Monthly Archives: April 2010

Size, Scope, and Fragility

Posted on Wed, 21 Apr, 2010 by pmjones

This fragility of tumescent government is what many otherwise thoughtful commentators fail to notice. They think that we can solve our problems with a value-added tax (VAT) or with a fiscal reform commission. Instead, I believe that the problem is … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Emergence | Leave a comment

Lower and Simplify Taxes!

Posted on Thu, 15 Apr, 2010 by pmjones

The tax code has grown so complex that today most Americans hire someone to do their taxes. For the money I pay my accountant, I could get a hundred massages. I could buy a fancy motorcycle. I could take a … Continue reading →

Posted in Taxes | Leave a comment

Washington will spend $31,406 per household this year (Heritage Foundation)

Posted on Tue, 13 Apr, 2010 by pmjones

Washington will spend $31,406 per household in 2010 – the highest level in American history (adjusted for inflation). It will collect $18,276 per household in taxes. The remaining $13,130 represents this year’s staggering budget deficit per household … Washington will … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Government, Liberty, Serfdom | 3 Comments

Progressives can’t get past the Knowledge Problem

Posted on Mon, 12 Apr, 2010 by pmjones

Waxman and his colleagues in Congress can't possibly understand the health care market well enough to fix it. But what's more striking is that Waxman's outraged reaction revealed that they don't even understand their own area of responsibility – regulation … Continue reading →

Posted in Emergence, Government, Health Care, Liberty, Serfdom, Smart | 3 Comments

Does Software Development Have A Culture Of Rewarding Failure?

Posted on Sun, 11 Apr, 2010 by pmjones

Why yes, yes it does. Crappy, death-march projects are routine in software development. Projects begin with unrealistic expectations, concrete commitments are made based on estimates and information that is far from concrete. And when things inevitably go pear-shaped developers cop … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Programming | Leave a comment

Up from Slavery

Posted on Sun, 11 Apr, 2010 by pmjones

A very insightful essay from Reason magazine. The concluding paragraph: We often focus on the size of government, as measured in percentage of GDP taxed and spent by the government, which is an important and measurable concept. But our real … Continue reading →

Posted in Civil Rights, Government, Liberty, Serfdom, Taxes | Leave a comment

Why I Prefer Markets Over Government

Posted on Thu, 08 Apr, 2010 by pmjones

This piece is about Malthusian panics, with special reference to climate-change panic, but there is a beautiful general-purpose gem of a paragraph buried in the essay: Perhaps one way to think of humanity is to think of a vast parallel … Continue reading →

Posted in Civil Rights, Economics, Emergence, Government, Liberty, Resilience, Science, Smart | Leave a comment

Nearly half of US households escape fed income tax

Posted on Thu, 08 Apr, 2010 by pmjones

Tax cuts enacted in the past decade have been generous to wealthy taxpayers, too, making them a target for President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress. Less noticed were tax cuts for low- and middle-income families, which were expanded when … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Liberty, Politics, Serfdom, Taxes | Leave a comment

A VAT Is Coming

Posted on Wed, 07 Apr, 2010 by pmjones

That is, a value-added tax. This is a tax applied to every transfer of goods and services between businesses, and between businesses and consumers. Charles Krauthammer predicted it on Fri 26 Mar: As the night follows the day, VAT follows … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Government, Health Care, Serfdom, Taxes | Leave a comment

The Moral Superiority of Free Trade

Posted on Tue, 06 Apr, 2010 by pmjones

Over the last year or so, I have attempted to show that for free traders to win the “great trade debate,” they must rethink their current, data-driven approach. This means that before getting into all of the fancy charts and … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Liberty | Leave a comment