Monthly Archives: March 2011

Who are the poor?

open quoteWhen we hear of the poor, we envision a massive group of people without food and shelter. In reality, most of the poor in capitalistic countries such as the United States are not in such a state. Data from a recent census reveals that of the official “poor”:[1]

* 76 percent have air conditioning.
* 66 percent have more than two rooms of living space per person.
* 97 percent own at least one color television.
* 62 percent have either cable or satellite television.
* Almost 75 percent of households own a car (30 percent own two or more).
* 73 percent own microwave ovens.
* More than 50 percent have stereos.
* 33 percent have automatic dishwashers.
* 99 percent have refrigerators.
* Virtually none lack running water or flushing toilets.
* 46 percent own their own home, the average of which is a three bedroom house with 1.5 baths, that has a carport and porch or patio, and the average value of which is 70 percent of the median American home.

If we observe our presumably poorest citizens on our public transportation systems we see that they have cell phones, adequate clothing, personal audio devices, and are generally clean and free of disease and deformities. They also have the comfort of using a heated and air-conditioned transportation car that has carpet and flat-panel televisions for their amusement (paid for primarily by the wealthy, of course).

If you were to compare these American poor to the poor in Bolivia, Honduras, Cambodia, or India (or even to many of the poor in Mexico, Romania, Thailand, and Russia), you would see a stark difference. The poor in these countries often literally live in open-air huts with large leaves for roofs and stacked bricks that serve as a shared stove for multiple families. For the poor of the third-world countries, there is, for the most part, no money, no exchange of goods — just basic survival by subsistence farming or by hunting or fishing for food. To these people, American street sweepers and factory workers live a life of luxury.close quote (Read more from mises.org)

DHS: We Have the Authority to Routinely Strip-Search Air Travelers

open quoteThe Department of Homeland Security told a federal court that the agency believes it has the legal authority to strip-search every air traveler. The agency made the claim at oral argument in EPIC’s lawsuit to suspend the airport body scanner program. The agency also stated that it believed a mandatory strip-search rule could be instituted without any public comment or rulemaking. EPIC President Marc Rotenberg urged the Washington, DC appeals court to suspend the body scanner program, noting that the devices are “uniquely intrusive” and ineffective.close quote (Read more from lewrockwell.com)

See Also: TSA propaganda shows off the puppies which will eventually be used to harass & intimidate travelers

Larry Summers: Natural Disasters boost the economy

A friend of mine: open quoteAny time you think that the government employs people who are in any way cognizant of reality…remember this: High ranking Obomba economic adviser claims tsunami could “temporarily boost” the japanese and global economy. Broken window fallacy…did anyone fail to learn this in econ 101? if you burn down your house and have to build another, are you better off? close quote

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Tsunami an economic disaster? Not necessarily
open quoteHONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The natural disaster of a tsunami could actually provide a temporary boost to the global economy.

Larry Summers, former director of President Obama’s economic council and a former head of the World Bank, said rebuilding could temporarily boost the Japanese economy.

Summers suggested this in an interview Friday on CNBC. He added that the global economy is more resilient than most people think.

In Hawaii, disruptive weather events are good for some businesses but bad for others.

Stores that sell generators and hardware supplies experience a run on these items when a tsunami or bad weather approach; other retailers find their usual sales interrupted as people focus on evacuating and stockpiling essential supplies instead of their usual shopping.

HawaiiNewsNow correspondent Tannya Joaquin found three gas stations that had run out of fuel more than an hour before the first harbor wave was to have arrived.

The tsunami is an expense item for hotels, which have extensive plans in place to take care of guests’ needs, usually through “vertical evacuation,” escorting guests at least three stories up. Much of the expense comes from bringing in extra people to take care of guests.close quote (from hawaiinewsnow.com)

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Larry Summers needs to take a break from corrupting the minds of Harvard students and see what the outside of classroom looks like. He can start by reading this:

Natural Disasters, It Turns Out, Are Bad
open quoteIt seems that we may never rid ourselves of the broken-window fallacy.

Hurricane Katrina certainly did not stop economists from proclaiming the silver lining of natural disasters. On September 9, 2005, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao told USA Today that demand could create a labor shortage that could push up wage rates and that “We’re going to see a tremendous boom in construction.” On December 3rd, 2005, Nigel Gault, chief domestic economist at Global Insight, said, “We are now at the point where Hurricane Katrina’s effects are adding to job creation rather than detracting from it.”

And it’s not only that disasters just have a silver lining: economists have long believed that natural disasters and wars are actually good for the economy! Until recently they have not made any attempt to empirically test their views. However, in 2002 Mark Skidmore and Hideki Toya published a paper where they found a positive correlation between disasters and human capital, productivity, and GDP growth.

Now the good news. A recently published paper in Economic Inquiry by Cuaresma, Hlouskova, and Obersteiner brings the positive benefits of disasters into question. Not only does it counter the silver lining of new construction jobs, it also finds that disasters actually subtract from economic performance. In addition the paper provides clues to the entire confusion over this issue.

Economists have generally rested their case for the benefits of disasters on “creative destruction,” but our authors are quick to point out that Schumpeter’s view of creative destruction is one that is driven by competition, where those associated with disasters are not; they are just destruction.close quote (Read more from mises.org)

10 Justifications for slavery and government

These are 10 arguments which were once used to justify slavery. Today, very similar arguments are used to justify government.

open quoteSlavery existed for thousands of years, in all sorts of societies and all parts of the world. To imagine human social life without it required an extraordinary effort. Yet, from time to time, eccentrics emerged to oppose it, most of them arguing that slavery is a moral monstrosity and therefore people should get rid of it. Such advocates generally elicited reactions ranging from gentle amusement to harsh scorn and even violent assault.

When people bothered to give reasons for opposing the proposed abolition, they advanced various ideas. Here are ten such ideas I have encountered in my reading. . . .close quote (Read more from mises.org)