My term paper for Moral Foundations of Capitalism, which I submitted to the Journal of Liberty and Society, was accepted for publication. Furthermore, it tied for first prize (meaning that I will be a contributor to the Prometheus Institute next semester - woot!).
Click here to read the Journal. (My paper starts on page 6.)
12 May 2009
Coming Soon: Sandman Book Company (an independent bookstore in Punta Gorda, Florida)
Well, it finally happened. I own so many books that my house isn't really a home anymore so much as it is a place to stash my reading material. I don't have room to sew anymore, or do much of anything except (you guessed it) read.
My minibar is not used for alcohol storage; instead, I have put my Neil Gaiman collection behind the glass doors. Every possible shelf, nook and cranny has books crammed into it, and my hallway are lined with teetering stacks of books which topple over when the cats do their two a.m. Olympics. The garage is completely packed full of boxes holding books and book-related materials. Let's not even think about the number of books stacked precariously in my office and on my desk in one way or another.Really, though, it was the stacks of books on the breakfast bar that were the proverbial straw.
I would die before I would take the books to Goodwill, and listing them all on amazon seems impractical (there are between 10,000 and 15,000 books here). So the only real solution is to open a bookstore!
Lucky for me, I found a location about half a mile from my house, in a nice building, with a friendly landlord. The piece de resistance? It's right next door to a coffee shop (named Allegro Coffee - how cute is that?!). So for the past three weeks we have been painting, building shelves, and moving boxes to the new store.
And I will even have a corner of the store to display my costumes in! Now maybe someone will buy them once in a while...
The Grand Opening is planned for May 23rd, 2009. Please stop by if you are in the neighborhood:
Sandman Book Company
16500 Burnt Store Road, #109
Punta Gorda, FL 33955
www.sandmanbooks.com
My minibar is not used for alcohol storage; instead, I have put my Neil Gaiman collection behind the glass doors. Every possible shelf, nook and cranny has books crammed into it, and my hallway are lined with teetering stacks of books which topple over when the cats do their two a.m. Olympics. The garage is completely packed full of boxes holding books and book-related materials. Let's not even think about the number of books stacked precariously in my office and on my desk in one way or another.Really, though, it was the stacks of books on the breakfast bar that were the proverbial straw.
I would die before I would take the books to Goodwill, and listing them all on amazon seems impractical (there are between 10,000 and 15,000 books here). So the only real solution is to open a bookstore!
Lucky for me, I found a location about half a mile from my house, in a nice building, with a friendly landlord. The piece de resistance? It's right next door to a coffee shop (named Allegro Coffee - how cute is that?!). So for the past three weeks we have been painting, building shelves, and moving boxes to the new store.
And I will even have a corner of the store to display my costumes in! Now maybe someone will buy them once in a while...
The Grand Opening is planned for May 23rd, 2009. Please stop by if you are in the neighborhood:
Sandman Book Company
16500 Burnt Store Road, #109
Punta Gorda, FL 33955
www.sandmanbooks.com
08 May 2009
Can't Hold Us Down - An Ode To Prices
I wrote this paper in March, and just now thought to post it. It's rather long, rather dry, and rather full of capitalist propaganda. Make of that what you will.
Can't Hold Us Down
(It's a link to a .pdf file.)
Can't Hold Us Down
(It's a link to a .pdf file.)
11 March 2009
My dog could run this economy (Make-Work Bias).
I have a dog with a "great personality." My Shadow is no Marley, but if there were a World's Worst Dog competition he'd have given that poor lab a run for his money. Aside from all the normal bad-dog activities (chewing the most expensive pair of shoes he can find, eating garbage, tearing window screens out so he can take himself for a walk around the neighborhood), Shadow has recently started digging holes in my front lawn.
Last night at 11:30 (trying to find my shovel in the dark so I could fill in the most recent hole before it was too late), I realized he and I would make a great team of federal employees; he digs the hole, I fill it in.
The main goal of the stimulus package is apparently job creation. And, if you take a quick look at http://stimuluswatch.org/ and consider the types of projects being funded, it seems like new jobs are the only goal - not productivity.
They might as well give me a billion dollars to hire Shadow. He'll gladly dig holes and let me fill them in for the next eight or ten years. What patriotism!
