[Bread and Circuses - Politics and other Silliness]

“Food desert.” When I hear that phrase I think of nomads riding bactrian camels across the Nefud in search of ancient grains. But, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it means that you live more than one mile from a store that sells fresh produce or meat. Hardly the image most of us in tree-covered suburbia think of as a desert. The term, which has only been around about 25 years since being coined in the U.K., has recently attracted the attention of many local politicians who believe they can “out zone” free market forces. Unfortunately for them, Adam Smith’s invisible hand usually tends to win in these situations. The controversy started several years ago when all the cool kids decided that Walmarts were bad for communities. Using various forms of convoluted reasoning, many local governments essentially banned large super stores by enacting zoning size limits. Too big was bad. The stated goal was typically to save small stores from the competition of lar...

Myths are like an air mattress. They are terribly comfortable, and when deflated, cause a serious jolt. Josh Billings: "It ain't what people know that causes trouble. It's what they know that ain't so." Myth #1: Robber Baron myth - that in the 19 century there was an era of unrestrained rugged individualism in which heartless monopoly capitalists exploited the poor unmercifully. Myth #2: Great Depression myth - 1929-late 30s was a failure of private enterprise. Myth #3: Demand for government service - govt. had to step in because of failure of private market and great demand for government services. Myth #4: Free Lunch myth - that there is such a thing as free lunch. Myth #5: Robin Hood Myth - That government operates by taking from the rich and giving to the poor. Myth #1 - has roots in the Greenback Party movement - "all problems could be solved by printing more money"; Free silver movement - William Jennings Bryant "Will mankind b...

Were minimum wages ever intended to be a living wage? Charles Tips Charles Tips, Founding CEO of TranZact, Inc. Updated Jan 29, 2017 Originally Answered: Does minimum wage imply a living wage? No, it implies a lot of people not working, particularly minority youth. A full 90 percent of economists surveyed regarded minimum-wage laws as increasing the rate of unemployment among low-skilled workers. This is not out of ignorance. The early history of minimum-wage laws is wholly racist, designed to create economic hardship for “undesirables.”     A minimum-wage law was passed in British Columbia, Canada, in 1925 with the intent of pricing Japanese and Chinese immigrants out of working in the lumber industry.     In South Africa’s apartheid era, white labor unions urged that a minimum-wage law be applied to all races in order to keep black workers from taking jobs away from white unionized workers by working for less than the union pay scale.     ...

Crime Prevention Research Center’s Dr. John Lott Responds To Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Gun Control Plan On Saturday, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) published her plan to combat gun violence on blogging site Medium. The Daily Wire reported on the plan, noting that several of the measures being proposed by the presidential hopeful are rather controversial. Given the nature of the plan, we reached out to Dr. John R. Lott, economist and president of the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), whose research in the field of gun violence is nearly unparalleled. Here's what he had to say about Warren’s article. First, as a prelude to her gun control pitch, the senator from Massachusetts claims that once the auto industry began introducing features like seatbelts, airbags, etc, deaths related to car accidents dropped precipitously. "Over fifty years, we reduced per-mile driving deaths by almost 80% and prevented 3.5 million auto...