How many Americans are on Government Health Insurance?

How many Americans receive government health care? 40% of the respondents to the Harvard/Harris Poll receive government health care. How does this figure compare with other known figures?

In 2016, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 35% of Americans received health care from either Medicare, Medicaid, or another federal program.

Medicaid.............19%
Medicare.............14%
Other...................2%

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 37.3% of Americans received health care from either Medicare, Medicaid, or another federal program in 2016.

Medicaid.............16.7%
Medicare.............19.4%
Other.....................4.6%

It's interesting. Notice the difference in figures. Kaiser is basing it's data off a different report issued by the U.S. Census Bureau, the March Current Population Survey. What I find particularly peculiar is how the ranking changes. According to Kaiser, Medicaid is the larger program. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Medicare is the larger program. A bit strange, isn't it?

Americans obviously care about health care. It is their top priority. But I for one, don't think government health care is the answer. As an avid watch of PMQ, I know how politicized health care can become. I also happen to know a few doctors that work in the NHS. They are constantly posting troubling stories, such as this one.

Government health care isn't cheap. If you want top service, you have to pay top dollars.

Americans Happy with Economy

I've just dipped into the Harvard/Harris, and I'm happy with what I'm seeing.

70% think the U.S. economy is Very or Somewhat strong.
59% think the Russia Investigation is hurting the country.
56% approve of Trump's handling of the economy.
52% approve of Trump's State of the Union
36% say their personal financial situation is improving.

Only 9% strongly oppose ending the defense sequester. 21% somewhat oppose.
Only 11% strongly oppose Guantanamo. 16% somewhat oppose.

The polls asks a series of heard/seen and believe/don't believe question concerning developments in the Russia Investigation. After the questions, respondents are asked, do you think these developments are evidence of significant bias in the Trump-Russia probe or they are not evidence of significant bias. 60% think the developments are evidence of significant bias. 64% want to investigate the FISA Court. 80% think the FBI should had vetted the Steele dossier before using it in the FISA Court.

In terms of priorities, 33% of all respondents think the focus should be stimulating American jobs, which is good, because that's Trump's highest approval rating.

Top Five Most Important Issues
Health care......................................35%
Terrorism/National security............32%
Economy and Jobs..........................32%
Immigration....................................28%
National Debt and Deficit...............23%

56% want to renegotiate the Iran nuclear deal.
53% think Democrats don't want to solve DACA until after the midterms.

Sanders, Sanders and Sanders

According to the Union Leader, Bernie Sanders' son, Levi Sanders is running for New Hampshire's First Congressional District. Interesting tidbit is that Levi Sanders doesn't actually live in that district, and that it's a very crowded field. Eight Democrats are running, or expected to run, in the primary.

Meanwhile in Burlington, Vermont, Bernie Sanders' stepdaughter, Carina Driscoll, is running for mayor. The vote is on March 6. She is challenging a Democrat incumbent.   

In other news, right now the Democrats are winning the Generic Ballot. Democrats are at 46.8%. Republicans are at 38.6%.

According to a the Detroit Free Press, there are three open Congressional seats in Michigan. They have compiled a list of candidates. Republicans are hoping to pick off Senator Stabenow. Democrats are hoping to pick off a few Republican congressmen.

And now for something completely different. In North Las Vegas, I woman was arrested at a local elementary school. She had a pickax and was attempting to scale the school's chain link fence. 

Trash or Treasure: How Democracies Die by Levitsky and Ziblat

How Democracies Die is two political theorist's attempt to make a bit of money. It is probably a very interesting book to skim, but you shouldn't buy it. 

The book starts out with a bit of scaremongering, Is our democracy in danger? Evidently, Levitsky and Ziblat have spent a lifetime studying failing democracies. In their infinite wisdom, they tell us democracy can bee killed off in one of two ways: a) by people with guns, or b) by politicians being politicians. They then proceed to give some anecdotal examples. 

Trouble is, I don't buy the central claim. I don''t believe democracy is in a bad way in this country or around the world. Indeed, looking at empirical data, not anecdotal examples, democracy seems to be doing just fine. According to the people over at The Polity Project, which rates countries on a -10 to 10 scale based on how democratic they are, things are looking brighter than ever. 

If the authors, disagree, they should at least hint at such disagreement at the beginning of their book. Instead they give us a capsular biography of Hugo Chavez and sketches of Pinochet, Mussolini, and Hitler's climbs up the greasy pole. 

