YES, THE GREEK GOVERNMENT HAS AN OFFICIAL PLAN TO RAID THE SAVINGS ACCOUNTS OF ITS SUBJECTS TO PAY FOR ITS EXTRAVAGENT SPENDING

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Socialism is a curse we should wish only on our enemies. Any society that embraces it will become sick and weak.

You know you are a prisoner—or a slave—when your prison administrators can reach out and rob your savings account to pay for their lavish lifestyles.

It appears that backroom deals being negotiated by bankrupt Greek politicians and the European Union will likely involve a “bail-in” (as opposed to a “bailout”). All Greek banks were closed last week by government order. People with money in banks were told they could only access a small percentage of their funds. Pensioners expecting government “social-security”-style checks were provided with only a small proportion of their expected support checks.

The Financial Times is reporting that Greek banks are preparing contingency plans to raid the accounts of depositors amid fears the country is heading for financial collapse, “bankers and businesspeople with knowledge of the measures said on Friday.”

“The plans, which call for a “haircut” of at least 30 per cent on deposits above €8,000, sketch out an increasingly likely scenario for at least one bank, the sources said.”

The story is here.

Obamacare Causing 20- to 50-Percent Annual Insurance Rate Increases.

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If Americans only had the courage to do nothing, and unleash the power of capitalism on health care, prices would come quickly down so that the poorest consumers could afford quality health care.

Hobos, bums and vagabonds could afford quality health care if the government got out of it. Just look at the telecommunications industry (which is largely unregulated). One can find hobos under bridges with Iphones.

Unfortunately, U.S. policymakers (not the least of whom is the current president) have embarked on a policy of vast regulation and subsidies regarding the health care industry. This increases demand without increasing supply, causing prices to rise. The rising prices cause politicians to promise further government “fixes”–which further cause prices to rise.

Now the New York Times–one of the greatest cheerleaders for Obama’s slave-plantation-style “Affordable Care Act”–is reporting that Obamacare is causing annual rate increases of 20 – to 50 percent. The article is here.

The Times article includes a number of details. It is well worth reading, if only for the laughs.

Prior to Obamacare, rate increases were “only” 15 to 20 percent. This was, of course, faster than inflation. For, like 35 years. Due to government regulations such as Medicare and Medicaid.

Never underestimate the incompetence and evil of the state.

Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are bolstering plant life worldwide.

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Forget what you may have heard from your teacher, your professor, your politician or your pope. Rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere are greening the planet–not desertifying it.

Environmental scientists report in a newly published peer-reviewed study that satellite measurements of global plant life contradict assertions by governments that global warming is causing deserts to expand, along with devastating droughts. The findings, published in Geophysical Research , show that rising carbon dioxide levels appear to have caused a remarkable 11 percent increase in foliage in arid regions since 1982.

Professor: Jail Climate Skeptics

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Professor Lawrence Torcello an assistant professor of philosophy at Rochester Institute of Technology, has called for the arrest and prosecution of doubters of the government’s manmade-carbon-dioxide-driven-global-warming hysteria. Torcello says there is “an organised campaign funding misinformation” regarding climate change which “ought to be considered criminally negligent.” See here.

Torcello is not speaking of the well organized, government-funded movement to promote hysteria regarding climate change, and its accompanying calls for more government power, taxation and socialism.

Rather, he writes that questioners and skeptics, especially those who seem to be leading others toward questioning authority regarding climate, should be prosecuted for criminal negligence.

The Average Retiring New York Firefighter Costs Taxpayers About 2 Million Dollars.

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Today’s federal and state government employees are often lavished with luxurious pensions and salaries. In many counties, the largest and most expensive mansions are owned not by business leaders but by government employees.

New York City firefighters are greatly overpaid. And when they retire, a very high percentage (80 percent or more) declare they are “disabled,” meaning they claim they are not able to work in other fields. Many of these “disabled” firefighters can be seen on Long Island golf courses and swimming in pools at elite country clubs.

According to Gavin McInnes, some 80 percent of retiring New York firefighters declare they are disabled and thereby “get their 100k a year tax-free and if they die, their spouses get the money until they die.” “[T]his usually runs the taxpayer about two million dollars per firefighter’s retired lifetime; not bad for getting paid to sleep for twenty years.”

According to McInnes, New York City employees are milking the taxpayers royally. “[I]t’s not unusual in New York to get ten firefighters, five cops, and three EMT for every teen who faints on a field trip to the museum—seriously, my wife works there.” McInnes article is here.

U.S. Senator Calls on Justice Department to Persecute Climate Skeptics

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We have previously reported on leading journalists and professors who have called for the arrests and prosecutions of those who question the government’s climate-change messaging. See here and here.

Now a sitting U.S. Senator, Sheldon Whitehouse (D.-R.I.), is calling on the U.S. Justice Department to pursue (apparently civil) charges against those who disagree or question the government regarding the alleged threat of manmade-CO2-driven-global-warming. See here.

