Obama’s Great Depression

Where are the Jobs? The Parallels between Today and the Great Depression

Multiculturalismos

Associating minorities with crime is irrational, unjust, and completely normal. por Shankar Vedantam:

The left is wrong to wish the association away only by pointing out how unfair it is, because that denies the reality of how our minds work. The right is wrong to believe the association must be accurate merely because it is widespread.

What's interesting about this is not that our unconscious minds confuse correlation with causation—our conscious minds do that all the time, too. What's interesting is that the events our unconscious minds link together are only the unusual ones. On both days you had upset stomachs, a newspaper may have been delivered to your door, but you don't associate newspaper delivery with your upset stomach.

Bottomline, reacções "racistas" são normais. Só desaparecem com convivência.

Ora, não há dinâmica mais poderosa para juntar gentes diferentes que o mercado livre. Parafraseando Milton Friedman, pessoas que de outra forma se odiariam (provavelmente por motivos irracionais) começam por trocar bens e serviços, e no processo, baixam defesas, e aceitam-se.

Os proponentes de políticas públicas "multiculturais" tentam criar tal convivência com integração forçada — juntar grupos sociais diferentes. Outros, socialistas "de direita", preferem keep them separated. Como se traçar fronteiras à régua, "integrando" ou "segregando" alguma vez tivesse resultado.

Attack Ads

Attack Ads, Circa 1800

Política

Extractos de um excelente texto que resume bem porque nunca me passou pela cabeça meter-me pela política partidária — Why Honorable People Avoid Politics por Don Boudreaux:

First and least importantly, describing politicians as public servants is inaccurate. Does anyone really believe that the typical politician seeks office, not to enjoy the fame and career opportunities afforded by elected office, but mainly to help the public? Call me cynical ..

Second, politicians don’t beg for money; they sell a service namely, use of government’s coercive power to achieve for interest groups what these groups cannot or will not achieve peacefully on the market .. Their salaries are paid out of funds forcibly extracted from taxpayers, and their careers are spent drafting and debating prospective statutes that diminish the freedoms of innocent people.

Market relationships are inherently co-equal: .. When I walk into .. any private firm that enjoys no government privileges .. I walk into an establishment that has no power to coerce me. The consequence is that the owners of that establishment treat me with respect, for if they don’t, I spend my money elsewhere.

In contrast, I have no real choice but to obey whatever commands are dictated to me by politicians. Any class of people accustomed to issuing commands that are enforced with threats of coercion is a class of people who regard as degrading any need on their part to resort to persuasion rather than force as a means of getting what they want.

.. honorable people have no taste for minding other people’s business or for living off of the fruits of other people’s earnings. Nor do honorable people enjoy the kinds of public attention given to politicians .. honorable people avoid politics because they are revolted by the prospect of behaving indecently.

Interview with Daniel Hannan

Interview with Daniel Hannan:

This week's video is with Daniel Hannan, a British member of the European Parliament, journalist, and author of The New Road to Serfdom. He’s also known for his speech on the floor of the European Parliament where he said to the Prime Minister Gordon Brown “You cannot spend your way out of a recession.” Hannan discusses why a Tea Party movement can occur in America and not in Europe, and why the European social-welfare model is diseased and unsustainable.

parte 1 | parte 2 | parte 3 | parte 4 | parte 5

Economistas alquimistas

Economics' limits por Donald J. Boudreaux:

Economics is not a science if "science" means a discipline that can make nuanced and specific predictions about the future. The economy is far too complex to permit such predictions.

Governments and private researchers gather data .. plug these data into computer-based mathematical models .. These models then spit out precise predictions.

Voila! exclaims the economist .. "See my multivariable model and my precise-to-several-decimal places predictions! I'm a scientist!"

In fact, he's an alchemist .. Most of what is relevant in the economy occurs within .. large aggregates such as "consumption" and "investment" .. the real action .. takes place at a much more detailed level. It's a very unscientific approach.

A ignorância socialista

Porquê? ou The Hedgehog and The Fox de Helder Ferreira:

Mas o que de facto revela porque Portugal tem tão baixo índice de empreendorismo e risco .. A ignorância .. é tão atroz que dá vontade de fugir.

E é com gente desta, obrigatoriamente com um mínimo de educação formal, que se espera desenvolver um pais? Gente que não faz ideia sequer do que significa o trade-off entre preço e prazo de pagamento? Gente que demonstra não saber sequer fazer uma conta aritmética? Pode pedir-se-lhes que saibam qual é o custo de oportunidade na relação taxa de juro-desconto-prazo de pagamento, que arrisquem, que criem empresas e emprego, que saibam um mínimo de como se gere e qual é o papel das empresas? Como?

Se alguém espera que seja a educação formal e putativo empreendorismo que fará desenvolver o país, é melhor esperar sentado. Por mim, confio mais em alguém com a 4ª classe que conheça o valor do trabalho e se preocupe em ganhar dinheiro, que nesta classe educada e justificadamente ignorante.

cleptocracia descontrolada (2)

No seguimento de cleptocracia descontrolada,


Peter Schiff USA - Prepare for unemployment, inflation & breadlines (Oct-2010)(NWO ECONOMICS series)

Rankings e liberdade de educação

Via O Insurgente, Rankings e liberdade de educação:

.. Ora, em Portugal, uma escola que se veja colocada entre as piores do ranking pouco ou nada pode fazer para alterar a situação. A direcção da escola pouco pode fazer. Os professores são colocados por concurso nacional, segundo a lógica ultrapassada do planeamento central soviético, dificultando o sentimento de pertença dos professores à escola e à comunidade que servem. Os currículos são definidos de uma forma rígida e a margem de manobra para alterações ao nível da carga horária ou inovação curricular é pouca ou nenhuma. Os próprios professores pouco podem fazer: sem a liberdade de organizar o ensino de cada aluno, o melhor que um director e os professores de uma escola “difícil” podem esperar, é serem colocados noutra escola o mais cedo possível.

Quanto aos pais, encontram-se numa posição subalterna, sem qualquer capacidade de fugir à tragédia de uma má escola, desde logo porque, independentemente da sua vontade ou do seu juízo, são obrigados a matricular os filhos na escola da área de residência, mesmo quando esta deseduca em vez de educar. Mais do que a realidade desigual, a duas ou mais velocidades, que os números reflectem, a história do ranking é o espelho de um sistema de ensino pesado, burocrático e centralizado, que ano após ano vai deixando para trás, esquecido até ao próximo ranking, um vasto conjunto de escolas e alunos.

A resposta a este drama só pode vir da liberdade de educação, na linha do que todos os países têm vindo progressivamente a fazer.

