The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. – F.A. Hayek
Posted in Welfare State on Aug 27th, 2010
That’s why the plunders of the past decided to do one of two things. (1) Move on to plunder someone else. (2) Stay put and allow their hosts to live so that there was still something to plunder in the future. The public employees and retirees are doing neither. Is it wrong for me to [...]
Posted in Socialism, Unintended Consequences, Welfare State on Aug 11th, 2010
The “common-good” is commonly invoked as a justification for all kinds of confiscatory taxation and subsequent government programs. But in what sense is any program actually working for the “common good?” Wouldn’t making such a claim as a defense of a program require at least two things to be defined? First is, what the heck [...]
Posted in Welfare State on Jun 23rd, 2010
Overlawyered brings us this:
Taxpayers are paying former police officer Dave Orlowski $53,063 a year of tax-free disability payments, though he’s fit enough to compete in several triathlons a year. An old court decision permits Orlowski to refuse desk work after since he injured his shoulder in 1999.
Posted in Welfare State on Jun 1st, 2010
Just got my social security update in the mail today. It tells me that if I keep working and “contributing” like I am now until age 70, my monthly payment would be $2,922 per month, or $35,000 per year. That of course would be taxable income to me, so it would be like getting something [...]
Posted in Welfare State on May 26th, 2010
Within a radius of 4 homes from me, I know for sure that 1 home has a person receiving disability from an injury while working in a plant. He somehow manages to collect scrap metal in the neighborhood and weld it in his workshop all day long. We have another home with a disability recipient [...]
Posted in Government Gone Wild, Welfare State on May 22nd, 2010
And my 2,000 square foot home, with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 2 car garage, some hardwood floors and a fireplace and usable basement cost us $187,000. OK, so it would have cost slightly more to build brand new – but then again, it would have been much higher quality too.
Here is the latest disaster in [...]
Posted in Fun Facts, Unintended Consequences, Welfare State on Apr 27th, 2010
There are NO recorded Asian undergraduates disabled by ADD, and only 0.7 percent of Asian students have a learning disability, according to government data. Read the excellent Pope Center study on student disabilities here.
I’ve been teaching since 2002 (with a two year hiatus). I have taught in aggregate probably around 2,500 students. I’ve probably been [...]
Posted in Welfare State on Apr 13th, 2010
“We’re Just Working the System that is There!” No comments necessary.
Posted in Welfare State on Mar 28th, 2010
Suppose I had a fictional brother named Owen. Owen is about 40 years old, he has an MBA from a good private college, and has had a series of jobs on Wall Street. By the time the financial crisis struck, Owen was probably earning (with bonus) on the order of $300,000 per year. He certainly [...]
Posted in Government Thuggery, Personal Finance, Politics, Taxation, Welfare State, ethical foundations on Mar 9th, 2010
Per capita GDP in the United States is roughly $47,000.
Per capita personal income is about $39,880.
Let’s think about the kind of tax system we have in the U.S.
What kind of effective marginal tax rates do you think a family faces that has per capita income below half of per capita GDP in the country or [...]
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/silver/t24_ag_en_usoz_2.gif)