Confessions of a European Business Insider

Most government transfers are not from the rich to the poor. Instead, government takes from the relatively unorganized (e.g., consumers and general taxpayers) and gives to the relatively organized (groups politically organized around common interests, such as the elderly, sugar farmers, and steel producers). The most important factor in determining the pattern of redistribution appears to be political influence, not poverty.--Lee

Chris got a good checkup yesterday.

Mom really cut her hand badly yesterday.

Another government Bait-and-Switch. In 2007, the U.S. government made a promise to public service workers: Make 10 years of payments on their federal student loans and any remaining debt would be erased. But officials have largely failed to deliver. Signed into law under President George W. Bush, the program is meant to help college graduates who pursue jobs that often pay modest salaries but serve a greater good, such as careers in teaching, the military or with nonprofit groups. But turmoil has been mounting around the program since last year, when the Education Department revealed that 99% of borrowers who applied for loan discharges had been rejected. As of December, just 338 public workers had been granted loan forgiveness out of nearly 54,000 applicants, according to recently released department data.
Somehow the one way to disqualify you from any government program seems to be to have a job. 

Marriott International is starting a new home-rental business, aiming to challenge Airbnb and other home-sharing companies.

The utopian flaw is in expecting the politicians who enact taxes, subsidies, regulations, and reassign property rights to be more inclined to virtue than the business people we need to guard against.

In France,  5.5 million government employees out of a population of 67 million consume around 13% of GDP in wages. 

Born this way:
In an online lecture hosted by TEDx, a speaker made this claim:
"Mirjam Heine [a German medical student] gave a lecture in defense of pedophiles during the 'independently organized' TEDx Talk at the University of Wurtzberg in Germany in May. The title given to Heine's talk was 'Why our perception of pedophilia has to change.'
"Introducing her theme with the 'story' of 'Jonas,' a 19-year-old pedophile who studies law and plays soccer, she asked her listeners to put aside their revulsion for pedophiles.
"'Anyone could be born a pedophile,' she told them.
"According to the medical student, pedophilia is just another 'unchangeable sexual orientation just like, for example, heterosexuality.'"
(LifeSite.com--I don't know the site but it looks like a Catholic website so they may be more outraged than many but ....)

One of the reasons that the costs of medical care services in the US have increased more than twice as much as general consumer prices since 1998 is that a large and increasing share of medical costs are paid by third parties (private health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, Department of Veterans Affairs, etc.) and only a small and shrinking percentage of health care costs are paid out-of-pocket by consumers.

Industrial progress, mechanical improvement, all of the great wonders of the modern era have meant relatively little to the wealthy. The rich in Ancient Greece would have benefited hardly at all from modern plumbing: running servants replaced running water. Television and radio—the patricians of Rome could enjoy the leading musicians and actors in their home, could have the leading artists as domestic retainers. Ready-to-wear clothing, supermarkets—all these and many other modern developments would have added little to their life. They would have welcomed the improvements in transportation and in medicine, but for the rest, the great achievements of Western capitalism have redounded primarily to the benefit of the ordinary person. These achievements have made available to the masses conveniences and amenities that were previously the exclusive prerogative of the rich and powerful.--Freidman

What happened to me is being repeated at colleges and universities throughout the country. Unfortunately, a growing number of university students equate being made uncomfortable in the classroom with being “harmed.” And in this they are encouraged by a growing number of faculty and administrators who view the mission of the university as more about shielding students from such “harm” (for the sake of “inclusivity”) and less about meaningful education. In the “surveillance university,” students are encouraged to report on the transgressions of faculty, and in what has been called an impulse of “vindictive protectiveness,” faculty are judged guilty and harshly punished.--from a letter written by Evan Charney, professor of twenty years, on his being fired from his job at Duke

                   Confessions of a European Business Insider

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is the billionaire businessman who runs the $60bn chemicals and energy group, Ineos. 