Nacionalismo

Doug Stanhope on Nationalism

O Papão do Multiculturalismo de Filipe Abrantes:

O multiculturalismo não é um problema em si, não é por isso nenhum papão, nem está em falência. Só se torna um problema quando se quer integrar à força povos com culturas demasiado diferentes sob o mesmo ordenamento jurídico e administrativo. Foi esta ideia iluminista que faliu.

the Biases of Bureaucrats

Studying the Biases of Bureaucrats:

Public servants are human, too .. five mistakes that government regulators often make: action bias, motivated reasoning, the focusing illusion, the affect heuristic and illusions of competence.

The issue of action bias is better known .. as .. rash of legislation .. It takes unusual courage for a regulator to stand up and say "something must not be done," lest "something" makes the problem worse.

Motivated reasoning means that we tend to believe what it is convenient for us to believe .. Regulators rarely argue for deregulation.

The focusing illusion partly stems from the fact that people tend to see the benefits of a policy but not the hidden costs.

"Affect heuristic" is .. we discount the drawbacks of things we are emotionally in favor of.

[illusions of competence] .. we systematically overestimate how much we understand about the causes and mechanisms of things we half understand.

If lawmakers are to understand how laws get applied in the real world, they need to know and understand the habits of mind of their officials.

O respeito dos sindicatos pelo dinheiro dos outros

Teachers Unions Gone Wild
parte 1	parte 2

Ver aqui a reacção de Chris Cristie:

This is what I’ve been talking about. This is another exhibit as to what I’ve been talking about. The arrogance, the greed, the self-interest, the lack of introspection, the lack of standards.

And how exciting the moment is after three years when they get tenure and realize ‘we can’t get fired for anything’.

Dívida pública para totós (2)

No seguimento de Dívida pública para totós, Dívida pública para totós (2) n'O Insurgente.

Africa: not enough capitalism

Companies aren’t charities:

Ann Bernstein, the head of a South African think-tank called the Centre for Development and Enterprise, .. stresses the ways companies benefit society simply by going about their normal business.

These are not new arguments, but Ms Bernstein makes them fresh by writing from an African perspective. Citizens of rich countries often fret about the occasional harm that corporations do, yet take for granted the prosperity they create. People in developing countries do not have that luxury.

In South Africa, where more than a third of the workforce is jobless, the problem is not that corporations are unethical but that there are not enough of them. One reason is that South Africa’s leaders blithely heap social responsibilities on corporate shoulders.

a regulação faz o mundo melhor

Why Can’t Chuck Get His Business Off the Ground?

cleptocracia descontrolada

Dan Mitchell discusses TARP

Does Your Vote Matter? (4)

Na sequência de Does Your Vote Matter? (3), If We Quit Voting por Frank Chodorov:

All this would change if we quit voting. Such abstinence would be tantamount to this notice to politicians: since we as individuals have decided to look after our affairs, your services are no longer needed.

So, if we should quit voting for parties and candidates, we would individually reassume responsibility for our acts and, therefore, responsibility for the common good .. Any attempt to profit at the expense of a neighbor or the community would be quickly spotted and as quickly squelched, for everybody would recognize a threat to himself in the slightest indulgence of injustice. Since nobody would have the power to enforce monopoly conditions, none would obtain. Order would be maintained by the rules of existence, the natural laws of economics.

To effectuate the suggested revolution all that is necessary is to stay away from the polls. Unlike other revolutions, it calls for no organization, no violence, no war fund, no leader to sell it out. In the quiet of his conscience each citizen pledges himself, to himself, not to give moral support to an unmoral institution, and on election day he remains at home. That's all.

Um péssimo Orçamento executado por um péssimo Governo

Excerto de Um péssimo Orçamento executado por um péssimo Governo por Adolfo Mesquita Nunes:

Nós não estamos a falar apenas de um péssimo Orçamento por contraponto a Orçamento nenhum: nós estamos a falar de um péssimo Orçamento a ser executado por um Governo liderado por um péssimo e incapaz Primeiro-Ministro e servido por um péssimo e incapaz Ministro das Finanças. Será isso preferível a uma crise política que conduza o país a eleições?

E meço bem os epítetos com que brindo Sócrates e Teixeira dos Santos. Os dados da execução orçamental deste ano, que ontem foram confirmados pelo próprio Ministro das Finanças, são apenas a última confirmação, de muitas outras que temos recebido ao longo destes últimos meses (para não falar dos avisos, sistemáticos avisos, dos tais perigosos neoliberais que se limitaram a ter razão antes de tempo) de que nem José Sócrates percebe o que quer que seja de economia e do funcionamento dos mercados nem Teixeira dos Santos parece ter qualquer ideia sobre como se governa com rigor, transparência e respeito pelas gerações futuras.

The Delusion of Good Government

No seguimento de Interview with a Zombie e Nullify Now,


Our Wise Overlords Are Just Here to Serve Us | Thomas E. Woods. Jr.

Libertarian pela corrida a governadora de NY (3)

No seguimento de
- Libertarian pela corrida a governadora de NY e
- Libertarian pela corrida a governadora de NY (2),
e via If You Think the Rent is Too Damn High, Watch This Vid to See a Candidate Who Wants to Legalize Poker, Prostitution, and Pot! (Reason)


Kristin Davis 2010 New York Gubanatorial Debate

Verdadera política obrerista

Libertad: verdadera política obrerista por Alberto Benegas Lynch:

En las sociedades modernas, los obreros representan un sector muy numeroso de la población. La generalizada preocupación por su suerte es, pues, algo natural y, desde luego, muy plausible.

Las causas ciertas y principales que determinan el mejoramiento del nivel de vida popular son, pues, las crecientes inversiones, hechas posibles por la acumulación de nuevos capitales que permiten multiplicar la productividad del hombre y de los recursos naturales. Es en estas causas verdaderas en donde radican la auténtica fuerza y el factor insustituible determinante del progreso económico y social de las masas humanas.

La política realmente obrerista, en cuanto ella es la que más conviene al obrero y a los demás sectores sociales, consiste en hacer efectivo el orden institucional .. un mercado sin trabas que se oponga al intercambio libre de productos y servicios.

Propiedad y moneda en las condiciones antedichas son dos instituciones básicas más, cuya existencia, entre otras, es indispensable para que una sociedad sea verdaderamente libre.

Keynesian FAIL

Via Facebook,

Oust Nancy Pelosi (4)

No seguimento de
- Oust Nancy Pelosi
- Oust Nancy Pelosi (2)
- Oust Nancy Pelosi (3)

The Man Who Could Really Fire Pelosi:

Nancy Pelosi’s current GOP challenger John Dennis is a fascinating political story: He won the GOP primary running a distinctly Ron Paul-style campaign with a special San Francisco bent.

