Author's posts
Oct 06
Medicare’s promoters in 1965 promised the program would cut medical costs
When Medicare was enacted in 1965, Congress projected its costs into the future, and estimated that it would cost $3 billion dollars by 1990. Actual cost in 1990 was $98 billion. Today the program costs taxpayers more than $500 billion annually. Government officials consistently underestimate entitlement costs, refusing to recognize that medical entitlements artificially increase …
Oct 05
U.S. Postal Service Lost $5.5 Billion in 2014; Its Average Vehicle Gets 10 M.P.G.
The U.S. Postal Service lost $5.5 billion in 2014 and has lost many more billions over the past decade. Even as global trade, communications and shipping has skyrocketed, the Postal Service can’t operate efficiently. U.S. Postal workers are greatly overpaid. Hundreds, even thousands, apply for every opening. It might be said that the PRIMARY purpose …
Oct 02
Law School Professors Overwhelmingly Promote Expansive Intrusive Government
Many people have noticed that today’s legal profession is overwhelmingly composed of trusters of expansive government. Where are the Jeffersons, the Lord Camdens and the George Masons of today? One reason why the public cannot find lawyers to challenge government power is the law school industry. Today’s law schools are overwhelmingly staffed by professors who …
Oct 01
Tables Turned: Government-Funded “scientists” who sought to have their Skeptics Jailed are now Under Investigation Themselves
A widely-circulated narrative proposes that scientists who dispute the government’s manmade-global-warming-by-carbon-dioxide claims are bought and paid for by the fossil fuel industry. There is a basic logic behind this claim: demand for oil, gas and coal would decrease if government made the products more expensive or regulated. The industry benefits from the spread of information …
Sep 29
Another prominent voice calls for the imprisonment of climate skeptics
The debate is over! Jail the skeptics! Prominent pro-government extremist Thom Hartmann (who loudly calls for a constitutional amendment to overturn the First Amendment in order to stop (private sector) money from having any influence on politics), is now calling for the imprisonment of those who disagree with him regarding the world’s climate. See here. …
Sep 29
Trust in government-supported media is at an all-time low
A government-trusting hack writing in yesterday’s Washington Post (see here) complains that the public’s trust in the media is at an all-time low–as measured by Gallup polling. Just four in 10 Americans say they have a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of trust in the media to report the news fairly and accurately, according …
Sep 29
People continue fleeing totalitarian states
The history of humanity is a history of people wanting to control their neighbors through government–and of their neighbors (and ultimately, themselves) fleeing the governmental environments they created for freer shores. England, for example, was widely known to be freer than continental Europe throughout the past thousand years. Vagabonds, exiles and wandering gypsies from throughout …
Sep 29
Government has made housing less affordable–while claiming a desire to make housing more affordable
Thomas Sowell: “nobody has done more to make housing unaffordable than [government officials proclaiming a desire to make housing affordable].” “A recent survey,” says Sowell, “showed that the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco was just over $3,500. Some people are paying $1,800 a month just to rent a bunk bed …
Sep 27
Associated Press cites “lack of regulation” as cause of increased prescription drug prices, even as overregulation is the primary cause of high drug prices
A case study in how the government-supporting media report business news through the lens of government. This weekend, dozens of prominent newspapers (including the Bozeman Daily Chronicle) reprinted an Associated Press (AP) story entitled “Side Effects: Lack of regulation, competition, research costs increase prescription drug costs in the U.S.” See the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s republication …
Sep 26
Castro lived like a king among the impoverished subjects of socialist Cuba
Haters of capitalism routinely invoke the specter of “income inequality” and talk often of the gap between rich and poor. Yet never is that gap larger than in socialist countries which have driven out capitalism. Witness North Korea, where government leaders reside in palaces surrounded by fearful starving servants. Or witness socialist Cuba under Fidel …
