Still Not Voting? POTUS SOTU and Fairness
Kelly King writes in the Mises Daily The Immorality of Democratic Voting:
"Suppose your family decided to start a business. You invest time, sweat, money, and opportunity costs in creating a new product or service. Your company's product did not previously exist, but you made it available for others, without harming or forcing anyone to exchange their income for the product. After some years, your product becomes so popular that your family has now become wealthy through voluntary exchange.
"Others, who engage in forceful, not voluntary, exchange, in their jealousy, use the government to regulate you. They force you to sell part of your company to your competitors (antitrust legislation) who are not able to compete as efficiently and effectively; they force you to pay your workers more than you can afford (union legislation); they force you to sell your product for a lower price than the market demands and for a lower price than you would like (price controls); they force you to produce in a way that pollutes less but raises your costs and reduces your output (EPA legislation); they then impose a "windfall-profits tax" because they think you're earning too much money this year.
"Your company started out being your private property that benefited society, but then society — through government regulation — took control of it and sucked it dry.
"Now your family earns less, your workers earn less, and less of your product is available to consumers, and at a higher price. The consumers got what they voted for. Voting for the government to improve one's life almost always results in the opposite."
Pies and Pie Redistribution
The government does not bake pie, the government does not make pies bigger... the government only redistributes slices of a pie created by others. As Richard Espstein summarizes: "In today’s environment, individuals divert their energy from producing wealth for themselves, which would otherwise create greater opportunities for others, to securing the transfer of wealth from others, which in the end diminishes all the possibilities for growth created by human ingenuity and invention."
If you depend on the government to make your life better - it is ALWAYS at the expense of someone else - and is usually at the expense of everyone else.
Bottom Line
If you don't vote, don't complain. Government "fairness" is an oxymoron.
~Tot1
Brett Arends writes an article on SmartMoney" Why MF Global's Collapse Matters:
"You'll probably hear a lot in the days and weeks ahead about how much Jon Corzine and the other honchos have just "lost" on their MF Global incentive payments, restricted stock, and options.
Ignore it.
The options racket is grossly misunderstood by the wider public, which is, I suppose, just how the honchocracy like it.
Stock options are free chips in the casino. These guys walk into the casino and they are given armfuls of free chips. They are encouraged to gamble.
If they win, they get to keep it all. If they lose? No biggie. They can just mooch on down the Strip to the next casino, where they will be given another big pile of free chips.
This doesn't "align" their interests with stockholders. It doesn't encourage them to build a business. It encourages them to take big gambles."
Here is the OccupyWallStreet Variation - which will never be articulated by the mob (since mobs are basically inarticulate and the individuals in OWS are doofi).
The subsidy racket - via Government grants, loans or loan guarantees is grossly misunderstood by the wider public, which is, I suppose, just how the honchocracy and idiot-ocracy like it. Government grants, loans and government loan guarantees are free chips in the casino. These campaign contributors walk into congress or the administration the casino and they are given armfuls of government (i.e. taxpayer) dollars. They are encouraged to gamble. If they win, they get to keep it all. If they lose? No biggie. They can just mooch on down the Strip to the next congress or administration, where they will be given another big pile of free chips. This doesn't "align" their interests with stockholders, or employees. It doesn't encourage them to build a business. It encourages them to take big gambles and to gild their parachute.
I am much more careful when spending a dollar that I have to earn. When a government or a business has access to other peoples' money (OPM - say it quickly for a hidden pun) they tend to misuse and squander. That is why the Government, and government stimulus programs cannot lead us out of a recession.
And for the Keynesians out there that want to continue to argue: please name the correct amount of government dollars required. Stop guessing, stop saying "a little more" what is the number? Or, do you just want more chips put onto the table?
I thought so.
~Tot1
P.S. I am working on the "Student / Student Loan" story, which has the exact same setup, but the student doesn't get to walk away like the Banker or the Campaign Contributor.
Late edit: I'm also working on the "Groupon" story where early investors cash out prior to the IPO and then double up when the IPO finally releases.
4 Steps to Declutter Your Mind
None of Which Include Doing Laundry
“Out of clutter, find simplicity.” ― Albert Einstein
Vlad Rapoport highlights the issue of mental noise in a blog post: 4 Steps to Declutter Your Mind | Balance In Me:
"Mental Noise
To a great extend, much of this can be classified as mental noise. We are forced to deal with it, blocking it out when we can, doing our best to filter out small pieces that are actually useful to us. We as humans were simply not designed to deal with this much information all at once. This noise keeps us at a disadvantage. It prevents us from focusing on our goals, focusing on what truly matters. It keeps us disconnected from the big picture and from each other."
I'm Not All That Deep
As a decidedly square, boring and un-PC male I'll tell you exactly how I Declutter my brain.
One of the few chores that I do around the house is the laundry. What starts as a heaping pile of dirty clothes and towels, end up as neat and clean, folded stacks of laundry. Order created from chaos. Yes, it is every man's desire to have a perfect universe, but I'm old enough to realize that laundry is an achievable goal, and the rest of the universe - meh.
Lately some of our towels have started to fray around the edges. And OxyClean has a bad habit of "Oxy-dizing" for want of a term other than bleaching, some of the laundry. But I'm cheap. And a little frayed edge, or a slight discoloration isn't enough to motivate me to spend money on new towels.
Something Happened
Then, something happened - and last weekend I culled the worst offenders from the kitchen hand-towels and the laundry towels. I tossed them right into the garbage.
There was a micro-second of remorse, just a hint of the feeling of loss, until I realized that the remaining towels would server their purpose, and that the shredded edges of "order" are not as satisfying as a slightly smaller stack of towels still representative of equally useful order.
Don't let the ragged edges of life impact your well being.
Reduce, Recycle, Reuse - or just dump clutter into the trash!
~Tot1
Now, on to some emotional baggage that need to be dumped!
