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It’s been some time since I last read this article by Dr. Hoppe, but it is timeless and very relevant to the current national debates regarding unemployment insurance AND health insurance…

Any insurance involves the pooling of individual risks. Under this arrangement, there are winners and losers. Some of the insured will receive more than they paid in premiums and some will pay more into the system than they ever get back. This is a form of income redistribution from the healthy to the sick, but the characteristic mark of insurance is that no one knows in advance who the winners and losers will be. They are distributed randomly or unpredictably, and the resulting income redistribution within a pool of insured people is unsystematic.

If this were not the case if it were possible to predict the net winners and losers the insurance losers would not want to pool their risk with the insurance winners; they would seek to pool their risk with other “losers” at lower premiums.

Keep Reading!

Categories : General
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In short, NO!

I think this is an important discussion because all across the land, and particularly in Christian circles-although not exclusively-Tiger Woods’ moral transgressions are routinely referred to as selfish, immoral acts. As if “selfish” behavior is logically tied to, or the equivalent of, immoral behavior. The reality is that this is truly non-thinking confusion and could not be further from the truth.

In a reply to a very well-written article by Penn State undergrad Rituparna Basu out at the UnderCurrent, I make the distinction thusly:

Do not confuse hedonism with selfishness.. The key here is to clearly understand that all of the measurable, tangible, real accomplishments of individuals such as Tiger Woods were due to his application of rational self-interest, aka selfishness. The degree Tiger applied himself to the real world; to the physics of golf ball flight, to the biomechanical and physiological aspects of athletic training, and the intellectual discipline necessary for mental focus resulted in the professional accomplishments we all marvel over and that he publicly and, to my understanding, privately laid out as long term, rational, goals.

To the extent he engaged in the pursuit of irrational, non life-serving, values by essentially engaging in hedonism-the mere emotional act of doing whatever makes one “happy” at the spur of the moment-was not selfish and clearly had life threatening consequences that were/are inconsistent with his rational self-interested goals. One ought not confuse merely instant gratification regardless the consequence with meaningful and thoughtful pursuit of long range goals that actually are life-sustaining and not personally destructive.

While the immediate consequence of lying, cheating, or stealing might be pleasurable to a human’s senses the long range consequences are almost always life threatening (life includes the concept of individual liberty, e.g. if you are jailed for theft). Therefore, lying, cheating, and stealing are not life sustaining actions and cannot be considered “selfish” actions.

I think an appropriate reference here to Ayn Rand is useful: “To take “whatever makes one happy” as a guide to action means: to be guided by nothing but one’s emotional whims. Emotions are not tools of cognition. . . . This is the fallacy inherent in hedonism–in any variant of ethical hedonism, personal or social, individual or collective. “Happiness” can properly be the purpose of ethics, but not the standard. The task of ethics is to define man’s proper code of values and thus to give him the means of achieving happiness. To declare, as the ethical hedonists do, that “the proper value is whatever gives you pleasure” is to declare that “the proper value is whatever you happen to value”–which is an act of intellectual and philosophical abdication, an act which merely proclaims the futility of ethics and invites all men to play it deuces wild.” (Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness, “The Objectivist Ethics”.)

So, the answer to Rituparna’s question of whether these men’s actions can be considered selfish is very straightforward: NO.

Categories : General
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Mar-10
05

Governmentspeak: Jobless Recovery

Posted by: Flashy | Comments (0)

So, what is a “jobless recovery”? Does it stand to reason that you can have an entire economy the size of the United States’ undergo an economic recovery without creating jobs? That, according to some, we simply have a flat job market while other data are showing the economy has recovered?

What sort of convoluted nonsense is this? It’s governmentspeak and don’t believe a word of it!

If the economy were actually, truly, recovering to the point of sustained growth in real GDP (meaning you must take government expenditures out) you would see a net increase in jobs created in the private sector in a significant and sustained way. The fact is, you don’t see this.

Point being here is that this idea of a “jobless recovery” is simply an oxymoron.

Categories : General
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Mar-10
04

Only in Washington…

Posted by: Flashy | Comments (0)

can you spend for six years, and use tax revenues over ten years, and call this a balanced government program…

So, let me see how this would work in my household. I get to buy a brand new Chevy Tahoe and finance it over six years. To prove my creditworthiness I can use ten years of income to make the six year payments work out… on paper.

Paul Ryan has the dope on this, nice work Paul..!

Categories : General
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Written by Paul Hsieh, MD

President Obama has finally demanded an “up or down vote” on his health care plan. Republicans have already raised numerous economic and procedural objections, arguing that his plan relies on economic “smoke and mirrors” and that the president is now endorsing the same controversial “reconciliation” process that he denounced in 2005 as a senator as “the wrong place for policy changes.” Yet the president and his supporters remain committed to their goal of government-run “universal health care.” Why is that?

The key is Obama’s declaration, “I don’t know how this plays politically, but I know its right.” Ultimately, Obama and his liberal base believe that government-guaranteed health care is a “moral imperative” — i.e., “it’s right.” And that will also be the key to defeating it.

As Leonard Peikoff once wrote, “So long as people believe that socialized medicine is a noble plan, there is no way to fight it. You cannot stop a noble plan — not if it really is noble. The only way you can defeat it is to unmask it — to show that it is the very opposite of noble. Then at least you have a fighting chance.”

