Oct 09
Is libertarianism a fringe ideology, pushed by a tiny minority?
Since 2002, Gallup has been asking Americans if they think the government is too powerful. Today, Gallup published its polling data for 2015.
Fully SIXTY PERCENT now say the federal government has too much power. See here.
The view that the current federal government has about the right amount of power is a minority–almost fringe–view, held by a mere 32 percent.
Oct 09
The USA Today reported in 2011 that statistically, federal employees are more likely to die than to be fired or laid off. The federal government fires only about one-half of one percent of its workers annually–compared to the the private sector, which fires about 3% of workers annually.
“White-collar federal workers,” the USA Today reported, “have almost total job security after a few years on the job. [In 2010] the government fired none of its 3,000 meteorologists, 2,500 health insurance administrators, 1,000 optometrists, 800 historians or 500 industrial property managers. Several huge agencies, such as the 1,800-employee Federal Communications Commission and the 1,200-employee Federal Trade Commission didn’t lay off or fire a single employee [in 2010]. The SBA had no layoffs, six firings and 17 deaths in its 4,000-employee workforce.
Now a new Cato Institute report finds that Federal pay averaged $84,153 in 2014, compared to an average in the private sector of $56,350.
And when pension, medical and other benefits are added, federal employees averaged an astounding $119,934 in 2014, which was 78 percent higher than the private-sector average of $67,246.
This places the AVERAGE federal employee near the “one-percenter” category that some people claim are controlling the country. See here.
Oct 06
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 demand, causing prices to rise.
Because of Medicare (and Medicaid), American health care costs have risen faster than inflation every single year for more than 40 years. See this Medicare fact page.
And Medicare has apparently done little to improve the overall health of retirees. Today’s American seniors are actually sicker than their predecessors in earlier generations. See here.
Studies of those on Medicaid show such people generally have no better health outcomes than IF THEY HAD NO HEALTH INSURANCE WHATSOEVER. See here.
Oct 05
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 of the Postal Service is to pad the accounts of U.S. Postal workers. Delivering mail is secondary.
The Postal Service’ old fleet of delivery vehicles averages about 10 miles per gallon. “To illustrate how silly this is, a 2015 Ford F-150 pickup truck has a combined mileage of 22 mpg—more than double that of the much smaller [U.S.P.S. vehicle].” Read Ken Blackwell’s article here.
During the mid-1800s, Lysander Spooner started a mail delivery business that easily delivered mail at lower prices than the government postal service. Spooner’s prices were lower, and his delivery times were shorter. Hundreds of thousands of smiling customers benefited.
But the U.S. government did not appreciate the competition. They shut Spooner down using the full military and law enforcement powers of the government–claiming (falsely) that the Constitution grants a postal monopoly to the government. In fact, the Constitution merely authorizes Congress to provide mail service.
As Spooner pointed out in the 1800s, the Constitution’s “freedom of the press” provision required that mail could not be a government monopoly. There can be no freedom of the press when government controls the delivery of the printed word.
Oct 02
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 promote a one-sided, pro-government, socialist agenda. See this essay by Professor John McGinnis.
Oct 01
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 disputing the government’s “carbon-is-causing-warming” narrative.
But no one claims that all scientists who dispute or question the government’s theory are supported by the fossil fuel industry. And no one has EVER CAUGHT any skeptical scientist stating his skepticism is owed to funding.
The opposite, however, is true regarding the promoters of the government’s theory: THE VAST MAJORITY OF PROMINENT SCIENTISTS WHO PUSH THE GOVERNMENT’S CLIMATE-SOCIALIST AGENDA ARE FINANCIALLY SUPPORTED BY A SOURCE THAT DOES HAVE AN INTEREST IN THE DEBATE: GOVERNMENTS.
Now it appears that the professor who initiated the recent demand that climate-skeptics be prosecuted under the RICO Act is himself the beneficiary of vast millions of dollars of governmental support for his alleged scientific research.*
Here is a link to a story indicating that a congressional committee may soon be investigating this alleged scientist’s funding sources.
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* perhaps the word alleged is a bit harsh. But science is skepticism, and the absolute first rule of science is that every hypothesis should invite disputes–not seek to have disputers punished.
Sep 29
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.
“I am talking about racketeering, organized crime. I am calling you a criminal,” shouted Hartmann on his radio show. Hartmann was yelling at writer Paul Driessen (who writes skeptically of the government’s CO2-driven-global-warming claims). The “debate” then degenerated into defamatory accusations against Driessen and demands that Driessen be jailed for his opinions.
Sep 29
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 to new data from Gallup.
As previously reported (see here), the state-controlled, pro-government media outlets (including the Washington Post) present a continuous monologue of advocacy for intrusive, expansive government and elitist control over the American people.
The government has been repeatedly caught paying “journalists” to report the news from a pro-government perspective. See here.
Sep 29
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 the world came to her. Then there were the British colonies: America, Canada, Australia, etc. These were free societies compared to most of the world, and millions fled to them.
North Koreans flee to China. East Germans fled to West Germany, etc.
Even within the U.S., people flee from high-tax, overregulated states to low-tax, less regulated states. Nevada, Florida, and Texas offer lower-tax alternatives for the overburdened taxpayers of New York, Illinois and New Jersey. See here.
In 2013, Florida gained $8.2 billion in adjusted gross income from new arrivals. Texas gained $5.9 billion. Five of the seven states with the biggest income gains — Florida, Texas, Arizona, Washington and Nevada — have no income tax.
New York again was the big loser, with another 112,236 tax filers leaving and taking $5.2 billion with them. Illinois lost nearly 67,000 tax filers and $3.7 billion of income that it can no longer tax.
Sep 29
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 in a San Francisco apartment.”
Government “planning” and construction restrictions have caused the unaffordability problem. “When a growing population creates a growing demand for housing, and the government blocks housing from being built, the price of existing housing goes up.” “[L]ocal government laws and policies severely restricted, or banned outright, the building of anything on vast areas of land. This is called preserving “open space.”
