joefu

The excuses for bigger government we keep hearing

Ever turn on the TV and hear any of this?

[Consumers/Parents/Children/Teens/Seniors] don’t have [information/time/brainpower] to make these decisions for itself, we need [insert regulation/ban/public service campaign here]
“It’s gone too far — there is no choice left but to [insert more government here]“
“It’s a slippery slope — we should nip this in the bud by [add government program here]
“It’s not for people like you and me — the average American is who needs help with [insert government-enforced life choice here]“
“We can’t leave it up to faceless corporations to [insert choice that any reasonable management would make here]
“If not for regulatory mandate, we wouldn’t have [insert innovation here]
Government must create jobs and drive economic growth by [insert dumb business here]
In a post-9/11 world, government has to protect us by [insert liberty encroachment here]

Did I miss any?…

Science project prompts SD school evacuation

Science project prompts SD school evacuation – SignOnSanDiego.com.

Forgive me if there is more to this story, but on the face of it this is the height of ridiculousness. You can bet that this administrative staff has spent 10 times the effort training for the incredibly rare events of school shootings and bombings than they have listening and getting involved with their students. (And, like all senior state employees, we’re also paying for their retirements with fat pension guarantees. Isn’t that great?)…

Thoughts on the Macro Paradigm, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

We are trying to let the banks earn their way out of losses, right?

Thoughts on the Macro Paradigm, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty .

Everything the Fed has been doing over the past fifteen months makes sense if you think of their goal as transferring wealth from taxpayers to banks. If you try to explain it as an attempt to implement an expansionary monetary policy, you won’t even get past my high school students.

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If Health Care Is Going to Change, Dr. Brent James’s Ideas Will Change It – NYTimes.com

Interesting discussion of the healthcare industry here:

Magazine Preview – If Health Care Is Going to Change, Dr. Brent James’s Ideas Will Change It – NYTimes.com.

We have built up medical doctors in this country to be brilliantly intuitive gurus that are constantly making measured decisions. In reality, the result of all this coddling and sky-high spending on treatment is mediocre care. One face-palm quote:

Perhaps the clearest example is the Pronovost checklist. As many as 28,000 people in this country die each year from infections that come from intravenous lines. Several years ago, Peter Pronovost, a Johns Hopkins physician, developed a simple list of five steps that intensive-care doctors should take before inserting an IV line, in order to prevent the introduction of bacteria.

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National Report Card: 5 fixes for the US education system

The latest report on US math education is in, and results are disappointing many.

Compulsory state education is antithetical to libertarian principles. The sooner we move towards separating the school system from the state, the better. That said, plenty of other nations are doing a far better job. It’s not very satisfying to sit around, advocating bombing the schools and starting over. So, what can we start to fix?

End compulsory attendance. It’s clear that disruptive and apathetic students should be redirected out of the classroom. Send them home, or send them to a practical vocational program where they can at least learn something like fixing cars, pipes or drywall. Those are pretty well-paid occupations, by the way. No one will send their children, you say?

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