Alan C.

I have posts on this forum regarding the problems in Venezuela going back to 2010. While the decline in oil may have worsened existing problems, it's not the cause.

Tweeting for Treatment in Venezuela

Which part was he referring to; the part about the welfare state messing up the country or that the social classes would rotate every few generations?

The idea that kids will become socially deficient if home schooled is a canard that people hear and repeat. The irony is that kids who come out of government schools are often socially deficient, lack social grace and good communication skills, and can become dissociative and dysfunctional. There are plenty of activities that you can involve your kids in so that they get plenty of interaction. I played soccer and was involved with Indian Guides. There are plenty of clubs and youth camps.

Young Oakland Girls Called ‘Radical Brownies’ Learn Social Justice Instead Of Selling Cookies For those unfamiliar with Oakland, it's a crime-infested cesspool and one of America's most dangerous cities. It's exactly the kind of place one would expect to be a breeding ground for this worldview.

Guild Wars is one of the most fun games I ever played and I think I sank more hours into that than any other game. A friend and I bought GW2 when it came out, played it for a couple of months, grew bored, and never touched it again. Also, the market feature was broken for over a month after launch. It's an entirely different game than the first. It became repetitive, had console-like game play, and too much jumping and climbing. It also severely limited the ability of players to choose their own skills. I really liked the strategic element in the first game of figuring out and equipping the best layout of skills, and enjoyed the instanced missions and quests. I had dozens of my own templates for different quests, areas, and PvP. I thought the first game was superior and think that they made a mistake by not continuing to expand it with new areas and content.

What is the point of this?

Yes, but out of necessity rather than choice. If the State were to impose price controls on labor then the result would be chronic shortages. Most people would then be forced to become more self-sufficient, resulting in a break down of division of labor and specialization. People on the margins of society, who are least capable of taking care of themselves, would perish.

Tom Woods (MP3 and YouTube links) recently interviewed Richard Bennett (who co-invented Ethernet over Twisted Pair) on this topic. I recommend a listen. Also see: The myth that government created the internet and my previous post on this subject. Some of the links in my old post are broken so here are fixed links: Unnatural Monopoly: Critical Moments in the Development of the Bell System Monopoly (PDF) A Very Long Distance (how government regulation stifled cell phone innovation)

Pope says it's OK to spank kids, if their dignity is kept Hardly surprising.

The Mises Institute was founded by Lew Rockwell and Murray Rothbard in 1982 to advance Austrian economics, which is a fundamental component of anarcho-capitalism (the other being the social philosophy of individualist anarchism). Many ancaps attend Mises Circles. I've been to 4 of them. Sadly, they rarely have them within driving distance from southern California. The last one I attended was in November, 2014 in Costa Mesa. Here are a bunch of photos from that event, including me with Ron Paul and Andrew Napolitano. I also met Lew Rockwell, but that photo isn't online because I took it with my own camera.

My previous posts on natural monopoly and market monopoly.

The foundation of left-liberalism consists of intellectual myopia, responsibility avoidance, and high time preference. As I've mentioned before, left-liberals tend to enter fields in which results don't matter such as academia, journalism, and politics.

The Big Lie: 5.6% Unemployment

Mises Circle, Phoenix, AZ, Nov 7, 2015 I might drive out for it.

As firms grow, internal transaction costs become increasingly dissociated from market prices. This is precisely why firms cannot enjoy limitless growth and why the notion of a single firm encompassing the globe is a myth (but people think it can happen because of movies).

Yes, because it's not an act of contrition; it's an attempt to gain absolution.

She is looking for validation and using you to get it. She also wants somebody to coddle her and excuse her behavior. I recently ended a friendship with a young lady after a few months because I felt like I was being used. We were never intimate. In hindsight, I'm glad that I didn't go there. I had reservations about her from the beginning, based upon things she told me about her past, but I'm not the judgemental type and I enjoyed her company. However, she was immature and glib, and I decided to let it go when it became obvious that she wasn't going to change. Whenever I spend time with a woman, the thought that is always in the forefront of my mind is, "Is she wife and mother material?"

Is Venezuela on the Verge of Collapse? Robbers target food delivery trucks in shortage-hit Venezuela Photo of long line at grocery store Venezuelans Throng Grocery Stores Under Military Protection https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1422411861&x-yt-cl=84924572&v=u2tTbV-2LJ4

There is no such thing as a society in which one can abstain from work unless one is in some kind of symbiotic relationship with others. Without symbiosis, and if one were to abstain from work, then the result would be death in a matter of days from dehydration, starvation, or hypothermia.

It's not real economic growth. It creates the illusion of economic growth by increasing consumption. However, it does this by siphoning wealth surreptitiously from everyone so it's not obvious. Society, in aggregate, becomes poorer.

Open-ended European QE starts 'with a bang' Since when is inflation painfully low?

Where was all of this clean water that she is talking about? Most of the water on the planet is too saline to drink, or contains harmful parasites and pathogens.

Where did his prescription eyeglasses come from, I wonder?