The China house of cards may be starting to collapse. I’ve been expecting it for a while now, but I suspect it will confound a lot of the China-boosters out there (Thomas Friedman, please come to the white courtesy… See the article here: DOOM: When the feeling’s gone and you can’t go on
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DOOM: When the feeling’s gone and you can’t go on
Sometimes the explanation for vexing problems is clear as can be after you see it. A perfect example is an observation made by the late Milton Friedman in a 2004 interview with Fox News: There are four ways to spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why you really watch out for what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well then, I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost. Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m going to have a good lunch! Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it costs, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government. And that’s close to 40 percent of our national income. It would be nearly impossible to exaggerate how many of our current economic problems are explained by Friedman’s four ways of spending money. Think of the four ways in the order they’re presented as S1, S2, S3, and S4. As Friedman explains, the effectiveness of how money is spent declines inexorably as you move from S1 to S4. The important demarcation line in ways money can be spent is between S2 and S3. In other words, the issue that matters most is your money versus someone else’s money. If you’re spending your own money on someone else, your spouse or children, for example, you still take the expenditure seriously. You still pay a price if you don’t look for bargains. A new Gallup survey finds that “Americans believe, on average, that the federal government wastes 51 cents of every tax dollar, similar to a year ago, but up significantly from 46 cents a decade ago and from an average 43 cents three decades ago.” This is a good example of “the wisdom of crowds.” The trend shows that the crowd is wising up regarding the implications of gargantuan government. The survey respondents are correct in their assessment of how government spends money, and you need go no further than Friedman’s distinctions of how to spend money in understanding the source of the problem. My guess would be that many of the respondents would think the government doesn’t necessarily need to waste half the public’s money. The problem, however, is it’s the nature of the beast. Because of the realities Friedman refers to, the government will never be able to spend money as effectively as the private sector. The problems associated with how the government spends money are not the result of who’s running the government. The problems are systemic. Unless government is seriously downsized, waste and inefficiency will remain problems no matter which party is in power. The source of the problem can be further clarified by keeping in mind the observations of another economist, Steven Landsburg: “Most of economics can be summarized in four words: People respond to incentives.” (That’s the first sentence in his excellent book, The Armchair Economist .) The incentives for spending money wisely and efficiently are simply too weak when it’s not your own money. It’s no skin off your nose if the benefits of the expenditure are a small fraction of the costs. When it’s your own funds being used, you will not only restrict your expenditures to things having more benefits than costs, you will choose the ones you think will have the highest ratio of benefits to costs. When it’s your own money you’re spending, it costs you something when you spend it foolishly. That’s not to say that we never spend our own money foolishly, but it comes out of our own hides when we do. When we spend our own money foolishly, we’re left with less money to spend well. It’s a self-policing structure. Of course, your incentives are even stronger when you worked hard for the money in question. When a politician or bureaucrat spends taxpayer money it’s treated essentially a freebie. It’s only natural that taxpayer money gets treated like monopoly money. Politicians and bureaucrats have virtually no incentive to care about the value of an expenditure or its cost. This is a profound disadvantage of public spending that will never, ever go away. Contrary to the straw-man accusations of some liberals, conservatives do not advocate zero government expenditures. Conservatives
“Heavily edited and deceptive” is the phrase that comes to mind, for some reason : In sum, Brad Friedman’s splashy claim about Charles Koch comparing the President to Saddam Hussein is false and Mother Jones really has no leg to stand on refusing to correct it. Shocking and disappointing! Given Brad’s well-known penchant for accuracy at the expense of partisanship, you can expect a correction posthaste.