He’s for legalizing pot, backing the dollar with gold, and eliminating capital gains taxes and eventually the income tax, and bringing all the troops back home. He’s also able to run to Pelosi’s left on things like bailouts of the rich and powerful and support for civil liberties..

John Dennis: How was I thrown into this mess? I guess it goes back to college in 1984, of all years, when I read Ayn Rand. I went to a Jesuit university [Fordham] where I met a libertarian Jesuit, a guy who was an associate of Murray Rothbard [Fr. James Sadowsky]. I was student body president and had a little taste of politics and I helped Ron Paul’s campaign in 1988 [when he ran for president with the Libertarian Party]. I was motivated to get involved in politics more after the birth of my daughter. Ron inspired me to get involved in his campaign three years ago, and as a Republican I’ve worked on a couple of campaigns locally. And I saw this race as an opportunity to do a couple of different things.

A rever: Nancy the Wiched Witch

The Fall of Keynesian Economics

Casos de fatal conceit e unintended consequences:


Niall Ferguson on the Pitfalls of Keynesian Economics

Zero Hedge has no doubts about this - we are confident that the confines of a theoretical Keynesian system have been the recipe for the disaster unfolding now before our eyes (which is not to say that Austrian economics is necessarily better, although intuitively they certainly make a far more compelling case, and would certainly not have led to the current pre-apocalyptic economic situation, which only the most addicted to Kool Aid pig lipstickers refuse to acknowledge).

The Power of Freedom

The Power of Freedom por Don Boudreaux:

.. those persons who recognize the resilience and vigor of freedom and free markets gain even greater credibility when insisting that the role of the State should be reduced. If it were true that the slightest burden government placed on freedom led inexorably to tyranny and poverty, then anyone who champions freedom might be thought to do so for purely pragmatic reasons.

But the champion of freedom who recognizes that the economy might still be reasonably dynamic in the face of government regulations, and who doubts that such regulations will lead to his or her being tyrannized, is an even more believable spokesperson for freedom, for that person can speak more from principle than from narrow pragmatism.

Ignorância económica (2)

No seguimento de Ignorância económica, Walter Williams, e Big Government:


Freedom Watch Part 4 - Will Delaware Be The First Marxist State

a senilidade económica e moral da juventude francesa

French Students Should Celebrate Pension Reform:

Instead of protesting this pension reform, young people should celebrate pension reform. It reduces the future burden on today's young, and creates new and better job opportunities.

Perhaps most importantly, by reducing government debt (unfunded liabilities), pension reform .. encourages business formation and job creation.

If students are inclined to protest, they should consider demonstrating against job-destroying mandates, restrictions, rules, and regulations that heavily bias employers against hiring young people.

Nada disto é rocket surgery. A criançada não nasce com esquerdismos na cabeça. Isto é produto de um sistema de ensino estatal, de uma comunicação apaixonada pela política intervencionista, de um Estado que entorpeceu a sociedade civil.

Citizens against Government Waste

A very sad but true Ad by Citizens against Government Waste

Does Your Vote Matter? (3)

No seguimento de Does Your Vote Matter? e Does Your Vote Matter? (2),

Why I Do Not Vote de Butler Shaffer:

Is there a case to be made for voting? Indeed there is, if one believes that social order is a quality that can be instilled, by violence and other coercive means, by political authorities. I do not accept this proposition.

To the contrary, I believe that social order is the product of unseen, spontaneous influences of which most of us are not consciously aware .. I also came to understand that politics .. disrupts these informal processes as well as the existing patterns of interconnectedness upon which any social order depends.

If I am of the view that politics is destroying our world – and let us not forget that politics managed to kill off some 200,000,000 of our fellow humans in the 20th century alone – am I prepared to direct my energies into such a destructive system? .. I answer "yes," .. if I voted ..

To participate in politics is to consciously devote one’s energies to mass-mindedness; to the statist proposition that collective thinking and collective behavior preempt the will of the individual.

Apocalypse? No!

Referido em 25 anti Global-Warming videos Al Gore does not want you to see,



Apocalypse? No!
parte 1 | parte 2 | parte 3 | parte 4 | parte 5 | parte 6
questions: parte 7 | parte 8

Igualdade = Tirania

No seguimento de O Estado Social autodestruiu-se (2) e Medina Carreira: “Estamos a caminhar para uma tragédia do Estado social”:

Medina Carreira considera que o Governo, com a sua proposta de Orçamento para 2011, está a encaminhar o país para “uma tragédia do Estado Social”, do qual dependem seis milhões de pessoas.

Equality Destroyed in the Name of Equality por Chidem Kurdas:

A government that takes on the responsibility of addressing the inequities suffered by one set of individuals can’t refuse the responsibility of addressing inequities suffered by other groups.

Therefore people concentrate on getting access to and influencing political authority in their favor. The impartial rule of law is cumulatively destroyed as differential treatment – whether it takes the form of programs, tax rules, regulations or other policies – becomes increasingly common.

As .. in doing so creates new grievances that cry for remedy, the government grows at the expense of civil society. People who mind their business in the market and stay out of the political arena get no protection. So they are in effect discriminated against, bearing the burden of taxes and regulations.

The Clusters of Errors

In this EconStories mini-documentary, economist and Hayek scholar Lawrence H. White provides an overview of the Mises/Hayek "Austrian" theory of Boom and Bust. Part one focuses on the unsustainability of a boom driven by artificially low interest rates and credit expansion by the central bank (the Fed) beyond the supply of genuine savings.

"The Cluster of Errors" - The Austrian Theory of Boom and Bust
Part I | Part II | Part III

Leituras adicionais: Hip-Hop Economics | Hip-Hop Economics (2) | Hip-Hop Economics (3)

The Robin Hood myth (2)

No seguimento de The Robin Hood myth, Giving Back With a Spoon, Taking With a Shovel por Kevin Carson:

One of the central functions of the state, as executive committee of the ruling class, is to organize members of the ruling class into an undefectable cartel. In so doing, it overcomes prisoner’s dilemma problems and enables the ruling class to act collectively in ways that serve their long-term common interests, even when it seems to fall afoul of the short-term wealth maximization interests of individual members of the ruling class.

That’s exactly what government does when it gives back to the poor just enough of the income whose upward transfer it has already enabled, in order to prevent the system from becoming completely destabilized.

