Category Archives: Economics

The Market [Literally] Shall Restore You

Posted on September 13, 2010 | Leave a comment

Flu shots too hard to get?

Doctor’s office run out?

Making an appointment is too hard to manage?

Actually taking time off to go to the doctor’s office inconvienient?

Check this out:

Not only can I buy groceries at this store, I can buy beer and wine. I can buy local farm fresh produce from local growers. I can fill a prescription. Not only can I fill a prescription, but I can enroll in a program that will get me many medications at $9.99 for a THREE MONTH supply. Not only that, but I can now walk up, without an appointment, bill my insurance or pay directly and get a flu shot.

At the grocery store.

Not one single vote or law was required for this advancement to occur. Only that reasonable people, willing to trade time and property be allowed to meet in a market and trade.

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Posted in Economics, Health Care, Liberty, Politics: National, Politics: North Carolina

Tagged Capitalism, Free Market, Harris Teeter

More Cash For Clunkers Down the Shit Hole

Posted on September 12, 2010 | Leave a comment

Last week I talked a bit about the waste of money that we named “Cash for Clunkers”.

In short, what I said was that car purchases are elastic. People can pull forward or push out the purchase of a new car by several months. In this case it turns out to be 7:

The government’s “cash for clunkers” program boosted auto sales by 360,000 during the two months it was in place. In the seven months that followed, sales were down by 360,000 compared with what they would have been without the program…

Basically, 7 months after cash for clunkers ended, the same amount of cars wound up being sold.

Wanna know the unintended consequence?

Continue reading →

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Posted in Economics, Politics: National, Transportation

Tagged Abuse of Power, Barack Obama, Cash for Clunkers, Green Jobs, Leftist, Liberal, Stimulus

What is Greed?

Posted on September 8, 2010 | Leave a comment

I have been been inundated by hits as a result of an Internet search to “Greed”. This is what I posted about the word some time ago:

Awhile ago, Neil Boortz offered a challenge to his listeners; Define Greed.

See, Boortz is a Libertarian [good on him!] and the general feeling amongst Libertarians is that greed is used as a descriptor to generalize capitalists. That is; Capitalists are “greedy”.

I agree with Boortz’s general assertion; Capitalists are NOT all greedy. And more specifically, capitalism is not necessarily greedy.

However, that doesn’t change the point of the definition of the word “Greed”.

Let me take my shot at the definition:

GREED: That condition, wherein an individual or organization, willfully attempts to accumulate more of a “thing”, be it money, power or prestige, by restricting the Rights and Liberties of another individual or organization.

Greed is meant to be a negative word. And that’s fine.

What is wrong is when it is applied to capitalism indiscriminately.

Here is what the master has to say about Greed:

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Posted in Economics, Liberty, Quotes

Tagged Greed, Milton Friedman

Value: Creation and Destruction

Posted on September 6, 2010 | 1 comment

There are three things that you can do with money:

Make more of it
Trade it for something you value
Piss it away

Mostly I want smaller government because I’m afraid that the government is worse at 1 and 2 than I am. More often than not, they’re Pissing it Away. Either for votes, or, if they really ARE trying to make things better, they just don’t know how. [‘Cause serious, if they knew how, they’d be out doin’ it and not subjecting themselves to government].

I know there are things we need a government to do; I know that.

But there are other things that a government SHOULDN’T do; and THEY should know that as well.

And marketing cars is one of those things.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Economics, Economy, Politics: National, Uncategorized

Tagged Abuse of Power, Barack Obama, Casg for Clunkers, Keynesian, Leftist, Stimulus

Unemployment? Perhaps Unemployment is the “New” Job?

Posted on September 6, 2010 | 1 comment

More and more I’m convinced that what we see here isn’t a true indicator of unemployment. Rather, what we’re seeing is a text book example of:

In other countries, particularly in Europe, benefits are more generous and last longer. The drawback to this generosity is that it reduces a worker’s incentive to quickly find a new job. Generous unemployment benefits in some European countries are widely believed to be one of the main causes of “Eurosclerosis,” the persistent high unemployment that affects a number of European countries.

And can you guess who said THAT?

The most Liberal Economist Alive: Paul Krugman; that’s who.

Anyway, Exhibit in the Unemployment Fallacy:

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Posted in Economics

Tagged Paul Krugman, Recession, Unemployment

Why Politicians are Bad for Politics

Posted on August 26, 2010 | Leave a comment

Because it’s hard for a person who wants to get elected to tell the people doing the electing that they need to suck it up.

While I’ve only been politically jazzed for 2-3 years now I have always wondered how “other people” vote. You know, do they vote for what’s good for them and them only or do they vote for the better of “the system”.

For example, if a road is going to run through my backyard means I lose my house but it’s good for the community, should I vote for it or against it.

Can you imagine how different a father would discipline his children if they could somehow “vote him out”? The only reason we successfully raise our children is that we create rules that they otherwise would not generally abide.

Same for politics.

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Posted in Economics, Politics: International, Politics: National, Welfare

Tagged Denmark, Employment, Leftist, Liberal, Unemployment

Best Month

Posted on August 26, 2010 | Leave a comment

Ever.

As I realized that I wasn’t providing content, I stepped it up.

The result?

I have had the best month ever here. With 5 days to go.

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Posted in Economics, Fun

Tagged blogging

The Glass Ceiling: Equal Pay for Equal Work

Posted on August 19, 2010 | 1 comment

For as long as I can remember I’ve been told that men earn more money than women do. There are National Women’s organizations like The National Organization for Women and Business and Professional Women and Feminists for Life. These groups tell us the cold hard facts; women aren’t paid as well as men:

In 2007, women’s median annual paychecks reflected only 78 cents for every $1.00 earned by men.

Women’s median pay was less than men’s in each and every one of the 20 industries and 25 occupation groups surveyed by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2007.

When The WAGE Project looked exclusively at full-time workers, they estimated that women with a high school diploma lose as much as $700,000 over a lifetime of work, women with a college degree lose $1.2 million and professional school graduates may lose up to $2 million.

Is this true?

Continue reading →

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Posted in Economics

Tagged Discrimination, Men, Wage Gap, Women