to "protect the locals". And then the slaughter began.

But, pick a war, any war. I just randomly picked the war in the Philippines because I knew it was about a hundred years ago.

Read what Mark Twain wrote about war back then.

In my eyes, you either are adamantly and always against war, or you are forever going to be making excuses for double-talk; "war is peace, ignorance is strength, slavery is freedom".

Note that in all modern history NO invading force has ever done any good in Afghanistan nor has any foreign power ever subdued- permanently- any bit of the violence, nor has anyone ever succeeded with any plans for whatever future they had in mind in this country.

I don't see how that is relevant to the argument that war can stop NOW, no excuses. There is no good way to stop a war, especially not by extending the violence like Obama is doing.

I think at least Obama is trying to change the way Americans think about the Middle East. That has to be the first step. I wish things would move faster but remember he's fighting against a lot of very ingrained and inbred thinking. He can't change the world right this minute any more than you or I can?

Baloney. He can stop it. He loves his political career more than he hates innocent bloodshed.

Smile, man. We can agree, disagree, or agree to disagree. And that's a good thing!

That is not right. The truth is the truth, regardless of who agrees. And war is wrong. You wanna dig up the old Catholic argument about a "just war"?

These are innocent lives that are being destroyed by your tax dollars, and you treat it like a coffee-table discussion.

Stand up for what is right, not for which side of the left / right debate you are on.

Liberals Against Obama