Michael Coren with Lord Christopher Monckton

Climate-Gate - Michael Coren with Lord Christopher Monckton
parte 1 | parte 2 | parte 3 | parte 4 | parte 5

A Latin American liberal

Mario Vargas Llosa - A Latin American liberal no Economist:

Mr García Márquez has a house in Cuba, is a friend of Fidel Castro and espouses a Latin American nationalism. Such causes are anathemas to Mr Vargas Llosa. He abhors Mr Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, as he does Chile’s General Pinochet (“a killer and a thief”) and Alberto Fujimori, Peru’s corrupt conservative ex-strongman. His liberalism is universal, inspired by such thinkers as Karl Popper and Isaiah Berlin. He hates nationalism, seeing it as a tool of demagogues; similarly he has criticised Bolivia’s Evo Morales, who claims to be leading a revolution on behalf of his country’s indigenous peoples, for turning race into a collectivist political tool (Mr Morales, along with Cuba’s government, was among the few to criticise the award).

Repeal of Prohibition

A esperar o fim de outras Proibições...


Repeal of Prohibition Newsreel

Fuga de cérebros e socialismo

A emigração salva o PS por Henrique Raposo no Expresso:

Setecentos mil portugueses (700 mil) emigraram entre 1998 e 2008. Só entre 2007 e 2008, cem mil portugueses (100 mil) saíram do país . Este silencioso terramoto social não tem sido acompanhado pelos media, e, de facto, parece que isto não aconteceu. É uma espécie de tabu. Mas a verdade é que a minha geração está a fugir de Portugal, à semelhança da geração dos meus avós e tios mais velhos. E esta é a grande herança de José Sócrates e da Era Socialista (1995-2010): o país está a ficar sem os seus jovens.

Liberty, Legislation, and Law

Altamente recomendado,


Donald Boudreaux - Liberty, Legislation, and Law

Climate Control or Freedom

President Vaclav Klaus: Climate Control or Freedom?:

Many of us came to the conclusion that the case for the currently promoted anthropogenic global warming hypothesis is very weak.

Let me repeat the three simple facts that most of us – I hope – are aware of .. Let’s start with a long-term fact that the global mean climate does change .. The second undisputable fact is that .. over the last 150 years .. the average global temperature has shown warming-cooling rhythms superimposed on a small upward warming trend .. The third fact is that also the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere fluctuates in time, sometimes precedes, sometimes follows the temperature increase .. There is no need to dispute these facts.

The environmentalists succeeded in discovering a new “noble cause.” They try to limit human freedom in the name of “something” that is more important and more noble than our very down-to-earth lives. For someone who spent most of his life in the “noble” era of communism this is impossible to accept.

Insolvência

Insolvência n'O Insurgente - embora imperfeita, a analogia é útil:

The residual is represented on the balance sheet as the people’s equity, by analogy to a corporate balance sheet .. If negative, the government is insolvent. In other words, some or all of its stakeholders must suffer a loss: either taxpayers (through a higher tax burden), or beneficiaries of public services (through lower expenditure) or bond holders (through some form of default).

A "solução" para um regime político que só olha para o lado esquerdo da tabela não é equilibrar o balance sheet do Estado - é reduzi-lo, aumentando a riqueza da sociedade.

O Estado Social autodestruiu-se (2)

Excertos de O fracasso do socialismo de Adolfo Mesquita Nunes n'O Expresso:

Sejamos claros: a nossa economia chegou a este ponto não tanto porque o Governo é mau e irresponsável mas sim porque o Governo é socialista e quer manter, fortalecer e robustecer o Estado Social. Não é popular, bem sei, mas é a verdade. Estaríamos mais ou menos na mesma se, pelo PS, tivéssemos um Primeiro-ministro com sentido institucional. Teríamos mais verdade, mais responsabilidade e mais transparência, mas estaríamos exactamente na mesma: falidos.

E é curioso ver este receio da oposição em desmontar a realidade do fracasso do Estado Social. Não lhes basta a realidade, antecipada por muitos. Não lhes basta a dureza, contrastando com a ideia mirífica de Estado Social. Não lhes basta a degradação da economia, para além do suportável. O que querem mais?

Video para un Estatista

Video para un Estatista ( Handout for a Statist ) por Stefan Molyneux

O Estado Social autodestruiu-se (1)

The 1945-1975 Period Was an Abnormality in the History of the West, um excelente post por Frederic Sautet:

Fundamentally, the same problems exist in the US and in many other OECD countries. They all result from the violation of this principle: individuals, families, businesses, or governments cannot forever spend more than they earn — especially if spending accelerates over time ..

The destruction of the fiscal norms of the early part of the twentieth century is one of the greatest evils of the last century .. Public debt is starting to become such an issue that even leftists, Keynesians, and other government pundits are worried. They are realizing that it’s a one-way street ..

.. The French are protesting because their governments in the last 50 years have promised them new “social rights” that turn out to be built on sand ..

These so-called social rights are morally despicable .. they are legally dubious .. they are not universal .. and they will eventually bankrupt the state .. The Glorious Thirty (the thirty years between 1945-1975) was a mistake.

Does Your Vote Matter? (2)

Na continuação de Does Your Vote Matter?,


George Carlin Doesn't vote

If you vote you have no right to complain.

A falácia da composição e o keynesianismo

Does the “fallacy of composition” apply to the banking sector? por Antonio Pancorbo:

The fallacy of composition misleads you into thinking that you can infer the property of the whole by the property you can observe in its parts considered individually. This fallacy leads you to think that what is true for the parts must be true for the whole.

In economics, one of the most popular examples of the fallacy of composition is the “paradox of thrift,” popularized by Keynesian economics. If thrift is good for an individual, it should be good for the economy as a whole. Wrong, because if everyone saves more, this will bring down consumption, cause aggregate demand to fall, hamper any economic growth and, paradoxically, a rise in individuals’ thrift would lead to less saving on the whole and harm the economy. Policymakers believing in the paradox of thrift, particularly in times of recession, would look in horror at people saving more while trying to find their way out of the hole.

Yet, despite what we can argue using curves that sometimes saving is equal to investment and sometimes is not, sound capital theory reminds us of the basic fact that an economy needs a boost in real saving for capital formation to bring about a real recovery (not a nominal or a statistical one).

Annie, a melancia mentirosa (3)

No seguimento de
- Annie, a melancia mentirosa (1) e
- Annie, a melancia mentirosa (2),

Your tax dollars at work: EPA now funding propaganda videos telling kids juiceboxes are destroying the planet:

Of all the questionable lessons our schools are imparting to young kids, the idea that Legos are destroying the planet might just be the most absurd .. The program, which was financed in part by left-wing Tides Foundation, is big hit among among school teachers looking to beef up their schools’ environmental curricula.

What’s more, the Environmental Protection Agency, in conjunction with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is now paying Leonard to produce more propaganda.

Teaching this worldview isn’t just tantamount to pushing political propaganda, it actually misinforms children about basic economics. Leonard’s story only makes sense if you discount two key principles: human innovation and pricing mechanisms. Human beings don’t completely exhaust resources because they’re constantly finding ways to do more with less — in just over 60 years we’ve gone from vacuum tubes to the transistor radios to eight-core microprocessors in personal computers. And in rare cases where a commodity actually becomes scarce, it becomes extremely valuable until new supplies of that commodity can be found.

