Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR. The man. The myth. The … worst president of the twentieth century. He has some competition for the title, but here are three reasons to nominate him as worst:
Continue reading “The Great Myth of the Great Depression”Tag: Economy
Rest in Peace, Walter Excellence Williams
The “E” stands for “Excellence”, Walter E. (Edward) Williams would sometimes say about his middle initial, and, judging by his accomplishments, he was right.
Born in 1936 to a devoted and determined single mother, Walter overcame adversity to become a leading economist, scholar, political philosopher and defender of truth and reason. He passed away on December 2nd, 2020.
Walter achieved many things in his lifetime. He was a true champion of liberty, particularly of economic freedom, and was an outspoken and unapologetic critic of government policies harmful to minorities, and of false narratives blaming whites for the problems in minority communities.
Continue reading “Rest in Peace, Walter Excellence Williams”Finland revokes universal basic income program
A plan that granted Finnish citizens a no questions asked universal basic income (UBI) is over. Finland has decided to end a first of its kind welfare experiment after only two years after the government turned down a request for extra funding from the Finnish social security agency.
Participants of approximately 2,000 unemployed individuals from ages 25 to 58 were given €560 ($685) monthly without any sort of requirements. If they found a job, they were still granted a monthly stipend for the same amount.
According to Time, Finland’s unemployment rate reached a record high of 10 percent in 2017 sparking a new debate on welfare reform.
Dear Fast Food Workers
Excerpted from an article by Matt Walsh, published April 15, 2015 on The Blaze
Dear fast food workers,
It’s come to my attention that many of you, supposedly in 230 cities across the country, are walking out of your jobs today and protesting for $15 an hour. You earnestly believe — indeed, you’ve been led to this conclusion by pandering politicians and liberal pundits who possess neither the slightest grasp of the basic rules of economics nor even the faintest hint of integrity — that your entry-level gig pushing buttons on a cash register at Taco Bell ought to earn you double the current federal minimum wage.
I’m aware, of course, that not all of you feel this way. Many of you might consider your position as Whopper Assembler to be rather a temporary situation, not a career path, and you plan on moving on and up not by holding a poster board with “Give me more money!” scrawled across it, but by working hard and being reliable. To be clear, I am not addressing the folks in this latter camp. They are doing what needs to be done, and I respect that.
Instead, I want to talk to those of you who actually consider yourselves entitled to close to a $29,000 a year full-time salary for doing a job that requires no skill, no expertise and no education; those who think a fry cook ought to earn an entry-level income similar to a dental assistant; those who insist the guy putting the lettuce on my Big Mac ought to make more than the emergency medical technician who saves lives for a living; those who believe you should automatically be able to “live comfortably,” as if “comfort” is a human right….
Washington’s Inversion Perversion
Excerpted from an article by Neil Cavuto, published 9/23/2014 by Fox Business
What is it with the government’s perversion with inversions? It seems the White House is so determined to crack down on companies trying to escape paying taxes here, that it never stopped to first consider “why” they are bolting from here.
Let me save you the trouble – it’s the higher taxes. And it’s killing a lot of American corporations. That doesn’t mean they’re putting profits before patriotism. But it does mean, without profits they won’t go very far with just patriotism. Bottom line, it’s about the bottom line. Companies need to make money, and a growing number of businesses have concluded that’s getting very tough to do here.
It’s not just the top corporate tax rate in America that’s hurting them. At 35%, it’s the highest of the world’s developed countries. But when you combine national, state and city tax rates, the so-called nominal corporate tax rate is nearly 40%. And that doesn’t include the cost of regulations, especially the taxes and administrative costs associated with the President’s health-care law….
Read more at FoxBusiness.com
Love, War and Wealth Redistribution
I was sitting on an airline flight the other day, looking at all the empty seats around me, and this wonderfully “progressive” idea radiantly dawned upon my consciousness.
Why waste empty airplane seats??? Give them away to the poor! And save the world! No more half empty fuselages fuming fossil fuels for a fraction of the freight!
After all, it isn’t fair that the poor cannot afford to fly, and it is a travesty that fat cat corporate kingpins can get away with wasting our precious natural resources, including our limited supply of airplane seats.
Right? I mean, Left? I mean, are you with me? You do want to be fair, don’t you?
As the old saying goes, all’s fair in love, war and wealth redistribution. Isn’t it?
I, Pencil
By Leonard E. Read, originally published in the December 1958 issue of The Freeman, this essay should be required study material for every freshman in high school.
I am a lead pencil—the ordinary wooden pencil familiar to all boys and girls and adults who can read and write. Writing is both my vocation and my avocation; that’s all I do.
You may wonder why I should write a genealogy. Well, to begin with, my story is interesting. And, next, I am a mystery—more so than a tree or a sunset or even a flash of lightning. But, sadly, I am taken for granted by those who use me, as if I were a mere incident and without background. This supercilious attitude relegates me to the level of the commonplace. This is a species of the grievous error in which mankind cannot too long persist without peril. For, as a wise man observed, “We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders.”
Abbott and Costello on Unemployment
I received the following anonymous fictitious Abbott and Costello dialogue in an email. In spite of being both fictitious and humorous, it makes a very valid point. Enjoy!
COSTELLO: I want to talk about the unemployment rate in America.
Don’t Feed the Mouth that Bites You
There’s an old saying, not to bite the hand that feeds you. Sound advice, to be sure. Certainly there are lot of people in this country who remember that when they go to the polls.
Of course, as with most things, there is a flip side, another way to look at it: It’s also a really good idea not to feed the mouth that bites you.
If conservatives would only pay heed to the latter advice as well as socialists adhere to the former, perhaps we wouldn’t have had to suffer through a second term of Obama.
Pelosi Deserves a Big Pay Cut
The “sequester” we’ve been hearing about, that will force federal budget cuts across most federal agencies, will also include cuts to Congressional compensation.
Perhaps having their own bottom line threatened will get them to pass a budget. Hopefully a reasonable one. (I’m not holding my breath.)
But Pelosi doesn’t think Congressional pay cuts should be part of the penalty. She believes pay cuts are beneath her “dignity”.