[T]he powers reserved by the people [under the Constitution] render them secure, and until they themselves become corrupt, they will always have upright and able rules.
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Marbury v. Madison, Feb 24
On February 24 1803, the Supreme Court, in Marbury v. Madison, established the principle of judicial review.
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The Problem With Socialism…
“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
—Margaret Thatcher
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[mks_dropcap style=”letter” size=”60″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]T[/mks_dropcap]he “tiny house” movement has gained momentum. More and more people — especially young people and childless people — see the virtue of very small houses. They are cheaper, can be made energy-efficient, have an almost necessarily smaller “environmental footprint,” and are mobile.
And I can see the attraction. For one thing, a tiny house would be easier to clean than what I have. For another? Snug. Many of the efforts are very cleverly designed and built. And certainly for young singles, they make a great deal of sense.
But, wouldn’t you know it, there is a problem here. Government.
Urban housing authorities, zoning boards, and the like, have not exactly been accommodating to this new development.
Which is, in its way, typical, and typically frustrating. After all, many of the reasons folks are looking to tiny houses result from government regulation in the first place. City, metro and county governments have been so poorly accommodating to diversity in housing demands that costs have risen horribly.
This is all explained over at Reason, which draws the bureaucratic environment of the nation’s capital in relation to tiny homes: “they’re illegal, in violation of several codes in Washington D.C.’s Zoning Ordinance. Among the many requirements in the 34 chapters and 600 pages of code are mandates defining minimum lot size, room sizes, alleyway widths, and ‘accessory dwelling units’ that prevent tiny houses from being anything more than a part-time residence.”
This leaves Reason’s featured tiny home owner in yet another bad-government-induced limbo: “allowed to build the home of his dreams — he just can’t live there.”
We need tiny government. Or at least tiny-accommodating government. Really… both.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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ZOla and Menger
On February 23, 1898, Émile Zola was imprisoned in France after writing “J’accuse,” a letter accusing the French government of anti-Semitism and wrongfully imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus.
Fifty-eight years earlier, Austrian economist Carl Menger was born.
Menger would go on to contribute to the development of the theory of marginal utility, which supplanted cost-of-production theories of value in economics, in his first book, translated into English as “Principles of Economics.” Though expert in mathematics (he served as tutor in economics and statistics to Archduke Rudolf von Habsburg, the Crown Prince of Austria not long after the publication of the Principles), his approach to marginal theory was the least mathematical of his famous “co-discovers” of the principle, William Stanley Jevons and Leon Walras. Rooted in a subjective theory of value, it was the most realistic and least model-based of the marginalist revolutionaries, and he was most interested in price formation, not “price determination,” which focused almost exclusively on equilibrium conditions. He developed an evolutionary theory of money, as well.
Menger’s second book was a defense of a particular kind of general theory in social science, and an explanation of the importance of “invisible hand” processes in the social world. The first theme caused a firestorm of debate in the German-speaking world, where “socialists of the chair” and other opponents of laissez faire went ballistic regarding the possibility of permanence of finding laws in the social world that were not of their own constructing. The second theme developed ideas found in Adam Smith, and extended them.
Menger inspired two major followers, Friedrich Freiherr von Wieser and Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk. The former named “marginal utility” and developed the first rigorous view of cost as opportunities foregone; the second advanced a time-preference theory of interest and theory of the structure of production. Later followers of this “Austrian School” included Ludwig von Mises and F.A. Hayek.
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Heinlein: Fire and Fusion
“…like fire and fusion, government is a dangerous servant and a terrible master. You now have freedom — if you can keep it. But do remember that you can lose this freedom more quickly to yourselves than to any other tyrant.”
—Robert A. Heinlein,
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
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Townhall: Resistance in Munich
The White Rose dissidents have lessons for you and me, even today.
Click on over to Townhall, for Paul’s latest discussion of the White Rose students and their sacrifices. Then come back here to learn more. And get involved in making the world a better, freer place.
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Hans and Sophie executed
On Feb. 22, 1943, brother and sister Hans and Sophie Scholl, and their colleague in the White Rose resistance organization, Christoph Probst, stood trial before the Volksgericht — the People’s Court that tried political offenses against the Nazi German state. Found guilty of treason by Roland Freisler, head judge of the court, the three were executed that same day. The method of capital punishment was guillotine.
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John Hancock
[W]e dread nothing but slavery. Death is the creature of a poltroon’s brains; ’tis immortality to sacrifice ourselves for the salvation of our country. We fear not death. That gloomy night, that palefaced moon, and the affrighted starts that hurried through the sky, can witness that we fear not death.
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Video: The Last Days of the White Rose
If you have been following the “Today in Freedom” and new visual meme features here at Common Sense, you are aware of The White Rose, the group of German dissidents who in 1942 and 1943 produced pamphlets against the Nazi regime.
There have been several good books and movies produced about these young and now long-gone heroes. One of them is available free on YouTube. It focuses on young Sophie Scholls, and her final days — that is, her and her brother’s direct encounter with the Gestapo and the totalitarian Nazi state. Well worth watching, though prepare yourself — it is not a light, comic romp; anything but:
See the Townhall column of these events, now published on this site.
You owe it to yourself to read the six pamphlets of the White Rose, now available here.