Apr 05

Vermont and New Jersey legislatures have been hiking taxes; their residents are fleeing

liber

In Vermont, taxes have recently been raised on home heating oil, mutual funds, banks, drivers, and businesses who don’t provide health insurance to employees. Consequently, thousands of Vermonters have fled the state over the past decade.

In New Jersey, more than two million people have left after two decades of ever-higher taxes and outrageous spending on government pay and pensions. The fleeing New Jersey residents have taken billions of dollars in income and economic activity with them.

Now half of all New Jersey residents say they want to eventually leave the state, and more than a quarter of them say their future departure is “very likely,” according to a new Monmouth University poll.

Apr 05

Analysts now wondering if U.S. government leaked the ‘Panamanian Papers’

statlib

Yesterday’s headlines blared with news about leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm which show major world government leaders have been laundering money in secret off-shore bank accounts. In some cases, billions of dollars appear to have been siphoned from impoverished taxpayers around the globe to enrich the secret (tax-free) bank accounts of government officials.

Now there is speculation that the U.S. government is behind the leaks. See here.

Apr 04

Overpaid Detroit Public School Administrators Caught Skimming Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars of ‘School Supply’ Money

suffering

Detroit public schools have exacted enormous funds from their surrounding taxpayers yet underperformed for decades.

Now it emerges that some overpaid Detroit Public School Administrators have been funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars meant for ‘school supplies’ to themselves. See here.

One Detroit principle accepted nearly $60,000 in bribes from a school vendor. The Detroit Free Press noted that she “once drove a Maserati with a Gucci vanity plate.”

One investigation found that $900,000 had been taken from taxpayers for ‘school supplies’ which padded the accounts of a handful of Detroit public school principles.

Apr 04

World government leaders are laundering and hiding money from the regulations they impose on others

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High taxes, cops on almost every streetcorner, and burdensome regulations are the norm worldwide. Yet a USA Today report documents that numerous ‘world leaders’ have been caught hiding money in offshore private bank accounts.

In some cases, the money hidden away by these government officials was looted directly from government accounts gorged with funds from the long-suffering taxpayers of their respective countries.

The USA Today reports that the ‘Panamanian Papers’ scandal broke when an anonymous tipster leaked years of financial records that appear to have belonged to a Panamanian law firm.

Apr 03

New Study finds no evidence whatsoever that polar bears are suffering from climate change

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A central claim in Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth” is that polar bear populations are threatened or dwindling due to manmade global warming. The various versions of the UN IPCC Reports also repeat this claim.

But a new exhaustive study by Canadian scientists finds there is no evidence to support this claim whatsoever. See here.

Apr 03

In the trucking industry, government is demanding what the industry is already doing

truck fins

Government bureaucrats frequently spot good ideas being implemented in the private sector, and then try to show they are doing something by mandating that the private sector must do what it is already doing.

The intrusive mind of the tyrant never pauses.

Consider the trucking industry, which is filled with business owners and operators who have a great interest in fuel efficiency and drive-train innovation. Recently, large numbers of truck owners have been installing semi skirts and semi fins on their trucks for fuel efficiency.

The fins and skirts can help save a truck driver hundreds of dollars annually and hundreds of gallons of fuel over the lifetime of a trailer. It is said that a long-haul trucker who invests in such devices can pay for them within eighteen months. See here. Now the EPA is pushing to mandate that all semi trailers have such skirting installed.

Such a mandate would add thousands of dollars of costs to poor operators, and would adversely impact truckers who drive short, slower, or local routes who do not receive much benefit from additional fins and skirts.

A report by the Mercatus Center discredits many of the government’s claims. See here.

Apr 02

Another Government-Subsidized ‘Green’ Energy Company Fails

john carter

For years, trusters of government have promoted ‘green’ energy schemes by which the government subsidizes so-called alternative energy technology.

The goal, supposedly, is to build up solar, wind and other alternative-energy industries, until they can compete with (and ultimately displace) fossil fuels.

It never works. Solar and wind sources cannot stand on their own against coal, oil or natural gas in an open market.

Now Sun-Edison, another solar panel company—heavily government subsidized—has collapsed. See here.

Apr 01

U.S. Postal Service has every advantage; yet still loses a billion dollars annually

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Government sucks at almost everything. Its “goods and services” cost more and are of lower quality despite the fact that the government enjoys every possible advantage in the marketplace.

Consider the U.S. Postal Service. It has been losing a billion dollars annually for years. Yet “it enjoys a range of government-conferred benefits. It has monopolies on first-class mail (letters under 13 ounces) and standard mail (bulk advertising items). It also has a monopoly on access to mailboxes, which is a unique protection among postal systems in the world.

Furthermore, the USPS borrows from the U.S. Treasury at subsidized interest rates, pays no federal or state taxes, is excluded from local zoning laws, and has the power of eminent domain. But even with these advantages, the USPS loses money.”

See here.

Apr 01

Too much government; a million too few doctors

sickness

CBS Marketwatch has published a frightening report of America’s near future. Americans will face a doctor shortage of up to a million physicians as overregulation, overinsurance and stupid government “health care” mandates and subsidies take their tolls. See here.

Government overregulation subsidizes demand without increasing supply causing prices to rise. The poor have been largely locked out of health care as Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare and other policies pile an endless burden of rules, laws and regulations upon the medical sector.

Few people facing medical school are willing to put themselves a quarter-million dollars in debt to face an uncertain future of constant badgering and endless red tape.

Mar 31

Government has been pouring on regulations to ‘help the poor,’ yet the poor and minorities are poorer than ever

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Government supremacists routinely argue for more government to ‘help the poor.’ Yet government regulations invariably harm the poor and cement the positions of the rich.

Since the beginning of 21st century, the U.S. government has become increasingly “progressive”: with more regulations, higher tax rates, and a greater tax burden on ‘the rich.’

Yet “acccording to the Federal Reserve, while white households’ median wealth slightly increased from 2010 to 2013, Hispanic households’ net worth dropped 14 percent, while black net worth fell from $16,600 to $11,000 — a three-year drop of 34 percent.” See here.

The poor increasingly face difficulties due to government licensing schemes–which generally make it difficult for people with criminal records or few resources to work in rewarding industries.