Background, Economics, Links
#economics #health #medicine #weather
Here are some links so helpful that I am pinning them!
Economics, Finance
YouTube: anything by Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell.
History, Government
https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/Washingtons_Farewell_Address.pdf
Medical and Health
https://floridahealthcovid19.gov
https://www.moneytalksnews.com/16-ways-beat-the-high-cost-medical-care
https://healthcarebluebook.com
Weather and Emergency Info:
https://www.floridadisaster.org
Weather, Space Weather
#economics #philosophy
ECONOMIC GOOD IDEAS
Accounting Equation: assets - liabilities = equity.
Adenauer: Konrad Adenauer's election poster of 1957 proclaimed, "No experiments."
Adenauer: 'An infallible method of conciliating a tiger is to allow oneself to be devoured.'
Adenauer: Konrad Adenauer considered both communism and nazism to be materialist world views that violated human dignity. [We give] not the state and its might, but the human individual, the central place in all thinking and action. More from Konrad Adenauer's Memoirs here:
http://david_hewins.tripod.com/floridacajun/cajadenauer.htm
Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.
Aristotle: The middle class is that part of the population which has the goods of this world in moderation. All men by nature desire to know. In ethics and economics, such knowledge is usually of some kind of mean between two extremes.
Bureaucracy: Wernher von Braun remarked that it is easy to put a man on the moon, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming!
Bureaucracy: Ludwig Von Mises argued (Austrian School, Bureaucracy, www.mises.org) that societies manage their organizations based on bureaucratic plans or profit-driven decisions, and that these two forms of organization tend to be mutually exclusive.
Bureaucracy:
http://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/iron.html
Cartels: Adam Smith, the author of Wealth of Nations, is widely remembered as a founder of capitalism. He once noted that organizations usually try to limit their competition wherever possible, often by sponsoring laws to bar entry to their work or professions. This applies to for-profit business as well as putative 'non-profit' professions. So any serious effort to reform the professions will open entry to a greater number of qualified competitors.
Competition: should really be seen as cooperation. Competition is merely a by-product or double effect of the real business of free markets, which is maximizing cooperation between buyers and sellers. A good social objective function is to provide maximal opportunities for wide cooperation between buyers and sellers. In traditional terms, this amounts to growing a large middle class!
Credit: The word 'credit' derives from the Latin 'credo' which means 'I believe'.
Equation of Exchange: spendable money times velocity = gross domestic product; M x V = GDP.
Government: Adam Smith noted that government should undertake projects for the common good that are not possible or profitable for people to do for themselves. And see Thomas Jefferson's ideas below.
Inflation: is an old scheme for redistribution of wealth, often called 'coin clipping' in the ancient world. Monetary inflation is morally and physically equivalent to changing the relationship between weights and measures, as in making the ephah small and the shekel great (Amos 8.5, Ezek. 45.9-12, Micah 6.9-12).
Inflation targeting: modern inflation targets may help soften business cycles and reduce the burdens of debt for many, but also tend to make cost calculations more complex.
James Madison: stated that it will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be tomorrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?...If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.
Objective Function: a quantifiable, measurable purpose. In economics these are usually plans correlated with profits and an increase in equity.
Ronald Reagan: Some governments' view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. (1986)
Socialism: Margaret Thatcher once noted that a problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples' money. Such depletion remains true whether the funds are taxed, borrowed or inflated away, and is hastened when we privatize profits but socialize risk.
Taxes: Where does cutting taxes end? With small gated communities of well-armed rich people protecting their assets inside fortified buildings? This would be like a prison. So where does government spending end? With government ownership of all means of production? History shows this stifles innovation and promotes mediocrity. The best solution is in the middle, with a free market well-regulated by a good government that enforces criminal laws impartially.
Thomas Jefferson: summed up many good principles in his first inaugural address in 1801. 'Still one thing more, fellow citizens - a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.'
Welfare: increase in spiritual or physical health, and often in financial equity. Not to be confused with socialism, which is government control of the means of production. Gov control can be necessary during emergencies, but should go away when the emergency goes away.
Will Rogers: "There is not a man in the country can't make a living for himself and his family. But he can't make a living for them and his government too, the way the government is living. What government has got to do is live as cheap as the people."
