Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it.
Categories
William Penn
Year: 2016
Just gave a fiver to a sixth grader . . . to help the public schools.
He was going door to door, which I’ve had occasion to do, and he was nice and well-spoken. Glad to give.
And it was only five bucks — that’s what I had in my pocket. It was like buying a Starbucks venti-something.
No big deal.
But something does bug me.
What is it?
The fact that the school system sends kids around to pull on our heart-strings but when our homeschooled kids could benefit by taking part in sports or band or debate or other extra-curricular activities through the public schools, without enrolling as a full-time student, they’re told to “go play in traffic.”*
So, why did I give that screwed-up system anything that wasn’t taken at gunpoint?
For starters, a young person stood before me, not the governor or the school superintendent. I don’t want to approach their level of cold-heartedness.
Next, there is something I really do want: Community. My desire, as a committed individualist, is to grow and strengthen and be part of the community of folks who live close to my family.
There’s no contradiction here.
I want civilization. And five dollars is an awfully cheap price for a smidgen of it. I want that kid to receive a good education. I want our community to succeed, including him and all the other kids.
Why call yourself an individualist or libertarian and not work for voluntary community? Free individuals form better, more sustainable communities than those built on state power or authoritarianism.
Hey, maybe I should go door to door.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* For two straight legislative sessions, Gov. Terry McAuliffe has vetoed legislation allowing homeschoolers to participate in sports, band, debate and other such activities. On a county by county basis, Virginia public schools are free to permit or to block homeschoolers from taking academic classes and joining after-school clubs — with roughly half of counties deciding to accommodate homeschoolers.
Original (cc) photo by Swaminathan on Flickr
Categories
William Penn
On October 14, 1644, Willliam Penn was born (died 1718). An English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania (the English North American colony and future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania), he was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Indians.
Categories
David Stockman
[T]he rise of Trump — and Bernie Sanders too — vastly transcends ordinary politics. In fact, it reaches deep into a ruined national economy that has morphed into rank casino capitalism under the misguided policies and faithless rule of the Washington and Wall Street elites.
David A. Stockman, Trumped! A Nation on the Brink…and How to Bring It Back (Baltimore: Md.: Laissez Faire Books, 2016).
Revolution! Must we?
Can’t we reform at a reasonable pace?
Well, whether we change slowly or quickly, change must occur. Today’s in-place policies are not stable.
But a better future itself must be stable. Or else it will not be better.
And a key to successful change is change in the hearts and minds of the people. The vast majority, East and West, need to shift mental gears and shift their ideological paradigms. (That is the term most famously used by Thomas Kuhn.)
Take yesterday’s story. I first heard about it from proponents of Oregon’s big business excise tax hike. They were saying that Oregon had the lowest business taxes in the union, and took that as a cue to raise taxes. I looked at it as a great political success, and one that had contributed mightily to Oregon’s remarkable economic resilience in these trying economic times.
The difference between the Higher Taxes reaction (which views low taxes as an opportunity only to raise them, and the consequences mainly as who gets the tax funds) and my reaction (which concentrates on the consequences of the expropriation, and looks to a longer period of time to gauge results) is a paradigm shift. To go from one to the other (preferably from the pro-tax to the low tax position) requires a shift in vision.
It is like what happens when you refocus on the Duck/Rabbit image, or the Maiden/Crone. Give a person some time. Be patient. And hint that a shift in perspective is warranted to see both.
And that we might gain something from a paradigm shift.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Categories
Thomas Jefferson
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.
Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Stephens Smith, November 13, 1787.
Categories
Albert Jay Nock
On October 13, 1870, American social critic and education theorist Albert Jay Nock was born. Nock was the author of a number of books, including Jefferson, the Man and Our Enemy, The State, but was probably most famous for his intellectual autobiography, Memoirs of a Superfluous Man, which was widely read and admired amongst conservatives in the 1950s and ’60s.
Categories
Albert Einstein
“Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.”
— Albert Einstein, as quoted by Virgil Henshaw in Albert Einstein: Philosopher Scientist (1949) edited by Paul A. Schilpp
Oregonians have quite a few ballot measures this year.
And only one of them seems obviously nutty: Measure 97.
It would raise taxes on the very biggest of companies. The richest — that is, those with $25 million in sales.
Among the reasons given for this excise hike, which is estimated to be the biggest in the state’s history, are a whole bunch of “ooh, look at what we can do with all that loot!” enticements. Yes, and then there is the tried-and-untrue staple of the left, the “make large and out-of-state corporations pay their fair share in taxes” ploy.
Admittedly, trying to get out-of-state entities to pay for your benefits is classic. What “Let somebody else pay” lacks in nobility and morality it makes up for in avarice’s perennial appeal.
But the practical problem? A tax hike is just a bid on a future expropriation. Tax targets can, in effect, counter-offer by moving, or threatening to move, out of taxing territory.
Imagine yourself a thief. Then imagine first announcing to your victims where, when and how much you intend to take.
Right now Oregon sports the tenth best business environment in the country and, maybe, the lowest business taxes*. Raise taxes to the “middle of the pack” and businesses begin to look at states with lower rates.
Objectionable? Doesn’t matter. Folks go into business to make profits, not pay taxes.
Against this reality? Measure 97’s many bigwig supporters: the progressive Democratic governor, Democratic legislators and big-spending public employee unions eager to expand their bottom lines.
But by seeking to maximize near-term tax rates, these greedy special interests risk losing revenue further off, after businesses flee the state.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* The Oregon Center for Public Policy ranks Oregon as tied with Connecticut for the lowest in the nation.
Categories
The New World
On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas, thinking he had reached India.
Exactly two hundred years later, a letter from Massachusetts Governor William Phips ended the Salem Witch Trials.
On this date in 1892, the Pledge of Allegiance was first recited by students in many U.S. public schools, as part of a celebration marking the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage.
The Pledge had been composed that year by Francis Bellamy, a Christian Socialist minister, and was first published in Youth’s Companion magazine, the issue dated September 8, 1892. The recital was accompanied with a salute to the flag known as the Bellamy salute. During World War II, the salute was replaced with a hand-over-heart gesture because the original form (described in detail by Bellamy) involved stretching the arm out towards the flag in a manner that resembled the later Nazi salute. The original form of the Pledge was somewhat less involved than later versions:
I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
In October an editorial addition occurred, the word “to” prefixing “the republic.”