Annie, a melancia mentirosa (2)

No seguimento de Annie, a melancia mentirosa, e via O Insurgente, “Let There Be Stuff” Annie, the Green “Prophet” Claims John the Baptist and Hosea Status:

It’s apparent that the crazed Green movement is a religion to many, but I don’t think we were aware that they are actually self proclaimed “prophets” now. Yes, prophets like in the Old Testament. The audacity is astounding.

We’re all too familiar with Greenpeace activist Annie Leonard, creator of the “Story of Stuff”, the anti-capitalist propaganda video that has been shown to our kids in schools nationwide. Just last week, Glenn Beck began to highlight their latest endeavor, “Let There Be Stuff”, a new twist on “The Story of Stuff” that is presented to appeal to Christian and Jewish youth groups as an act of obedience to God.

In other words, kids, just shut up and listen. Stop interrogating Annie the prophet.

Annie, a melancia mentirosa (1)

Malthusian Indoctrination of Children Funded with Your Tax Dollars:

Many people are familiar with Annie Leonard, creator of “The Story of Stuff,” a factually inaccurate viral video being shown in classrooms throughout America. In the video, Leonard argues that we are running out of resources, using too much stuff, destroying the planet and anti-capitalist values are the solution to the problem.

parte 1 | parte 2 | parte 3 | parte 4

Eight Great Myths of Recycling

Leitura altamente recomendada: Eight Great Myths of Recycling (PDF):

Myth 1: Our garbage will bury us
Myth 2: Our garbage will poison us
Myth 3: Packaging is our problem
Myth 4: We must achieve trash independence
Myth 5: We squander irreplaceable resources when we don't recycle
Myth 5: Recycling always protects the environment
Myth 7: REcycling saves resources
Myth 8: Without forced Recycling Mandates, there wouldn't be recycling

Recycling is a long-practiced, productive, indeed essential, element of the market system. Informed, voluntary recycling conserves resources and raises our wealth, enabling us to achieve valued ends that would otherwise be impossible. In sharp contrast, however, mandatory recycling programs, in which people are directly or indirectly compelled to do what they know is not sensible, routinely make society worse off.

Innovation and The American Dream

Innovation and The American Dream

Learn Austrian Economics

Absolutamente necessário: Learn Austrian Economics:

The past several years have seen a revival of interest in the Austrian School of economics.

I’ve assembled this resource list to help beginners embark on a program of self-education in the Austrian School.

Many of the books and audiobooks, in addition to all of the articles, that appear on the list below are available to read or listen to online.

Ecofascismo sem máscara

Dropping the Mask of Ecofascism por Ben O'Neill:

These days, people prefer their fascism to be cloaked in disingenuous and deceptive language that disguises its true nature. All those old slogans about the supreme state and the suppression of the individual to the collective are so early 20th century! Far better to have your leaders pay lip service to "freedom" and "human rights" as they coercively mold you into a docile little manikin fit for their desired bureaucratic utopia.

For those of you that haven't already heard, the ecofascist movement .. having achieved all of this wonderful "consensus," they are now ready to drop the mask a little bit, and have a bit of a giggle about the fact that, well yeah, they really are a pretty violent bunch. Exhibit A: The "No Pressure" Short Film .. The film ends, having murdered eight people (including two children) in four separate sketches, with these ominous words: cut your carbon by 10% / no pressure

Exhibit B: The Greenpeace Skinhead-Thug-in-Training Video

.. according to the video, this young man .. may just be a kid today, but tomorrow, he will be a full-grown ecofascist hoodie-wearing skinhead thug, and you, dear viewer, will be his enemy.

Exhibit C: The "Planet Slayer" Game

.. It helpfully informs children when they should die in order to ensure they do not use more than their "fair share" of the planet.

You should die at age 9.3

Doug Stanhope on Freedom

Via UK Libertarian,


Doug Stanhope tells the truth about FREEDOM

the false distinction between fascism, communism and socialism

Leftists, Progressives and Socialists por Walter E. Williams:

One of the greatest sources of confusion and deception is the difference between leftists, progressives, socialists, communists and fascists.

Nazism is a form of socialism .. Nazis murdered 20 million of their own people and in nations they captured .. Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and their successors murdered, or were otherwise responsible for the deaths of, 62 million of their own people .. Mao Tse-tung and his successors were responsible for the deaths of 76 million Chinese.

.. When Hitler, Stalin and Mao were campaigning for political power, you can bet they didn't campaign on the promise to murder millions of their own people, and probably the thought of doing so never crossed their minds. Those horrors were simply the end result of long evolution of ideas leading to consolidation of power in central government in the quest for "social justice." ..

While America's leftists, socialists and communists condemn Hitler, they give the world's most horrible murderers a pass. First, they make a false distinction between fascism, communism and socialism but more importantly, they sympathize with the socioeconomic goals of communism and socialism [incluindo o nazismo].

No freedom on campus

Reason.tv: What You Can't Say on Campus - Greg Lukianoff on Free Expression in Higher Education

Mein EcoKampf

Frightening Quotes from Environmentalists:

To feed a starving child is to exacerbate the world population problem.

....

Krugman, retrato do economista enquanto esquerdalho

Paul Krugman: Professor Ahab por Stephen Spriell:

His transformation into a bare-knuckled liberal brawler is a testimony to the perils of life on the high seas of opinion journalism.

In “How to Be a Hack,” he wrote that “love of money is only the root of some evil. Love of the limelight, love of the feeling of being part of a Movement, even love of the idea of oneself as a bold rebel against the Evil Empire can be equally corrupting of one’s intellectual integrity.” One could certainly paint a picture of Paul Krugman as a man enchanted and corrupted by all of those things, if one wished. Along with a lot of other liberals in the last decade, Krugman decided that the progressive movement just wasn’t brutal and unscrupulous enough to fight the Right on its own terms .. “Krugman felt that liberals were unwilling to confront or even to acknowledge the anger on the right with some of their own, so he was going to have to do it,”

.. if only brilliant economists like Paul Krugman were in charge instead of hacks like Greenspan, fighting recessions and avoiding bubbles would be as simple as pushing buttons on a calculator.

.. he is more like Captain Ahab, leading his diminishing crew of followers on a doomed quest in search of the great white stimulus package that will redeem us or destroy us, but either way will finally silence all those doubting voices.

Fiscal House of Horrors!

I Spend on Your Grave!: 3D Fiscal House of Horrors!, ep. 1

NOTA 1: o vídeo é para ser visto com óculos '3D' — aqui em 2D!

