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.

Friday, September 22, 2023

Comedian Louis CK is not joking about why we should open the border

There is a small possibility that Louis C.K. just changed the outcome of the 2024 election.  This could be the tipping point.  People could wake up and see what the extreme left stands for.  Someone might ask, "What do they stand for?"  It is about giving away everything you have earned.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Larry

A clip of comedian Louis C.K. on the Joe Rogan show has been circulating on X (formerly Twitter) this week in which he goes on and on about how opening up the southern border would be a good thing because Americans shouldn't have such a high standard of living compared to the rest of the world, how poor people in other countries just want what Americans have, and how it's not fair that we have so much. "It shouldn't be so great here," he says. So open the border and let them pour in.

It's possible he's joking, that it's just a comedy bit he's practicing. That's what my friend Inez Stepman thinks. Get liberals to nod along in agreement and then expose the consequences of such an insane idea. You can judge for yourself:

I don't think it comes off as a joke but as an almost perfect distillation of globalist liberalism. Louis C.K. cannot fathom why Americans should have a say about who comes into their country and who does not. He clearly has no real allegiance to his country or countrymen, and is actually embarrassed by their prosperity — and presumably his own as well.

There is nothing special about America, according to this view, and no reason the rest of the world should not enjoy her ill-gotten riches. Opening the border is the least we could do for the cause of justice.

Whether it's a joke or not, the substance of what Louis C.K. articulates is the logical endpoint of leftist ideology. It's what the mainstream left believes — and the Biden administration has been actively working to accomplish at the southern border.

Friday, August 25, 2023

why steal from the dollar store?

Fwd: Since 2007

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Larry 


US Budget Deficits Are Exploding Like Never Before

Investors see a high-spending new normal keeping interest rates and inflation elevated.


American politicians are keener than ever to juice the economy with government cash, a shift that's already helping to drive up borrowing costs and looks likely to keep them high long after the inflation emergency is over.


The outlook for the federal budget right now is essentially unprecedented—crisis-size deficits as far as the eye can see, even though the economy appears to be in good health. That prospect is making investors uneasy, as demonstrated by yields on benchmark 10-year Treasuries climbing above 4.3% this week, their highest levels since 2007. Other borrowing costs are rising in tandem: 


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-24/bond-market-flashes-warning-as-us-budget-deficit-surges?srnd=premium#xj4y7vzkg



Global Investors Dump China Blue Chip Stocks Amid Economic Crisis

Sunday, January 29, 2023

Re: Crypto: The World’s Greatest Scam

When I posted this to Facebook, someone I know got into a real huff, saying that I don't understand how incredible the technology is.  We went back and forth a bit, but today I wrote this:

There is something about this that I don't understand or my understanding is faulty. The blockchain is essentially a ledger entry stating that you own something distributed over a large number of computers. Instead of a few computers being involved, say at the stock exchange and your broker, a large number of computers have to hold this information, consuming power. You get buzzwords like decentralized, distributed, and public, but how is that better than a centralized ledger?

And since this is largely unregulated, you are dependent upon the goodwill of many actors. We have already seen multiple frauds related to cryptocurrency.

Here I am questioning the value of blockchain, and maybe it does have a value on a technical level that I don't understand, as opposed to before where I was questioning the value of the assets like Bitcoin which I think have no intrinsic value.



On Tue, Jan 24, 2023 at 9:42 PM John  wrote:
I think that the title says it all.  

Forty years ago people thought that antiques were a profitable investment.  It was driven by a high demand for antiques, so people started looking at antiques as an investment.  This was based on the "bigger fool theory", which was that you would buy the item solely as an investment, possibly paying more than its intrinsic value, and you hoped that there was a bigger fool out there who would pay you more money for it.  The problem is that somebody is left holding the bag when demand goes down.  This is a characteristic of many financial bubbles, the first of which started with tulips.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania

The problem with crypto-anything is that it doesn't have an intrinsic value and the value is only driven by hype.  As long as the hype continues, you can make money.  But crypto doesn't have a use case that justifies its existence.  Instead of being a useful alternate currency, it has turned into a get-rich-quick scheme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORdWE_ffirg


Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Crypto: The World’s Greatest Scam

I think that the title says it all.  

Forty years ago people thought that antiques were a profitable investment.  It was driven by a high demand for antiques, so people started looking at antiques as an investment.  This was based on the "bigger fool theory", which was that you would buy the item solely as an investment, possibly paying more than its intrinsic value, and you hoped that there was a bigger fool out there who would pay you more money for it.  The problem is that somebody is left holding the bag when demand goes down.  This is a characteristic of many financial bubbles, the first of which started with tulips.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania

The problem with crypto-anything is that it doesn't have an intrinsic value and the value is only driven by hype.  As long as the hype continues, you can make money.  But crypto doesn't have a use case that justifies its existence.  Instead of being a useful alternate currency, it has turned into a get-rich-quick scheme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORdWE_ffirg

Friday, January 20, 2023

Our Offer to Steven Crowder

This is an interesting soap opera between The Daily Wire and Stephen Crowder, both of which are prominent conservative streamers.  Although reportedly they were on friendly terms, Stephen Crowder took offense to an offer made by The Daily Wire to join their company and publicized their presumably confidential negotiations in an attack video.  

I don't see how The Daily Wire is at fault here.  If Crowder didn't like their offer then that should have been the end of it, or he could have tried to negotiate a better deal.

I think that even highly successful people let emotion cloud their reason, if not more so because they are highly successful.  Ego gets in the way.

A few years ago, Youtube streamers were on the fringe of media.  Now they are endorsing products in national ad campaigns.  I watch more Youtube than any other media or streaming service.