January 17, 2018

No, that's BS. If a person damages someone

else's property or hurts or kills someone else, then go ahead and use existing laws to charge them criminally or file a civil suit. But if somebody wants to waste a bunch of ammo pretending they've got a machine gun and aren't hurting anyone else, then I don't care and the government shouldn't either.

It's not like there aren't any real problems to work on: crumbling public infrastructure, environmental degradation, too many poorly-performing schools, people dropping dead of fentanyl overdoses, etc, etc, etc.

January 13, 2018

In praise of Janet Yellen.

Now that her term is concluding, I must say that I have appreciated having Ms. Yellen's hand on the tiller at the Fed the past few years (and as vice-chair back to 2010). Too often, politicians and appointees forget that their job is not to be spokespeople for their political party or partisan hacks in general, but to do a specific job to keep the country running as smoothly as possible. Ms. Yellen never seemed to lose sight of her duties and responsibilities and appears to have done a creditable job overall.

December 27, 2017

To me, that's a strange question:

I'm retired, but I never looked to any of my jobs for the meaning of life. I would ask you: "Why should their work define a person?"

I realize that American culture does define people by their jobs, but I always assumed that this was a reflection of the consumerist nature of America, and the idea that your job determines how much money you make, so you job determines how happy you must be in America. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

By the way, China did not reject Communism in the 70's. China has never rejected Communism. The Communist Party is the ruling party and is committed to communism. The Chinese Party has allowed some economic reforms: relaxed collectivization of agriculture and foreign investment, but China is not capitalist in theory or practice.

November 21, 2017

The problem isn't capitalism - it's consumerism.

Homesteaders who live out in the woods and live off the honey their bees make or the wool from their sheep are capitalists - they believe in private property, they believe in free exchange of their goods for money or services.

The problem is people who buy 72" TVs, or have a car for every person in the house, or have a 5,000 square foot house, or a new car every time their lease is up, or who fill the landfills with their take-out coffee cups and lids, who heat their homes to 75F in the winter and 60F in the summer.

Capitalism doesn't imply or require consumerism.

August 30, 2017

I think that's an overly simplistic answer.

I think that there are real obstacles to eliminating poverty and financial insecurity by simply giving people money.

One real obstacle is inflation. For example - I used to live in San Francisco, where rents and home prices are very high. Many people live outside of SF who would prefer to live right in town - maybe on Haight St. or in the Mission or the Marina - but they can't afford it. What do you think would happen to rents in SF if every single person had an extra $12,000 to spend? I think rents in SF would go up a few thousand dollars. Restaurant prices would also go up. So would prices at the grocery store and the gas station.

How do you think we'll prevent the benefit of a UBI from simply being negated by increasing prices? Price controls on all essentials? Like they have in Cuba or Venezuela?

August 30, 2017

Anyone who doesn't live a subsistence lifestyle

is "part of the problem". If you drive a vehicle, use a vehicle or products delivered on a vehicle, use manufactured goods, consume food that's processed or that's not grown by you or next door to you, you are "part of the problem".

Plenty of people believe climate change is real, believe that is is caused by human activity, but still continue to consume as if it weren't true. They are also "part of the problem".

Normal human activity causes climate change whether those humans are Republicans or Democrats, socialists, communists, anarchists. Nobody's hands are clean in the developed world when it comes to climate change.