And by the way, according to the authors, Chavez was a complete surprise. No one knew he was going to be such a terrible little shit, and no one knew democracy in Venezuela was dead until 2017. Whatever. 

The rest of the beginning is filled with trite pieces of wisdom:

• When politicians abdicate leadership and responsibility, democracy is in a bad way.
• Political parties act as the gatekeepers of democracy, keeping the politically heterodox from threatening democracy. 
• Our democracy depends on two unwritten norms: mutual toleration and forbearance. 

In short, nothing new. At least with Trumpocracy you get the impression that Frum talked to some of the people in the White House, did some legwork. Not the case, I'm afraid, with this book. 

Verdict: Trash
Read Instead: Anything Else

I want to address the second point made above. Yes, political parties are gatekeepers, but they are not monolithic entities. They are coalitions. Trump's brand of politics has been with us in the Republican Party for a very long time. It's not my cup of tea--I am, after all a repentant Free Trading, Democracy Exporting globalist. But I can live with it. I am willing to take some of the points they make. I think they are valid concerns. 

Democrats want to say we failed as a party. Sorry, Democrats, you don't get to say that. If the Republican Party genuinely failed, a new party will arise from the ashes. Quit being sore losers.

The proper course of action is to oppose Trump on policy, not to attack his legitimacy. People, frankly, find the idea of the Russian somehow deciding the election as asinine.

If the Russian's measly $1.25 million a month ad buy decided the election, sign me up for lessons.

Subway Sketch: Sea of Proles

         

Transferring lines at Xujiahui, an old woman, very elderly, jostles me on the stairs. She and her husband offer no apology. This isn’t America, after all. But being American, I do feel a tad annoyed. I get over it quickly, reminding myself how hard her life has been.

Given that they’re strangers, I can’t pin down their age, but I can give a range. This old couple, with their dim black and gray hair, bundled in as many layers as an onion, are in their 70s or 80s. They’re frightfully short. They come up to about my elbow.

When they were young, Mao took his Great Leap Forward. Tens of millions died. The countryside starved.

My mother-in-law and aunts were little back then. There were four of them. When the madness ended, there were only three; the youngest had died. The three sisters that survived also come up to about my elbow.

Their father, a landlord, had been well-off. He had two wives, but neither gave him a son. So he adopted one, which is quite expensive. The villagers envied him. During the Cultural Revolution, they made his daughters suffer.

Today, the son has nothing to do with his adopted family. Doesn't visit. Doesn't call. He gives his birth family his undivided attention. I wonder if they hate him for it. After all, they went half-starved and their sister died so he might live.

Whatever the case, it’s not his fault. He’s had a hard life, too; his wife has been in a coma for twenty some years.

The train stops. A pair of construction workers come on. Their burnt red skin is hidden under a layer of dust, giving them a faded look. They seem happy, dignified even.

One of them wears a red hardhat with China Construction printed on the side. They must be lucky. China Construction has a habit of not paying their workers. They can go months without pay, receiving nothing but food, a cot, and a shipping container for a dorm. Chinese New Year has only just ended. Maybe that explains their contended looks.

I think it must be the work itself. Unlike factory workers, construction workers get to think on their feet, tackling different problems, working in different environments. They get exercise both body and mind. They’re not like factory workers or the pale wraithlike mind-workers that surround them.

Around eight years ago, I lived in the Pearl River Delta. The school was surrounded by factories, mostly garment factories. It was a very gloomy place, where the young workers looked exhausted and depressed.

The train stops. The compartment doors slide open. A wave a people push on. A lot of them with luggage. Chinese New Year is over. Back from their holiday’s or trips home, they embrace the hurly-burly of city life by pulling out their cellphones and quickly zoning out.

I wonder if they’re happy. Is their infatuation with images and illusions freely chosen or fostered by the state? In Animal Farm, the pigs distract the sheep with slogans and campaigns. In 1984, the Party distracts the proles with pop culture, sport, and smut. 1984, that’s the world I’m living in.

But look on the bright side, at least no one’s starving.            

Budget Analysis: Foreign Affairs Spending

In an old lecture given by Rory Stewart, from when he was chair of the Commons Defense Committee, he says that despite all Syria's growing importance at the time, and all the talk the Foreign Office was putting out, the British Diplomatic Service only had 2 civil servants over D7 rank, that's equivalent to an army captain, working on the problem.

