Brad DeLong writes that “America’s best hope for sane technocratic governance required the elimination of the Republican Party from our political system as rapidly as possible.”
There are two things wrong with that statement. One is that he wants a technocratic government. Top-down. Orderly. Planned. But we live in a bottom-up world. Everything from language to Wikipedia to the economy itself is is a spontaneous order. They grow and evolve despite, not because of, direction from above. The most beautiful designs have no designer.
The other flaw is that DeLong favors a one-party state. Such regimes have been tried many times over the years. The results have rarely been humane.
I am neither conservative nor a Republican. But I sure am glad that America has two parties instead of one. That second party is proof that some people can’t shut other people out of the political discourse simply for disagreeing. Freedom of speech and thought are thought are the cornerstones of a liberal society. DeLong rejects them at our peril.
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The Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), Wisconsin’s paramount teachers union, issued layoff notices to 40 percent of its staff. Union bosses blame Gov. Scott Walkers “union-busting” legislation as the cause for the layoffs. Executive Director of WEAC Dan Burkhalter declared, “We had to make decisions about this budget year that starts in a couple weeks, based on the number of members we have now.” To summarize, the union had to balance their budget.
The above statement sounds eerily familiar to Gov. Scott Walker’s logic for the supposed “union-busting” budget repair bill. Gov. Walker stated, “We must take immediate action to ensure fiscal stability in our state. This budget repair bill will meet the immediate needs of our state and give government the tools to deal with this and future budget crises.”
What happened to Gov. Walker for making decisions? Union supporters protested at the Wisconsin Capitol. He was compared to Hitler, received threats, and the controversy resulted in several recall elections. So far, there has been no word from rank and file union members, but there are no protests or threats on the horizon for WEAC or the union bosses.
Gov. Walker felt the full wrath of Big Labor for budget cuts, yet he was able to keep union members employed. Here Gov. Walker states the benefits of the Budget Repair Bill:
The Legislature helped us save 1,500 middle-class jobs by moving forward this week with the budget repair. The state will now be able to realize $30 million in savings to balance the budget and allow 1,500 state employees to keep their jobs. The reforms contained in this legislation, which require modest health care and pension contributions from all public employees, will help put Wisconsin on a path to fiscal sustainability.
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Tech:
A Bull Market in Tech Patents:
“Google was willing on Monday to pay $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility in no small part because of its stockpile of 17,000 patents. The patent portfolio, some analysts estimate, could represent more than half of the value of the deal, or more than $400,000 a patent.”
IE 9 best option against Web-based malware attacks:
“This claim was made by NSS Labs in the recently released results of a test conducted globally from May 27 through June 10 of the current year, which saw five of the most popular Web browsers pitted against each other.”
Men jailed for inciting riots on Facebook:
“Two men who attempted to use social networking site Facebook to incite riots during last week’s unprecedented civil disorder in Britain were on Tuesday both jailed for four years, police said.”
Global Warming / Environment / Energy:
Seattle’s ‘green jobs’ program a bust:
“Last year, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn announced the city had won a coveted $20 million federal grant to invest in weatherization. The unglamorous work of insulating crawl spaces and attics had emerged as a silver bullet in a bleak economy – able to create jobs and shrink carbon footprint – and the announcement came with great fanfare.”
Insurance / Gambling:
Internet poker battle waged in Sacramento:
“A group of casino operators has taken to radio and television with ads urging state lawmakers to legalize Internet poker in California, prompting opponents to step up pressure for legislators to table the proposal for the year.”
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United States manufacturing growth hits a two-year low. The stock market is fluctuating violently. Not to mention a steady rate of over 9 percent unemployment.
What does this all mean to United Auto Workers union boss Bob King in upcoming Ford Motor Company contract negotiations? “There will be no concessions, no sacrifices by our members, no cutting wages or benefits,” King said last week in an interview with Bloomberg. “It’s not justified given how well the companies are doing.”
King’s brash rhetoric leaves us with only one conclusion: he has no concern for the welfare of his members. In 2009, the Big Three were failing, staving off bankruptcy, partly because of the gains made by UAW in negotiations. In 2007-2008 the Big Three automakers were paying workers on average $73.20 per hour, an outrageous rate. In comparison, Toyota workers average rate was $48.00 per hour. Without labor concessions, mainly moving to a two-tier pay system, there would be no jobs at all.
