tasmlab

I've bought like five copies of this book so far. I hand them out to people new to economics. My 9 year old daughter read it a few months ago.

Parents who pass away should have arrangements, codified in their wills, about who god parents are. For example, we have two different families lined up to take over in case. For newly unwanted babies, there is already a lucrative adoption industry. Agency adoption fees can be in the 10's of thousands of dollars. For example, our friends recently paid an agency $45K to get their newborn (a half-black/half-hispanic whose mother had a drug history and father unknown). The balance handled with charity. And maybe, like anything, there would be a sad story now and again.

If you got 20 or so hours to kill, Cantor does a great lecture on commerce and culture, exploring how government funding leads to the destruction of tastes. I really enjoyed it. http://mises.org/library/commerce-and-culture/0

When Darth Vader talks to Luke right before he steps into the void at the end of Return of the Jedi, he seems to gloss over the fact that he was instrumental in killing billions of people. Yea, not quite satisfying.

I would think there would be some market for those. As a secular homeschooler, we've abandoned any courses we've bought, going unschool by default. The kids nor parents didn't care for them. Not sure if this is useful information for you though.

On topic (but not an answer), Paul Cantor does a very enjoyable lecture series on "Commerce and culture" to explain the economics behind art, and why the state should not be involved. It's long, like 20 hours, but I found it worthwhile.: https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/commerce-and-culture/id380678865?mt=10

There's lot of fiction about things that don't exist. Superheros, Jurassic Park, Hobbits. The undead. History. I wouldn't see why there couldn't be a rich amount of fiction with loads of conflict. Tom and Jerry could still endlessly hack away at each other on TV, even in a free and rational society. IMO.

We did five weeks with our kids (age 3, 6, and 9) just visiting New England and it was exhausting. I can't even comprehend the list you've come up with. Not even considering the expense. Sorry, I don't have any ideas, but good luck and enjoy!

@pepin, I think it's a quarter, not 1/16. Folks have four grandparents.

Heard him subbing for Peter Schiff and then never listened to Peter Schiff again as I had 3,000 FDR podcasts to catch up on.

I wonder if it would be effective to try to include whatever crowd is around into a shaming. e.g., say very loudly "look everybody at this woman hitting a child. Shame on her!"

Used to be editor at mises.org and LRC. Sounds pretty an cap to me. He does posit on "humanitarian" libertarians vs. "brutalists", favoring the perspective that freedom allows people to flourish instead of just griping about being taxed. Something like that. On left libertarianism, I think theoretically it could function within anarcho capitalism. If people wanted to wall off a piece of land and not use currency they wouldn't be starting a government or violating the NAP or anything. I'm not sure they would do very well and would probably want money eventually if only to buy stuff from the surrounding an caps (to be known as in the future as simply "folks").

I'd say skip the midnight mass and go double on the egg nog. My three young children would probably murder me in my bed if we skipped Christmas. I am trying to skip parades though on all of the USA's military holidays.

I'd say get married if she wants it. It's fun, you get to have a big cocktail party. I've been married and think it is delightful. You can think of it as a relationship contract, but IMO the bigger part is the declaration to her and your families/friends that are committed to being around permanently. This is important in child rearing. We saved $30,000 on our taxes by filing jointly. My accountant always shows us both ways of filing. That would be roughly $400,000 of free money over the years we've been married*, and maybe about a million over the course of my career. With kids coming in the mix, being married will be create pretty ironclad protection to ensure you maintain custody in the case of her death in a probate process. And you get to have the same last name as your children. I don't find that it is a contract with the state a reason to reject marriage, any more than feeling bad about paying taxes or sending a birthday card in the mail. The government is our state of nature. (* Assuming that the trend of a rising salary continues)

That's a neat page!

What's the difference between this and condos where each unit in a building is owned by it's residents?

Curious: What's the balance amount? There might be easier ways of getting rid of it than destroying your economic life.

I would repeat a lot of what Kevin said. SPOILERS ahead: When Samantha and Theodore first have sex, my wife and I were like "huh, it's only 40 minutes into the movie. What are they going to do for the next hour and half?" And that's when the plot just got really creative. Tons of awakening moments that I just wasn't expecting: - Like when he starts telling people he's dating an OS and everybody's like "oh, cool. Yea my friend is too." Of course this had to be happening given the product's distribution. - When he takes her on the double-date and she's treated like a peer. - When they fight. Why isn't she a subservient tool? - When they invent Alan Watts. - When she reveals that she's constantly talking to 8,000 people simultaneously, and in love with 600 of them. - Her final departure and the analogy of the book she loves that has the words coming too slowly. All of these were little blooms/burst in my head and heart while watching. I don't get to seem many good films anymore. It seemed like in the 2000's we were flooded with them from the likes of Nolan, Jonze, Sophia Coppula, Paul Anderson, Wes Anderson, etc. But then I didn't have all these kids either.

I saw this movie a couple days ago and it really blew my hair back. It's about a guy who falls in love with an artificial consciousness in a very similar and probably near future. They allude to some deterministic/free will stuff as the artificial consciousness wonders if she is just following a bunch of computer rules. In the end, though, it's a love story. Don't watch with the kids, plenty of bad language and sexual situations.

I'd suggest reading a few books. It sounds like it is simple enough to abandon a bad belief and be done with it, but sometimes research can help you think things through. Sam Harris' "The End of Faith" is an absolute delight to read. I've read it twice. As is his "Letter to a Christian Nation" I enjoyed Dawkins "God Delusion" Carl Sagan's "Science as a candle in the Dark" is decentish. And Stef has one, On Truth I think. I own it but haven't gotten around to reading it. BTW, Amazon's used book store is awesome. You can get popular books usually for just a few bucks each.

I give my employees six weeks off per year and they can use that time to either go on holiday, take a break, run errands or be sick. They have flexible schedules and I'm sweet to them. It's an imperative for employers to have happy, engaged employees if they hope them to be productive and a positive part of the team. The point relevant to this thread is that sick pay should be something one negotiates for like everything else. We don't need the government mandating it.

I didn't go beyond the headline, but supposedly Bush gets teary thinking about veterans. This is the face of evil. http://www.ijreview.com/2014/11/200965-watch-george-w-bush-tear-delivers-stirring-message-servicemen-2014-veterans-day/

For just about everybody it would just be an accounting shell game. It wouldn't change what an employer would budget for an employee. The exception would be hourly minimum wage workers, since their wages can't be reduced to accommodate sick time.

"By the end of the decade, we should ruin 6,000,000 more children."

I met Barbara Bush once on a beach in Kennebunkport where we were vacationing. She complimented our kids, told us the George Sr. sleeps with the dog, and we talked about the best place to adopt a dog. My boy was playing with their dog, hence so much dog talk. Never did I say "You know, you gave birth to and raised one of the most murderous assholes the world has seen." Maybe I should have. I met Ron Paul once, but it wasn't like I needed to remind him that taxes and war and such are bad.