Simply amazing, I thought to myself. And it made me wonder, how much are our NATO Allied spending on their foreign ministries? Every year, lots of outlets publish rankings of defense budgets, but no one publishes a ranking of foreign ministry spending. This is my attempt at compiling a ranking for 2017.

Why is it important? Lots of our allies like to talk big, but we should judge our allies according to their actions, not mere talk. An interesting thing to note is that most countries spend more on overseas development aid than on their foreign ministry. Below, I have tried as best I can to exclude that aid spending.

P5 Foreign Affairs Spending for 2017

Country..................................Budget.................................In 2017 Dollars 
US.................................22,669,987,000 USD.....................22,669,987,000
Russia.....................................???..............................................Will Add
France...........................3,028,400,000 EUR........................3,724,053,764
China............................8,500,000,000 USD.........................9,500,000,000
UK................................2,000,000,000 GBP.........................2,784,280,000

Select European/NATO Foreign Affairs Spending 

Country..................................Budget.............................Year
Germany.............................5.232 Billion EUR.........,,,...2017
Canada................................63,614,791 CAN.................2017
Holland...............................8 Billion EUR......................2018
Finland................................1.92 Billion EUR................2018

Take this data with a bit of salt. For instance, I don't think Holland is outspending Germany. And despite the Canadian Prime Minister's appalling performance in India, I'm being overly conservative with their figure. Canada just happens to provide a much more detailed breakdown of departmental expenditure.

Foreign Affairs Spending of American Allies in Asia

Country.................................Budget.......................Year
Japan.........................................???...........................Will Add
Korea...................2,068,320,000 Billion USD..........2017

Of course, what exactly is this measuring? What I want to measure is the capacity of a country to understand other countries. I'm interested in this because of Amy Chua's book Political Tribe, which I reviewed in a earlier post. In this book she makes a passing claim that the British understood tribes better, using that understanding to divide and conquer the subject peoples of its Empire.

I think this is true. The French did it, too. And the French have retained some of that knowledge, which they have employed to good use in Mali. That said, I think it is a very expensive capacity to develop. Given that we're spending far more than any other country, I doubt they're able to do a better job than us, except in countries they specialize in. For instance, the French with certain parts of Africa. The Nordic countries with Russia.

In conclusion, we spend a lot of money on our foreign policy apparatus, not just our military. 

A City Without Police

According to the Star-Tribune, some politicians in Minneapolis have been flirting with the idea of a city without police. In a pamphlet entitled, 'Enough is Enough' these politicians and activists examine the first 150 year of the Minneapolis Police Department.

I hate to judge a book by it's cover, but this organization, called MPD150, sounds rather naive. This is from their website:

Through historical investigation, interviews and research into viable alternatives we have produced a performance review that examines the department's past – its track record since 1867 including the failure of reform efforts; its present – its current practices and impact on community life; and the future – the necessity of dismantling its overbearing political and paramilitary power and the transfer of its resources into alternative models of community safety, well-being and resilience. [Emphasis added.] 

Evidently MPD150 and its supporters intend to oppose Mayor Frey's proposal to expand the Minneapolis Police Department. At present the department is so overstretched that it almost only responds to emergency calls.

MPD150 and its supporters on the city council, would rather see the money spent on community organizers, not sworn officers. They also believe that reducing the number of police on the streets would benefit black and Latino youths.

Minneapolis has 2.15 officers per 1,000 residents [the Star-Tribune rounded up]. Milwaukee--that infamous gulag--has 3.15 officer per 1,000 residents.

The local police union would like to see a force of 1,000 officers.

Three members of the Public Safety Committee, Messrs. Cano, Cunningham, and Ellison, hope for the day when Minneapolis no longer has a need for a police force.

Up next, excepts from MPD150's no doubt ridiculous report and perhaps a bit of satire.     

Trash or Treasure: Trumpocracy by David Frum

In Trumpocracy, Mr. Frum claims our country is in a crisis and things might go awry if he failed to intervene. He then immediately hedges everything, by saying, It's all to early to tell. What seems important now might be trivial. What seems trivial now might be important, but my publisher's given me an advance, and I'm on a deadline. Mr, Frum, thank you for your honesty.

Democracy, we are told, can end one of two ways in our country: It can be done in by either cunning or incompetence. Trump, Mr. Frum assures us, is mostly incompetent. But whatever he is, he's a threat!