Now Boss King enters negotiations with reprisal, determined to obtain a board seat from Ford. The single documented demand of demand of King: “union representation on all three automaker boards of directors, a proposal aimed at Ford, where the UAW still lacks a seat. The union’s health care trust funds already have representation on the GM and Chrysler boards, a result of the 2009 bailouts.”
King is goal is simple gain power, not to create jobs or a sustainable contract.
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If hostile aliens invade the planet, “this slump would be over in 18 months,” according to New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. It’s a bizarre way to express a bizarre idea: that war is good for the economy.
He draws an analogy with World War II, where the massive military buildup — conscription is left unmentioned — reduced unemployment and caused GDP to skyrocket.
The Independent Institute’s Mary Theroux points out:
The World War II years were a time of shared privation, with virtually every item that we take for granted today either rationed: e.g., meat, gasoline, sugar, clothing; or not available at any cost: e.g., new cars, appliances, etc. The American standard of living throughout World War II remained at an excruciatingly low level that no 21st century American would accept.
War does not create. It can only destroy. True, aggregate numbers like GDP can thrive during such troubled times. Workers were cranking out munitions like nobody’s business. But those workers’ actual standard of living was not high; everyday essentials were being rationed.
That’s the peril of relying on GDP as an economic barometer. It certainly has its uses. But over-reliance on it has made Krugman ignore other, harsher aspects of war. The fighting. The dying. The separated families, in some cases made smaller by the economic stimulus. The privation at home. The lost opportunities, economic and otherwise.
Krugman’s claim that an alien invasion would stimulate the economy is as alien to the economic way of thinking as our new overlords are to us.
Fortunately, not everyone is taking him seriously. A satirical Twitter account, @KrugmanAliens, is poking devastating fun.
Some readers might also be interested in this working paper I wrote a few years ago about the economics of war.
Tech:
Driver using two cell phones gets 12 month driving ban:
“This guy is the poster boy for why cell phone usage in cars should be banned in more places.”
Record Industry Braces for Artists’ Battles Over Song Rights:
“Since their release in 1978, hit albums like Bruce Springsteen’s “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” Billy Joel’s “52nd Street,” the Doobie Brothers’ “Minute by Minute,” Kenny Rogers’s “Gambler” and Funkadelic’s “One Nation Under a Groove” have generated tens of millions of dollars for record companies. But thanks to a little-noted provision in United States copyright law, those artists — and thousands more — now have the right to reclaim ownership of their recordings, potentially leaving the labels out in the cold.”
Global Warming / Environment / Energy:
Further snowfalls expected tonight:
“The bitterly cold blast that has hit New Zealand this week should ease off over the coming days, but heavy snow is still expected overnight in many areas, including Wellington and Christchurch.”
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Here’s a letter I recently sent to The New York Times:
TO THE EDITOR:
Richard Sennett and Saskia Sassen worry in their August 11 op-ed that government spending cuts may be causing the UK riots. They also hint at what that could imply for the U.S.
A problem with their argument is that government spending in the UK has gone up sharply over the last decade. Government spending there is currently about 45 percent of GDP. In 2000, it was only 34 percent. There were no riots then.
A similar story has played out in America. When President Clinton left office, federal spending was 18 percent of GDP. Now it is 24 percent.
If spending cuts cause riots, then we should have nothing to worry about. The fact that we do means something else must be behind the looting.
RYAN YOUNG
Washington, D.C. Aug. 11, 2011
The writer is a fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
California’s state legislature is poised to pass SB 432. It would, of all things, make it a crime for hotels to use non-fitted sheets. Here’s the relevant section of the bill:
The standard shall require all of the following:
(1) The use of a fitted sheet, instead of a flat sheet, as the bottom sheet on all beds within the lodging establishment. For the purpose of this section, a “fitted sheet” means a bed sheet containing elastic or similar material sewn into each of the four corners that allows the sheet to stay in place over the mattress.
This writer is a fan of fitted sheets. I even use them at home. But it is unclear why a law is necessary to require California hotels to use them. Hotels that don’t already have them would be forced to take a financial hit at a time when business is down. SB 432 is hardly an engine of job creation.
California is one of the few states with a full-time legislature. Perhaps they should consider becoming part-time. Giving them less time to satisfy their urge to regulate unimportant business decisions in astonishing detail could only help California’s ailing economy.
It would also make for fewer stories like that of entrepreneur Erica Douglass, is leaving California because of its hostile business climate.
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