Recently he wrote an Open Letter to the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

 Tuesday, 12 February 2019 

•  INEOS Group

Open letter to President Jean-Claude Juncker
President European Commission
European Commission
Rue de la Loi 200
B-1049 Brussels

                                                                                                                        11th February 2019

Dear President Juncker,

“Are you quite mad?” was the reaction of one well known CEO of a European chemicals company when INEOS publicly announced recently its huge €3 billion petrochemicals expansion in Antwerp in January of this year.   The first of its kind for a generation.

Nobody but nobody in my business seriously invests in Europe.   They haven’t for a generation.   Everyone in my business does however invest in the USA, Middle East or China, or indeed, all three.   The USA is in the middle of a $200 billion spending spree on 333 new chemical plants.   China has spent that sum annually for many years, constructing its own chemical building blocks.

Europe, not so long ago the world leader in chemicals, has seen its market share in the last decade alone collapse from 30% world market share to 15%.   This is an industry that employs over 1 million people in high quality jobs in Europe and five times that in indirect jobs. Worldwide, chemicals is an immense industry, considerably bigger than the automotive sector with revenues approaching $4 trillion.

Europe is no longer competitive.   It has the worlds most expensive energy and labour laws that are uninviting for employers.   Worst of all, it has green taxes that, at best, can be described as foolish as they are having the opposite effect to how they were intended.  

Europe going it alone with green taxes prevents renewal as it frightens away investment into the open arms of the USA and China. It also pushes manufacturing to other parts of the world that care less for the environment. To get a sense of the importance of renewal a 70s car will emit 50 times the pollution of a modern day car. Chemical plants are not so different.

The USA is fully in the process of renewal.   Immense building programmes are installing the world’s finest chemical technology which has a fraction of the emissions we saw a generation ago.   Old units are being shut down.   The USA doesn’t have green taxes but it does insist on the very highest environmental standards before it issues permits for new builds.

So let’s step back.   Europe remains with an industry built one or two generations ago with old environmental standards and has frightened away new investment for a generation with heavy green taxes.   America has welcomed new investment but on condition that it has the highest possible environmental standards.   It has created investment, new jobs and improved environmental emissions.   Europe has done the opposite on all fronts.  I know who looks smarter.

I have an intense interest in preserving the environment.   I see wildlife being slaughtered in Africa, forests burning all over the world, fish stocks being decimated and I fully believe that we must arrest global warming.

But Europe ‘going it alone’ with green taxes as its main strategy has got it wrong.

As for the question posed to me at the outset, “Are we mad?”, the answer is no.   INEOS is uniquely able to import huge quantities of cheap energy and feedstocks from the USA and we have no ‘market risk’ as all the product that we will produce will be consumed by our own INEOS businesses in Europe.

But don’t expect others to follow.   They will be welcomed by the USA and China with a warm smile and a good strategy.

Europe, reminds me somewhat of the Charge of the Light Brigade, immortalised in Tennyson’s wonderful poem, full of valour and good intention but the outcome will not be pretty.

Yours Sincerely

Sir Jim Ratcliffe Chairman, INEOS.

Warren's Threat

The British are responsible for more Independence Days than any other nation on earth.--Chris McCague

Pirates start three guys hitting below .200, two in the top five.
Fun dinner at Mineo's with Chris.
GoT: Exhausting. And avoiding spoilers for both GoT and Endgame....

Europe’s center-left parties, faced with falling support, are shifting left to win back working-class voters lost to hard-left and populist movements—a move that paid off in Spain’s national elections, where the Socialists trounced their conservative rivals.(wsj)

”Avengers: Endgame,” from Disney’s  Marvel Studios, crushed box-office records in its opening weekend, with an estimated $350 million in domestic ticket sales and $1.2 billion globally.

An Oxford University professor has claimed aliens are already breeding with humans to create a new hybrid species that will save the planet. Dr Young-hae Chi, an instructor in Korean at the Oxford’s Oriental Institute division of the prestigious university, thinks this new species will save Earth from annihilation from climate change. He's written a book. Settled science marches on.

