Jun 22

“Americans With Disabilities Act” LOWERED the percentage of disabled with jobs.

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The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in the early 1990s and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. The law was passed with claims that it would help get people with disabilities gainfully employed.

But years later, we learn that the Act had the opposite effect. Employment of men with disabilities fell by 10.9 percentage points following the enactment of ADA, while employment of nondisabled men fell by 3.1 percentage points. Thus, ADA reduced the employment of disabled men by 7.8 percentage points. The study is here.

Jun 22

Research Problem: Can Anyone Devise a Method to Test Whether Medicare and/or Social Security Have Negatively Impacted General Health?

Roger Roots, J.D., Ph.D.

Roger Roots, J.D., Ph.D.

by Dr. Roger I. Roots

A previous post on the fact that today’s senior citizens are generally sicker (but longer-living, due to medical advancements) than their predecessors got me thinking.

Can this increased level of sickness and chronic illness among today’s populations be partially attributed to Medicare? Or to Social Security?

This is not as outlandish as it seems. I’ve read some research suggesting that increased use of safety devices such as seat belts, and car insurance may be correlated with riskier driving behavior by drivers.

The evidence is overwhelming that Social Security has incentivized Americans to save less, invest less, and retire earlier. Overall, Americans work fewer total hours per lifetime in response to Social Security (and, presumably, Medicare). The country is slightly poorer and less prosperous than it would have been otherwise. Could these entitlement programs also incentivize American workers to work less safe? Or to live less healthy?

I don’t know how to test or measure this hypothesis. If anyone who can offer a suggestion would email me at [email protected], I would be very grateful.

Thanks!

Jun 22

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

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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, are increasingly large markets for Porsche and other luxury automobiles. In Peru, Colombia, and Panama, numbers of such automobiles are approaching growth rates of 60 percent per year. Mexico is now second only to the U.S. in new purchases of private jets.

And although there is widespread poverty in South and Central America, measures of human well-being are improving across the entire socio-economic strata.

Jun 22

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

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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 two-thirds of Medicare beneficiaries over 65 “have multiple chronic conditions.”

And these increasingly sicker senior citizens are living longer than their predecessors, due to medical advances. And costs are poised to soar into the stratosphere. “The average elderly patient with five or more chronic conditions . . . sees 13 doctors and fills 50 prescriptions in a year.” According to Johns Hopkins University’s Gerard Anderson, just 10,000 seniors were responsible for $1 billion in Medicare spending in 2010.

Jun 19

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

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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. Most Greeks can sense that their investments and savings will soon be confiscated by their government, and are withdrawing their savings from banks rapidly.

Now central bankers are as much as admitting that the Greek government will likely steal its subjects’ savings, and that Greek banks may be closed for a “bank holiday” this coming Monday.

The joys of Keynsian economics!

Jun 16

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

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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 regulation, technology is perfecting driverless vehicles. Range Rover-Jaguar is perfecting vehicles which operate without any hand on the wheel. A driver could–while getting unstuck from mud or snow–get out of the vehicle and push, while his vehicle safely steers itself out of its problem.

Soon, even drunk drivers, blind people or elderly people with severe health problems will be able to tell their cars to take them home, and their cars will get them safely to their destinations.

Jun 16

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

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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 increased steadily, and last fall (October 2014), the average American responded that the federal government wastes a majority of the money it gets–51 cents out of every dollar.

Remember, this is the average response. Eighteen percent of Americans say they think the federal government wastes 76 cents OR MORE out of every dollar it gets.

Gallup has separated state from federal spending in the question. The average American is slightly more respectful of the spending habits of their state government. On average, Americans say their state governments waste 42 cents of every dollar.

Jun 14

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

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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 school while waiting for the parents to return home. Skenazy’s story can be found at Reason.com.

The parents actually lost their kids to the government . . . over nothing.

Jun 14

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

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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 reality, McLellan is a small businessman who operates a small gas station and catfish-sandwich shack and regularly deposits cash in his bank account. The money seized by the IRS constituted McLellan’s life savings.

Soon after the national media picked up this story of outrageous government abuse, the IRS caved, and returned the money. The agency quickly realized it could not survive the negative publicity regarding its lawless actions.

What has not been widely reported is that the IRS sent McLellan an email when McLellan hired the nonprofit law firm Institute for Justice to help him fight the government. The email warned McLellan not to seek publicity, and suggested that if McLellan went public with the outrageous story, the government would target him even more severely.

The government prosecutor’s email stated:

publicity about it doesn’t help. It just ratchets up feelings in the agency.

The message was clear: McLellan was being warned to keep his mouth shut.

The Institute For Justice’s description of the story is here.

Jun 14

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

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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 not be a mark of corruption or callousness. Except that the Hillary campaign (and the government-trusting “left” generally) tend to constantly complain and lecture about income inequality, the plight of the working poor and the evils of (private sector) money in politics. (Trusters of the state don’t tend to see the government’s constant spending on advertising and propaganda, such as the hundreds of millions spent annually on military-worship promotion, as money in politics.)

Many in the government-trusting left (including many political police officers stationed in the F.E.C. and state-level “political practices” offices) consider volunteer work for political campaigns to be “in-kind” monetary contributions and seek to prosecute, charge, fine or otherwise punish political campaigns which use volunteer and unpaid-intern assistance. In Montana and other states, political czars will sometimes (when it suits the government) monetize the hours of volunteer efforts and then assess campaigns with fines and other penalties for failing to report such volunteer efforts to the government.