Mr. Frum, evidently, often wonders what might have been, supposing some valiant legislator had fought for hardening airline cockpits before 9/11. If he/she/it had succeeded, we'd perhaps never know the debt we owed for a tragedy averted. Evidently, this is Mr. Frum's way of saying, we might never know just how important his book truly was.

He then presents his charge sheet.

Rather full of himself, isn't he? But he is Canadian after all, and I suppose 9/11 is on the mind. Like so many "Republicans", he no doubt read The Flight 93 Election. So it's only natural for him to wish someone had bothered to properly lock the door.

Verdict: Trash
Read Instead: Political Order and Political Decay     

You'll Be Derelict As A Parent If Your Kid Doesn't See 'Black Panther'

I've been seeing a lot of praise for the Black Panther, but this column in the Philadelphia Inquirer takes the cake:

You'll Be Derelict As A Parent If Your Kid Doesn't See 'Black Panther'   

Really? I have nothing against the movie--I haven't seen it. Indeed, my mother informs me that it was her favorite comic growing up. So I suppose I will see it. But really?  

Some other headlines:

The 'Black Panther' Revolution (Rolling Stone)

'Black Panther' May Usher in a New Age of Comic Book Blockbusters (Star Tribune)

"Black Panther'; Biggest Pop Moment of '18 (Detroit Free Press)

'Black Panther' Slashes Its Way to Fifth-Biggest Opening Ever (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

As 'Black Panther' Hits the Screens in Africa, 'the hero is all of us' (Christian Science Monitor

.

.

.

.

Go Beyond 'Black Panther' (Arizona Republic)

And over at the Bangor Daily News, 

Six Stephen King Fan Theories, From the Plausible to the Totally Nuts

Lobster Emoji Gets More Legs After Design Complaints

and

Stephen King "Horrified" by the Loss of His Manuscripts In Bookstore Flooding 

Update on Sheriff Israel and Peterson

The pressure on Sheriff Israel is slowly mounting. It looks like he's trying to hunker down and ride it out. We'll see what happens.

Over the weekend, some additional information became available. First, in a letter, Sheriff Israel claimed that Deputy Peterson received active shooter training. Second, Sheriff Israel claimed that other deputies arriving on the scene didn't enter the building because Deputy Peterson claimed to have eyes on the shooter. Instead they formed a perimeter.

Peterson failed to do his duty. It happens. But just because he failed doesn't mean other people didn't. I find it interesting that Coral Springs Police were the first police in.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, Sheriff Israel has previously received flak for overly political hiring. No doubt more revelations will be coming our way. The sheriff doesn't seem to be particularly forthcoming with details. 

Trash or Treasure: Political Tribes by Amy Chua

Political Tribes by Mrs. Chua has a simple thesis: America is different, but the identity politics being played by both the Right and the Left jeopardize America's future. I think most people are willing to accept this in principle. But they will disagree over specific examples.

America, Mrs Chua claims, is different because America is a super-group. A super-group is a tribe or tribes, allowing its members to keep their other tribal identities. She goes on to claim that America differs from other countries that are defined on ethnic and linguistic lines.

Because Americans have grown up in a super-group, which downplays the importance of tribal differences, we are blind to the importance tribes play in other societies.

In short, political tribalism poses a double threat. Our failure to recognize the importance of tribalism abroad results in foreign policy blunders. And tribalism's growing power at home threatens our inclusive institutions.

As interesting as these ideas may be, I don't think any of them revolutionary. If you read this book, read it for the examples, not the theory. [I have decided to only rate between 10% to 20% of the books reviewed as Treasure.]

Verdict: Trash
Read Instead: Albion's Seed or American Nations

Quotes and Analysis

• Race has split America's poor, and class has split America's whites.

This is an interesting claim. Do Americans use race to differentiate themselves more than other Americans? How could we measure that? I am endeavoring to find out.

• For many working-class Americans, being anti-establishment is not the same as being anti-rich.

This strikes me as quite true. I remember first hearing about the prosperity gospel as modern phenomena in high school. Coming from a Catholic background, the prosperity gospel struck me as peculiar. But I found it curious just how infuriated it made some of my teachers and professors.

This is a point that Leftists don't understand. In England, according to Freeman Dyson, there was an academic middle class and a commercial middle class. These two camps, fought it out, and the academic middle class dominated the system until Thatcher. I think the same is true in this country.

