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The Freeman, May 2013

The Foundation for Economic Education's flagship publication, The Freeman arrived in the post box yesterday and it is packed with great stuff as usual.

Here's a few I'm looking forward to reading:

Bitcoin for Beginners
APRIL 02, 2013 by JEFFREY A. TUCKER

Bitcoin is a revolutionary example of entrepreneurial awareness solving the problems caused by the State.

John Galt at the Treasury Department
MARCH 28, 2013 by LAWRENCE W. REED

Andrew Mellon created wealth and wanted to unleash private enterprise. He puts his critics, who only want to seize and redistribute, to shame.

Binding the Muse
MARCH 22, 2013 by SARAH SKWIRE

The tension between rules designed in advance and those that emerge from trial and error lies at the heart of the human experience, from poetry to civilization.

Read it all here…

Subscribe here…

Lessons in Freedom: Barbaric Conduct in London

by Tibor R. Machan

The apparent murderer in London declared on a video that "The only reasons we killed this man ... is because Muslims are dying daily," he said in video aired by CNN affiliate ITN.

Of course, this is a dodge, once again: “we” didn’t kill this man. The guy with the bloody hands and cleaver did that.  And there was every reason to think this was barbaric: no trial, no evidence, no due process, no defense mounted, nothing.  It is in the jungle where matters are handled like they were in London this time.  That others carry on comparably is no excuse.

The mere fact that the apparent killer--and he admitted to being the one--spoke reasonably clear English doesn’t make this any less barbaric.  After all, many vicious murderers are well enough educated.  Nor is it any excuse that “Muslims are dying daily.” People are dying daily everywhere but none of that justifies going out and butchering other people.

And please don’t give me that ridiculous excuse of “blow-back.” That metaphor is absurd.  We aren’t talking about the weather! We are witnessing an out of control young man lash out in a most uncivilized fashion.There is no excuse for that.  If you cannot bring those you are charging with murder to justice, you need to stand down, not go crazy with a cleaver.  You need to insist on handling the situation in accordance with principles of justice.  Oh, I guess this was wild justice.  But that’s no justice at all unless nothing else is possible.  But in London if you know of a crime and work hard to bring a culprit to justice, it may take some time and patience but that what amounts to being civilized.  (Just consider how long many who are accused of a crime linger in prison or jail!)

May 23, 2013

We are delighted to present Lessons in Freedom, essays by Dr. Tibor Machan, for your pleasure.

Dr. Machan holds the R. C. Hoiles Chair in Business Ethics & Free Enterprise at Chapman University's Argyros School of B&E.

Visit his web site here...

EDAPP a new acronym for the PLP

I'm not sure why, but bad public policy - government policy - is something that gets my goat. Maybe because the taxpayer has to pay for the folly.

Many of the public policies implemented by the FNM between 2007 and 2012 raised my ire and provided topics for discussion. Or should I say venting?

But let's take a look at some of the policy considerations by the PLP government since regaining power just twelve months ago:

Straw Market
It was bad enough that the FNM government built it for millions of dollars, but they implemented a proper management system to ensure the tenants paid their rent, like in the real world. The PLP are elected and now remove the manager they appointed who was attempting to collect the rent or toss the tenants out.

NIB Audit
It appeared that the PLP when in Opposition did not like the idea of making sure people paid the requisite tax, nor the funds taken from employees. So they wanted the CEO out. Instead of buying his contract out, we were subjected to months of innuendo and rumour, and a Forensic Audit at the fabulous fee of about $800,000.

Gambling Referendum
Approximately $1,000,000,000 was spent on an opinion poll to legalise gambling houses that have business licenses and have been operating for decades.

Buying the old City Market Building with NIB funds
The PLP have considered buying this building that has been abandoned for some seven years now at a reportedly inflated price.

Paying the severance of former City Market Employees
The PLP were giving positive signs to the former City Market employees that they might pay them the severance due by the private company. A dangerous precendent indeed.

