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Entries from April 2011

“We Are the Government”

April 25th, 2011 · No Comments · Economics

This common, romantic statement recently surfaced in a post by J. Bradford DeLong and aligns with my other favorite, “the government is us.” Apparently (unlike the University of Washington) they don’t teach Public Choice classes at Berkeley. If they did, DeLong would likely hold a more enlightened view thanks to the work of Tullock, Buchanan […]

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Brace for the “Crossing of the Streams”: Reagan Poised to Eclipse Obama

April 19th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Politics

Apologies to Harold Ramis. I’ve written in the past about how Obama and Reagan’s approval ratings have compared at the same point in their presidencies. At the beginning of the year I showed how Obama had a comfortable lead, and I asked who wanted to bet me that Reagan would pass him. No takers. I […]

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Incentives not Motives, or Why I Sympathize with Those Who Might Discriminate Against Me

April 19th, 2011 · No Comments · Politics

Let me open by saying I am an “old” (52) white guy, and if you live in a state that rigidly enforces age discrimination laws you probably think twice about hiring my ilk, and I don’t blame you. Thanks to the legislation put in place the incentives are stacked against me. One of the essential […]

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The Duke of Wellington on “Mobility Apartheid”

April 17th, 2011 · No Comments · Politics

Most of my friends have patiently endured through my ongoing diatribes where I express dissent with the local politicians and misc. authoritarians who cheerfully embrace fees, taxes, and polices that all conspire to force the less financially fortunate from their cars. “Mobility Apartheid” has been my catch-phrase in these dialogs. I didn’t realize how the […]

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“The Job of the Government is to Take Care of the People!”

April 10th, 2011 · No Comments · Politics

I know a real, live, person who used to enthusiastically offer up this jaw-dropping statement. (Really.) It came to mind immediately when I watched this high-I.Q., Harvard-educated scribbler essentially make the same (tearful) assertion in the clip below. Scroll to about 15 seconds from the end to see what I mean. While I believe that […]

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