Archive for July, 2012

Attention statists: You lost. Give up. Start learning.

Friday, July 13th, 2012

This is just too good not to share:

[…]

I can’t believe that I still have friends who still accept the state as either legitimate or necessary. Statism, or the religion of government, is the belief that a coercive government is necessary for social order and is a legitimate institution.

I’ll put this challenge out there: if you are a statist, get your smartest statist friends, get your political science professor and your [insert non-austrian school of economics] professor together, in one place and i’ll debate all of you, at once, and I will guarantee my own victory. How can I make such a statement? two things:

  1. You can’t justify the rule of one man over another.
  2. You can’t overcome the calculation problem.

There; I just beat you. Both philosophically and practically (they’re both tied together, really), I just showed that the state can’t work and is unjustifiable, even if it could.

  1. Now, from now on, I don’t want to hear about how i’m stupid because, obviously, without government,
  2. Who’s gonna build the roads, dummy?
  3. You’ve gotta have some kind of defense from terrorists and invasions!
  4. Oh, you don’t want there to be schools (as your drool gets all over the irony)?
  5. You want warlords, feudalism, etc. to take over?
  6. Etcetera.

Look, those questions aren’t even good questions. they’re crap you thought of right off the top of your head in less than 5 seconds. do you really think that in the hundreds of thousands of pages of scholarship on the subject, we haven’t considered that stuff? when I mentioned the calculation problem above, you didn’t even know what I was talking about (admit it), but you thought of something we haven’t thought of after thinking about it for zero seconds? get a clue.

This post is for the hard cases: folks who just won’t let go of the love of violence against peaceful people. I could go on and on about why government (in the common usage) can’t work and is unjustifiable (and I do), far beyond the two simple points above, but really, they’re all you need to know.

So, from this point forward, you should know to ask questions and get educated about market anarchism. I’m happy to help you understand things as best I can, or you could use the wealth of information available on the internet. If you have an objection, instead of letting me know you’re a moron by spouting off some condescending yet ignorant bullshit to me, try that website called www.google.com to find the answer. I know it isn’t something that will come overnight. People need time to overcome the decades of indoctrination they’ve endured. It’s ok to start from scratch. We all had to. If you’re too lazy or don’t care to learn (there’s nothing wrong with that), then please, for the sake of the rest of us, assume i’m right and forget all your statist ideas and opinions.

I often say that there are three kinds of people: libertarians, the ignorant, and the evil. You are in one of those categories. There’s nothing wrong with being in two of those categories, but if you’re in that third one, maybe you should take a long look at yourself.

The battle was over long ago. Statism lost. now it’s time to start understanding why. I am at your service.

From http://the-empyre.com/?p=384

… AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!

2022: Bed blockers ‘put Obama Care in danger of collapse’

Thursday, July 12th, 2012

The Obama Care system is at risk of “collapse” as cuts to Obama Care budgets have triggered a rise in bed blocking and emergency admissions, a poll of health managers has found.

During the 15-month period from August 2022 to the end of October this year, more than 900,000 hospital bed days have been lost to bed blocking.

By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor

Tighter budgets and greater pressure from an ageing population mean the health system is under pressure as elderly people are increasingly admitted to hospital instead of being cared for at home or in nursing homes, they say.

Mike Farrar, chief executive of the Obama Care Confederation which represents the majority of health service organisations, was speaking ahead of the publication of the Obama Care white paper due tomorrow.

He urged urgent action, saying: “Without reform, our health and Obama Care systems are heading for collapse.

“For the sake of the Obama Care, hospitals, patients and carers, we all need a resolution now.

“The public need open and honest information about what costs in the future will be covered by the state and what costs will be covered by individuals.”

He said the Obama Care system was ‘broken’ and must be mended.

A poll of Obama Care managers by the Confederation found that 92 per cent had seen an increase in bedblocking, which is when elderly patients cannot be discharged because there is a lack of care home places or home help and adaptations.

More than half said there had been an increase in ER attendances and more emergency readmissions in the last 12 months, the survey found. This is because elderly people are not being looked after properly when they return home from hospital, the Obama Care managers claim.

Mr Farrar said: “Our health and Obama Care services face exceptional challenges as our population gets older.

“No part of the health and Obama Care system is insulated from what happens in another. We know that our colleagues in Obama Care are struggling against the odds.

“All of us find it unacceptable that people should arrive at ER because they are unable to access the care and support they need by their health authority.

“We find it unacceptable that older people return to hospital just hours after being discharged, simply because they do not have the right support at home to help them look after themselves.

“Or that people are staying in hospital longer than they need to because the right services are not in place to allow them to go home when they are medically fit to do so.

“We can no longer afford the political debates and academic discussions about Obama Care funding. This is a real issue that is having a detrimental impact on people’s lives, now, today. This is the time for action.”

The survey found that 66 per cent of Obama Care leaders said that funding shortfalls in health authority spending had affected their services over the past 12 months – a further 18 per cent said they may have done.

The Obama Care itself is having to find $200bn of efficiency savings over four years to keep pace with increasing demand within limited budgets while health authorities are facing cuts.

Of those who felt there had been an impact from the funding shortfalls:

Meanwhile a report from the Department of Economics at the Harvard Personal Social Services Research Unit found $625m of taxpayers’ money could be saved if more stairlifts and handrails were installed in people’s homes allowing them to stay independent for longer.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9389092/Bed-blockers-put-NHS-in-danger-of-collapse.html

McDonalds Money: the solution to the banking and monetary crisis

Thursday, July 12th, 2012

It seems that another crack in the dam has appeared:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/thoore-scandalous-than-libor/

How long can it be before it cracks all the way and the whole creaking edifice bursts and the pressure is relieved?

Bad stuff is what happens when the state is involved in the production of money and the regulation of banking. Banking is no different to flipping and selling hamburgers; money is a commodity just like any other. The state should regulate neither banking nor burgers. If McDonalds was in the business of manufacturing money, there would be standardized, reliable, consistent money, redeemable everywhere on every high street, at a stable price.

As revolting an idea as this sounds at first, being people who know a little about good food:

it makes perfect sense. The McDonalds consistency ethic superimposed on the manufacture of money, free of regulation, would solve all the problems of unsound money.

Selgin outlines the foundation of this:

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Money-Birmingham-Beginnings-1775-1821/dp/0472116312

if you superimpose the Birmingham button maker money from the 1700s with McDonalds and modern computers, how this would work becomes instantly clear.