I'm sure there will be more if we dig a little deeper, but for these few things alone they seem desperate to prove that we can beleive they are Even Dumber At Public Policy than the FNM.

Go figure.

Mark Steyn: Quote of the month

"Big Government is erecting a panopticon state — one that sees everything, and regulates everything. It’s great “customer service,” except that you can never get out of the store." Mark Steyn

Read more here...

Why do we treat illegals like they're less than human? Are they not men and our brothers?

I realise that most races have been held as slaves at one time or another, and the practice continues today in some parts of the world, but one of the most dastardly parts of the Atlantic slave trade was how fellow human beings were treated as as if they less than men and women.

And it seems that many of us feel the same way about illegal Haitians here in The Bahamas.

We hear it in disparaging conversations about Haitians and we see it in the way they are rounded up by the Immigration Department when they decide to do their raids.

Oh I agree they are illegal and we must deal with it, but do we have to pretend these people are not human beings?

Watching a Minister of Immigration dressed in army fatigues during a pick up or herding and storing these folks in a manner not becoming of ourselves is not worthy of a "Christian nation".

While I realise "There has always been a love hate relationship between Bahamians and Haitians. We love them when they do the physical labour we don't want to do, but hate them when they start to aspire to do more for themselves," and we can't continue to have shanty towns etc, but when last have we heard a constructive debate about it in Parliament? Ever?

But I digress. Read more here… and here…

We have to treat each other as if we are human.

As the logo above, designed for the British anti slavery movement by Josiah Wedgewood, asks, "Am I Not A Man And A Brother?"

This is a question we should be asking ourselves when we know in our hearts we treat Haitians like they are not.

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(Click on the image to read an essay by Lawrence W. Reed, of the Foundation for Economic Education (Fee.org) entitled, A Student's Essay That Changed The World.)

Lessons in Freedom: Moral Bias at The New York Times

by Tibor R. Machan

The headline said it all: “Confusion and Staff Troubles Rife at I.R.S. Office in Ohio.” No mention of mendacity, of evil, of meanness, of vice, Nada.

For liberals their own pals are never morally amiss.  They may make mistakes, be confused and have troubles.  But guilty of malpractice never!  Only Republicans and others who do not share their own attitudes can possibly be morally, ethically defective. When a Republican votes for reducing increases in welfare budgets or subsidies or other support for what liberals consider right and proper, the problem lies with their moral fiber, their lack of decency and good will.  Not so with anything that liberals mismanage--that can only be due to some kind of technical malfeasance--”confusion and staff troubles.”

How do these folks manage, intellectually, to dodge the moral and ethical ire they are so eager to dish out at their opponents?

In liberal circles what is prominent when matters go awry is to give some kind of explanation--poverty, illness, ignorance, the bad influence of culture or the movies or whatever.  Liberals must--yes, must--always be basically good,  Their intentions are unfailingly impeccable.  They always mean well.  Accordingly, since it is the thought that counts, they are always innocent.  Hope, audacious hope, is what makes one a good person, never mind how botched up one’s actions and even beliefs turn out to be, never mind what actually is accomplished with one’s preferred policies!

There is a prominent moral philosophical doctrine that this line of thinking follows.  Immanuel Kant, the very famous and influential 18th century German philosopher, believed that human beings can only be morally good, praiseworthy, based on their intentions.  It is their thought that makes them decent or indecent, not their actions or conduct. What they actually do is irrelevant to whether they are good or bad folks because, and here is the essence of the doctrine, there is ultimately no choice there; we must do what we do.  Free will for Kant has nothing to do with choosing our actions, only with choosing our thoughts.  The mind is free, in this minimal way, but it has no practical impact on human action.  The world moves in accordance with deterministic laws, of physics, chemistry, astronomy, etc., etc.  We cannot change anything apart from what we think.  So we can only be credited for good thoughts, good intentions, of which liberals, of course, have plenty.

