A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet:
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
Read more on Landmarks of Liberty…
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
My apologies for the abundance of videos in my recent posts. These videos are just too good to pass up!
Kurt Bouwhuis, Mackinac Center Intern
Check out Claire Forman’s new blog entitled With Free Minds & Open Hearts. She is currently my colleague at the Mackinac Center and has just started blogging again.
Enjoy!
“I’m on your side, but you are not!”
Here’s a short clip from the Pink Panther movie series. Enjoy!
Kurt Bouwhuis, Mackinac Center Intern
CPI – All Urban Consumers: Medical Care Costs (Click to enlarge graph)
Source: From BLS at http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?cu (Check the two medical care boxes and then click retrieve data)
Next, compare this graph with the following timeline provided by PBS, which shows any significant changes in government policy that have traceable effects on the medical care industry: http://www.pbs.org/healthcarecrisis/history.htm
Finally, draw your own conclusion.
Enjoy!
Here is a letter I recently sent to the Midland Daily News:
James Benjamin’s entire letter went as follows: “The solution is simple: Medicare for all; keep your private insurance if you want” (“Simple Solutions,” February 17).
Society is a complex outcome that emerges as a result of individuals interacting with one another. No single individual consciously plans its course. As a result, no one fully understands this complex outcome we call society. Government interventions into the society must, therefore, create unintended consequences that no individual is capable of foreseeing. Simply providing Medicare to all will necessarily generate more outcomes than just free health care for everyone.
Nobel Laureate economist F.A. Hayek, in his Nobel Prize Lecture The Pretense of Knowledge, clearly articulated this point in his concluding paragraph: “The recognition of the insuperable limits to his knowledge ought indeed to teach the student of society a lesson of humility which should guard him against becoming an accomplice in men’s fatal striving to control society – a striving which makes him not only a tyrant over his fellows, but which may well make him the destroyer of a civilization which no brain has designed but which has grown from the free efforts of millions of individuals.”
Kurt Bouwhuis
After the gradual and sometimes aggressive political power struggle between the English Crown and Parliament, politics morphed into war in 1641. The cause of King Charles I now hung in the balance, as his son, Prince Charles of Wales, commanded the very topsy-turvy western Royalist army. Lord General Fairfax led in a hot pursuit of Prince Charles that culminated at the Battle of Torrington on the stormy night of February 16, 1646. Read more on Landmarks of Liberty…
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
Here is a letter I recently sent to the Midland Daily News:
In his recent letter, William Smith expresses his concerns with the status quo in the political process: “If the president and his party don’t help the majority of the people during his term in office, vote them out! Until then, how will we know? I am sick and tired of status quo. Can’t we just once pass some bills and see if they will help the American people? Maybe, just maybe, that in turn will help the condition of our country” (Sick of the status quo, February 15).
Although I sympathize with Williams frustrations, it is wishful thinking to expect anything other than the status quo from the American political process. Politicians, regardless of their party, face gross incentives in favor of pursuing their own reelection and virtually no incentives to improve the conditions of the public. As Don Boudreaux said in September of 2009: “No delusions should remain that the most recent presidential election has “transformed” Washington into anything grander than what it has always been: a ’spoils exchange’ where A and B shamelessly conspire to rob C and then swap the plundered proceeds with D for D’s commitment to help A and B retain their seats on this exchange.”
Kurt Bouwhuis
“See that the government does not acquire too much power. Keep a check upon your rulers. Do this, and liberty is safe.”
“…The spirit of liberty is the sovereign balm for every injury which our institutions may receive. On the contrary, no care that can be used in the construction of our Government, no division of powers, no distribution of checks in its several departments, will prove effectual to keep us a free people if this spirit is suffered to decay; and decay it will without constant nurture…”
“…When the genuine spirit of liberty animates the body of a people to a thorough examination of their affairs, it leads to the excision of every excrescence which may have fastened itself upon any of the departments of the government, and restores the system to its pristine health and beauty…”
-William Henry Harrison
Read more on Landmarks of Liberty…
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
Here is a letter I recently sent to the Midland Daily News:
Dr. Valeriy Ginzburg states in a recent letter that “the bills adopted by the Senate and the House probably represent the most fair way of covering the uninsured while spreading the costs in an equitable fashion.” (“Health care reform imperative,” February 5).
I respectively disagree.
If the bills adopted by the Senate and the House truly spread costs across society fairly, the respective number of pages for these bills would not surpass 10 pages. In other words, it would be simple to total all health care costs and divide them equally amongst the members of society. It is precisely because these bills favor particular classes of people over others that these bills are well over 1000 pages of elusive legal jargon.
Kurt Bouwhuis
Perhaps there is no finer example of the pomp of constitutional monarchy than Queen Victoria, but more than pomp, Queen Victoria’s sense of duty, sympathy, and genuineness exemplified the heart of constitutional monarchy. At the time of her funeral on February 2, 1901, the entire Western world mimicked the order and beauty of the English empire, as the very name of the era implies. The Empire was dedicated to developing virtue in society, and this spirit was what rooted Victorian beauty in social stability. Victoria’s immense character defined a culture and preserved the most peaceful of empires that the world had yet seen. Victorianism was the recasting of conservative ethic in the newer mold of classical liberalism. Read more on Landmarks of Liberty.
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
Here is a great letter written to several professor by Don Boudreaux:
It’s science. (HT Caleb Brown)
Don
http://www.cafehayek.com/
………………………………….
1 February 2010
Professors Julian D. Marshall, Ryan D. Wilson, Katie L. Meyer, Santhosh K. Rajangam, Noreen C. McDonald, Elizabeth J. Wilson
Department of Civil Engineering
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
Dear Professors:
I just read your paper entitled “Vehicle Emissions during Children’s School Commuting: Impacts of Education Policy,” published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
In this paper you argue that increased school choice – by promoting more vehicular traffic – might have a detrimental impact on the environment. As such, you suggest that policies to enhance school choice not be adopted unless and until they pass environmental muster.
Your insight is a real eye-opener, with implications far beyond the narrow issue of K-12 school choice!
For example, why limit your study to proposals for K-12 educational choice? Too many young men and women who leave home to attend college surely commute too far – some actually going across the country! – thus poisoning everyone’s lungs in their selfish quest to attend the colleges of their choice. Your research will likely discover that it’s best to prohibit Americans from attending colleges far from home.
And why stop with education? Perhaps your next study can be on the environmental impact of supermarket choice. After all, with people free to drive wherever they wish to buy groceries, it’s almost certainly the case that too many of us drive hither and yon unnecessarily, wasting our time and fouling the air. I’ll bet that your research will show that restricting each American to shopping only at that supermarket nearest his or her home will reduce vehicular emissions and, hence, help the environment.
Indeed, the possibilities suggested by your research are infinite. No telling how much filth is spit into our environment everyday by people needlessly driving to churches, restaurants, shopping malls, physicians’offices, night clubs – even friends’homes – when they could easily go to churches, restaurants, etc. – and even to the homes of friends – who are located closer to their where they live.
I look forward to reading your follow-up research.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
Kurt Bouwhuis, Mackinac Center Intern
