I didn't get much done today. Just wasn't as productive as I should have been. I'll try to make up for it tomorrow.
I did go to the gym to do the workout Josh prescribed. He put together 12 workouts I do in a cycle and today's was payback for something. I'm not sure what I did but it must have been bad.
I called Steve and he hasn't ordered the brake drums and tie rod ends yet. He's waiting until he's ready to order parts for an engine job he's doing which will save money on shipping charges. He'll probably do that next week. No worries. I've got lots of church work and chores to keep my busy until then.
Too much depressing news. If smoke suggests fire and more smoke means more certainty of fire, Herman Cain is a conflagration. Then there's the mess at Penn State. Say it ain't so, Joe Pa. The only explanation seems to be that the obsession with sports success trumped human decency and protecting children from evil.
The Dept. of Agriculture announced a 15-cent tax on fresh cut Christmas trees designed to fund a promotional program for the tree industry. It met almost immediate opposition and a day after introducing it the administration cancelled it.
Besides the obvious - this was just a stupid idea doomed from the start - it illustrates the Obama administration's inclination to meddle with free enterprise. Cf. Solyndra. Whether it's the tree industry or the solar energy industry the govt. has no business favoring one business over another. When they do somebody gets an unfair competitive advantage and that isn't good for anyone. It allows the recipients of the govt.'s largesse to make unwise decisions because they're playing with house money. It handicaps those with what may be superior designs or skills, kicking them to the back of the entrepreneurial bus. And it draws taxpayers into this witches brew by using our tax dollars whether we like it or even know about it.
The free market system is Darwinian. It works cruelly but efficiently. History has shown that govt. has a role to play, like prohibiting monopolies. But the limits of that role are very narrow. This administration seems to believe it possesses the wisdom to decide which businesses and industries warrant special assistance and which businesses and industries should be, in effect, penalized through no fault of their own.
Wrong. Dangerous to the free market system.
Did you read that Walmart plans to enter the healthcare business? Yep. That's who I want to trust with my health!
1 comment:
The actual history of monopolies is that typically government created them through subsidies, regulation that choked competition, or outright gifting. See 19th century railroads (read Gabriel Lasko for more), Standard Oil, Ma Bell, Power Companies, etc. The truth about monopolies is that because they are motivated by laziness as opposed to greed (the laziness of not having to work to gain customers) they are unsustainable in a neutral marketplace. The real government role in the market is to provide courts to help enforce contracts, punish fraud and negligence, and regulate a fair currency. IMO
Mike H.
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