A popular sentiment regarding health care is that unlike other goods, we simply cannot tolerate differences in consumption based on income differences. Having a rich guy with a 90-inch plasma TV as compared to a poor guy suffering with a 36″ cathode-ray tube TV is not nearly as intolerable as the idea that if both […]
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Posted in Welfare State on Dec 10th, 2012
So this is what it now comes down to. We institute a Medicare program in the 1960s that was supposed to cost a fraction of what it does today. When we realize it has bankrupted itself, and possibly the government, we celebrate when its present rate of growth is lower than in the heavily regulated […]
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It is almost tautological that people who create value by being particularly successful in markets will be treated as parasites who prey on unwitting customers, exploit unwitting workers and otherwise use mischievous means to get where they are. Indeed, watching any of Michael Moore’s films (which counts as economics in high school economics courses) will […]
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Here is yet one more illustration for why one might argue such: Because universities are non-profit institutions, wealthy boosters, alums, or corporations can write off 80% of the cost from income taxes when they purchase club seats and luxury suites. That was from the Economics of Intercollegiate Sports. Remember the wise Bastiat: “Government is the […]
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For much of the 20th century, if one was to look at the share of national income that ended up in the pockets of “capitalists” versus in the hands of laborers, you would have seen something very surprising given the conventional wisdom. What you would have seen is that in evil, greedy, capitalist America, workers […]
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By now most readers are familiar with the factoid that 1 in 7 Americans is on food stamps. Here is the Wall Street Journal reporting/opining on Wednesday: The Obama and Romney campaigns spent Tuesday sniping over whether the President deserves an “incomplete” grade, as Mr. Obama put it, for fixing the economy. The more revealing […]
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Posted in Inequality, Welfare State on Aug 28th, 2012
We’ve bantered on this site about replacing a seemingly “bad” tax, that on working (social security), with a less bad tax (on “bads”) such as one on carbon. I’d like to remind readers about some lesser appreciated “badness” of social security. Since I’m posting from my mobile phone using Siri I apologize in advance for […]
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I know my puns need a little work, but I get excited from time to time and cannot help it. Hell on Earth is what we are told is coming down the pike if we don’t implement very strict emissions reductions and do it in a very short time. The EPA recently estimated that the […]
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Posted in Fun Facts, Welfare State on Aug 4th, 2012
One in four New Yorkers is on Medicaid. That is expected to grow after Obamacare is fully implemented. Oh, you’ll love this. One of my former students was in a dinner table argument the other night when his guest was railing on derivatives. I hope he reminded his guest who was the original purveyor of derivatives (hint: […]
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