Tag: death

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deficits and debt tax policy too much government

No Shock and Awe

Benjamin Franklin, Death and Taxes,

They’ve crunched the numbers and the shocking truth is … Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden wants to raise taxes and debt.

The word “shocking” needs quotation marks, of course, for sheer lack of any shock whatsoever.

Also not shocking is who pays.

You see, “80 to 90 percent of the total proposed tax increases in Biden’s plan would fall on the top five percent of earners,” according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. That is the target taxpayer cohort, anyway. Economists know a hidden truth: the incidence of a tax’s burden shifts. All taxes siphon off production, but — because production is engaged in for consumption’s sake — in the end consumers pay.

In politics, of course, the idea is not to acknowledge this, instead focusing on the targets, tempting voters to get on board with spending and taxing and borrowing just so long as some other (preferably non-​voting) people pay. 

“While tax burdens would rise by 0.2 to 0.6 percent for most households, they would rise by 2.3 to 5.7 percent for the top 20 percent of earners and by 13.0 to 17.8 percent for those in the top 1 percent in 2021.” The Democrats would have the highest earners in America pay an extra “$300,000 per year” and call that a benefit … to those who would pay less.

Meanwhile, the “additional revenue that would be raised through Biden’s tax plan would only pay for a portion of his overall spending agenda.” It would take “$6 trillion more … to stabilize debt-​to-​GDP at today’s near-​record levels.”

According to the CRFB, because of pandemic panic spending, and before any proposed Biden add-​ons, “debt will grow from 79 percent of GDP before the crisis to 101 percent by the end of 2020 and 118 percent of GDP by 2030.”

Have our politicians set out to revise Ben Franklin’s maxim? There is nothing more certain than death and taxes — and debt.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Common Sense individual achievement media and media people

Hate in Plain Sight

David Koch

“Classy guy,” won’t be the moniker afforded comedian Bill Maher when his time on Earth comes to an end.

“I guess I’m going to have to reevaluate my low opinion of prostate cancer,” Maher told his HBO audience regarding the death of libertarian billionaire David Koch at 79.

“As for his remains,” continued Maher, “he has asked to be cremated and have his ashes blown into a child’s lungs.”

You get the tenor of his “humor.”

“[David Koch] and his brother have done more than anybody to fund climate-​science deniers for decades, so f — k him!” Maher argued. “I’m glad he’s dead, and I hope the end was painful.”

The HBO celeb likely hoped his crass takedown of the already deceased would go viral. “I know these seem like harsh words and harsh jokes,” Maher conceded, “and I’m sure I’ll be condemned on Fox News …”

But perhaps not reprimanded more universally, since such political viciousness has become ubiquitous. For instance, when a questioner at the Minnesota State Fair mentioned Koch’s passing, applause erupted. 

“I don’t applaud, you know, the death of somebody,” Sen. Bernie Sanders chided the crowd (to his credit). “We needn’t do that.”

Celebrating someone’s demise is sickening. Moreover, in the case of David Koch, and brother Charles, so many of the non-​stop political attacks have been erroneous — condemnation for positions they do not hold, for things they have not done. Not to mention ignoring all the wonderful benefits they have provided our society.

Bill Maher is a professional punk, so I’m not shocked. But David Koch was a hero.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

N.B. Lovers of liberty lost another champion last week: Eric Dixon. For years, Eric has been a huge help to Common Sense in a myriad of important ways. He also assisted a number of other liberty-​oriented and free-​market groups, including U.S. Term Limits, the Cato Institute, Missouri’s Show Me Institute, the Atlas Network, the Libertarian Party, and more. A lot of people will miss Eric, not the least of whom will be me.

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David Koch

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Suicide?

Jeffrey Epstein, murder, death, pedophile, conspiracy, paranoia,

Some news stories serve more as inkblot tests than as first runs at history. With the Jeffrey Epstein story we find sightings, Rohrschach-like, of both Minotaurs and unicorns, depending on the viewer.

I am not seeing the sad unicorn of suicide in his story. Are you?

Of course, there’s a maze of information to wade through, and we on the outside possess only the grossest of clues about whatever insider life Epstein lived.

And speaking of clues, maybe the key to the story can be found in how it plays in the headlines.

Before: 

  • The question that must be asked: Was Epstein running ‘honey traps’ and blackmailing the power elite?
  • Alex Acosta Reportedly Claimed Jeffrey Epstein ‘Belonged to Intelligence’
  • ‘IN DANGER’ Jeffrey Epstein’s life ‘in jeopardy’ as powerful pals ‘don’t want their secrets out’, victim’s lawyer claims
  • Jeffrey Epstein on suicide watch after accused sex trafficker is found injured in New York jail

After: 

  • JEFFREY EPSTEIN DEAD BY HANGING IN JAIL … Taken Off Suicide Watch
  • Jeffrey Epstein Dead in Suicide at Jail, Spurring Inquiries
  • Former MCC inmate: There’s ‘no way’ Jeffrey Epstein killed himself
  • Jeffrey Epstein’s jail guards were working extreme overtime shifts, source says
  • Jeffrey Epstein was not on suicide watch before death, official says
  • Epstein suicide sparks fresh round of conspiracy theories
  • Jeffrey Epstein’s death is a perfect storm for conspiracy theories

Who doesn’t roll their eyes, just a bit, when a news story in a major media news source confidently labels Epstein’s demise “suicide”?