The story is rather complex but this is the gist of it.  This, mainly, is why The New York Times cannot even fathom liberals being morally guilty of anything. They always intend the best, never mind that they pay very little attention to the likely outcome.  In the end, outcomes just happen and we have nothing to do with them.

The IRS folks, for example, just did their jobs and the fact that those jobs contained the seeds of malpractice--given that selectivity is always involved in giving citizens exemptions and breaks and such--is irrelevant.

In contrast, Republicans and their ilk never think right.  They are worried about costs and whether a policy works and such, all mundane matters that people of genuine good will never bother about.  It is petty thinking, not the noble kind that liberals produce!

May 19, 2013

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Tibor R. Machan holds the R. C. Hoiles Chair in Business Ethics and Free Enterprise at the Argyros School of Chapman University. http://tibormachan.rationalreview.com/  & http://szatyor2693.wordpress.com/

 

Sen. Rand Paul Defends Apple and berates the US "Bazaar and Byzantine tax code"

Sen. Paul defended the job-creating efforts Apple has made and lambasted his fellow Members for perpetuating a U.S. tax code that hinders corporate growth and productivity.

He asks, how many politicians do not try to minimise their taxes? If it's legal, why the spectacle?

Do you support the conclusion suggested by Mencken?

Beware the "planners"

So with every passing generation, we're told we just need one more government programme to fix our problems.

Oh every adjective known to man is used to describe the greedy business people and how they must be brought under control etc, etc,

But with government related issues, whatever problems can't be resolved is typically the fault of the former governing party and the answer is more of the same public policies that got us where we are at.

As Francisco Flores, former President of El Salvador pointed out "Governing is not an applause contest. It has ethical imperatives that demand honesty when facing problems…"

That's what the campaign trail is about. Once elected, solutions become necessary. Unfortunately, more government is seldom the answer.

Yet, we get one fiasco after another and there is never an honest reflection or accounting of the results of a government programme. So, as stated earlier, we get another government programme to expand the already failing or failed policy.

After all, politicians don't use their money to provide perverse incentives, they use taxpayer dollars, or continue to pile on the deficits and debt, which ultimately lead to a higher tax burden.

Seldom, if ever, is there proper reflection. Like Messrs Buchanan and Wagner, though, "We remain firm in our faith that Americans Bahamians can shape their own destiny."

The following quote from Democracy in Deficit (pdf) by Dr. James M. Buchanan and Dr. Richard E. Wagner seems appropriate:

"Like the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come, we hope that our conditional predictions will come to be refuted. We hope that our institutions and practices may be reformed in time to prevent ``what may be'' becoming ``what is.'' Like Robert Frost's traveler, we confront a choice between alternative roads.
On the one side, there lies the falsely attractive path toward ``national economic planning,'' a choice that would have us allow government to go beyond traditional bounds because it has failed even to fulfill its more limited promises. On the other side, there is the way of the free society, of men and women living within a constitutional contract that also keeps governments in well-chosen harness. This way, so well understood by Americans two centuries past, has been obscured by the underbrush of burgeoning bureaucracy. Will we, like Robert Frost's traveler, choose the road less traveled?"

It falls upon individuals in society to keep government in check. Particularly those of us that see the false prophecy of the fruit of an even larger government. History shows us that it's very sour.

Beware the planners.

How the World views One Little Country called The Bahamas

By S3S

Having promulgated my thoughts about The Bahamas in a number of Blogs over the past 12 months that included coverage from my perspective of the multitude of 'evils' facing our little country (thus far 12 and counting ….), I thought it might be appropriate to provide pointers to what the 'world' thinks of us.

I do this because Governments are very easy targets; they reside in the public spotlight ('fish bowl') and cannot avoid the incessant public stare, despite sometimes going to extremes to hide their decisions and actions.  So it is right that alternative views should be offered that would tend to 'balance' the picture, especially if objective commentary is provided from those with vested and no vested interests. My thoughts could then be properly contextualised and the precarious position we are in reconfirmed or rejected/denied outright.

