better than socialism

For almost fifteen years Dr. Thomas Sowell has been publishing articles in the Jewish World Review. One of his latest essays “Socialist or Fascist?” presents two important thoughts on current politics in the United States and elsewhere. First, Sowell clarifies that unlike many conservatives claim President Obama is not a socialist. Instead he wants government to have greater control of the economy, while leaving ownership of the means of production in private hands. According to Sowell this provides him win a win-win situation:

Thus the Obama administration can arbitrarily force insurance companies to cover the children of their customers until the children are 26 years old. Obviously, this creates favorable publicity for President Obama. But if this and other government edicts cause insurance premiums to rise, then that is something that can be blamed on the “greed” of the insurance companies.

In a second step, Sowell explains the bigger picture of this strategy, the vision of the anointed:

The left’s vision is not only a vision of the world, but also a vision of themselves, as superior beings pursuing superior ends. In the United States, however, this vision conflicts with a Constitution that begins, “We the People…”

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romney’s dad

Here are some thoughts by George W. Romney. Hopefully his son, Republican candidate Mitt Romney, paid attention at home:

The most unusual thing about our country was that when its people faced problems they did not first turn to government. They turned first to their fellow citizen.

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gaffe

You may have heard about President Obama’s recent gaffe. He said the “private sector is doing fine”. And despite the fact that he corrected himself just four hours later, Mitt Romney’s campaign had already exploited Obama’s gaffe.

To me, this whole issue reminded me of a previous post arguing that the 2012 election will be more about style than substance.

Meanwhile, Jon Stewart brilliantly commented on the role of gaffes in American politics:

Jon Stewart Explains the Life Cycle of the Political Gaffe

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new election day

The other day I came across this ingenious idea from Dr. Thomas Sowell:

Elections should be held on April 16th – the day after we pay our income taxes. That is one of the few things that might discourage politicians from being big spenders.

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health insurance

More than a decade ago, Nobel laureate Milton Friedman wrote a comprehensive essay on how to cure the American health care system. It is neither surprising that Congress has not followed any of his proposals, nor that things have not improved at all. Today, most people in the US and elsewhere do not even understand what a health insurance ought to be in general. Thus, with the upcoming presidential election in mind, Friedman’s article is worth reading more than ever:

How to Cure Health Care

We generally rely on insurance to protect us against events that are highly unlikely to occur but that involve large losses if they do occur – major catastrophes, not minor, regularly recurring expenses. […] Yet in medicine, it has become common to rely on insurance to pay for regular medical examinations and often for prescriptions.

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intellectuals

Fortunately, a few weeks ago Dr. Thomas Sowell once again joined Uncommon Knowledge. Together with Peter Robinson he discussed one of his favorite topics, the role of intellectuals in society. If you like, you can watch the whole interview or some highlights below:

Intellect is not wisdom.

All of us only have a narrow range within which we may be great, but a few steps outside that range we are completely lost.

The percentage of cabinet appointments who had experience in the private sector: administration of Dwight Eisenhower almost 60 percent, George W. Bush over 50 percent, Barack Obama barely 20 percent.

The whole discussion reminded me of two other brilliant sentences by Dr. Sowell:

Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.

There is usually only a limited amount of damage that can be done by dull or stupid people. For creating a truly monumental disaster, you need people with high IQs.

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fairness vs opportunity

Recently I found this rather intelligent discussion of inequality issues in the United States. John Stossel talks with Deroy Murdock and Arthur Brooks:

What we have to worry about is mobility, not inequality.

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the 99 percent

Maybe the best thing you can say about the current “Occupy” movements is that they have good intentions. But if this true, I would immediately recall Bernard of Clairvaux’s famous phrase “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

A much more precise description of the protesters might be to call them naive. In a recent article for the Jewish World Review, Thomas Sowell expands on that:

The Moral Infrastructure

If in fact 99 percent of the people in the country were like these “Occupy” mobs, we would not have a country. We would have anarchy.

If the “Occupy” movement, or any other mob, actually represents a majority, then they already have the votes to accomplish legally whatever they are trying to accomplish by illegal means.

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constitution for dummies

Back in 2007, Judge Andrew Napolitano gave a speech on the fundamentals of the U.S. Constitution. A video you shouldn’t miss:

In virtually every administration […] the government has sought ingenious ways to evade and avoid its obligations under our founding charter.

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economic planning

For the National Review Online, James C. Capretta takes a look at President Obama’s economic policies as well as his plans for a second term:

The President’s Incoherent Economic ‘Philosophy’

The federal government has steadily become more and more involved in elementary and secondary education since 1965. There’s not a shred of evidence that it has helped raise educational performance by students. On the contrary, the steady encroachment of federal regulations and spending in education has coincided with an erosion of the nation’s standing relative to that of our peers around the world.

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