NOTA 2: o título do vídeo é um trocadilho (provavelmente não pretendido) com o título do filme I spit on your grave — que não é um filme de horror, mas sim um filme de rape-and-revenge. A parte do rape fiscal está à vista. O revenge é bom que venha.

A Nobel Laureate in the Family

A Nobel Laureate in the Family por Alvaro Vargas Llosa:

.. few actors on the Latin American scene have contributed more to the region’s underdevelopment than its public intellectuals, with immeasurable help from some of their American and European peers who quenched their thirst for utopia by espousing in exotic lands the kinds of horrors of which they themselves would have been the prime victims if they had taken place at home.

My father broke with that decades ago, opting for a quite solitary, often misunderstood defense of individual freedom. This cause is more widely supported in Latin America today, a region where the notion of self-effort is growing rapidly, as the millions who have left poverty through enterprise account for, and where the dust of anti-Western protectionism is being blown off by the winds of globalization. But it took a long time, and in some parts authoritarianism still weighs heavily on societies.

Liberty for Africa

Reason.tv: Liberty for Africa - Q&A with Adedayo Thomas

The Cuba Embargo at 50

The Cuba Embargo at 50 no Cato Institute

It is time to lift the embargo. Doing so will not save communism from its inherent flaws; that system collapsed spectacularly elsewhere around the world in places where the West maintained or established trade.

A good way to start would be by lifting the travel portion of the embargo. That measure would expose ordinary Cubans to hundreds of thousands of American citizens, thus inevitably expanding Cuba’s informal economy and establishing innumerable relationships that would make Cuban citizens more independent of the state. The regime may try to reap the benefits of increased revenues, but it will have unleashed a social dynamic that will be difficult to control.

other people’s money is a great drug

...and that's how Washington has managed to usurp our freedoms for sixty years now.

Texas Governor Rick Perry on the Danger of National Standards

IMF, barbaric

Via Cato Institute, President Klaus: The IMF Is a ‘Barbaric Relic’:

I consider the IMF a barbaric relic from the Keynesian and fixed-exchange rate era. I know it is a harsh verdict but Keynes himself repeatedly used similar strong statements about his colleagues which justifies my using such a terminology.

I am convinced the IMF should be dismantled or radically restructured as soon as possible. To do the opposite, to increase its role as it happened as a result of the last year’s G20 decision in the middle of the panic connected with the then looming crisis or to speculate about creating similar institutions on individual continents (especially in Europe) is a wrong way to go. It is yet another manifestation of a mistaken and dangerous global governance mindset which – to my great regret – has been getting more and more support in the intellectual and political circles these days. To whom and how at all can the IMF be held responsible for its activities? And if its proposals or measures turn out to be mistaken (and this can happen very easily), who will face the consequences? Certainly not the IMF.

Michael Coren with Dr. Tim Ball

Via O Insurgente,


Michael Coren with Dr. Tim Ball
parte 1 | parte 2 | parte 3 | parte 4 | parte 5

Net neutrality (3)

Na continuação de Net Neutrality (2),

Net Neutrality: Unwarranted Intervention:

In summary, the question of net neutrality is not about the need for network management; it is about who will decide how the network is managed.

What if the management is done by the government? Then we abandon the realm of service and enter into the realm of policy. The interest of the customer gives way to the "public interest."

If network owners are deprived of the ability to manage their assets, they will stop investing in them. After all, nobody wastes money on something they can't use. The capacity of the network will not grow and it will not be able to carry the vast and growing amount of data demanded.

What Was That Ronald Reagan Line Again?:

If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

The way the Internet works should continue to evolve, experiments with non-neutrality failing one after another . . . until perhaps one comes along that serves consumers better! The FCC would be nothing but a drag on innovation and a bulwark protecting Google and Verizon’s currently happy competitive circumstances.

Legalize Poker

Why It's Time to Legalize Poker: David "Doc" Sands on Gambling, Pot, and Freedom

Net Neutrality (2)

Na continuação de Net Neutrality, Who Owns the Internet?:

The main issue is not a matter of bit discrimination, multiple tiers, or even denial-of-service; rather it is a fight over private property and who owns the cornucopia of wires, cables, fibers and network infrastructure spanning the continent.

Unfortunately, many proponents of net neutrality miss the forest for the trees when promoting their nationalization of network pipelines .. There is no shortage of empirical examples illustrating profitable business models that embrace variable pricing

If the legislative proposals lobbied by the content providers are enacted, the FCC will ultimately be allowed to regulate and intervene more than it currently does .. and granting a level of authority that Leviathan has historically been reluctant to relinquish .. Similarly, if the legal monopolies protecting service providers continue without deregulation, then the censorship fears imagined by some could become a reality.

A Libertarian Take on Net Neutrality por Stephan Kinsella:

But because of various degrees of corporatism–state favors and protectionism, tax funding of infrastructure, etc.–the service providers are arguably not 100% private. But the solution is not to regard them as essentially part of the state and thus fair game for regulation, but to pair our call for no state regulation of the Internet (no net neutrality regulations) with a call for the abolition of all forms of corporatism, such as various laws that work out protecting larger companies (tax funded subsidies, IP law, wage and hour legislation, mandatory worker benefits, labor union legislation, minimum wage, incorporation statutes ..

estatismo terminal, infographics (2)

No seguimento de estatismo terminal, infographics,


public pulse: spending just got personal

Liberais e Conservadores (3)

Na continuação de Liberais e Conservadores e Liberais e Conservadores (2),

What’s the Real Difference Between Conservatives and Libertarians?:

.. there may be a more fundamental difference between conservatives and libertarians (notice I said difference, which is not the same as disagreement). A column in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal looks at the Tea Party movement and uses survey data to conclude that the protests against big government are driven by moral concerns.

Libertarians are closer to conservatives on two of the five main psychological “foundations” of morality that we study—concerns about care and fairness (as described above). But on the other three psychological foundations—group loyalty, respect for authority and spiritual sanctity—libertarians are indistinguishable from liberals and far apart from conservatives.

This is all quite interesting, but I think it overstates the potential for disagreement between libertarians and conservatives. Unless I’m missing something, varying opinions on group loyalty, respect for authority, and spiritual sanctity shouldn’t be a hindrance to a coalition against subsidies, handouts, and bailouts.

Ignorância Económica (2)

Na continuação de Ignorância Económica,


via Dan Mitchell

Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that when the government taxes the rich, only the rich bear the burden no No Pasarán!:

I have to acknowledge that the Democrats are right about one thing: I can afford to pay more in taxes. My income is not in the same league as superstar actors and hedge fund managers, but I have been very lucky nonetheless. Unlike many other Americans, I don’t have trouble making ends meet....

