WeblogBahamas.com

Economic logic?

by Rick Lowe (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

Here's a question that I've been grappling with lately.

Why do governments wish to challenge companies they believe are "too big" through anti-trust legislation and want to bail out others because "they're too big to fail"?

Hope you can help find an answer.

Lessons in Freedom: Beholden to our ancestors

by Tibor R. Machan (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

"The best system for what some call inter-generational justice--for squaring with our ancestors fairly--is the private property system that does a reasonably decent job of securing for everyone what he or she has a right to, what everyone is entitled to."

When the idea of paying taxes, especially the exorbitant ones extorted from the well to do, is debated, defenders sometimes maintain that these are due because we owe it to our ancestors who forged institutions and other results that now benefit us all. So even our own selves, our bodies, health, pleasant looks, and, of course, any inheritance we were left by our elders do not really belong to us free and clear.

Talking heads and food security for The Bahamas and Cuba

by Rick Lowe (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

Wherever talking heads are gathered in The Bahamas you hear someone mention how wonderful Cuba is.

Stories abound of great health care and educational systems and don't forget food security.

Of course this is a measure of our so called failure here in The Bahamas. We don't farm so we are worse off as a result.

But is it true that Cuba is self sufficient in food? Oh, and don't forget how that dastardly US embargo has forced them to be self sufficient in food and how great the Cuban government is in providing for her people.

I submit that it's all a myth.

Lessons in Freedom: The Unearned Wealth Trap

by Tibor R. Machan (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

The bottom line is that what one has a right to is one's life, one's liberty, and the property that arises from these whether come by some hard way or easy.

Sometimes defenders of human liberty put their case badly and one such instance is when they defend the right to private property by identifying all expropriation or extortion as the taking of earned wealth. But it isn't a matter of whether the wealth was earned or not--quite a lot of one's wealth, the benefits one enjoys in life, belong to one even if one hasn't earned these.

Have some Bahamians lost their minds?

by Sidney Sweeting, DDS (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

The story in The Tribune recently of the pastor of a church displaying with pride his $68,000 Bentley ("like the Queen of England drives") almost made me lose my breakfast.

In a church with a membership of over 400 it is quite possible that a percentage of those members are either unemployed or have family and friends who are suffering financial difficulties. If it had been reported that the congregation had raised the equivalent funds to help their own members through these difficult times we could all salute them. To try however, to distort the basic tenents of the Gospel of Christ and to equate it to the worship of things material - in this case a car, is deplorable and sinful.

These are the same people who will be first in line to ask Government for an unemployment cheque or for help to pay their medical bills because their money has been spent in helping someone with a silver tongue to "improve his status in the community".

Good news for US unemployment: Wal - Mart

by Rick Lowe (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

You read that right. According to an article by Mr. Greg Kaza he points out that Wal - Mart, the proverbial whipping boy of US retail, is coming to the rescue.

Here's a snippet:

U.S. nonfarm payroll employment has declined by 6.5 million jobs since the recession started in December 2007. One exception is Wal-Mart, which has expanded its domestic work force by 40,000 (2.9%) and announced June 3 that it will add 22,000 jobs in its U.S. stores in 2009.

Read the entire article here...

Thanks to GW for the link to this article.

Lessons in Freedom: Government Regulations Revisited

by Tibor R. Machan (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

...But the plain fact is that government is simply a bunch of other people, with no special qualifications to run our lives, to supervise us all...

You might not think it considering my relentless concerns about the growing power of government, but I am not a pessimist. There are many areas of life where liberty is making advances--e.g., gays are no longer being so persistently harassed by government and even the obscene "war" on drugs may eventually give way to much saner policies. But in the economic realm, where it causes so much direct damage to us all, government's interference is on the rise.

Rationing Health Care. A lesson for The Bahamas

by Rick Lowe (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

William Falk of The Week Magazine wrote this excellent editorial for their June 26, 2009 issue:

"When my father went back to the hospital a year ago, he was clearly close to the end: His lungs and liver were barely functioning, his abdomen was filling with fluid, and he could no longer lift himself out of bed. The hospital’s doctors none­theless treated him aggressively, punching a hole in his chest to insert a drainage tube, which quickly led to uncontrolled bleeding, an infection, and a plunge in blood pressure. Within 12 hours, my father was in a coma, with no chance of recovery, sustained only by a ventilator and a tangle of multiple IV drips. He spent four days in the ICU, until I overcame the resistance of two doctors and had the machines turned off, as per my dad’s living will. Medicare paid upward of $20,000 for these last days of my father’s life, during which he received little comfort, moments of agonizing pain and fear, and all the medical care in the world, and then some."

Lessons in Fredom: Regulation Mania

by Tibor R. Machan (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

One is based on the phenomenon of market failures but omits from considerations that there is a far greater hazard from political failures when governments regulate the market.

Government regulation of the American economy--with the implication for all economies--is back in favor with politicians, bureaucrats and, most importantly, certain outspoken economists. (Nobel Laureate and Princeton University professor Paul Krugman, who is a regular columnist for The New York Times and a very frequent talk show guest is a good example, as is political scientist James Galbraith of the University of Texas at Austin.)

Dumbfounded by Mr. Brave Davis in The Bahamas

by Rick Lowe (http:/www.weblogbahamas.com)

Sometime back I watched Mr. Davis, MP for Cat Island make his contribution to Parliament on a Bill before the House. He was excellent. No hyperbole and lots of reasoned arguments.

Now we fast forward to June 2009 and according to press reports he tells Parliament that the Government needs to write off the millions or hundreds of millions that people owe in Property Tax.