Italian economist and engineer Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) conjectured that for any population, income naturally follows a log-normal distribution. The normal, or Gaussian distribution ranges from negative to positive infinity with a central mean. Because logarithms are always positive, the log-normal distribution ranges from zero to positive infinity with a positive mean, consistent with there being no upper bound for the highest incomes. Pareto’s approximation describes the distribution of … [Read more...]
Who Is Saule Omarova, and How Does She Use Climate Alarm to Attack Fossil Fuels and Private Banking?
Do you know who Saule Omarova is? She's President Joe Biden's nominee to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Never heard of the OCC? It's "an independent bureau within the United States Department of the Treasury that ... serves to charter, regulate, and supervise all national banks and thrift institutions and the federally licensed branches and agencies of foreign banks in the United States." Kinda powerful. And what would Saule Omarova want to do, if confirmed? You … [Read more...]
Illegal Aliens, Socialist Democrats & Cloward-Piven
The next time you see thousands of illegal aliens massing at the border demanding to be allowed to enter, or marchers demanding more of your tax dollars to pay for their wants and needs or politicians insisting you owe it to others to pay for their necessities in life, remember these two words: Cloward Piven. So much of what the Left (and progressives and Marxists and wannabe socialists) seek to accomplish isn’t intended to improve conditions. It’s intended to destroy. Many of them don’t know … [Read more...]
Socialist “Green New Deal” Laughably Ridiculous
We’re told global warming gives us only 5, 10, 12 more years (depending on the doomsayer) before the planet is irretrievably doomed. “Therefore, act now!” alarmists demand. Of course, they’ve been saying the same thing for 10, 20, 25 years. It’s become impossible to spoof these people… Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s socialist Green Deal is so laughably ridiculous even the leftist leadership of her own Democratic Party is running from it. Amid the backlash, she's apparently removed … [Read more...]
Should Government Take Steps to Curb Acquisitiveness?
Recently when I posted an item to Facebook that applauded America's growing economy under President Donald Trump, a friend challenged the notion that economic growth is a good thing. He and I have discussed the subject various times. He thinks that for countries already as wealthy as the United States growth is bad because it entails depleting resources and doesn't actually enhance human well being or happiness. I have responded to both ideas in my chapter refuting the idea that "Capitalism Is … [Read more...]
What’s Wrong with a “Carbon” Tax?
James Baker, chief of staff to Ronald Reagan and secretary of state under George H.W. Bush, and George Schultz, secretary of state under Reagan, have endorsed a "carbon" tax plan that is just plain wrong from the git-go. Stephen Moore explains why in "The Carbon-Tax Scam," but here's the gist: Even if it succeeded in ending all United States carbon-dioxide emissions (and it's only designed to reduce, not end, them), it would fail to accomplish the end used as its justification: … [Read more...]
What’s the Problem with the Commons—in Environment and Health Care?
For generations economists have recognized the "problem of the commons." The phrase harks back to when villagers all shared a common pasture. The natural incentive for each villager was to graze as many livestock on it as he could, because if instead he restricted his herd so the demand on the pasture's grass growth was sustainable, his neighbors would run more livestock, the commons would still be exhausted, and he'd be left behind. When instead each person must own the land on which he grazed … [Read more...]
Why are Young Americans Flocking to Bernie?
Of course young people like Bernie! He promises them free college, free health care—free, free, free. But why don’t these young people understand TANSTAAFL (“There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”)? I’ll tell you. Their mistake is perfectly understandable. For eighteen, twenty, maybe twenty-five years or more practically all they’ve consumed has been free to them. Their parents have fed them, clothed them, housed them, medicated them, transported them, entertained them, educated … [Read more...]
Does the Bible Require Common Ownership of Land?
Does the Bible validate private property in land, or does it require that land be communally owned? With Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-professed socialist, doing surprisingly well in the Democratic Presidential primary campaign, such thoughts become increasingly common. Someone recently wrote: It seems to me that a theology that takes Creation as evidence of a Creator ... would recoil at privatizing Creation as a private income-generating asset. The way I come at environmental … [Read more...]
Environmentalists Claim “Just Solution” to Climate Change is Wealth Redistribution
Don’t ever let anyone tell you that redistribution of wealth isn’t a major part of the agenda for the global warming alarmist crowd. Here’s a graphic prepared by ALBA, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, which Wikipedia describes as “an intergovernmental organization based on the idea of the social, political and economic integration of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. … Founded initially by Cuba and Venezuela in 2004, it is associated … [Read more...]