I think all would agree, however, that we are in a global competition that intensifies by the day and are competing from an increasingly weakening position, as precious internal resources (human and social capital) diminish and mismanagement of the resulting fewer resources continues at a regular pace. One of the main resources being diminished is a knowledgeable and educated population that can drive a talented workforce that will be attractive to a more diverse Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).  I have identified evils over the past year or so that I have headlined 'GIANT Evils' in my Blogs, in an attempt to promulgate my thinking on these issues, which include but are not limited to: Lack of a National Vision; Crime & Anti-social Behaviour; Declining Education; Economic Misfocus; Economic Dependence; Food Insecurity; Health & Welfare; Natural Disasters; Political Indecision; Need for Labour Reform (Unions and Collective Bargaining); Socio-political Reality; and the Immorality & Hypocrisy which inheres our population.

With regard to the issues listed below, these are the views of others, in particular, international, regional and local agencies, supra-governmental and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including the United Nations (UN), World Bank (WB); International Monetary Fund (IMF); Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and other agencies that gather and analyse data on countries on an ongoing basis. The indicators include governance, ease of doing business, corruption, failed states index and human development, inter alia. They are in no particular order (though I have tried to lump together the more general indicators at the start):

1. World Governance Indicators

http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/sc_chart.asp http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/gov.htm

http://www.iadb.org/datagob/

** The Bahamas - Business Freedom of 72.5 (above regional average of 63.7)

2. UNESCO Statistics

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/efareport/statistics/statistical-tables/

The long statistical table is particularly instructive

3. Ease of Doing Business

http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings

http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/bahamas

** The Bahamas is ranked 77^th out of 185 countries overall but 179^th for ‘registering property’ and 123^rd for ‘enforcing contracts’. What can we infer from these two rankings?

4. Corruption Index
http://www.transparency.org/cpi2012/in_detail  http://www.transparency.org/cpi2012/results  

** The Bahamas is ranked 22^nd with a score of 73, not bad, not bad at all.

5. Small Island Developing State (SIDS) Ranking

http://www.sidsnet.org/

http://www.un.org/special-rep/ohrlls/sid/statistics.htm

6. Failed States Index

http://ffp.statesindex.org/ http://www.foreignpolicy.com/failed_states_index_2012_interactive

** The Bahamas is ranked 134^th with a score of 55.1, not bad, not bad at all (c.f. Somalia ranks #1)

7. Human Development Index (HDI)

http://www.un.org/special-rep/ohrlls/sid/HDI-SIDS.pdf

** The Bahamas is ranked 6^th with a score of 41, and in ‘high human development’ column

8. Trade Liberalisation

http://www.gatt.org/trastat_e.html

http://www.oecd.org/tad/tradeliberalisation.htm

http://ec.europa.eu/development/icenter/repository/scanned_bs_csp10_en.pdf

Are we on the right track?

9. National Economic Indicators - GDP per capita

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/bahamas/indicators http://www.tradingeconomics.com/bahamas/gdp-per-capita

Compare any two years, e.g. 2004 to 2012 to see the trend 

10. Debt-to-GDP Ratio

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/country-list/government-debt-to-gdp

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/bahamas/government-debt-to-gdp

Important here to look at the trend lines for each country; again, can compare years

11. GDP Growth

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/country-list/gdp-annual-growth-rate

Compare any two years to see the trend

12. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) attraction

UNCTAD World Investment Report 2012

http://www.unctad-docs.org/files/UNCTAD-WIR2012-Full-en.pdf

Patently small in stature, we nonetheless figure prominently in many of the above indices. On the surface, we appear to be an extremely wealthy little country, but when we dig a bit deeper, we can infer from trends that our vaulted position of the past is slowly ebbing away.  Also, there is no thought given to emerging social issues that might be masked by this apparent decline in wealth. Together the indices paint a mixed picture, but as stated at the start, it is for you to make up your own minds.

© S3S