I have come to realize in the past year that property rights, especially as the affect real estate, do not really exist any more in this country. With property taxes, you effectively just “rent” your property. Here in Vermont if you are late on paying your property taxes, I forgot the exact amount of time, but it is not much, the town can proceed initiate proceeds for a tax sale. It doesn’t matter how long you have owned the property, you can lose it due to a period of
Tag Archives: yaron brook
Price Controls are Bad, and Minimum Wage is a Price Control
You would think it should be common sense.
If prices are arbitrarily set too low, more people will want to but the product or service and fewer will want to produce it, and a shortage results. If prices are set arbitrarily too high,more people will want to produce the product or service, but fewer will want to buy it, resulting in a glut.
One only has to reflect on the recent stories from Venezuela where, among other staple goods, there is a shortage of toilet paper. Why? Because the government
Glass Steagall II Is No Cure For Banks’ Ills – Investors.com
Glass Steagall II Is No Cure For Banks’ Ills – Investors.com.
I am not surprised that the government would fail to see that it was their regulations that caused the financial crisis and seek to pass further regulations to control “big banks.” While banks undoubtedly made bad decisions, the root causes can be found, as this article states, in government regulations and the incentives they provided.
Yaron Brook on Climate Change at ICCC2
Yaron Brook shared this talk he gave in 2009 at the Second International Conference on Climate Change. Excellent talk as always.
Ayn Rand’s Ideas (One at Least) Alive in Vermont
In her essay “Government Financing in a Free Society”, which can be found in The Virtue of Selfishness, Ayn Rand says:
In a fully free society, taxation—or, to be exact, payment for governmental services—would be voluntary. Since the proper services of a government—the police, the armed forces, the law courts—are demonstrably needed by individual citizens and affect their interests directly, the citizens would (and should) be willing to pay for such services, as they pay for
Yaron Brook on Leonard Peikoff’s Podcast
Episode 276 « Itunes Podcast « Peikoff.
I always enjoy listening to these podcasts on Monday. This week’s has Yaron Brook answering questions on:
- Corporations and Limited Liability Partnerships – he mentions a course you can find at the Ayn Rand Institute e-store on The Corporation.
- Mathematically Perfected Economy – In this answer he mentions another course he has on the e-store call
Quote of the Day – Where the Blame Lies
I had taken a bit of a break from reading philosophy to give my mind a bit of a rest. I re-read for the umpteenth time, “Beguilement” by Lois McMaster Bujold. This is one of my favorite books, series actually.
It was something of a different experience reading it after having read of lot of Ayn Rand’s philosophy as I could see similar themes, especially in the main characters who, over the course of the series, go against what is expected of them and instead work for what gives
My 2 percent…I mean cents
I had a little interaction on Twitter the other day that got me thinking. A dangerous thing as my brother might tell me.
I had posted to Twitter:
Ah, first paycheck of the year, first view of my higher taxes. And people say the government can’t work fast.
Rockefeller Saved the Whales
I was watching the John Stossel program on Fox Business News last night, primarily to see the segment with Yaron Brook. The overall theme of the program was charity, but towards the end of the segment with Yaron Brook, a somewhat offhand remark was made and then repeated by John Stossel about how John D. Rockefeller saved the whales, something you are likely to never be taught in your Environmentalism class.