Alan C.

What creates a narcissist? My answer here.

Feds paid $252 billion in unemployment benefits during recession

Other significant factors which cause unemployment include price controls (eg. minimum wage), regulatory impositions (eg. Obamacare, paid-leave, special accomodations), and litigation risk (eg. discrimination lawsuits). All of these State-imposed barriers impel employers to seek ways to avoid hiring people, or to reduce their personnel.

Snowden leaks: David Cameron urges committee to investigate Guardian NSA files: why the Guardian in London destroyed hard drives of leaked files

NHS pulls the plug on its £11bn IT system

People biologically take pleasure in the pain of others

Company behind Obamacare website in charge of nearly $2 billion in Sandy relief

Is it justified for a homeowner to hire armed security to stop trespassers? I don't see how it's different if the property in question is a privately-owned business. I don't see armed security at Disneyland. I'm sure they're there, but they're more discreet. Who would want to visit Disneyland with armed security on Main Street? The reason why the State has armed 'security' everywhere is because the incectives are entirely different than that of the market. The State's incentives are control and expropriation whereas market-based security is oriented toward customer-service and safety.

The Fed will phase out the Fed long before Bitcoin gains enough popularity to create a significant impact.

Venezuela Government Creates Happiness Agency

UC Davis pepper-spray cop's payout criticized by attorney

That won't be necessary. When enough people in society begin acting with integrity and repudiate thuggery, people like the police, DHS, TSA, politicians, etc., will have nowhere to go and nobody will associate with them.

Feds confiscate investigative reporter’s confidential files during raid

Woman Endures Strip Search & Jail Time For Overdue Ticket

Census Bureau: Means-Tested Gov't Benefit Recipients Outnumber Full-Time Year-Round Workers

Census: 49% of Americans Get Gov’t Benefits; 82M in Households on Medicaid

Millions of Americans Are Losing Their Health Plans Because of Obamacare Thousands Of Consumers Get Insurance Cancellation Notices Due To Health Law Changes Health insurance cancellation notices soar above Obamacare enrollment rates CareFirst says 76,000 customers will lose current coverage due to Obamacare Elderly Patients Sick Over Losing Doctors Under Obamacare 500,000 Californians Lose Health Policies Some health insurance gets pricier as Obamacare rolls out Obama admin. knew millions could not keep their health insurance Obama blames ‘bad apple insurers’ for canceled insurance plans Calif. Insurance Commissioner: More Than 1M Californians Having Insurance Cancelled Due To ACA Administration: 106,000 enrolled in health insurance in first month of HealthCare.gov The Obamacare Exchange Scorecard: Around 100,000 Enrollees And Five Million Cancellations Public college cites high cost of Obamacare in canceling students' health plans Euphoria of Obamacare becomes nightmare of higher premiums and deductibles Oregon signs up just 44 people for Obamacare despite spending $300 million Obamacare raised the cost of your kids’ braces

Report: U.S. Spent $3.7 Trillion on Welfare Over Last 5 Years

Craigslist makes turning food stamps into cash a SNAP

An army of robot baristas could mean the end of Starbucks as we know it It also can't sue.

90,609,000: Americans Not in Labor Force Climbs to Another Record

Good enough for government work? The contractors building Obamacare

In 23 Advanced Economies: U.S. Adults Rank 21st in Math Skills However, Americans rank #1 in obesity, drug use, and number of hours of TV watched.

In a market-based economy, the ratio of supply to demand manifests as prices. Prices 1) inform entrepreneuers that greater profit awaits building 'X' vs. building 'Y' and 2) permit cost accounting so that consumers can quantify a particular act of consumption (as a numerical expression) and reorient behavior and plans based upon available resources (ie. economize).In an economy without prices (or faux prices), Soviet bread lines and Venezuelan toilet paper shortages occur.The caller didn't explain from where resources will come to produce 3D printed phones, who will procure those resources, how they'll be stored and transported, or how people will know if those resources could've been put to better use in another way. Moreover, who is going to design and maintain the communications infrastructure?The caller envisions a society in which neighborhoods can share lawn mowers (and other things). Well, people can do that now, so why don't they? The problem is, who is going to buy it, store it, and maintain it? What if somebody stores it improperly and it rusts? The reason why people may not want to share things in that way is because they can calculate the costs involved and decide that it's not worth their time. People who want to share lawn mowers (and other things) have no lawn mower of their own to share.Resources, supply-chains, and goods/services are inextricably linked by prices (see Murray Rothbard's parable of the ham sandwich or Leonard Read's I, Pencil) and, as Joe Salerno pointed out, it's not possible to jump from 'here' to the efficient state. These are extremely complex processes, far too vast in scope, for any group of people to coordinate without prices (even with a computer).

British Newspaper Mistakes Deus Ex For Real Life I thought it was a fun game; original was better, though.