Kuwait becomes first country to mandate government DNA registry for all subjects

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The endless quest by governments to monitor, surveil and control all human life and activity continues.

It went mostly unnoticed 10 years ago when the U.S. Congress enacted a “Real ID” law requiring that every state impose some form of biometric identifier in its driver-licensing. There was a minor popular backlash in state legislatures; then the draconian move was mostly forgotten. See here.

Today, many state driver-licensing programs require fingerprints or thumbprints to get a driver license. (Of course, the whole idea of driver licensing is quickly becoming outdated, as technology approaches the era of driverless vehicles. The program, even now, is mostly a government identification program masquerading as a traffic-safety program.)

Now Kuwait has moved toward requiring a blood-DNA sample from every citizen, . . . er, subject. See here.
At present, the U.S. only requires DNA blood samples from exiting federal (and many state) prisoners.

Stay tuned!

An Example of a Society that made itself Wealthy: Singapore

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Amidst all the recent news of societies foolishly impoverishing and destroying themselves with socialism, it is always good to point to societies that transformed themselves from poverty to abundance.

The country of Singapore was a 3rd world country just two generations ago. Most of its population had no running water and no electricity. Life expectancy was short and malnutrition was common. Pollution and environmental degradation was the norm.

But “[b]y embracing free trade, capital formation, vigorous meritocratic education, low taxes, and a reliable judicial system, [Singapore] raised [its] per capita income from $500 a year to some $52,000 a year today. That’s 50 percent higher than that of Britain, the colonial power that ruled Singapore for 150 years. Its average annual growth rate has averaged 7 percent since the 1970s.”

The people of Singapore were toothless savages in the beginning; but they refused to listen to voices telling them to follow other societies toward government control and redistribution.

Today the Frasier institute’s Freedom of the World report lists Singapore as the second freest economy in the world — right behind Hong Kong. As Frasier scholars have demonstrated year after year, economic growth and free markets go hand and hand.

As John C. Goodman writes, Singapore “has built an alternative to the European style welfare state.” “About 90 percent of Singapore households are home owners – the highest rate of home ownership in the world.”

And Singapore has a sort-of individual Roth IRA system for health care. Private accounts rather than public, single-payer medicine:

In health care, Singapore started an extensive system of “Medisave Accounts” in 1984 – the very year that Richard Rahn and I proposed “Medical IRAs” for America in the Wall Street Journal. Today, 7 percentage points of Singapore’s 36 percent required savings rate is for health care and is deposited in a separate Medisave account for each employee. Individuals are also automatically enrolled in catastrophic health insurance, although they can opt out. When a Medisave account balance reaches about $34,100 (an amount equal to a little less than half of the median family income) any excess funds are rolled over into another account and may be used for non-health care purposes.

Goodman’s article is here.

High-taxing Illinois, like Greece and Puerto Rico, is nearing default on its debts.

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The financial world has been reeling from a series of worldwide financial crashes. This week, high-taxing, high-regulating Greece became the world’s first “first-world” country to default on an IMF loan. On Sunday, the governor of Puerto Rico announced that his Island State’s debts are unpayable. On Monday, the U.S. Dow plummeted 350 points.

Also this week, the State of Illinois–considered America’s Greece by the Economist Magazine–is approaching default on its high pension obligations. Illinois, like California and New York, lavishes public so-called workers with extravagant pension, medical and retirement packages. Illinois State retirees have often been seen in Las Vegas casinos alongside sheiks and oil barons at high-stakes craps and blackjack tables.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, “One day after using borrowed money and savings generated by 1,400 layoffs to make a $634 million payment to the teachers pension fund, [Chicago] Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration is asking the pension fund for a five-month, $500 million loan.”

Socialist-oriented politicians at both the Illinois State and Chicago City level are shuffling funds back and forth to attempt to meet financial-payment deadlines. The hard-hit taxpayers of Illinois are being made to shoulder ever-higher burdens.

Stossel: The Real Erin Brockovich Reaped Millions by Shaking Down Innocent Corporations

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The often-brilliant John Stossel is out with a review of the new box-office smash, Jurassic World. The movie, like many others, bashes corporations.

Stossel briefly discusses the 2000 film “Erin Brockovich,” which was nominated for Best Picture and which garnered actress Julia Roberts with numerous “best actress” awards:

In the movies, anti-business activists like Erin Brockovich are depicted as lifesavers. Brockovich, a hustler for personal injury lawyers, used her ample charm and cleavage to recruit clients who sued Pacific Gas and Electric, claiming the power company gave them cancer.

That was highly unlikely, given that the accused chemical, hexavalent chromium, causes cancer only at much higher doses. PG&E workers, despite being exposed to much more of it, live longer than average.

But Brockovich still got PG&E to pay out over $300 million, of which she got $2 million. That makes her a hero?