And hey, if you park Shadow and me on the right piece of land, we might even do a farmer a favor by turning the soil. (Or would that counteract the purpose of this stimulus? Is productive contribution to the society to be avoided?)
There is at least one dog park entry in that list of projects. And what's a dog park, other than a grand-scale version of what's going on in my front yard right at this very minute? We go to the dog park occasionally, and digging is second in popularity only to butt-sniffing. I strongly suspect our first dog park visit corresponds closely with the appearance of the first massive hole in my front yard. Building a dog park is a great way to make-work. I suspect it creates more work for city / county employees than the average park does. After all, if those holes are dug, someone has to fill them in. Lady and the Tramp notwithstanding, the dogs are not going to do it themselves.
Therefore I propose that if they are going to spend the money on that sort of "job," why not just send every dog owner a check and let us do the digging and filling in at home? (This would be better for the environment, too, since we wouldn't have to drive to work.)
On the other hand, if saving labor is good for the family (and by refusing to pay me to stay home and fill the holes Shadow digs, the govt seems to be implying it's good for me to conserve labor), shouldn't it also be good for the city/ county/ state/ country? A certain dismal scientist said something along these lines in 1776: What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom. (Adam Smith)
If I spend time filling a hole Shadow dug, that's time I could have spent doing something more useful. (Working - doing the dishes - reading my son a bedtime story - writing something frivolous in my blog - you fill in the blank.) That time is lost in a very real sense.
I recently read a very enjoyable (or possibly "very nerdy") book by Bryan Caplan. He has some interesting ideas about why democracy works the way it does, but I was most fascinated with his descriptions of the fallacies Bastiat talked about long ago. My personal favorite of Caplan's four biases was the "Make Work Bias" - essentially, this is his name for the attitude that it's jobs that matter, rather than productivity. Folks who embrace this bias tend to underestimate the importance of conserving labor and enjoying leisure time.
I'm going to repeat the Smith quote: What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom. (Adam Smith)
If it's prudent for me to try to avoid unproductive make-work, then it's prudent for the USA to avoid unproductive make-work.
Now... off to find the shovel again.
Last night at 11:30 (trying to find my shovel in the dark so I could fill in the most recent hole before it was too late), I realized he and I would make a great team of federal employees; he digs the hole, I fill it in.
The main goal of the stimulus package is apparently job creation. And, if you take a quick look at http://stimuluswatch.org/ and consider the types of projects being funded, it seems like new jobs are the only goal - not productivity.
They might as well give me a billion dollars to hire Shadow. He'll gladly dig holes and let me fill them in for the next eight or ten years. What patriotism!
And hey, if you park Shadow and me on the right piece of land, we might even do a farmer a favor by turning the soil. (Or would that counteract the purpose of this stimulus? Is productive contribution to the society to be avoided?)
There is at least one dog park entry in that list of projects. And what's a dog park, other than a grand-scale version of what's going on in my front yard right at this very minute? We go to the dog park occasionally, and digging is second in popularity only to butt-sniffing. I strongly suspect our first dog park visit corresponds closely with the appearance of the first massive hole in my front yard. Building a dog park is a great way to make-work. I suspect it creates more work for city / county employees than the average park does. After all, if those holes are dug, someone has to fill them in. Lady and the Tramp notwithstanding, the dogs are not going to do it themselves.
Therefore I propose that if they are going to spend the money on that sort of "job," why not just send every dog owner a check and let us do the digging and filling in at home? (This would be better for the environment, too, since we wouldn't have to drive to work.)
On the other hand, if saving labor is good for the family (and by refusing to pay me to stay home and fill the holes Shadow digs, the govt seems to be implying it's good for me to conserve labor), shouldn't it also be good for the city/ county/ state/ country? A certain dismal scientist said something along these lines in 1776: What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom. (Adam Smith)
If I spend time filling a hole Shadow dug, that's time I could have spent doing something more useful. (Working - doing the dishes - reading my son a bedtime story - writing something frivolous in my blog - you fill in the blank.) That time is lost in a very real sense.
I recently read a very enjoyable (or possibly "very nerdy") book by Bryan Caplan. He has some interesting ideas about why democracy works the way it does, but I was most fascinated with his descriptions of the fallacies Bastiat talked about long ago. My personal favorite of Caplan's four biases was the "Make Work Bias" - essentially, this is his name for the attitude that it's jobs that matter, rather than productivity. Folks who embrace this bias tend to underestimate the importance of conserving labor and enjoying leisure time.
