Not for the first time in world history, US voters on November 2 faced a choice between two varieties of statism, two forms of central planning, two types of duplicity, two approaches to rule by government. One won, one lost, and liberty awaits another day for victory. In this, our times are not unlike the 1930s, when during a crisis just about everyone believed that there were only two political options worth pursuing. [Full Article]
Big loss for sales tax supporters in Washington State, with a 1% increase for education (oh sure) rejected by 60% of voters. Other races around the country suggest that some smaller tax increase attempts passed and some failed. But the big story is what happened to GOP reps. who promoted the National Sales Tax.
It’s the same tired trade saga from the New York Times, with one executive asking where we’re “winning” in the textile trade. The question is answered in the article: in the form of lower prices and higher quality across the board. And yet anti-trade zealots steadfastly refuse to acknowledge several facts about trade.
I’ve been reading The Bush Betrayal by James Bovard (Palgrave Macmillan, $26.95, 330 pages) and I’m impressed by the wit, bite, attention to documentation, and eye for moral concerns in James Bovard’s approach to things political, here dissecting the Bush White House in cuts more libertarian than conservative.
Gary North today defends limited liability with this core claim: “you cannot logically deny the legitimacy of enslavement for debt without becoming a defender of limited liability”. I disagree.There is a middle ground between these two extremes: liquidation of assets of the debtor and partial payment, with the recognition of further debt due.
I am curious if anyone is aware of any good reason why “means” in the praxeological structure of action (actor chooses and employs certain means to attain his chosen end) cannot generally include both non-human (causal) and human means? If my aim is to acquire a fish, I have a variety of means to attain this end: I can use a fishing pole, in which case my means is the pole and my act-of-fishing, or I could buy the fish from a fishmonger, or I could hire a fisherman to go catch one for me.
Dale Steinreich once wrote that Halloween has a “socialist tenor” because “menacing figures arrive at your door uninvited, demand your property, and threaten to perform an unspecified ‘trick’ if you don’t fork over.
