Archive for the 'Taxation' Category

Better run for your life if you can

Thursday, May 24th, 2012

After a time, it became difficult for anyone to leave the Soviet Union or its captive slave states: You could be shot. Initially, though, Comrade Lenin’s Bolsheviks were somewhat more sweet-tempered: For a few years after 1917, greedy capitalists who owned things were free to depart — just as long as they left all their […]

A nation of thieves

Sunday, April 29th, 2012

Derek Thompson, senior editor at The Atlantic, wrote on April 16 (citing an analysis from the Joint Committee on Taxation) “Half of American taxpayers owe no federal income tax, and most of those filers actually net tax benefits from federal income taxes.” In fact, though, Mr. Thompson is at pains to point out “The majority […]

Let us count the magic beans

Monday, November 28th, 2011

The congressional deficit-reduction “supercommittee” said Nov. 21 it had failed to reach an agreement on slashing the U.S. deficit by at least $1.2 trillion. That failure will supposedly trigger mandatory cuts to military spending and some social programs, starting in 2013. Or, perhaps, when pigs fly.

What about all those billions in ‘subsidies for Big Oil’?

Sunday, September 11th, 2011

English was not the first language of the great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises. Hearing his graduate students at New York University repeatedly use the colloquial expression “loopholes,” he asked for an explanation. After the concept had been explained to him, according to his late student Murray Rothbard, the great economist said, “Ah, so a […]

The whole problem is ‘tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires’

Saturday, July 2nd, 2011

This “post-partisan” president was going to “bring us all together,” some may recall. But at his press conference last Wednesday, President Obama said: “If we choose to keep those tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, if we choose to keep a tax break for corporate jet owners, … then that means we’ve got to cut […]

Exodus from the Cargo Cult

Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

Perhaps you have heard of the Cargo Cults. If you’re going to pin your hopes of maintaining a military presence in the Pacific on a vast peninsular fortress like Singapore, the “Gibraltar of the East,” you might want to make sure Japanese soldiers can’t ride down the Malay peninsula on bicycles and turn off your […]

Be the first kid on your block to live in a cardboard box

Sunday, March 13th, 2011

As we saw last week in the “Girl Scout cookies” case out of Savannah, Georgia, government — which was supposed to provide a level playing field by providing courts of law and barring interstate tariffs but otherwise stay out of the way — is destroying our economy, largely to protect the jobs of all its […]

‘I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization’

Sunday, January 9th, 2011

I wouldn’t have nominated Jim Gibbons for “Mr. Charisma,” myself. He never seemed to take much joy in being governor of Nevada. Nor do I adhere to the doctrine that we should speak no ill of the politically departed. Not only were Lincoln and FDR tyrants, they didn’t even offer any attractive short-term inducements in […]

Barcelona, Dublin, and Las Vegas — economic hellholes?

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

There’s a back-handed compliment buried in there. If you’re a “think tank” dumping yet another new study on a jaded press and public, ranking cities from “best” to “worst” on some topic or other (and thus not-so-secretly lobbying for more government spending on your pet projects), there’s one sure way to make headlines. Highlight the […]

‘You don’t have to be there every minute’

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

Not so many decades ago, party “insiders” chose their nominees for various public offices in conventions. Some people complained this led to “cronyism.” Sometimes it did. But while the “party bosses” in those “smoke-filled rooms” might place loyalty to them and their party’s political philosophy (sometimes boiling down to little more than “more jobs for […]