Category: video

MEMO to politicians: You can only kick the can so far down the road.

Over the years, Montreal politicians have promised cushy pensions and more to the city’s firefighters. Now the city is over a billion bucks in the red, so city politicians figure that firefighters must contribute more to their own pensions. 

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Last month, the firefighters disrupted a city council meeting, causing chaos. It is basically a riot, though without pitchforks. 

Here is a long video on the riot:

Or go to the Common Sense with Paul Jacob Facebook page for a less confusing, edited clip.

Rundown of the week’s big stories, including the new space deal.

This is surely not full privatization, but it is better than NASA monopolizing the space effort. 

Plus: Peter Thiel on good and bad monopolies.

According to the citizens on this video, and scuttlebutt on the Net, government game officials wouldn’t do anything because the bear wasn’t harming anyone. Low-​quality video of a high-​quality, heroic rescue:

http://​youtu​.be/​g​6​G​f​HRsBrUA

So why did this job devolve to regular folks? Why did not the government do its job?

Perhaps Herbert Spencer explained it best:

Unlike private enterprise which quickly modifies its actions to meet emergencies — unlike the shopkeeper who promptly finds the wherewith to satisfy a sudden demand — unlike the railway company which doubles its trains to carry a special influx of passengers; the law-​made instrumentality lumbers on under all varieties of circumstances at its habitual rate. By its very nature it is fitted only for average requirements, and inevitably fails under unusual requirements.

The state can only take care of the bare necessities. Not, in this case, the necessities of a bear.