Thursday, February 29, 2024

Ayn Rand: The Real Motive for the Socialist Mindset


The term "Capitalism" gets thrown around and has become a pejorative on the political left.  So maybe we should define what we mean by "Capitalism".

A free market is one in which you get to make free choices.  The opposite of this is tyranny, but no society is either completely free or completely tyrannical.  Being free to make choices includes the freedom to make voluntary exchanges,  to own property, and to do business for your own benefit.

The definition of Socialism is that the means of production is socially or collectively owned.  By definition, the means of production can't be privately owned, which requires an authoritarian state to take away people's right to engage in commerce.   This makes Socialism not only evil, but impractical because it prevents people from acting in their own benefit, and it prevents the innovation that would come from large numbers of people doing business.  It also takes away incentive structures of success and failure that result in a more efficient free market.

One thing that the political right believes that maybe the political left doesn't is that people respond to incentives.  Give people an incentive to not work and they won't work.  Give people an incentive to be productive and innovative and they will be productive and innovative.

These claims are easily demonstrated by looking at how various economic systems have faired.  Far-left economic systems have faired very poorly and have been a disaster for the people living under them.  All you need for a prosperous society is to embrace a free market to at least some degree.


Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Why Democracies Always Fail


Two centuries ago, a somewhat obscure Scotsman named Tytler made this profound observation: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury.

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Richard Wolff: How You Are Being Exploited

Richard Wolff on Capitalism



This is a fundamental misunderstanding of economics.  I have worked many different jobs with many different salaries.  Not one of these I could have earned the same amount of money working on my own.  I didn't have the resources.  It was my employer that provided the facilities, the equipment, the customer base, and the know-how that allowed the business to make money.  I voluntarily traded my labor for the resources that the employer provided.  On my own, I wouldn't have been nearly as productive.  I would have starved.

Voluntary exchange works.  

Richard Wolff has never run a business.  If he had, he would see the world differently.

Sunday, November 19, 2023

Why Socialism Always Fails

A pyramid scheme is ultimately unsustainable because it is based on faulty principles. Likewise, collectivism is unsustainable in the long run because it is a flawed theory. Socialism does not work because it is not consistent with fundamental principles of human behavior. The failure of socialism in countries around the world can be traced to one critical defect: it is a system that ignores incentives.





Socialists point to a false sense of victimhood.




Yet, nobody starves to death under a free market.  There are many programs, public and private, to help the poor and there is an abundance of food.

Meanwhile,  you have food lines under socialism.


Thursday, November 2, 2023

Civilization in Decline



I think that we are a civilization in decline.  Do I need to explain why?  You could think of a dozen reasons.

The biggest problem is our National Debt, exceeding our capacity to repay.  This has led to a debasement of our currency, making everyone poorer.

Culturally we have been destroying ourselves from within over petty squabbles.

The political class appears to be very corrupt.

We are involved in conflicts that could, although unlikely, lead to World War III.  Multiple countries oppose us.

--

Thursday, October 26, 2023

EV subsidies


  • The cost of producing electric vehicles (EVs) is far higher than the prices they are being sold for. Nearly $22 billion in federal and state subsidies and regulatory credits suppressed the retail price of EVs in 2021 by an average of almost $50,000.
  • Thanks to an unlawful multiplier, EVs receive nearly seven times more credits under federal fuel efficiency programs than they provide in actual fuel economy benefits.
  • Regulatory credits with bonus EV multipliers from federal fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions standards and state EV sales mandates provide an average of $27,881 in benefits per vehicle for producers of EVs.
  • Home and public charging stations used by EVs put a significant strain on the electric grid, resulting in an average of $11,833 in socialized costs per EV over 10 years, which are shouldered by utility ratepayers and taxpayers.
  • Direct state and federal subsidies for EVs average $8,984 per vehicle over 10 years.
  • TPPF Releases Study Exposing the True Cost of Electric Vehicles (texaspolicy.com)


Sunday, October 22, 2023

Shapiro Explains Why Communism Is EVIL

Jordan Peterson: Why Communism Doesn't Work


Jordan Peterson doesn't actually answer the question except to say that it doesn't work.

The way he describes the system is unintentionally misleading. It is not true that 5% of the poeple generate all the wealth. The vast majority of people can be productive and earn a decent living, and some of them can even accumulate wealth by a slow process. 

 Some of the inequality that often gets quoted by the Marxists doesn't take into account people building up wealth for their retirement. Most of us start with nothing and work for decades to live comfortably in our old age, which is what happened to me. The Marxists will include this in their statistics about inequality.