France is beginning to show the strains of the government as moralistic middleman. In France, VAT and other consumption taxes make up 24% of revenue… Consumption taxes often fall hardest on the poor and middle class, who devote a greater proportion of their income to consumption. These taxes have been the center of a lot of social disruption.
The French government spent two months eliciting voter feedback. …Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said…“The clear message is that taxes must fall and fall fast.” …Macron announced the “Great Debate” in December to respond to the Yellow Vest protests… Among the findings, valued added tax and income tax were the levies that most people listed as needing reduction. …For 75 percent of the participants, the lower taxes must be accompanied by cutting government spending, though they were vague about where the cuts should come, with 75 percent citing “the lifestyle of the state.”
While it is likely that the welfare state and its hallucination of cost-less benefits is more ingrained than the French are willing to admit, it is interesting they are willing to blame the system at all.

Has the percentage of the world population that lives in extreme poverty almost doubled, almost halved or stayed the same over the past 20 years? When the Swedish statistician and public health expert Hans Rosling began asking people that question in 2013, he was astounded by their responses. Only 5% of 1,005 Americans got the right answer: Extreme poverty has been cut almost in half. A chimpanzee would do much better, he pointed out mischievously, by picking an answer at random. So people are worse than ignorant: They believe they know many dire things about the world that are, in fact, untrue.

Libertarianism is the widely reviled idea that we should use reason and persuasion to accomplish our distributive aims. Only reason and persuasion. According to the libertarian, it is wrong to utilize threats of violence in the form of state-sponsored coercion, however sublimated by bureaucratic routine, in order to redistribute property that we have an antecedent claim to. Aiding the worse off or promoting economic equality may be worthy aims, but these are endeavors we should persuade our fellow citizens to join, not mandates to be enforced by the state. Promoting these goals at the end of a pitchfork, whether ours or our representatives’, is a moral mistake according to the libertarian.--Moller

Defaulting to coercion implies only lack of confidence in the public's ability and willingness to do the right thing. The obverse is, if people are unwilling to do the right thing, why do some deserve help? And will the helpers do the right thing?

The theoretical market for DraftKings and FanDuel is huge. Americans gamble more than $150 billion illegally on sports in a year, according to estimates from the American Gaming Association. About another $5 billion comes in legally.

Until 2004 Britain was a net energy exporter. Today, it imports about half its energy. Some of that, in the form of coal and liquefied natural gas, comes directly from Russia, which also supplies a third of Europe’s gas through pipelines. 
Never badmouth your debtholder.

From Don: This March, an outspoken critic of Islam, Jaleh Tavakoli, Danish-Iranian blogger and author of the book, Public Secrets of Islam, was threatened by the Social Supervisory Authority (Socialtilsyn Øst) that her foster-daughter would be removed from her care after Tavakoli shared an online video of the rape and murder by Islamic State terrorists in Morocco of two Scandinavian young women. She was informed in a letter that the government agency's approval of her husband and her as foster parents -- they had been raising the 8-year-old since she was a newborn baby -- had been rescinded and that the girl might be taken away from them, as the authority did not consider them to "have the necessary quality to have children in your care."

On this day in 1429, the 17-year-old French peasant Joan of Arc led a French force in relieving the city of Orleans, besieged by the English since October. this was an incident in The Hundred Year War; yes, 100 years of war, four generations. And the Europeans are always curious about why the Americans are so hesitant about joining a noble European fray.

                                                 Warren's Threat
Presidential aspirant Elizabeth Warren has threatened to ban all fossil fuel extraction on federal lands and in coastal waters. This despite the following information:

The Energy Information Administration expects demand will increase 6.3% through 2050. Wind and solar energy are projected to meet an increasing share of energy demand, but hydrocarbons are still expected to provide 79% of America’s energy needs in 2050.

In 2000, shale gas amounted to only 2% of United States production. Today it is 60% and rising.

Petroleum imports, which have fallen from 60% of total consumption in 2005 to just 11% today.

Solar and wind energy  make up only 8.5% of electric generation.

Oil and gas production on federal lands and in offshore areas provide about one quarter of total U.S. oil production and make up 13% of natural gas production.

At any other time in history Warren's kind of policy would probably considered treasonous, the plot of an enemy. Yet anti-carbon stumbles on. In Pennsylvania, there is a plan to use cap-and-trade to phase out all fossil fuel by 2050. All. Look at the estimates of fossil fuel needs above and guess what will happen. Sort of trying to turn the state of Pennsylvania into Rwanda.

"Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket, regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad, because I'm capping greenhouse gases," Obama said. "Coal power plants, natural gas, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money onto consumers." 

This quote is of significance for Pa., the Yellow Vests, and anyone else who thinks that adding the meddling hand of government into daily transactions adds efficiency or morality.

Sunday/Thomas

"We are here on Earth to help others. What the others are here for, I've NO idea."--W.H. Auden 

Nice night with the McGraws at Senti.
Maybe The Avengers today.

Bellinger is on base more often than not. Musgrove is pitching really well. But he plays for a lousy team. A lot of lunatics apparently can be treated by outpatient therapy, good wishes and talk shows but clearly a lot cannot.

Another murderer attacks an innocent group of strangers by someone for no reason. This kind of thing will happen when lunatics are not segregated from the non-lunatics.

Internet headline: Is Glasgow an early Cy Young candidate?

Marketwatch has an article on how not to be an inadvertent Russian agent. According to the Mueller report, some U.S. citizens even helped Russian government agents organize real-life events, aiding the propaganda campaign, possibly without knowing that’s what they were doing. There’s a whole section of the report called “Targeting and Recruitment of U.S. Persons,” detailing how Russian agents approached people through direct messages on social media, as part of their efforts to sow discord and division in order to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The SECURE Act, nee RESA,  is coming to a vote with heavy support from the insurance industry.

Britain’s housing costs are very high by international standards: eight times average earnings in England, 15 in London. A mortgage deposit that took a few years to earn in the early 1990s can now take somebody decades to earn. Average rents in the UK are almost 50% higher than average rents in Germany, France and crowded Holland. Knightsbridge has overtaken Monaco in rental levels. Wealthy, crowded Switzerland has falling house prices and lower rents than Britain. 

                                              Thomas

Solipsism: the position in Metaphysics and Epistemology that the mind is the only thing that can be known to exist and that knowledge of anything outside the mind is unjustified. It is a skeptical hypothesis, and leads to the belief that the whole of reality and the external world and other people are merely representations of the individual self, having no independent existence of their own, and might in fact not even exist. It is not, however, the same as Skepticism (the epistemological position that one should refrain from even making truth claims).
There are people who make their livings talking like this.

"Thomas" means "twin." Doubting Thomas is a twin; his other twin is "belief," the product of doubt. But that is not true for all.

Several modern currents of thought are rushing us toward the rapids. One is doubt itself, as a philosophy, a tenet of modern life. 
Descartes asked, "What can I know?" He described us as isolated individuals whose knowledge was individually subjective. But this comes at a price. I can doubt the existence of the external world, and I can doubt the existence of what appears to be my body. But when I try to also doubt the existence of my inner self, my thinking, then I find that I am still there--as a doubting mind. Doubting is the thing that in the end I cannot doubt. Doubting, however, is thinking, and the existence of thinking implies the existence of a thinker. Hence Descartes' famous conclusion: "I think, therefore I am." So the self sees us as isolated individuals prioritizing our subjectivity above all else. And the agent of thought is doubt. And, unlike Thomas, those doubts are never answered.

This has more than implications to the individual. "Community" implies shared beliefs, things held in common. But what happens when belief in the solitary self as sole arbiter of meaning and value becomes the cultural norm? The Church has historically been the unifier in the West. What happens if it fades? Is secularism able to shoulder the burden the Church used to carry? Theologian  Joan Lockwood O’Donovan's critique of liberalism postulates that “it never really does arrive at political community, because political community presupposes a shared communicating in a wide range of spiritual goods from the beginning – and that’s just what liberalism denies."
(Joan Lockwood O'Donovan is Honorary Fellow, School of Divinity, New College, University of Edinburgh and received her Ph.D. in theology from the University of St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto. She has written extensively in the area of the history of Christian political thought.) 

So the historical connecting social forces--family, tribe, nation and religion--are beginning to dissolve and the entity that purports to substitute for them essentially doubts the truth of inter-connectivity?