There is an academic elite, people that make their living as professionals but mostly as wage-earners. But there is also a commercial elite, who aren't wage-earners. These commercial elites make their wealth by risking their own capital. Quite a few working-class Americans sympathize with these risk takers but have very little sympathy when the academic elite complain about how unfair life is.       

• For well-educated, well-traveled Americans, cosmopolitanism is its own highly exclusionary class, with clear out-group members and bogeymen[...]

Mrs. Chua goes on to say that patriots are the bogeymen, but this is only half the story. I've spent almost my entire adult life living overseas, working in international schools. The American expats working in this school, particularly the ones that spend just a few years in a country before moving to the next, often strike me as slightly racist. Oftentimes, they look down on the local staff. They often only make superficial attempts to meaningfully engage with the host culture. Indeed, in my experience Americans, because their packages are usually more generous, tend to be worse at this than even the English...

These expats, what I'd call mobals, borrowing a term from Harm de Blij's The Power of Place, loath in almost equal parts the poor [locals] and the rich [globals].
   

VPNs: Free Alternative to ExpressVPN and Astrill

I've been living in China for almost a decade now. One big headache has always been getting over the Great Firewall.

In the past I used Astrill for years. Last year I switched to ExpressVPN. Both services experience frequent outages, especially when things get politically sensitive. There is, however, a free alternative: Opera.

That's right, the browser Opera comes with a built in VPN service. If you want to access to Youtube, Facebook, or Gmail, it is perfectly adequate--oftentimes outperforming paid services. The only downside is that Opera servers aren't country specific. In other words, you won't be able to use it to access Netflix or BBC iPlayer or anything with country specific restrictions.

Still, it's free. And it's a great backup. Even if you have a paid service, get Opera on your computer just in case. Over the last two months, as my ExpressVPN subscription was winding down, I have repeatedly used Opera's VPN when Express was acting up.

It's a great service. Do yourself a favor, use it.

Trash or Treasure: What's The Matter With Kansas

Given the amount of information out there, it's essential that you filter. In Trash or Treasure, I will review books based on the first few pages. Today, I'm reviewing What's The Matter With Kansas--a book I picked up for free a couple of years ago but never bothered reading.

Let's start. The first page is full of howlers. For example:

• The poorest country in America isn't in Appalachia or the Deep South. It is on the Great Plains, a region of struggling rancher and dying farm towns [...] and George W. Bush carried it by a majority of greater than 80%.

Perhaps that was the case when Mr. Frank first wrote his book, but it isn't the case any longer. That dubious honor, according to USA Today, goes to McCreary County, Kentucky. 42.5% of the county lives in poverty and the median household income is $18,972. In contrast, the poorest country in Kansas is Crawford County with a median household income of $37,607. 21.8% of it's residents live in poverty.

More importantly, Mr. Frank contends that Kansas is doing itself a economic disservice by supporting Republicans. Data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve's website sheds some light on this claim. Let's start by examining Real Median Household Income.

Year............Household Income.............Governor.............State House
1985................$48,492...............................D...........................R
1990................$53,303...............................R........................Split
1995................$47,484...........................D to R.......................R
2000................$57,426...............................R...........................R
2005................$51,951...............................D...........................R
2010................$50,698...............................D...........................R
2015................$55,558...............................R...........................R
2016................$56,810...............................R...........................R

Yes, the economy his been rocky, but real income has risen over the last twenty years. In 1984 real income was at $54,208. So it has admittedly been only modest growth. But I think the data speaks for itself. Real GDP figures, however, present a rosier picture.

Year.................Real GDP (in Million $)
1997............................98,817
2002..........................109,000
2007..........................126,143
2012..........................131,320
2016..........................136,591

In short, Kansas has hardly become some wasteland under the Republicans.

• For us it is the Democrats that are the party of workers, of the poor, of the weak and the victimized. Understanding this, we think, is basic; it is part of the ABCs of adulthood.

That last sentence drips with condescension. The writer is saying, if you don't get this, you're a child and should be treated accordingly. Show us you're not a child by engaging in identity politics. How grown up of him! 

• How can anyone who has ever worked for someone else vote Republican? 

This is quite revealing. In a chapter entitled Employment and Independence, Hayek says our society has changed. In the past, most people were self-employed. Today, the majority of people are wage-earners. The self-employed person thinks of money as a resource. The wage-earner thinks of money almost entirely in terms of consumption and status.

