Government Induced Depression

Here we go again... government never learns. Protectionist policies lead to stagflation: higher prices AND increasing unemployment.

Markets: Always Providing Solutions

When governments get involved, markets turn to black. I always seem to fall on the 3rd dimension of many issues, and this one is no different. At the end of the article, you'll notice that "more regulation" is needed to curb the problem. That is always government's answer.

Arguments go back and forth; jamming equipment, more guards, blah, blah.... inmates will find ways to subvert any effort by the authorities. That's what they do...that's what people do. (How can we solve this problem given the current constraints?) Sounds like any business venture!

Texas' prison system's top investigator, Inspector General John Moriarty's blatant ignorance is bewildering; he said "The demand is the problem. It's huge."

Ending the drug prohibition would have a much larger impact on the "demand problem". Not to mention all the money our government plunders to fight "the war on drugs."

Should inmates have cell phones: no. Are they going to get them? Yes. Can we stop it? No. Should we steal $66 million dollars from the public trying to stop them? I think not.

Obama's Spending Watchdog's

first course of action should be to fire herself. He's increasing the size of government just to decrease the size of government. Obama, that prankster! What a good one he pulled on those who he "promised" hope. I'm sure chief performance officer Nancy Killefer, will do the job for free to minimize "waste."

Profit

Contrary to increasing popular belief, profit is not a bad word. Liberals attack companies that are trying to improve profits as if expelling a demon.

Profit is the incentive everyone has to put effort toward...well... anything. Profits don't necessarily have to be pecuniary. If you determine that the effort put in serving at the soup kitchen was worth the reward, you made a "profit." Some are motivated by the Benjamins, and others for love. It really doesn't matter.

Why is it so awful then for a company to stop matching contributions to employees' 401k's? If the employees decide that's the breaking point, they'll find they consider relatively better. Well, thanks to government fiscal policy, a relatively better job is extremely difficult to find.

It should be considered, for a moment, that a business that makes insufficient profits is NO business. If no business exists, employees don't make their own contributions--let alone receive a match.

Liberals should be happy that FedEx and other companies are still handling the logistics of transporting their Christmas packages around the world.

The Path of Least Resistance

Before I learned the truth about economics, liberty, and politics from an eccentric, slightly ostracized, libertarian economics professor, I spent 6.5 years in the US Air Force. That first year in the Air Force was spent learning what I naively contracted (with the government that controls us) to learn. More specifically: electricity.

I should tell you, I'm self-diagnosed economics OCD. I make connections to economic principles where there sometimes there just should not be. I eat, sleep, dream, and .... yeah. Luckily for those who spend the most time around me, I keep my mouth shut about them--otherwise, I'm SURE I'd have no friends to speak of.

Here's my connection: People are just like electrons flowing along a wire seeking to maximize utility. (Yes, I know I'm a nerd.) The electron seeks to minimize resource loss in achieving its ultimate goal. Don't ask me what that goal is, it isn't my business. This is no different from individuals acting in their own self-interest. If there is a perceived-easier path to achieving a goal, that is a choice individuals' should be allowed to make.

Metaphorically writing, government routinely interrupts the free-flow of electrons. Taxes (theft of private wealth), subsidies, licenses (legalized bribery), and regulations (the ultimate anti-anti-trust) induce sub-optimal, resource-wasting results. Eventually, electrons encounter so many detours they never make it to their destination.

Left- and right-leaning interest groups use the same government authority to impose an ideology upon others, and then they get mad at each other for violating each others' rights. As an independent observer, I am frustrated by the hypocrisy on both sides. No! More appropriately, it infuriates me.

Just like electrons, people want to minimize resource loss while maximizing their utility. Government routinely interferes by making the path easier for the weak at the expense of the strong. Electrons and People flow the path of least resistance--it's nature's law.

Government Destroys California's State Parks

Once again, government policy is reaping devastating unintended consequences. As it turns out, tighter border security is forcing Mexican drug cartels to grow marijuana in remote areas of California's "protected" parks. This means toting in irrigation equipment that runs for miles and spraying pesticides and fertilizers to maximize plant productivity.

If your neighbor had no fear of being arrested for the non-crime of smoking a "J", I'm sure they would prefer to use "organic" growing methods in their backyard garden plot.

Check the article here.

Are People Smart or Stupid?

Consumers complain about "price gouging" and then they complain about the resulting shortage. In this case: Stupid. This article dated September 12th, 2008 cites anti-price gouging measures by the same states that are now experiencing gas shortages. DUH!

The 1999 deregulation of financial companies had little or nothing to do with these financial market problems. Graham-Leach-Bliley did not change how financial securities were created. Major media continues to perpetuate the ignorance connecting the two.

I give people the benefit of the doubt, I actually think they're smart and don't need government to tell them when they're being taken advantage of. It's all printed pollution. No one reads the legalese fine print anyway.