Hide the women.

The single most important doctrinal difference between Protestantism and Catholicism was Luther's insistence that every individual had an immediate relation to God, and that this relation could not be mediated through the offices of a priest or a church hierarchy. By reading scriptures himself or herself, every Christian had direct access to the truth; the authority of the Pope and his councils became irrelevant for how the Word of God was to be interpreted by the believer. Luther and other Protestant leaders initiated the translation of the Bible from the traditional Latin into native languages, languages that ordinary people could understand. Intensive study of scriptures, unsupervised by priests, became a widespread practice. The Catholic church found this individualistic circumvention of clerical authorities so threatening at the time, that it targeted Bible translators for special persecution. Tyndal, the first translator of the New Testament into English, was captured by the Inquisition while studying on the Continent, and eventually executed by garroting.

Socrates’ work and example were an important beginning of this individualistic legacy. Socrates’ inner independence from the community in which he lived set an important precedent for the way in which a person could conceive of himself or herself as a separate and distinct being. However radical Socrates’ individualism was, however, he never ceased to think of himself as a member of a community. His very individualism was defined as a social role (as his self-conception as Athens’ “gadfly” clearly shows). And no Greek philosopher in Antiquity ever thought of the individual as anything else than a social being.

This became different at the beginning of the Modern Age. Modern philosophy developed a concept of the individual that was far more solitary than that created by Socrates and Antiquity. The modern definition of the self disregards any reference to society or social context and fastens exclusively on what the self is in itself. Because of this approach to understanding and defining the self, modern philosophy ended up with a conception of an individual that was besieged by the problem of solipsism and the question of how a person could possibly relate to the outside world.

Descartes, held by his critics to have sown some of the most fertile seeds of modern atheism by introducing a hugely influential model of the self which sees us as isolated individuals prioritizing our subjectivity above all else. This gave rise to the traditions of radical skepticism about the integrity – and even the existence – of the public world, and to what has been called the “fundamental illusion” of modernity: belief in the solitary self as sole arbiter of meaning and value.
So, for example, art no longer has a "teaching purpose," one no longer "learns" from art. Art is what it is, or what the individual observer thinks it is. Every man is the--or his--creator. For, if we are not self-created, we are answerable to a truth we do not make.

An American Story

We now know that neither market nor political institutions match up to the performance of their conceptually idealized models, a simple truth of course, but one that social scientists and philosophers have so often failed to recognize.--Buchanan

Chris is much better. 
We went to Park Pub for burgers and met The Librarian.
Liz is sleeping better.
Interesting draft.

The bodies of 15 people, including six children, were discovered at the site of a fierce overnight gun battle on the east coast of Sri Lanka, a military spokesman said on Saturday, six days after suicide bombers killed more than 250 people.

So the party of innovation which so resents the history of America and its domination by old white men has put forward its front-runner, Joe Biden. In second place, Bernie Sanders.

Justice Democrats, a PAC that supported candidates like Ocasio-Cortez in 2018, declared on Thursday morning it would support whoever becomes the Democratic nominee — but claimed candidates such as Biden had divided America and led to the election of Donald Trump. “The old guard of the Democratic Party failed to stop Trump, and they can’t be counted on to lead the fight against his divide-and-conquer politics today. The party needs new leadership with a bold vision capable of energizing voters in the Democratic base who stayed home in 2016,” the statement read.

A curious line by Rosenstein: "The previous (Obama) administration chose not to publicize the full story about Russian computer hackers and social media trolls, and how they relate to a broader strategy to undermine America," Rosenstein said in a speech to the Armenian Bar Association. Yes,  the Armenian Bar Association.

"Hundreds of Muslim refugees in western Sri Lanka have taken refuge in mosques and a police station after facing intimidation following the deadly Easter bombings, activists said Thursday." Huh? They are afraid?