Hence, one must challenge ObamaCare not merely on the economic or procedural levels but on the moral level.

Full article at Pajamas Media

Categories : General
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Categories : General
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Feb-10
09

Change Ain’t Easy

Posted by: Pavil | Comments (0)

MO says: People are SHHHHtruggling. Chain ain’t easy you know.

Michelle Obama stays the course toward socialism

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Feb-10
08

Photo: Hudson School Board

Posted by: Flashy | Comments (0)

HUDSON SCHOOL BOARD Photo: Hudson School Board

Hudson School District officials wear eye protection to match the ear plugs they have worn for years…

Categories : General
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Jan-10
25

“Atlas Shrugged” Sets a New Record!

Posted by: Flashy | Comments (0)

picture archive 0681 150x150 Atlas Shrugged Sets a New Record!Ayn Rand’s great novel, the single most important-and virtually singular-philosophical defense of capitalism sold like hot cakes in 2009 – full story here..

Categories : General
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Jan-10
18

Quote of the day…

Posted by: slimpickens | Comments (0)

Folks here in the South are even becoming “churchier,” if you can imagine that. Friends from high school who were agnostic or indifferent are now full bore Christian socialists. Another example: for my son’s 7th birthday party he just wanted to invite a few friends. Of the four invited, two couldn’t come because of church–on a Saturday afternoon! What kind of sick people make their kid go to church instead of letting them go to their friend’s birthday party!?

by “Guy” in a comment at NoodleFood

What I would like to know is what kind of sick people force their children to be indoctrinated into religious mysticism in the first place – it is a form of child abuse…

Categories : General
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Jan-10
17

Farve – Pants on the Ground!

Posted by: In the Know | Comments (0)

Categories : General, Humor, Individualism
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Jan-10
14

Reflections Upon Haiti

Posted by: Flashy | Comments (3)

Haiti is a country choked full of mystics including Roman Catholics (the official religion), Protestants, and the default national religion: voodoo. Pat Robertson just recently indicated he believed that the earthquake in Haiti was likely the result of a deal Haitians made with the devil (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5TE99sAbwM). Moreover, Robertson suggested that this massive earthquake (a natural phenomena) was a “blessing in disguise.”

This event (the earthquake) should reveal the utter idiocy and waste associated with mysticism of all varieties. Had Haitians lived a rational existence, my suspicion is that their economic connections and infrastructure development would have been such that although still likely devastating the loss of life would have likely been much less, and the rebuilding a far less complex burden on those who are now responding to Haiti’s desperate cry’s. The long tail on this is yet to be revealed, but you can almost bet it will develop far beyond merely pulling people out of rubble, fixing broken bones and downed power lines, and burying the dead.

Empathy towards innocent casualties of this event is, in my view, a valid reaction. Moreover, if one has the ability, and there are no other options (presently, it appears massive collectivized aid is streaming into Haiti), it is reasonable to help those who are truly innocent casualties. But separating those from others who purposefully lived and promoted the irrational belief that mysticism would protect them from all threats (man-made and natural) is not easy to do. To the extent one can, one should assist only in helping those who were not engaged in such behavior, for to do so threatens all of us with the idea that self sacrifice propelled by misplaced guilt can force one (or a whole nation) to subsidize the logical outcome of such irrational and illogical belief systems…

I am and will remain opposed to all man-made religion and the cults they spawn. What remains is the world around me, and the tools it offers to live, trade, and prosper. I always have assisted those in true need when I have come upon them, to the best of my ability. I will not subsidize or enable the furtherance of any religion, or the cults they spawn.

Categories : General
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Jan-10
12

Politics in one quote..

Posted by: Flashy | Comments (0)

. . . In rather more vulgar words, the Democrats and Republicans are all evil statist fucks without the slightest rightful claim to power. Perhaps, however, if theyre focused on fucking each other, theyll be less capable of fucking us.”

Could not have said it better myself…!

Author: unknown

Categories : General
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Dec-09
29

Does Your Child Suffer From GWA?

Posted by: Gunston Hall | Comments (0)

Categories : General
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soho 195 150x150 *Breaking News*  New Study: 50 Years Of Cooling Ahead!

50 years of cooling predicted by a newly released, peer reviewed, article.

Cosmic rays and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), both already implicated in depleting the Earths ozone layer, are also responsible for changes in the global climate, a University of Waterloo scientist reports in a new peer-reviewed paper.

“Most remarkably, the total amount of CFCs, ozone-depleting molecules that are well-known greenhouse gases, has decreased around 2000,” Lu said. “Correspondingly, the global surface temperature has also dropped. In striking contrast, the CO2 level has kept rising since 1850 and now is at its largest growth rate.”

In his research, Lu discovers that while there was global warming from 1950 to 2000, there has been global cooling since 2002. The cooling trend will continue for the next 50 years, according to his new research observations.

As well, there is no solid evidence that the global warming from 1950 to 2000 was due to CO2. Instead, Lu notes, it was probably due to CFCs conspiring with cosmic rays. And from 1850 to 1950, the recorded CO2 level increased significantly because of the industrial revolution, while the global temperature kept nearly constant or only rose by about 0.1 C.

InScience Article.. Study shows CFCs, cosmic rays major culprits for global warming

Purchase the scientific paper here ($31.50)

Categories : General, Science
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