• People getting their fundamental interests wrong is what American political life is all about.

People may get their interests confused, but why should a man's economic interests trump all other? People have every right to decide what really matters to them. Mr. Frank's whole attitude reminds me of the low opinions the Fabian's had of the masses. This is a quote from Beatrice Webb's diary:

• At present we leave this vital problem of character of consumption to be solved by the appetites of each individual, even to the extent of permitting them to poison themselves and their children. It will not be so very long before a whole system of sumptuary laws--at any rate as regards non-adults, will come into force. That was a brilliant suggestion of H. G. Wells that we should divide the world into adults and non-adults. For some purposes we would raise "the age of consent" to say, fifty!

Verdict: Trash

   

Scott Israel: Resign

Republican lawmakers in Florida are demanding the Sheriff Scott Israel be suspended. Governor Rick Scott has launched an investigation.  

In the aftermath of the Parkland shooting, multiple disturbing failures have come to light. The school resource officer, Scot Peterson, failed to enter Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (SDHS) and engage the shooter. When additional deputies arrived, they also failed to enter SDHS and engage the shooter. In the lead up to the shooting, Israel's department was warned. He and his department did nothing.

Broward County's Sheriff Office failed. Their failure cost lives, and they should b ashamed of themselves. And evidently they are. Why else would they lie? When asked how many times they responded to complaints involving the shooters family, they said 23 times.

The real number is more like 45. Whether that number is calls made or calls acted on, it amounts to the same thing: a failure to connect the dots. 

Sheriff Israel, resign.

  

China: Term Limits to Be Abolished for Xi Jinping

According to Xinhua, there is a proposal to limit the term limits in place on the President and Vice-President of the People's Republic of China. Under the current constitution, the President and Vice-President are limited to two five year terms.

This isn't much of a surprise. Many China watchers have assumed Xi would try to remain in power. Some speculated that he would pull a Putin, switching formal roles but remaining in control. Other suggested that he might bring back the position of chairman.

Xi just entered his second term last year. Looks like we will be dealing with him for decades to come.  

Micro-Aggression in the Commons

During the latest PMQ, the Leader of the Opposition, refused to refer to the Prime Minister by the proper pronoun, repeatedly saying he and his. Did Mr. Corbyn do this deliberately in an attempt of to belittle the Prime Minister? Or perhaps Mr. Corbyn's Freudian slip merely betrays his unenlightened thoughts concerning women and power. So, Mr. Corbyn, which is it? Speak up, man!

In other news, to the delight of conservatives the world over, it turns out the Mr. Corbyn unknowingly accepted money from Czechoslovakian intelligence officers during the Cold War. The Prime Minister teases him for this in reply to his last "question".

Enjoy!

Violence in the Culture

I'm sure it comes as no surprise, but multiple threats have been called in to schools across the country. I make a habit of skimming the newspapers from swing states, I have seen arrests made in Minnesota, Nevada, and Florida. And the Washington Post reports of threats made in Arkansas, Massachusetts, South Carolina, New Jersey, Connecticut, Georgia, North Carolina,  and New York.

I think it's a sad state of affairs and a damning indictment of our culture. In The Spectator Steven Pinker, who has written a book on the decline of violence, reminds us that a lot of good things are happening in the world. But the media is has a thing for suffering. He mentions how people that follow the news often suffer burnout and increased anxiety.

I think he's right. My mother is something of a news addict. But every six or eight months she goes cold turkey, completely fed up with it all. I have to confess, I'm rather similar. One of the joys of living in China is not being subjected to America's 24/7 news cycle.

Simply put, if you have talking heads spouting stuff 24/7, most of what they say is crap. That's why I focus on print media, and mainly magazines at that. But back to the matter at hand, why are so many young people making threats?

Some will say, they're merely trying to get out of classes, but it's more than that, I think. There is a certain alienation that occurs in highly commercialized societies like ours. People, in order to differentiate themselves, become eccentric, indulging in a pseudo-individualism. I'm not sure I fully agree with that claim, but it creates in interesting perspective for viewing a lot of the eccentricities we've been subjected to of late.

In the end, whenever a school shooting occurs, the debate boils down to this:

Democrats: It's the guns, stupid!
Republicans: It's the culture, commie!

