It is customary to see the radical innovations that capitalism brought about in the substitution of the mechanical factory for the more primitive and less efficient methods of the artisans’ shops. This is a rather superficial view. The characteristic feature of capitalism that distinguishes it from pre-capitalist methods of production was its new principle of marketing. Capitalism is not simply mass production, but mass production to satisfy the needs of the masses.
Since we constantly battle against bad government — it being necessary to pare government down to its essential kernel, where it protects rather than tramples our rights — we sometimes lose sight of the fact that good government is both possible and necessary.
Now, many folks will raise an eyebrow, here. “‘Good government’ isn’t just about protecting our rights,” they might say. “It’s about providing key services. Like roads. Traffic lights. That sort of thing.”
Sure, we need roads. And safety measures. Nevertheless, good government is not about overkill.
Take automated intersection policing. That is, the infamous “red-light cameras.”
The New York Post reports that one camera — one intersection robot (better term, eh?) — snapped 1551 infractions on July 7. That was $77,550 for one camera for one day. No wonder that one city councilman likes it. And says it makes roadways safer.
But over at Reason, Zenon Evans marshals some skepticism. “A British study on speed cameras last year determined that ‘the number of collisions appears to have risen enough to make the cameras worthy of investigation in case they have contributed to the increases.’” These dangerous effects don’t appear to be limited to the other side of the pond, either: “[M]any reports,” Evans concludes, “have indicated that red light cameras in the U.S. increase accidents.”
More policing isn’t necessarily better policing. The old rule about traffic safety is that the rules should be set to what most people would drive without the rules.
Let’s remember: rewarding ineffective, counter-productive policing with lots of money is a bad way to govern the governors.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
She must still suffer bogus punishment for her non-crime.
But at least Shaneen Allen won’t have to rot in prison for up to ten years.
What is the charge? Crossing a state border.
I’m glad that she no longer lives in the purgatory of that possibility.
And I think I know how she feels, having been arbitrarily threatened with prison myself, along with two colleagues, for a “crime” that was, in fact, a non-crime.
Twice a victim of real crime last year, Ms. Allen has a concealed carry permit from her home state of Pennsylvania. Her duly licensed gun was in her purse on the day she drove into New Jersey. A routine traffic stop led to its discovery and to Atlantic County Prosecutor James McClain’s injudicious determination to throw the book at her for possessing that gun in New Jersey without New Jersey’s permission.
Laws at all levels of governance being what they are — prolific, contradictory, and potentially ruinous — let’s agree that Allen should have double-checked her assumption that her constitutional right to bear arms would not dissolve en route to the Garden State. Let’s also agree that crossing a border between two states of our union hardly stacks up to bank robbery or murder.
This kind of lapse of due diligence should not be used to destroy a life.
In late September, bowing to public pressure, McClain reversed himself. Shaneen Allen must enter a so-called pre-trial intervention (PTI) program, but no longer faces prison. The Daily Caller called the prosecutor’s welcome caving to public pressure a “stunning outbreak of sanity.”
I call it Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Mass phenomena to which the theory of probability does not apply are, of course, of common occurrence.
This weekend’s Common Sense column over at Townhall may seem familiar to readers of Common Sense. It summarizes a bunch of ideas we grapple with all the time. Even the historical facts about the Roman Republic and Empire may seem familiar — and for a reason. Most were featured in the “Today in Freedom” sidebar.
So click on over to Townhall, and then back here for some more reading:
I don’t know about you, but I wonder if Vladimir Putin sees himself as Odoacer. And Obama as Romulus Augustus.
Oh, here is Elizabeth Warren calling Tea Party Republicans “anarchists”:
http://youtu.be/AEqpQuenCxQ
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.
On September 27, 1821, Mexico gained its independence from Spain.
A learning experience is one of those things that say, “You know that thing you just did? Don’t do that.”
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs didn’t finish college, and they did okay. John Brooks dropped out of middle school at age 13, and he is doing okay.
Now 22, he began developing an encrypted chat program called Ricochet some four years ago — long before Edward Snowden so profusely exposed the National Security Agency’s spy-on-everyone programs.
Wired reports that Brooks eventually crafted “a full-fledged desktop client that was easy to use, offered anonymity and encryption, and even resolved the issue of metadata — the ‘to’ and ‘from’ headers and IP addresses spy agencies use to identify and track communications. . . .” He did a better job crafting the package than others offering similar armored tech.
One problem. For a long time, few people knew about his robust chat program. But dramatic revelations of unfettered surveillance by both government and businesses of everybody can sure concentrate the mind. Many more people have become worried about metadata that can be easily scavenged without a warrant. And Brooks realized that his achievement would be widely welcome if only he could get the word out and prove that Ricochet does what it is supposed to do. If not now, when?
That’s around the time a group called Invisible.im announced plans to develop an encrypted chat program to do what Brooks had already done. He told them about his own software; they dropped their plans and are helping him finalize and distribute Ricochet.
May the best private, secure, anonymous chat program win.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
The National Labor Relations Board has ordered CNN to rehire 100 workers and pay off 200 others.
NLRB rebukes CNN for “failure to bargain” with a union. The dispute apparently involves no breach of contract with employees — only a breach with a union’s demand that CNN deal with it.
Blogger Daily Pundit is giddy: “I can’t imagine a happier outcome than seeing CNN, the hack propaganda mouthpiece for the ‘respectable’ American left, being forced into bankruptcy” by a “rogue bureaucracy.”
But wait. Would the tyrannical destruction of CNN be — ideological schadenfreude aside — a happy outcome?
No.
However poetic the justice, or injustice, being inflicted on its owners and officers, their right to make economic decisions — the right to control our own lives and property — does not hinge on the content of their notions. The only way we can all have rights, share the same standing in the world, is to ground our rights in our shared humanity … and not anything more specific, narrow, or particular. Only those who forcibly violate the rights of others properly forfeit some of the protections to which peaceful persons are normally entitled.
Even if Pundit’s point is only to relish CNN’s comeuppance, not to root for governmental harassment of lefty prattlers, it’s misguided. Each new assault on our freedom — to hire, to fire, to speak, to write — serves as precedent for comparable and worse assaults. If we hope to defend our own freedom, we should defend that of all peaceful individuals. And prefer that they be left alone.
We must defend even those with some pretty noxious ideas.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.