“The more the state ‘plans’ the more difficult planning becomes for the individual.”
F. A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, Chapter 6, “Planning and the Rule of Law”
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F. A. Hayek
The most efficient way to maintain one’s perch in power is to knock down and scare off would-be competitors. Click on over to Townhall for the latest on the worst recent example — an ongoing abuse of power.
And be sure to come back here for more reading. Be sure to forward to your friends and family, using our social media widgets if you like. Thanks!
- Argus Leader – Report: Bosworth prosecution overkill
- Report: South Dakota’s Prosecution of Dr. Annette Bosworth [PDF]
- The Right Side Blog: That Evil Annette Bosworth
- CNN: South Dakota State Medical Board Punishing Dr. Annette Bosworth for Having Opinion on Licensure Policy
- AG Office News Release: State Settles with Sioux Falls Doctor in Civil Case Involving Medicaid Payments
- YouTube: Bosworth on Career Politicians
- YouTube: Bosworth – “I can stand up & run for U.S. Senate or watch healthcare dissolve”
- Townhall: An Egyptian Crackdown in South Dakota
- Daily Citizen Blog: Bosworth Case May Chill Participation in South Dakota
- Common Sense by Paul Jacob: Atrocious “Justice”
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Victoria Woodhull
On May 10, 1872, Victoria Woodhull became the first woman nominated for President of the United States.
In a landmark Supreme Court decision on May 10, 1893, the tomato was ruled a vegetable, not a fruit.
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F. A. Hayek
“Many of the greatest things man has achieved are not the result of consciously directed thought, and still less the product of a deliberately coordinated effort of many individuals, but of a process in which the individual plays a part which he can never fully understand.”
F. A. Hayek, “Scientism and The Study of Society” (1944), p. 67; later published in The Counter-revolution of Science
“Speech is either free or it isn’t” — a provocative argument from Bill Whittle. Even if you disagree with some or all of what he says, doesn’t he have a right to say it? And shouldn’t we defend that right?
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John Brown
On May 9, 1800, abolitionist revolutionary (and, technically, terrorist) John Brown was born. In 1883 on this date, Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset was born.
It’s time to talk minimum wage laws again!
Confession: I tend to understand some issues on the level of logic — of, even, common sense. A prohibition (which is what a minimum wage law is, forbidding payment at a rate below the “minimum”) doesn’t spur productivity, and it’s from increased productivity that we get general higher wages and wealth and progress itself.
Sure, there are “studies” that indicate otherwise. But, we don’t conduct field studies amongst chimps arranging their bananas to prove 2 + 2 = 4. If an experiment of chimp-arranged bananas comes up with 3, I look for the chimp with the banana-eating grin.
Anyway, there’s this new study about employment from 2007-2009, when the economy went into the toilet, and right after the national minimum wage was upped from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour.
The study’s authors look at employment broadly. They pride themselves on their careful assessment of “the minimum wage from an anti-poverty perspective” and “its effects on the broader population of low-skilled workers. . . .”
Off the top of my head, I marvel that anyone can distinguish one cause for unemployment (financial crash) from another (minimum wage law), but the authors make a pretty convincing case.
Their conclusion? “Our best estimate is that these minimum wage increases reduced the employment-to-population ratio of working age adults by 0.7 percentage points. This accounts for 14 percent of the total decline over the relevant time period.”
So, yes, they say, the last minimum wage hike led to higher unemployment.
Which is what I would suspect. Because of, you know . . . Common Sense.
I’m Paul Jacob.
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F. A. Hayek
“All economic activity is carried out through time. Every individual economic process occupies a certain time, and all linkages between economic processes necessarily involve longer or shorter periods of time.”
F. A. Hayek, “Intertemporal Price Equilibrium and Movement in the Value of Money” (1928)
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Celebrate/Protest with a bang!
On May 8, 1899, Austrian-English economist and philosopher Friedrich August von Hayek was born. He signed the bulk of his books written in the English language as “F.A. Hayek,” and is best known for “The Road to Serfdom,” “The Constitution of Liberty,” “The Fatal Conceit,” and many essays, several of them which are widely cited, including “Individualism, True and False” and “The Use of Knowledge in Society.”
Years earlier, on the same date in 1873, English philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill died. Now best known for “On Liberty” and “Utilitarianism,” Mill’s letters were edited into book form by Hayek.
On May 8, 1946, two Estonian school girls (Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel) blew up the Soviet memorial which stood in front of the Bronze Soldier in Tallinn.
This week I traveled to South Dakota to release an 18-page report on Attorney General Marty Jackley’s prosecution of Dr. Annette Bosworth. In less than two weeks, Bosworth goes on trial facing 12 felony counts carrying a maximum penalty of 24 years in prison and $48,000 in fines.
From my research, that’s the most severe penalty any American has ever faced on a petition-related charge. Conversely, the transgressions alleged against Dr. Bosworth are arguably the least sinister ever prosecuted.
She had made available, at her office, petitions to place her name on last year’s GOP primary ballot . . . for patients and visitors to sign. During that time, the doctor traveled on a medical mission of mercy to typhoon-devastated Philippines. While she was gone, 37 people — including her sister — signed those nominating petitions.
When Dr. Bosworth returned and the petition period came to a close, she signed as the circulator of those six petitions. But the circulator statement reads that she witnessed each signature being affixed.
So Attorney General Jackley charged her with six felony counts of filing a false document and another six for perjury.
While I empathize with Bosworth’s situation, my report was focused on the impact such an over-the-top prosecution has on the people of “the other Sunshine State” — the woman considering a run for public office or the fellow thinking about gathering signatures.
Our election system should be open and welcoming. Not frightening.
Petition rules must be enforced. But consistently, in a non-partisan and reasonable way — not by coming down in a draconian, disproportionate fashion.
And not singling out someone the AG just happens to have been at odds with personally and professionally for years.
“AG” ought not stand for “Atrocity Generator.”
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