When Democrats hear that argument, they assume we're talking violent movies, music, and video games. But we're not. What I am critiquing is the rampant materialism of our society. As a culture, we no longer believe in human dignity. And maybe that is why so many people find themselves dissatisfied with life.

Liberty is important not because it allows a man to flourish economically. Liberty is important because man only realizes his full potential when he governs. This is why I am a Neo-Conservative. Democracy, be it a republic or a constitutional monarchy, is the only form of government that respects man's inherent dignity as a political being. 

Research Update: Income Tax

I've been spending my evenings slogging through Hansard, specifically for 1909-1910, researching the debates surrounding the introduction of progressive income tax. No major news to report, but there are three interesting bits to report.

• Deductions for Employing Servants It appears that military officers and other individuals were allowed to deduct the wages of their servants from their income. Its interesting because a lot of these young officers are the sort of people that would make just enough money to be taxed. It's also interesting because Hayek says that progressive income tax makes employing servants much more costly. Hayek uses an example like this. Suppose I am a writer. Writing articles, I can make $10 an hour. To free up an hour of my time, I decide to call in a maid for an hour of work a day. She charges $5 an hour. Without taxation, it makes perfect sense to hire a maid. But suppose I am taxed at 50% of income and my maid at 0%. It no longer makes much sense to employ her. I am actually working on another article that examines he impact of taxes on the decline of household servants.
• Direct Taxation as an Emergency Measure Earlier in British history, income tax as a wartime measure. It was introduced to fight the Napoleonic Wars. After that emergency was met, the tax was repealed. A few decades afterwards, it was reintroduced under Peel. Looking at the government speeches, they expect the opposition to object to increased rates on grounds of national security. The idea is simple. In peacetime direct taxes must be kept at a minimum to allow economic expansion, creating a reserve of wealth that can be tapped by higher tax rates during wartime. It is an interesting argument. Indeed, during much of American and British history, tax rates are increased to meet war spending. During the First World War, however, the Germans didn't increase tax rates dramatically. Instead they increased borrowing and resorted to printing money to pay off their subsequent obligations. They suffered dreadfully as a result.
• Super Tax Unopposed In the Commons, people simply aren't objecting to the top rate. I still have 120 pages of result to go through, and I haven't even started in on the debate in the Lords, where the resistance was strongest. It's very interesting. The difference in rates is so minor that people in the Commons simply seem to take it in stride.     

Gov. Scott and Legislature

Interesting things happening in Florida. As predicted Gov. Scott and the Republicans in the legislature don't see eye-to-eye on gun safety. Both sides agree on a 21 minimum age requirement for all gun purchases. They also have agreed on increase spending for school safety, and they will walk back tax cuts to do it. 

Some version of the Republican plan is bound to pass. Republicans dominate the legislature. An assault weapons ban, however, may become a major campaign issue in the upcoming Senate race. Sen. Nelson currently leads in the polling. 

Gov. Scott is continuing to call out the FBI and federal authorities. According to Rasmussen, 32% of likely voters want he FBI director fired. 

It will be interesting to see how this issue develops on the campaign trail. 

Minimum Age Requirement for Assault Weapons

According to the Associated Press, President Trump is in favor of banning the sale of assault weapons to people under the age of 21. According to the Tampa Bay Times, Republican lawmakers in Florida also support age requirements.

The Tampa Bay Times, however, also reports that most Floridans support a full ban on assault weapons. Gov. Rick Scott is planning a Senate run. He will probably come out in favor of an assault weapons ban. Why? He's already loosened up his budget policy to appeal more to government employees. So there's a trend.

We'll see what happens at his press conference. 

I don't support an assault weapons ban. I'm not wild about a minimum age requirement, but if it happens, I won't be outraged. My preference is expanding red flag laws, which is already part of the Republican proposal.

Florida Legislature Not In the NRA's Pocket

Over at Reddit, people are furious that the Florida Legislature refused to consider an assault weapons ban. One popular line of attack was to say that the Legislature was in the pocket of the NRA.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, the NRA hasn't donated any money to Florida Legislature members, not a single dollar since 2000. Yes, they've donated money to the Republican Party as a whole, but the NRA isn't pouring money into the Legislature like some liberals will have you believe.

Is Progressive Taxation Discriminatory?

As I mentioned earlier, the next few weeks I’ll be focusing on taxes, specifically progressive taxation. Progressive taxation is where the state taxes people at different tax rates depending on their wealth or income. This is usually justified in one of three ways.

