June 2015 archive

An Explosion of Wealth and Prosperity in Latin America? Low Tax Rates are Slowly bringing Latin America into the First World

Even as the West is careening toward socialism and forced redistribution, some Latin American countries are increasingly seen as low-tax havens. And the numbers of wealthy Latin Americans is growing rapidly. A June 21, 2015 story in Yahoo News detailed the fascinating growth of the super rich in Latin America. Mexico and Brazil, for example, …

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Senior citizens are increasingly sicker, but living longer at others’ expense

On June 10, 2015, the USA Today printed a front-page feature article about the health of America’s seniors. The story reported that “15 % of seniors account for nearly half of Medicare spending.” And one amazing fact stood out: The seniors of today are generally sicker than predecessors, measured by numbers of illness diagnoses. Fully …

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In Greece, Savers are Scrambling to get their Money out of Banks

Greece, like the United States (and most other countries) has a government that has been spending beyond its means for decades. As Greece’s government has promoted an extravagant welfare state, fewer Greeks have started businesses, or worked industriously. Now Greece is nearing (another, more severe) defaulting on its promises to the central banks of Europe. …

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Jaguar Range Rover is Already Perfecting Driverless Vehicles, Even as Bureaucrats are Perfecting Near-Total Regulation of Driving.

For years, the government-supremacist movement has imposed ever-greater regulations and controls on car and truck drivers. Waiting periods, background checks, written tests, vision tests, physical examinations, data checks, and all manner of other intrusive inquiries and requirements are part of government driver licensing. Now just as the intrusive state nears a total control of driving …

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Average American now Says Government Wastes 51 Cents out of Every Dollar

Gallup has been polling Americans since 1979 regarding how much out of every dollar they think the government wastes. Answers have always varied widely, but when the question was first asked in 1979, the average American said the federal government wastes about 40 cents of every dollar. Over the years, this assessment of waste has …

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11-Year-Old Boy Played Alone in His Yard. Government Agents Took Him, Charged Parents with Felonies.

Lenore Skenazy is a noted freedom activist and advocate for parents allowing their children to raise their children in conditions of freedom (like generations of Americans in the past). She reports on a recent Florida prosecution of two parents charged with child neglect for allowing their 11-year-old son to play basketball in his yard after …

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It Has Gone Underreported that the IRS Threatened North Carolina Businessman Lyndon McLellan to Keep Him Silent.

It has been widely reported that in March 2015, the IRS seized $107,000 from North Carolina businessman Lyndon McLellan’s bank account because he had made cash deposits in “wrong” amounts. The IRS claimed that McLellan was “structuring” cash deposits under $10,000 to avoid being identified or suspected of money laundering, drug activity, or whatever. In …

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“Progressive” Politicians Hiring Loads of Unpaid Interns While Lecturing the World About Inequality and Campaign-Finance Corruption

THE GUARDIAN is out with a fascinating story about the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. The Clinton campaign is employing large numbers of unpaid interns–who generally come to work for the campaign for purposes of resume’-building and view such internships as stepping stones to future career rewards. The use of unpaid interns, of course, should …

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Government health care and medical regulation has cost thousands if not millions of lives.

Veronique de Rugy has written an insightful column. Rugy writes At the federal level, that means, among other things, radically reforming the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA is the perfect example of an agency that works by the “precautionary principle” norm. In the name of protecting people from everything at any cost — even …

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Economist points out the uncomfortably close relationship between high taxes and slavery

Most people, if candid, would admit that a 100 percent tax rate would be akin to slavery by definition. What about a 90 percent tax rate? How about a 75 percent tax rate? Would that mean that the taxpayer is under a state of 75 percent slavery? The analogy is not perfect. (Slavery, after all …

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