Now you might not care if I supply less of my services to the marketplace — although, because you are reading this article, you are one of my customers. But I bet there are some high-income taxpayers whose services you enjoy .. As they face higher tax rates, their services will be in shorter supply.

.. don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that when the government taxes the rich, only the rich bear the burden.

avaliação de professores (2)

O Cato Institute responde:

The author of this posting makes no effort to differentiate between “public school choice” and actual free education markets, and in the process grossly misrepresents what is known and has been repeatedly shown: that the freest and most market-like education systems overwhelmingly outperform monopolisitic school systems such as we have in the United States.

Do PDF linkado,

To understand how genuine market forces affect school performance, we must cast a wider net, surveying education systems from all over the globe .. this margin of superiority is greatest when the freest and most market-like private schools are compared to the least open and least competitive government systems (i.e., those resembling typical U.S. public school systems) ..

These results call into question the notion, prevalent in both conservative and liberal circles, that the content of schooling must be overseen by the state in order for schools to achieve optimum performance. It is in fact the least regulated market school systems that show the greatest margin of superiority over state schooling.

Based on the patterns that emerge from the global evidence, policymakers should seriously consider providing universal access to minimally regulated education markets in which parents, whenever possible, directly pay at least some of the cost of their children’s education.

avaliação de professores (1)

Who's teaching L.A.'s kids? (LA Times):

The Times used a statistical approach known as value-added analysis, which rates teachers based on their students' progress on standardized tests from year to year. Each student's performance is compared with his or her own in past years, which largely controls for outside influences often blamed for academic failure: poverty, prior learning and other factors.

Among the findings:

• Highly effective teachers routinely propel students from below grade level to advanced in a single year. There is a substantial gap at year's end between students whose teachers were in the top 10% in effectiveness and the bottom 10%. The fortunate students ranked 17 percentile points higher in English and 25 points higher in math.

Prémio IgNobel 2010 para Gestão

Tarde e a más horas, a notícia do Prémio IgNobel para Gestão:

MANAGEMENT PRIZE: Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda, and Cesare Garofalo of the University of Catania, Italy, for demonstrating mathematically that organizations would become more efficient if they promoted people at random.

REFERENCE: “The Peter Principle Revisited: A Computational Study,” Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda, and Cesare Garofalo, Physica A, vol. 389, no. 3, February 2010, pp. 467-72.

Here we show, by means of agent based simulations, that if the latter two features actually hold in a given model of an organization with a hierarchical structure, then not only is the Peter principle unavoidable, but also it yields in turn a significant reduction of the global efficiency of the organization .. we find, counterintuitively, that in order to avoid such an effect the best ways for improving the efficiency of a given organization are either to promote each time an agent at random or to promote randomly the best and the worst members in terms of competence.

Bem para sermos caridosos, digamos só que se calhar o modelo não considerou o processo de descoberta empresarial de talento :)

Porventura dentro de empresas seja válido o Princípio de Peter, porque também elas são hierarquias. Mas são as empresas que melhor o sabem evitar que se adiantam à concorrência - o que leva a que mais frequentemente que menos, sejam promovidas pessoas competentes para lugares que acrescentam valor.

Enfim, outros factores a salientar é que são extremamente importantes: 1) recrutar a gente certa; 2) instituir sistemas que induzam comportamentos (inclusivamente de promoção) alinhados com os objectivos da empresa; 3) monitorizar usos abusivos do sistema. Nenhum modelo consegue simular os feedbacks da cultura de uma empresa, e é por isso que a gestão é uma forma de estar na vida, não uma ciência.

Elitismo

What We Believe, Part 2: The Problem with Elitism

Shared Space (5)

No seguimento de shared space e Shared Space (3), e via UK Libertarian,

The Praxeology and Ethics of Traffic Lights:

This may come as a shock to those who believe in the state, but not to Austrians .. It is, as Murray Rothbard put it, the unification of "is" and "ought," of economics and ethics, of the actions that people do perform for their own selfish desires and the actions they should perform for the good of others.

What this also demonstrates is yet another example of how government decivilizes people .. At best, they treat people more like animals than rational human beings. On average, they are harbingers of death .. traffic lights, though erected by the state for the sake of "public safety," encourage dangerous and aggressive behavior, contradict other laws at the expense of justice, and are responsible for the loss of vast amounts of wealth and countless lives. The traffic light is perhaps the most destructive machine yet to be devised by man.

It is a clear-cut case of what is known in Austrolibertarian circles as spontaneous order .. All government can do is destroy civilized behavior through its violent coercion .. the problem of "transition" from a socialist society to a free one is a rather insignificant problem. Were the state to completely disappear tomorrow, people would immediately begin to adapt and thrive in the new situation.

Small Government

What We Believe, Part 1: Small Government and Free Enterprise.

falta de força de vontade, políticas hipócritas (2)

O episódio dos mineiros do Chile foi interessante por revelar de um mecanismo psicológico que influencia a política pública.

Havia tanta gente preocupada. Para já, é estranho tanta gente preocupar-se com um punhado de chilenos e não com as dezenas de chineses que todos os meses sofrem acidentes semelhantes. É sem dúvida uma mostra de racismo - inconsciente mas racismo - afinal os chilenos são mais "parecidos" a nós.

Mas o que estranha é que as pessoas sentiram-se preocupadas. Por um acontecimento sim trágico, mas que não afecta minimamente a sua vida. Mas, sobretudo, por uma situação que não tinham a mínima intenção (ou poder) de alterar.

As pessoas até são capazes de agir simbolicamente nestes casos - usar uma pulseirinha, fazer copy-paste de uma mensagem pirosa no Facebook, até ir fazer umas corridas ou ir a uns concertos. Mas não vão para além da boa vontade - como se a "solidariedade" salvasse vidas.

Uma pessoa psicologicamente equilibrada é capaz de demonstrar empatia para com os seus semelhantes. Mas, nestes casos, tal solidariedade está claramente fora de sítio. 'Sofrer' por algo que não nos diz respeito não é racional, e sobretudo não é saudável.

Esta dissonância é tanto mais gritante quando comparada com a atitude das pessoas quanto aquilo que podia dizer-lhes respeito no dia-a-dia — e que podiam fazer por mudar mudar. Muitas pessoas não ajudam o mendigo da rua, nem se preocupam se vive ou morre. E fazem questão de viver em conflito com a família, os amigos, os colegas. Faz parte da vida. Mas os mineiros, ai que sufoco, ai que ansiedade.

Quando as pessoas dizem estar preocupadas, mas não o demonstram por actos minimamente conducentes a uma solução para o problema, é um caso de preferências declaradas mentirosas.

Invariavelmente, aparece sempre o político a aproveitar-se da situação. Ele, tal como as pessoas, diz preocupar-se com "os mais desfavorecidos", sem querer saber deles. Juntam-se sentimentos piedosos com políticas hipócritas.