Economist and scholar Julian Simon argued, in the face of the dire predictions of population growth in the 1970s, that people would innovate "their way out of resource shortages." He actually made a bet with Erlich over it. Marian Tupy from the Cato Institute and Gale Pooley from Brigham Young University-Hawaii have launched The Simon Abundance Index, which offers a new and better way to measure resource availability "using the latest price data for 50 foundational commodities."  They had a nice little, optimistic summary:
 "The world is a closed system in the way that a piano is a closed system. The instrument has only 88 notes, but those notes can be played in a nearly infinite variety of ways. The same applies to our planet. The Earth's atoms may be fixed, but the possible combinations of those atoms are infinite. What matters, then, is not the physical limits of our planet, but human freedom to experiment and reimagine the use of resources that we have."

Happy birthday, us. On this day in 4977 B.C., the universe was created, according to German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, considered a founder of modern science. Kepler is best known for his theories explaining the motion of planets. And in 1865, the worst maritime disaster in American history occurred when the steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,100 passengers, exploded and sank in the Mississippi River, killing all but 400 of those aboard. And Magellan was killed in 1521.

                                    An American Story

An elderly black lady in a patched coat stands in front of the cashier, offering a ten dollar bill. "A pack of Marlboros," she says. The clerk demands an ID; she searches her purse and can't find it. The clerk will not give her the cigarettes without documented proof of age.  A millennial in line takes her ten, gives his own ID and buys the Marlboros. He returns the cigarettes and change, she gives him one dollar as a tip, thanks him and leaves.

Freedom to buy cancer causing chemicals, a government ID requirement to make a purchase, a clerk who officiously demands proof of age from an obviously elderly woman, a young man enabling a woman to harm herself and then accepting a tip from someone who could not afford it, a law blatantly sidestepped.

The mind reels.

Discontent

Is the elimination of fossil fuel a central planner's application of "The Broken Window Theory?"--Tess Roark


Chris was at Pamala's when there was a medical emergency with an ambulance.
We were astounded at the Steeler trade/draft last night. We were yelling in disbelief.

Sri Lanka. Why is there no word for the Christian equivalent of Islamophobia or anti-Semitic?

Accountable Care Organizations are emerging in medicine to move medicine "from volume to value." There is a sociologist's wonder about these guys; they are astounded by the obvious. But the most successful of these "ACOs" have a very low savings rate--often by switching patients from inpatient to outpatient surgery. These are mainly shifts in comfort and convenience. Behind all this is the conflict in fee-for-service, a concept that promises price competition but assumes a free market. And a free market assumes shortages, a state that politicians will not allow in medical care. So, doesn't that mean the fee-for-service model is inherently contradictory and is thus doomed?

In a meeting last week at Middlebury College, administrators apologized to students who were upset that a conservative speaker had been invited to campus — and pledged to do more to prevent right-wing speakers in the future.

The Green New Deal electricity mandate would create significant environmental damage and massive land use of over 115 million acres, (about 180,000 square miles), about 15 percent larger than the land area of California. Because of the need for conventional backup generation to avoid blackouts one ironic effect would be GHG emissions from natural gas–fired backup generation 22 percent higher than those resulting in 2017 from all natural gas–fired power generation. And those backup emissions would be over 35 percent of the emissions from all power generation in 2017.

 Although many factors contributed to its [Great Britain’s] decline as an economic power in the 20th century, surely part of the blame goes to workers and owners who hid their desire for protection behind demands for retaliation. The U.S. should learn from Britain’s experience and reject the seductive calls for a level playing field and fair trade. The gain to American consumers and to the efficiency of the U.S. economy are reasons enough for following an open-trade policy – even when other countries do not. --The Beckers         

The “right to your culture” is literally totalitarian, because you can’t ensure the preservation of your culture without totalitarian rule over the very fabric of life in your society.--Caplan.
I do not get this argument. Culture is simply an agreement on certain things in life and a continuity of those things over time. Such devotion can fall anywhere on the curve of behavior: The Orthodox Serbs have a productive and in many respects profound culture that, at times, finds it necessary to murder everyone who is not, the Amish do fine by themselves. Unless you think "shunning" is totalitarian. And they might at Middlebury.


