Homines libenter quod volunt credunt
Posted in Central Planning, Disingenuous, If I Really Hated the Poor ..., Socialism, Special Privilege on Jan 9th, 2021
M0re from Pipes: The massacres of 1937-38 virtually wiped out the ranks of “old Bolsheviks,” whose place was taken by newcomers. In 1939, 80.5 percent of the executive personnel of the Soviet Union’s Communist Party had joined since Lenin’s death 15 From their ranks came the top officials of the party and government, the so-called […]
Posted in Central Planning, Socialism on Jan 8th, 2021
From Richard Pipes’ incredible book Communism: A History The Great Terror struck at the party membership as well as ordinary citizens. At its height, in 1937 and 1938, at le one and a half million people, the vast majority of them in nocent of any wrongdoing even by Communist criteria, were hauled before troikas, […]
Posted in Central Planning, Economic Illiteracy, ethical foundations, Government Thuggery, Inequality, Socialism on Dec 12th, 2020
I am just finishing up the absolutely gut-wrenching book from Frank Dikotter, Mao’s Great Famine. Words cannot do it justice. Just as the Hiroshima story and the Auschwitz story and the slavery story must be told and retold and taught to our children, it would be unconscionable for all of us not to be very well […]
Posted in Central Planning, Classical Liberalism, Disingenuous on Nov 25th, 2020
Posted in Central Planning, Dynamism - Not, Extended Order, Humans on Nov 23rd, 2020
There is a presumption in the planning vs. markets discussion that has gone back at least to the debates with Abba Lerner and Oscar Lange that it was simply a matter of computing power before we would be able to plan an economy. Well, that is a gross simplification, but if you think about the […]
Posted in Central Planning, Disingenuous, Environment on Nov 11th, 2020
There is a drumbeat of support for the idea that we can and should all live simpler lives. I actually try to do that, at least a bit. And when we sit back and think about it, from a material standpoint, we really do not need very much in order to live a comfortable and […]
Posted in Central Planning, Environment on Jul 23rd, 2020
Posted below without comment: Adirondack Mountain Club, Inc.Conservation Committee Resolution •WHEREAS, the State has regularly acknowledged that the Adirondacks receive 10 to 12 million visitors a year; •WHEREAS, despite this, the State has not made proportional or even significant investments to build the necessary infrastructure to support these numbers, leading to an artificially high rate […]
Posted in Caring, Central Planning, Disingenuous, Environment on Dec 18th, 2019
Simply buying all of the coal that is in the ground would be fantastically less expensive than almost any climate solution, and respect the property rights of companies and sectors that have invested for many decades in that sector. It would avoid the bounceback problems vis-à-vis carbon taxes and other demand limiting ideas (or the […]
Posted in Caring, Central Planning, Disingenuous, Economic Illiteracy, Environment, Government Gone Wild on Mar 30th, 2019
For years I have waffled back and forth between being way too reactionary and concerned about the insane ideas that are put forth, or way too lax in trying to stay out of the news. For my own mental health and for what I thought would help contribute to good debate, I have chosen to […]
Posted in Central Planning, Disingenuous, Environment, If I Really Hated the Poor ..., You Can't Have it Both Ways on Sep 11th, 2018
If you look at the major risks to human health and well-being around the world, you will quickly come to realize that climate change ranks nowhere near the top of the list. For example, the WHO and various other estimates show that something like 10 million people per year die from easily curable infectious diseases […]
