When internecine battles of state-level tapeworms arose, I admit I used to root for the side obstensively fighting for lower taxes, less regulations, what have you. Then I read Block and everything changed.
These tell-tale signs of a dictatorship all reinforce Mises’s observation: the regime can only last if it maintains the illusion that it is beneficial to the masses. Mere physical strength is not sufficient, because it is ultimately ideas that determine which way the soldiers and police point their guns.
Cheap money, buyer tax incentives, lack of new supply, nothing seems to keep home prices elevated.
Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed • James C. Scott • Yale University Press, 1998 • 445 pages.
There just never seems to be enough money to fund public education. During the boom years teachers and their unions were constantly complaining that taxpayers were too stingy. That drumbeat was heard throughout the nation. The more money school districts received, the more they asked for.
Imagine if your property taxes set you back $43,000 a year, with 86% of that going to the school system. You justify it if you have two kids in school and it beats paying the freight for private school in the city. But if your kids have flown the coup, why pay?
Starving entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley are now being bombarded with offers of capital from Angel investors. Forget the old-school meet the banker and walk ‘em through the business plan nonsense, this can all be done electronically through social media.
[An MP3 audio file of this article, narrated by Colin Hussey, is available for download.]