                                     Discontent

Reasonable little opinion piece from MBA student Alyssa Ahlgren writing for Alpha News:

We live in the most privileged time in the most prosperous nation and we’ve become completely blind to it. Virtually no one in the United States is considered poor by global standards. Yet, in a time where we can order a product off Amazon with one click and have it at our doorstep the next day, we are unappreciative, unsatisfied, and ungrateful.

….

Let me lay down some universal truths really quick. The United States of America has lifted more people out of abject poverty, spread more freedom and democracy, and has created more innovation in technology and medicine than any other nation in human history. Not only that but our citizenry continually breaks world records with charitable donations, the rags to riches story is not only possible in America but not uncommon, we have the strongest purchasing power on earth, and we encompass 25% of the world’s GDP. The list goes on.

However, these universal truths don’t matter. We are told that income inequality is an existential crisis (even though this is not an indicator of prosperity, some of the poorest countries in the world have low-income inequality), we are told that we are oppressed by capitalism (even though it’s brought about more freedom and wealth to the most people than any other system in world history), we are told that the only way we will acquire the benefits of true prosperity is through socialism and centralization of federal power (even though history has proven time and again this only brings tyranny and suffering).

Why then, with all of the overwhelming evidence around us, evidence that I can even see sitting at a coffee shop, do we not view this as prosperity? We have people who are dying to get into our country. People around the world destitute and truly impoverished. Yet, we have a young generation convinced they’ve never seen prosperity, and as a result, elect politicians dead set on taking steps towards abolishing capitalism. Why? The answer is this, my generation has ONLY seen prosperity. We have no contrast. We didn’t live in the great depression, or live through two world wars, or see the rise and fall of socialism and communism. We don’t know what it’s like not to live without the internet, without cars, without smartphones. We don’t have a lack of prosperity problem. We have an entitlement problem, an ungratefulness problem, and it’s spreading like a plague.

Is Sweden socialist?

We human beings always seek happiness. Now there are two ways. You can make yourself happy by making other people unhappy--I call that the logic of robbery. The other way you can make yourself happy is by making other people happy--that's the logic of the market. Which do you prefer?--Zhang Weiying

Chris is much better.
I am getting really annoyed at Dunkin'.
Carolina won last night. I got tired and went to bed but the game was terrific.

I don't know if Archer can pitch but he sure can market.

Biden's announcement centered on the White Nationalist lunacy at Charlottesville. A little hard to understand, unless it is a sop to the Dem's radical base.

Medicare for all. Forgive all student loans. Free education for all. Replace all petroleum with something else.  We are ambitious. And we must be very, very rich.
Yet, despite these huge problems, we stoop to conquer. There is a strong movement to allow felons to vote. That is a boutique problem. 

Kate Smith. These people are not kidding. One of the most successful organizations in one of the most racist sports in modern American history has excommunicated and banished Kate Smith because she sang a silly song. I do not know what virtue signaling is but I sure know what hypocrisy is.

Ford Motor Co said on Wednesday it will invest $500 million in U.S. electric vehicle startup Rivian Automotive LLC, joining Amazon.com Inc in backing the potential rival to Silicon Valley's Tesla Inc.
Tesla's market value is around $45 billion, while Ford's market cap is just under $38 billion. In mid-day trade, Ford shares were flat at $9.50, while those of Tesla were down a fraction at $263.07.

                               Is Sweden socialist?

Sweden is the 6th most protective of private property rights, of all the nations in the world. By comparison, the U.S. is 25th most protective.

At present, Sweden is the 19th most capitalist country in the world, measured based on property rights, trade openness, and freedom to use stock to create new corporations. In fact, Sweden is in the top 15 most capitalist nations in terms of property rights, financial freedom, and business freedom. Most sectors are largely unregulated, and the freedom to move capital makes Sweden among the most capitalist nations in the world.

As the figure below shows, this change was sharp, and intentional. Between 1999 and 2001, Sweden deregulated most of its economy, sold off most of its dinosaur-slow state-owned enterprises, and converted substantial parts of its welfare commitments into private systems.

Generated from the 2019 Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom

 

These stats are from Munger, in a nice little summary here:

https://www.aier.org/article/capitalism-saved-sweden