1. Consumption taxes, such as sales tax, are inherently regressive, because people with lower incomes spend a greater proportion of their income on goods and service. If we make income tax progressive, we can make the overall tax rate equal. Therefore, we should make income tax progressive. 

2. The only way we can fund useful social programs is through progressive taxation. The middle class is either too small or not rich enough to support the burden. Therefore, the rich must be taxed at a higher rate. 

3. Alternatively, a proponent of progressive income taxation can bite the bullet and say it’s all about redistribution.

In any democracy, there is the risk of the majority exploiting the minority. Hence our having a Bill of Rights and the rule of law. Now income tax as it currently is practiced violates the rule or law because it is arbitrary. Once you adopt the principle that some should pay more than others, you still must decide:

1.Who should pay more?

2. How much more should they pay?

There are principled ways you can answer the first question. For example, you could say, if your income is over the poverty line, you should pay a higher rate. Or it could be double or triple the poverty line. 

But is there really a difference between a person that’s a dollar under the poverty line and another person that’s a dollar over the poverty line? I think not. Yet we will tax them at different rates because one happens to be just a bit better off than the other.

There is almost no principled way to answer the second question. Once you say, different people can be subjected to different tax rates, you still have the problem of deciding what those rates ought to be. The only principled way to answer this question is by taxing income progressive in order to cancel out the regressive effect of consumption tax. But that’s not what happens. Often top rates, particularly during wartime, sky rocket. So how are top rates decided?

Thankfully, this last question is an historical one. In the next few days I will follow up with a post looking at income tax debates as reported in the Congressional Record and Hansard.

Stop And Frisk

The most recent Prime Minister's Questions was dominated by rising crime figures. Labour, obviously, tried to link the rise to educed police budgets. The Prime Minister insisted the rise was the result of better reporting procedures and nothing more.

According to the Spectator, however, knife crime is on the rise both in Scotland and London. Both Scotland and London used to make extensive use of Stop and Search. But the police in both jurisdictions reduced their use of the practice.

Thankfully, London's mayor, Mr Khan has come to his sense and has ordered increased stops. Hopefully America will follow suit.

Tim Pawlenty Eying Run

Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is considering a run for governor, according to the Star-Tribune. He held a no frills meeting with potential campaign donors.

The case is an interesting one. Pawlenty is a Soft Never Trumper. Minnesota is a Blue State. And Pawlenty is the last Republican to win a state-wide election there. According to other reports, Republicans have lost somewhere between 33 to 50 seats in various elections to Democrats.

It will be interesting to see what sort of arrangement is reached between the Trump camp and his former critiques in the coming months.

SALT Deductions

Blue States are feeling the squeeze of President Trump's tax cut. The Act caps the deduction for state taxes at $10,000, meaning that states like California and Minnesota are being forced to consider lowering their rates.

Great news for Republicans stuck--for whatever reason--in Blue States.

Original Story

Exploring Taxation: Objections to Progressive Taxation

With the passage of the Tax Cut and Job's Act, US Income Tax is going to become a little less progressive. The Left sees this as a negative, but in fact I think it a positive development. Over the course of the next month, I will be making the case against progressive taxation, and demonstrating the merits of a flat tax.

In The Constitution of Liberty, Hayak makes the case against progressive taxation. In this post, I wish to provide a brief summary of those objections. Over the coming days and weeks, I hope to explore each objection in greater depth and connect it to the current debate.

1. Progressive Taxation allows a majority to impose a discriminatory tax burden on a minority. 

2. Progressive Taxation violates the basic principle of equal pay for equal work.

3. Progressive Taxation distorts incentives for an entire class of people merely because--for one reason or another--their incomes are not in line with those of the majority. 

We will explore all these objections and more in the weeks to come. 

The Lord's Tale

In 1999, Tony Blair's government Reformed the House of Lords, removing all but 92 hereditary peers from that chamber. The outgoing peers reflect on democracy and the need for checks and balances. 

One Earl makes an interesting critique of democracy towards the end of the video, saying democracy is so irresponsible and often used merely as an excuse. An excuse to listen to what everyone wants and to do what no one wants. New Labour claimed to represent the people.

The American Left claims to represent a even more terrible force: history.

That must be quite a convenient arrangement. When you claim to represent the people, you must--from time to time--consult with them. When you claim to represent history, you need only consult your own petty prejudices.