Unemployment: is caused by paying ourselves more than the value of what we produce. (former British Prime Minister Jim Callahan)
Recent Catholic Theology:
Pope John Paul 2 wrote in Centesimus Annus that the fundamental error of socialism is anthropological in nature, because socialism maintains that the good of the individual can be realized without reference to his free choice. Pope Benedict 16 echoes this in his comments on Marxism and historicism in his Principles of Catholic Theology.
Cajun Pete, the Old Bayou Philosopher, summarizes:
Calling oneself a consumer is degrading. One should be a producer first, then a consumer as a consequence.
The Lord says the sun shines on the just and the unjust. But it burns the just when the unjust takes his shirt!
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Copyright (C) 2013 to present by David Hewins. All rights reserved. This page may not be reproduced for profit. Fair use copying is encouraged; attribution would be appreciated!
ECONOMIC ISM's
Socialism: You have two cows. Give one cow to your neighbor.
Communism: You have two cows. Give both to the government, and they may give you some of the milk.
Fascism: You have two cows. You give all the milk to the government, and the government sells it.
Nazism: You have two cows. The government shoots you and takes both of the cows.
Anarchism: You have two cows. Keep both of the cows, shoot the government and steal another cow.
Capitalism: You have two cows. Sell one cow and buy a bull.
The above is from Erik, who reports that he is 'Living Lively in Longhorn Land!'
Now suppose that the market had made a difference in price, so that Erik can no longer sell one cow for enough money to buy a bull. Faced with having to dip into his savings to buy the bull, Erik may be tempted to call his congressman, asking for a new law which bans price discrimination between cows and bulls.
That response would, in general, tend to raise prices of both cows and bulls, and decrease all trade in them. This is suggested by economic work of Pareto, Ricardo, the General Equilibrium Theory of Arrow and Debreu, and the Laffer Curve. More details later.
A better response would be to spend some savings if Erik can afford it. Buying the bull is not greedy, but a reasonable ambition to improve productivity, helping himself and his neighbors. Investing his own money would mean Erik would forgo some current spending, in the hope of increasing a future benefit.
Other good responses may include asking friends and relatives for small subsidies, crowdfunding, or selling some other asset. At worst perhaps Erik could find a lender who would help him pay for the bull, hopefully at a reasonable (non-usurious) rate of interest!
Cajun Pete, the Old Bayou Philosopher, has the last word as usual:
Don't wait around for perfection so long that you neglect to do the good that is in front of you!
Unfortunately, the violence shown in the following video was caused by socialism and really happened. #noSocialism
Dave Ramsey and Charles Payne on what capitalism is really all about.
Florida!
Philosophy Intro:
Monism: all is one, differences are mere appearances only. (Parmenides, some other pre-Socratics and eastern thinkers)
Naïve realism = hyperrealism = you bring little or nothing to the situation, you cannot change reality. But even in the arts it does not account for illusions. (Plato, Philo)
Situation: an encounter we have with reality, especially when we understand that differences are real. (S. Kierkegaard, J-P. Sartre)
Idealism: the objectivity of reality does not matter. The important things are what you bring to the situation and what you see in it. (Kant, Hegel) But then all discourse reduces to self-discourse.
Moderate realism: Each object of discourse has its own essence and potential, which we can use to create new things, but limits of producers and products must be respected. (Aristotle, Aquinas)
Extensions: the real objects a moderate realist finds in a situation. (G. Frege, B. Russell)
Intensions: the rules a moderate realist uses to change or move extensions. (Frege, Russell)
Intentions: intensions that are plans for the future. (Any good business plan!)
Education: try not to let schooling crowd the real education out of your life! (Cajun Pete, the Old Bayou Philosopher)
Opinions: when forming opinions, it is a good idea to follow scholastic tradition: think as hard as you can against the opinion you hold and try to find counterarguments. (Cajun Pete)
Good references and search arguments (sargs) include Frank Cross, Mortimer Adler, Joseph Owens, Werner Jaeger, Ralph McInerny, Charles Hart, Vernon Bourke, Anton Pegis.
Text above (c) copyright 2017-present by David Hewins, and may not be reproduced for profit.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.html
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-metaphysics
Hungry Florida black bear seeking his next subsidy!
