Day: August 14, 2007

PRODUCTIVITY: who do we pass our costs along to?

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http://thelibertarianforum.com/General/Minimum-wage-is-not-necessary.html

Minimum wage and other labor laws hurt the poor and aren’t necessary. Written by Omer Altay
Tuesday, 14 August 2007

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Minimum wage and other labor laws are aimed to protect workers and raise standards, but does that really happen? Minimum wage by definition creates unemployment. It eliminates every job that’s worth less than $5.15 an hour (the federal minimum wage). The fact is that a business is not a charity. If a business determines that a person’s labor is not worth $5.15 an hour, or whatever the local minimum wage is, they have no reason to keep that person employed. Paying the worker a bonus to meet the minimum wage would be charity work, and many businesses don’t have the finances or interest in such charity work, and will instead lay off the employee instead of raising their pay.

Minimum wage simply does not protect the worker at all, but instead, gets rid of every low skilled job that’s worth less than $5.15 an hour.

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So we have to be productive above the minimum wage. Businesses are not charities; nor are they tax collectors. Everything is passed along.

But who do we pass our costs along to?

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INTERESTING: publicity-seeking politician eager to sacrifice “us”

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http://www.smartmoney.com/tradecraft/index.cfm?story=20070813

Government Shouldn’t Bail Out Failing Homeowners
By Jonathan Hoenig
Published: August 13, 2007

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The more the government gets involved in mortgages and banking, the tighter credit will become. But beyond the impractical reality of collectivist economics, a bailout of homeowners facing foreclosure would be an immoral violation of the property rights of the millions of citizens who live within their means and pay their bills on time. The responsibility of paying back subprime mortgage rests with those who took them, not the publicity-seeking politician eager to sacrifice the individual for the “public good.”

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Here’s an interesting take on how the gooferment creates the problem and then rushes in to “save us”!

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RANT: Easily forgotten events VJ day

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Medals of America http://www.usmedals.com/ sent out a email.

vj-day-3-flat 13

vj-day-3-flat 15

It touched me. I’m one of those grumpy old far … … fogeys who thinks that, whatever one’s politics, you have to recognize the sacrifices that some have made as a result of some politician’s decision.

Bring the boys and girls home on the first thing heading this way. Period. Any politician who disagrees, is more than welcome to pick up a rifle and stand a post. Stealing a line from “A Few Good Men”.

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Col. Jessep: Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to.

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My message to the politicians is “quite frankly I don’t care what you think you’ve decided.” When you lead from the front, then and only then, will it matter what you think or decide.

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RANT: stupid jerks who’ve never seen a nuclear bomb

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http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese385.html

Instant Death
by Charley Reese

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One of the Americans interviewed who had participated in the raid on Hiroshima said that people who say we ought to nuke this or that country “are stupid jerks who’ve never seen a nuclear bomb. If they had, they wouldn’t say that.”

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I am afraid of politicians, bureaucrats, and pundit who don’t appreciate the real world facts. When they talk about using nukes, “turning the Middle East into glass”, and other bellicose bumper stickers, then imho convict themselves of stupidity by their own words. Maybe I am overly sensitive, In a College Theology course, one of the assigned reading was of the Jesuit priest who was near Nagasaki after the bomb hit. For sheer destruction, it was shocking. If I was the Lord High Sheriff of Nottingham, I’d condemn them to immediately go to Nagasaki and Hiroshima and adsorb what their words mean. But, I’m not the Lord High Sheriff, I’m not anything, other than one fellow who wouldn’t vote for them as Dog Catcher. To speak so glibly about such terrible consequences, shows me just how shallow they are. We don’t need leader like that. We need ones that understand that words have consequences.

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MONEY: Fed creates $37 billion on the spot

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http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/reality-vs-state.html

Reality vs. the State
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

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So on it went for seventy years, until one day the entire hoax was exposed by the ultimate reality test: the market economy. Bad credit risks didn’t pan out. Those who lent without regard for underlying fundamentals are suddenly seeing red all over the place. Bankruptcy ensues. Those who purchased repackaged mortgages on the open market find themselves with a hot potato and no one to toss it to.

So what does the government do then? It runs to the basement and turns on the printing presses. It creates $37 billion on the spot and buys up the bad loans and calls them assets. The government says that this is to create confidence. But confidence can’t be created by making up reality. That path only leads to more illusion and error.

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Didn’t anyone think that “averting the crisis” was in and of itself a problem? Anyone still believe the gooferment’s core inflation rate numbers? Anyone not concerned where this runaway freight train is heading at full steam?

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RANT: how effective this brave security cordon

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http://www.lewrockwell.com/suprynowicz/suprynowicz71.html

Who Really Has the Monkey On His Back?
by Vin Suprynowicz

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Airline passengers who grit their teeth and resign themselves to having all kinds of inoffensive belongings seized by the blue-gloved airport goons will be pleased to know how effective this brave security cordon really turns out to be.

Late Monday a passenger in Lima, Peru boarded a Spirit Airlines jet for Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Arriving in this country, he presumably passed through all the required “international arrival” security rigmarole, killing several hours in the secure area of the Fort Lauderdale airport before boarding a plane to LaGuardia Airport in New York City.

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Making the airport security theater the laughing stock it deserves to be. And you trust the buffoons to keep you safe? Please don’t make me laff even harder!

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