A new gas station opened up in a North Carolina town recently. As it turns out, that gas station is interested in attracting customers AND selling things other than gas.
It would seem that station owners would or should be able to adjust the price of their gas at whatever levels they see fit. Higher prices would generate more money per gallon to be sure, but lower prices would generate more gallons.
Discretion of the station owner, right?
Wrong.
Posted in Economics, Energy, Politics: North Carolina
Tagged Capitalism, Free Market, Gas, Gasoline
The minimum wage debate is an old favorite. Another very visible and clear line of disagreement between conservatives and liberals. There are those on one side that feel we should increase the minimum wage to a level that better represents a living wage. Other, myself included, feel that wages are best left to the negotiations of the employer and the employee.
There are all kinds of debates raging about that people aren’t able to afford to raise a family on the minimum wage. Heck, it can be legitimately argued that you can’t raise YOURSELF on minimum wage. Be that as it may, I don’t wanna get into that. What I wanna look at is what the impact of the minimum wage, specifically changing it, has on the folks earning it.
Let’s look.
Posted in Economics, Economy, Politics: National
Tagged Conservative, Liberal, Minimum Wage
I have come to understand that many of the friends and colleagues I disagree with are not disagreeing with me because they want bad things to happen. On the contrary, I feel that those folks are just as interested in the welfare of our country and the people in it as I am.
Rather than mean spirited, they are well intentioned. It’s just that each have our own version of the path to those intentions.
But, when well intentioned people craft laws in the dead of night and don’t read those laws, bad things happen.
Posted in Economics, Government, Health Care, Idiots on Parade, Politics: National
Tagged Barack Obama, Incentives, Incentives Matter, Left, Liberal, Politics, Taxes
Here we see the power of the free market.
It was just several years ago that we couldn’t keep flu shots in quantity to meet demand. Today my grocery store offers it for free.
Wanna know why the cost of Medicare is going up?
Raleigh, N.C. — If a wheelchair costs $160, why would Medicare pay eight times as much? That’s the question one local woman asked after her elderly father needed a wheelchair to get around.
As a WRAL investigation found, it’s all in the way Congress set up the spending plan.
A wheelchair seemed like a simple purchase for Jeanne Gunter’s 95-year old-father when he moved to assisted living, but she soon learned that Medicare’s payment system is not so simple.
Medicare rents to own equipment, such as wheelchairs. One wheelchair, for example, costs $104 a month for up to 13 months, which is about $1,300 total. Providers must maintain the liability to repair the chair during the 13 months of rental.
“We could’ve bought a wheelchair,” Gunter said. “I looked at a local pharmacy and looked at a wholesale club, and you could easily get one for $150 to $200 comparable to what we have.”
By all means, let’s have these people run my health insurance program.
Posted in Economics, Government, Idiots on Parade, Politics: National, Politics: North Carolina
Tagged Health Care, Medicare, Socialism
There’s all kinds of reasons why people want to borrow money. Mostly, though, there are two:
In any case, an individual is taking current value of money in trade for some future value of money. And current money is more valuable than future money; I’d rather have $20 now than $20 later. So, to compensate for that, money lenders charge interest. While I would rather have that 20 bucks now, I might be willing to hold off if I could get 25 bucks next week.
One thing is true. Unions increase unemployment and raise the cost of goods.
Period.
The modern concept of Union is able to accomplish this by the force of sword and gun. Laws have been passed that allow Unions to access the police force of the state to intervene on the Union’s behalf. With this access, the Unions are able to negotiate benefits for themselves that would not otherwise be possible in a relationship between two parties. In short, the Union uses legal coercion to obtain their benefits.
And this increases unemployment and raises the cost of good above what they otherwise would be.
Posted in Economics, Lobby/PAC, Politics: National
Tagged Collective Bargaining, Labor, Leftist, Scott Walker, Unions, Wisconsin
Just when I thought it couldn’t get better….it got better.
Republicans abandoned a bill to slash $74 billion in federal spending Thursday after coming under heavy pressure from Tea Party-backed freshmen to fulfill the party’s pledge of cutting $100 billion this year, House aides confirmed.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) had intended to release a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government after March 4 that would have cut $32 billion from current spending levels and $74 billion from Obama’s 2011 budget request. He outlined some of the major cuts in the CR on Wednesday.
But the GOP’s large bloc of Tea Party-backed freshmen resisted that plan, instead calling for the full $100 billion cut the party had promised in their “Pledge to America.”
We want this budget reduced. We want spending reduced. We want government reduced.
Do it.
Posted in Economics, Elections 2010, Lobby/PAC, Politics: National
Tagged Budget, Republican, Tea Party
We’ve heard about it since we known about it. The idea that somehow, someway, the world is gonna run oughta oil.
And when we do, well, the end of the world as we know it will commence. The illustration to the right just shows a tip of the hysteria that folks are spreading.
End of oil? Beginning of anarchy.
And so they demand that we do something about it.
And we did.
Like everyone, I love L-O-V-E my morning coffee. Perhaps like many fewer, I like my coffee to be of specific make; Goya Espresso coffee.
As I made my coffee this morning, I noticed that I was running a bit low and would need more soon.
So, I got on my magic typewriter, typed some letters that included “www” and entered an online “market” where distributors from all over creation competed to sell me my Goya. More than that? They’re shipping it to my door for free.
Gotta tell ya’, that free market sure does suck.
Posted in Economics, Fun, Technology
Tagged blogging, Capitalism, Free Market, Goya, Internet