Foreign aid, microfinancing

Web-Only Segment of Tonight's Show: Why's America Rich?

My FBN show tonight looked at what makes a country rich. Is it natural resources? Good government? Rule of law? Economic freedom? Tonight's web-only segment asks what is the best way to “cure” poverty? Africa is terribly poor, and to help, Western governments have given $500 billion in foreign aid. So why is Africa poorer now than before we gave all those billions? Maybe aid does more harm than good.

falta de força de vontade, políticas hipócritas

Talk is cheap: do smokers really want to quit?
por Kristian Niemietz:

The mismatch between what smokers say in surveys and what they do in practice is a classic example of the difference between “stated preferences” and “revealed preferences“. Social engineers love stated preferences. Opponents of big supermarkets, too, always have a survey at hand, indicating that the vast majority of residents in their areas would never set foot in a discounter. But once it is there, it flourishes.

There is nothing schizophrenic about this behaviour. When asked whether you would shop in a big supermarket in your area, of course you respond something like “No! Small, local shops are much more charming and personal” – because that is the socially acceptable thing to say. When you smoke, saying that you want to quit makes you at least a repentant sinner.

Microfinancing

Na sequência do post Microfinancing de John Stossel,

Melhor do que ajuda estrangeira, melhor que doações de privados, melhor do que empréstimos com juros, mas em que os juros ficam nos intermediários... microcrédito peer-to-peer com juros competitivos.




The Dragons' Den, African-style (Times Online):

Through the MyC4.com website, investors put in as little as €5 towards a loan. There are pictures and detailed information about the entrepreneurs seeking financial injections - in most cases the owners of small businesses such as corner shops, cafés or local garages.

So how does it work? Once investors have registered and uploaded money into their accounts (by credit card or bank transfer), they can scan the businesses seeking loans and select those that look a good proposition. They then bid to offer a loan at a particular interest rate. The loans with the lowest rates win the auction and the right to supply all or part of the loan.

If Men Were Angels

If Men Were Angels por Robert Higgs no Mises.org:

Table 2 — More Realistic Model
	No State	State
Men Are Angels	OK	OK
Men are not angels	Bad situation	Worse situation

I conjecture that the outcome in a society under a state will be worse, indeed much worse, because, first, the most vicious people in society will tend to gain control of the state and, second, by virtue of this control over the state's powerful engines of death and destruction, they will wreak vastly more harm than they ever could have caused outside the state. It is unfortunate that some individuals commit crimes, but it is stunningly worse when such criminally inclined individuals wield state powers.

Defending the continued existence of the state, despite having absolute certainty of a corresponding continuation of its intrinsic engagement in robbery, destruction, murder, and countless other crimes, requires that one imagine nonstate chaos, disorder, and death on a scale that nonstate actors seem incapable of causing. Nor, to my knowledge, does any historical example attest to such large-scale nonstate mayhem. With regard to large-scale death and destruction, no person, group, or private organization can even begin to compare to the state, which is easily the greatest instrument of destruction known to man.

All nonstate threats to life, liberty, and property appear to be relatively petty and therefore can be dealt with.

Sobre os esforços de aproximar os Estados dos cidadãos

Na continuação de Sobre os esforços de aproximar os Estados dos cidadãos,

Representative democracy is based on the idea that people are thick.

US Now
parte 1 | parte 2 | parte 3 | parte 4 | parte 5 | parte 6 | parte 7

Tal como é dito no filme, o século XX foi uma anomalia social - por causa do Estado. Graças à internet, muitos modelos de organização baseados em hierarquias - incluindo partidos, Governos, Estados - estão ameaçados de morte. Os próximos anos vão ser interessantes.

À medida que as pessoas se habituam a modelos participativos de facto, à medida que se habituam a contestar o poder instituído, e a conceder elas próprias a autoridade à quem decidem associar-se, abanam as instituições.

Algumas instituições, baseadas na adesão voluntária das pessoas (sendo um exemplo a Igreja) prosperarão (e provavelmente a Igreja passará a ser muito mais Igreja). Outras, baseadas na coerção e na integração forçada, racionalizadas por consentimentos 'implícitos' e 'bens comuns', estão a fazer a sua entrada nos livros de História.

Leitura adicional:
- The State hates the Internet, e
- Como as instituições minam as condições de prosperidade

Liberais e Conservadores (2)

Via O Insurgente, Divagações sobre a influência de Oakeshott no pensamento conservador por Rui Botelho Rodrigues:

Qualquer tentativa de avaliação racional das normas e instituições transmitidas de gerações passadas para as gerações presentes é, aos olhos do conservador oakeshottiano, um crime de «engenharia social .. Ao invés da análise, os conservadores preferem o argumento das “instituições que sobreviveram ao teste do tempo”.

Os conservadores têm uma ideia de como a sociedade se deve organizar e, não raras vezes, no presente ou no passado, desejam o uso de violência para a pôr (ou manter) em prática.

Por isso o conservadorismo abandonou, na prática (mas não na retórica) o tradicionalismo e substituiu-o pelo pior Oakeshott: a idolatria do presente. Não admira que entre os presentes conservadores se encontrem dos maiores defensores do Estado social, corporativo e militar.

Medical Cannabis

The Science of Medical Cannabis: A Conversation with Donald Abrams, M.D.

Obrigar toda a gente a assistir à parada em que o rei vai nu

Politically Incorrect: Brazil's Clown-Elect no New York Review of Books:

This year’s novelty act was Tiririca, the stage name of Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva —a singer, composer, comedian, and clown. Tiririca .. was promptly elected federal deputy with the largest number of votes ever recorded in the state of São Paulo.

In Brazil, voting is compulsory (except for people over 70 or between the ages of sixteen and eighteen), which means that the vast majority of the population has to turn up at the polls or face various sanctions. Thus the only way to express disenchantment is to cast a blank vote or vote for a complete outsider.

.. In 1959, for example, Cacareco, a placid, middle-aged rhinoceros at the São Paulo zoo, was voted onto the city council, having won over 100,000 votes—and this is only the most famous case in Brazil’s long history of “protest votes.” Cacerco has been succeeded by other non-existent candidates, along with candidates from outside the sphere of professional politics, such as soccer players, fashion designers, TV stars, brash pop singers, faded ex-models, and various C-list celebrities with zero knowledge or experience of political life.

the truth about the job crisis

Via Bankrupting America,


Beyond the Headlines: the truth about our current job crisis

Nota: a maior objecção a este vídeo é que muita gente está bem com um trabalho temporário; e mais provavelmente estariam, se o Estado não consumisse tantos recursos, pagos tributando as famílias até ao desespero.