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Brad Friedman’s Video Expose of the Kochs: Misleading
From, where else, but the New York Times: The Earth Is Full By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN June 7, 2011 You really do have to wonder whether a few years from now we’ll look back at the first decade of the 21st century — when food prices spiked, energy prices soared, world population surged, tornados plowed See the rest here: (Luddite) Friedman Says ‘The Earth Is Full’
See the rest here:
(Luddite) Friedman Says ‘The Earth Is Full’
[Welcome, Instapundit readers! This post has information about the anti-speech thuggery of convicted bomber Brett Kimberlin, and his business partner Brad Friedman, against me.] At Big Journalism, Liberty Chick has posted on Think Progress’s whitewashing of convicted bomber Brett Kimberlin from the Chamber of Commerce/HBGary story. She concisely explains the background and echoes my findings regarding Think Progress’s decision to eliminate Kimberlin from the story: Think Progress, a project of John Podesta’s Center for American Progress Action Fund, has been fiercely pushing a story about leaked emails that suggest the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was aware of espionage work being performed against American citizens by one of its private security firms. . . . But the reports are noticeably silent on one crucial component of the story. The primary focus of the Chamber’s investigation was actually none other than the organization known as Velvet Revolution, and one of its co-founders, Brett Kimberlin. Recognize that name? That’s because we told you all about this convicted domestic terrorist, known as the Speedway Bomber, who in 1981 was finally convicted of a week-long bombing spree in Indianapolis, IN in which eight separate bombs caused extensive property damage, destroyed a police cruiser, and severely maimed a man, eventually leading to that man’s suicide. I think Liberty Chick also makes some good observations about the tactics of the firm hired by the Chamber. Understand that they not only gathered information on opponents, but they also spoke of planting false documents purportedly by their enemies. We cannot sanction such activity, and it’s important to say so. Liberty Chick says: In the end, I don’t agree with what HBGary Federal did or how any of the firms involved have handled this. Having been a target of such attacks myself of numerous occasions, I might have actually shared some common ground with folks like Brad Friedman and other leftists on this issue. But the left’s intentional deception makes it so difficult to do so. To that I would add: their deception and their own use of thuggish stalker and harassment tactics makes it difficult to sympathize. Let’s all remember how Brett Kimberlin stalked Karl Rove in a Safeway, conned Rove into posing with him by pretending to be Rove’s fan, and then took a picture of Rove’s car . . . complete with license plate. And let’s all remember how Brad Friedman published those photos on his blog . As I revealed yesterday, Brett Kimberlin has written numerous e-mails to my bosses, complaining about me and calling me a stalker. In his latest, he said: “I have already reported him to the Bar and to the ethics board and have motions in court addressing his reprehensible conduct. He is very close to getting sued and having a criminal complaint filed against him for harassment and stalking.” In addition, two secretaries in my office told me that Kimberlin called them ranting about me, calling me a racist, a stalker, and saying he was going to get a restraining order against me. There is more. And Brad Friedman? He sent a Twitter message to Steve Cooley complaining about me. He and his stooge Ernest Canning are constantly disparaging me in a dishonest manner while using my full name and job title — a tactic they share with the Charles Johnsons and Jeff Goldsteins of the world. There is much, much more to their intimidation tactics. I’m not discussing it all publicly now. Subscribers who want further details are welcome to e-mail me for the full scoop. The stuff I’m not putting in the post is way worse. So, while I totally disagree with the tactics of HBGary Federal, I also totally disagree with the stalkerish, dishonest, and thuggish tactics used by Brad Friedman and his business partner, Speedway Bomber Brett Kimberlin. They are what they decry. Not to mention: setting off bombs is a fairly serious form of harassment. And Kimberlin was convicted of doing that . . . P.S. I should add that this current campaign of harassment is merely a microcosm of what Shirley Sherrod is doing to Andrew Breitbart. Just when he is breaking the Pigford story wide open, Sherrod is suing him. Could it be any clearer what she’s trying to do? Silence him — just like Kimberlin is trying to silence me and Liberty Chick with threats of frivolous litigation. Thank God for people like Andrew Breitbart and Liberty Chick, who stand up for what’s right despite the risks. And for people like Ron Coleman , my lawyer in the Kimberlin matter, for standing up for me. UPDATE: Thanks to Instapundit for the links . Please consider bookmarking the main site , and follow my updates on Twitter here . You can read the other related Think Progress post here . My backgrounder on convicted bomber Brett Kimberlin, who is threatening to sue me for telling the truth about him, is here . He is a serial litigant who has filed over 100 lawsuits, so I am expecting this will happen soon. Finally: although I have pro bono counsel, I would certainly welcome any help towards litigation costs and the cost of local counsel. If you want to help out, the donation buttons are on the right. Please consider becoming a “subscriber” and making a recurring donation of $9 per month. I expect to give special non-public litigation updates to subscribers if the lawsuit is filed.