Who wasn’t making jokes about Epstein’s suicide (often with pointed mention of the Clintons) before his first attempt?

Now the joke is the news media’s blithe acceptance of the official narrative.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

N.B. All the stories, headlined above, can be found by searching DuckDuckGo, the safe and non-​creepy search engine. No joke.

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Jeffrey Epstein, murder, death, pedophile, conspiracy, paranoia,

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Accountability folly general freedom ideological culture moral hazard responsibility U.S. Constitution

China Marks Marx Anniversary

Karl Marx, communism, socialism, death, failure, China, Chinese, German city of Trier

The Chinese government has sought to honor the birth of Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) by giving a giant bronze statue of the social philosopher and pseudo-​economist to the German city of Trier, his birthplace. 

Agreeing that Trier and Marx should be thus honored, local officials shamefully accepted the donation.

Marx was a bad guy. His willfully destructive anti-​capitalist theorizing and polemics have been enlisted to enslave and murder many millions of people in the Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, Cuba and elsewhere. The story is told in works like Modern Times and The Black Book of Communism. One effective critique of Marxian ideas may be found in the second volume of Murray Rothbard’s History of Economic Thought.

We often hear that Communist implementation of Marxian theory poorly translates “real” communism/​socialism/​collectivism. No government unswervingly enacts all the ideas and prescriptions of a single intellectual founding father. But there is much in Marx’s volumes that openly demands the razing of the division of labor, profit-​seeking, and other requirements of civilization.

In one article, Marx scribbled that “there is only one way in which the murderous death agonies of the old society and the bloody birth throes of the new society can be shortened, simplified and concentrated, and that way is revolutionary terror.” There’s plenty more where this came from.

When a major nation-​state gives a town a statue, it’s hard to say no. But one needn’t accept it at face value. Install it on a base that lists the separate bouts of Marx-​inspired mass murder. Or use it as a target in paintball tournaments.

Or just place it in the local cemetery. Where deadly ideologies should go. 

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

 

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ideological culture meme moral hazard nannyism national politics & policies Popular too much government U.S. Constitution

How Socialism Kills

socialism kills, redistribution, how socialism kills, why socialism kills, meme, illustration

3 Ways That Socialism Kills:

  1. state enforced redistribution requires violence (even if some participate willingly, it’s guns and gulags for everybody else)
  2. central planning produces starvation
  3. a state powerful enough to enforce socialism is an irresistible temptation to those who would abuse power

All the good intentions in the world can’t change this…

but hold on… what about “democratic socialism?”

 

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Accountability general freedom ideological culture media and media people nannyism Regulating Protest responsibility too much government

Tyranny’s Days Are Numbered

Castro, death, Cuba, Communism, freedom, illustration

Fidel Castro, the Cuban dictator for half a century, died Friday night.

“Although Castro was beloved by a legion of followers,” The Washington Post acknowledged, “detractors saw him as a repressive leader who turned Cuba into a de facto gulag.”

Many on the American left — especially in Hollywood — have been surprisingly enamored of Castro, and the supposed “accomplishments” of better education and healthcare delivery in his socialist paradise.

I guess we must all weigh whatever policy advances were made against Mr. Castro’s faults.

As the New York Times detailed: “Foreign-​born priests were exiled, and local clergy were harassed so much that many closed their churches.… a sinister system of local Committees for the Defense of the Revolution that set neighbors to informing on neighbors. Thousands of dissidents and homosexuals were rounded up and sentenced to either prison or forced labor.… jailing anyone who dared to call for free elections.… imprisoning or harassing Cuban reporters and editors.”

Fidel Castro’s death reminds me of Irving Berlin’s jazz tune about Adolf Hitler, When That Man is Dead and Gone:

What a day to wake up on

What a way to greet the dawn

Some fine day the news’ll flash

Satan with a small mustache 

Is asleep beneath the lawn

When that man is dead and gone

Saturday morning, that news finally flashed for Cuban Americans in south Florida. Followed by jubilation. Horns honking. Smiles, cheers and songs. Jigs were danced.

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz — that dictator, the person who imprisoned and murdered many seeking freedom — is dead and gone.

For now, sadly, his brand of tyranny continues through brother, Raúl Castro. But its days, too, are numbered.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Castro, death, Cuba, Communism, freedom, illustration