Aug 31

Americans now spend more on taxes than on food and clothing combined

America rose to prosperity, abundance and prominence with some of the world’s lowest taxes and the fewest regulations. Property rights and a climate of individual ingenuity and industry brought Americans the world’s highest standards of living.

But the past two generations have seen America’s progress arrested. Now taxes take almost half of many Americans’ income. See here.

“From 2013 to 2016, overall personal taxes climbed from $7,432 to $10,489—an increase of $3,057 or 41.13 percent. Federal income taxes climbed from $5,743 to $8,367—an increase of $2,624 or 45.7%. State and local income taxes climbed from $1,629 to $2,046—an increase of $417 or 25.6 percent. Other taxes climbed from $60 to $75—an increase of $15 or 25 percent.”

Today’s government employees live like kings among peasants. The largest homes in many communities belong to government “workers.” Casinos and entertainment resorts are now filled with money-gorged government “workers” who spend their lives wrapped in luxury and privilege.

Meanwhile the American people are increasingly living in trailer parks and hovels. GDP growth rates have generally been below 3 percent over the past decade.

Aug 29

Hope for Denmark: Danes Seeking to Throw Off Government Shackles

Throughout the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s the people of Denmark were the most capitalistic on earth. Their merchants sailed the seas and transacted in goods throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

The people of Denmark (and Scandanavia generally) became the richest on earth. That foundation of wealth sustained them throughout the 1900s. But over time, the Danes began to tolerate the stink and stain of more government central planning.

Today, the once-free Danes suffer under some of the highest tax rates in the western world. Economic growth rates have plummeted to almost nothing.

But Bloomberg News reports that the Danes are recently demanding their freedoms back. See here.

In response to the Danes’ demands, “Denmark’s government proposed a broad range of tax cuts that will hit all income groups, make it cheaper to save toward retirement and reduce levies on cars.”

Finance Minister Kristian Jensen said “We’re increasing the gains associated with working, we’re making it more attractive to work more and we’re ensuring that it’s more worthwhile to save up toward retirement.”

Aug 27

Only 19 percent of wage gains from minimum wage increases go to families in poverty

Trusters of government often claim that government-imposed minimum wages help the poor.

But research has shown that minimum wage laws harm the poor by completely locking them out of the bottom rungs of the economy.

Minimum wage laws cause unemployment rates to increase, especially among the poorest and most desperate Americans.

Only 19 percent of the wage gains from minimum wage increases accrue to families in poverty.

See here.

Aug 27

Complexity of U.S. Tax Code Causes $67 to $378 Billion in Annual Accounting Costs

To put numbers in perspective, the entire state budget of Montana is less than $5 billion annually. Many other states operate on annual budgets of less than $5 or $10 annually.

A study by the Mercatus Center has recently found that Americans spend $67  billion to
$378 billion in annual accounting costs in the process of filing their tax returns.

See here.

Aug 24

Government agency caught falsifying temp records near Flagstaff, AZ. “Adjustments” were designed to bolster ‘global warming’ claims

The heroic data analyst Tony Heller will someday be seen as the man who almost singlehandedly brought down the government’s apocalyptic-manmade-global-warming-by-CO2 hoax.

Heller painstakingly combs through temp data provided from government agencies such as N.O.A.A., and shows how the government’s adjustments tend to be designed to bolster the government’s climate claims.

Now Heller has found that N.O.A.A. “scientists” declared that the 1990 data from a weather station near Flagstaff, Arizona was missing. They then replaced the “missing” data with higher-than-normal temperature readings.

But the data was not missing at all. Heller has discovered that “NOAA declared two thirds of the recorded daily data at Fort Valley, Arizona from 1990 to be missing, and replaced them with fake higher temperatures.”

Such data manipulation by N.O.A.A. appears to have been done in other places as well.

Aug 24

77 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.

Whenever government expands, people become impoverished, dependent, sick, weak, diseased, trapped, and less mobile in every sense.

CBS Moneywatch has released a report indicating that “[a]lmost 8 out of 10 American workers say they live paycheck to paycheck.”

Government taxes, regulations and central banking savagely punish savers, so most Americans save little or nothing.

Studies show that Social Security alone makes America some 3 to 4 percent poorer. Other government programs incentivize people to be sick, poor, weak and disabled.

“A year ago, about 75 percent of U.S. workers said they were living from payday to payday, a number that has grown to 78 percent this year.”

“About 18 percent of workers said they cut back on their 401k contributions or personal savings in the last year, and more than one-third don’t put away money for retirement, the survey found.”

See here.

Aug 23

Study: those with health insurance receive no greater health benefits than those without

Government programs and policies allegedly aimed at keeping Americans healthy achieve the very opposite result.
Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare all subsidize demand without increasing supply, causing prices to rise. The result is that health care has become absurdly expensive.

Consequently, almost no one is able to purchase health goods or services as needs arise. So many purchase health “insurance.” And now government forces people to buy health “insurance.”

But a new study by Bernard Black and colleagues finds that the uninsured consume fewer healthcare services but have no more deteriorating health than the insured.

Moreover, people without health insurance “do not die significantly faster than the insured.” See here.

Aug 19

New report confirms that electric cars have larger “carbon footprint” than gas or diesel cars

U.S. taxpayers have been forced to subsidize government “alternative energy” schemes on a truly massive scale.

Tesla and its overpaid CEO Elon Musk have milked taxpayers already for almost a billion dollars.

Tesla manufactures expensive electric cars–sold primarily to the super rich–with the massive support of U.S. tax dollars. One could say the program is a massive transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.

The stated goal of such subsidies is to fight manmade global warming by reducing Americans’ carbon footprint.

But the manufacture of one Tesla lithium battery alone produces more CO2 than an average gas car produces in 8 years. See here.

And now a new Morgan Stanley report finds that the operation of an average electric car requires the production of more CO2 than the operation of an average gas car. This is because the electricity to power a Tesla generally comes from coal or gas power plants. See here.

Aug 19

Americans have virtually abandoned short air travel due to government hassles

The daily stink and stain of life under near-total government has made America LESS mobile.

Here is an astounding report indicating that since 2000, “short haul [air] traffic” has “Decline[d] in the US” by $34 billion.

Government “security” policies imposed since 9/11/2001 have made Americans increasingly use alternative surface transportation. (The regulations almost certainly do very little to make air travel secure.)

The $34 billion figure is only a small component of total losses to the U.S. economy. Fewer short flights mean that America is a less dynamic society, and that goods and services take longer to transport from one location to another. Total losses to American economic vibrancy, innovation and dynamism are likely in the hundreds of billions.

America has become less competitive.

Aug 16

32 people killed in one day of “law enforcement” raids by Philippine government

The streets of Philippinnes cities turned red with blood in the past week as Philippine “police” unleashed a torrent of violent raids upon the population.

Shockingly Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is urging police to kill dozens of drug suspects every day, as he praised officers who shot dead 32 people this week in “shock and awe” raids.

“Police have killed 3,450 people in similar drug raids since Duterte came to office.”

The government repeatedly claims that the killings are in “self defense.”

See here.