I'm going to repeat the Smith quote: What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom. (Adam Smith)
If it's prudent for me to try to avoid unproductive make-work, then it's prudent for the USA to avoid unproductive make-work.
Now... off to find the shovel again.
20 February 2009
Reality - The House Always Wins
Yesterday I had a conversation with a young idealist who considers himself to be a conservative. He told me that he's not in favor of the stimulus package in theory, but that "he's a realist - and people are in trouble out there and we have to do something about it."
Unfortunately time did not allow me to respond to his statement quite as fully as I would have liked. I would have liked to tell him:
A true realist would, in fact, be vehemently opposed to the bill precisely because it is an open and abhorrent denial of reality. The reason that people, and businesses, are in trouble, is because they have made choices which conflicted with reality. They had expectations which were unrealistic; they chose to take risks which did not pay off. In his own way, each person who got himself into an adjustable loan, or purchased a house that was worth less than he thought it would be, gambled against reality and lost.
Reality is not a bailout. Reality is not a social safety net. Reality is not pulling out Daddy's credit card when you break a nail.
Reality is, forgetting to pay your electricity bill means the power company will cut off your heat in the middle of winter. Reality is, paying your bills late means you'll find it's hard to get a loan down the road. Reality is, sleeping through an exam earns you an F. Reality is, you'll burn your hand if you touch a hot curling iron. Reality is, sex leads to pregnancy leads to children and your life is changed forever. Reality is, talking smack about someone means you'll lose your friends. Reality is, texting while driving kills people. Reality is, if your grades drop you'll get kicked out of school. Reality is, losing your temper and smacking your pop star girlfriend around means she'll break up with you. Reality is, spending all your money leaves you broke. Reality is, if you forget to feed your fish they die.
When you lose sight of reality, you can find yourself spending seven hundred billion dollars on dog parks.
And as for those folks who didn't forget what reality is, but chose to take calculated risks against the odds: they are those who deserve a bailout the least. Gambling against reality is a dangerous game. Because the reality is, the house always wins.
You can tell me you think it's my social duty to bail out those who made bad choices, or you can tell me you think this is the lesser evil, and I'll simply disagree with you. But don't tell me that you support the bailout because you're a realist - the bailout is nothing but a denial of reality.
Reality is, actions have consequences.
Unfortunately time did not allow me to respond to his statement quite as fully as I would have liked. I would have liked to tell him:
A true realist would, in fact, be vehemently opposed to the bill precisely because it is an open and abhorrent denial of reality. The reason that people, and businesses, are in trouble, is because they have made choices which conflicted with reality. They had expectations which were unrealistic; they chose to take risks which did not pay off. In his own way, each person who got himself into an adjustable loan, or purchased a house that was worth less than he thought it would be, gambled against reality and lost.
Reality is not a bailout. Reality is not a social safety net. Reality is not pulling out Daddy's credit card when you break a nail.
Reality is, forgetting to pay your electricity bill means the power company will cut off your heat in the middle of winter. Reality is, paying your bills late means you'll find it's hard to get a loan down the road. Reality is, sleeping through an exam earns you an F. Reality is, you'll burn your hand if you touch a hot curling iron. Reality is, sex leads to pregnancy leads to children and your life is changed forever. Reality is, talking smack about someone means you'll lose your friends. Reality is, texting while driving kills people. Reality is, if your grades drop you'll get kicked out of school. Reality is, losing your temper and smacking your pop star girlfriend around means she'll break up with you. Reality is, spending all your money leaves you broke. Reality is, if you forget to feed your fish they die.
When you lose sight of reality, you can find yourself spending seven hundred billion dollars on dog parks.
And as for those folks who didn't forget what reality is, but chose to take calculated risks against the odds: they are those who deserve a bailout the least. Gambling against reality is a dangerous game. Because the reality is, the house always wins.
You can tell me you think it's my social duty to bail out those who made bad choices, or you can tell me you think this is the lesser evil, and I'll simply disagree with you. But don't tell me that you support the bailout because you're a realist - the bailout is nothing but a denial of reality.
Reality is, actions have consequences.
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