Tag: The Law

“Nobody owes more than the law demands.”

Guest Post by Simon Black

There used to be a show from the 90s called America’s Funniest Home Videos, where host Bog Saget would show silly home movies that people sent in from across the country.

The videos typically featured people doing stupid things. And if the video was funny enough, someone could have won the $100,000 grand prize.

All of that was pre-Internet, of course. Now there are people amassing fortunes on YouTube with audiences that rival hit TV shows.

Today, a nine year old boy named Ryan Koji is the highest earning YouTuber. Last year he raked an estimated $30 million from about 12 billion views, all from videos of him opening and playing with toys on camera for his 42 million subscribers.

Another YouTuber named Logan Paul earns $10-$15 million per year, just for being generally annoying and obnoxious on camera.

Continue reading ““Nobody owes more than the law demands.””

HILLARY: DECEIT, DEBT, DELUSIONS (PART ONE)

“While every group has certain economic interests identical with those of all groups, every group has also, as we shall see, interests antagonistic to those of all other groups. While certain public policies would in the long run benefit everybody, other policies would benefit one group only at the expense of all other groups. The group that would benefit by such policies, having such a direct interest in them, will argue for them plausibly and persistently. It will hire the best buyable minds to devote their whole time to presenting its case. And it will finally either convince the general public that its case is sound, or so befuddle it that clear thinking on the subject becomes next to impossible.”
― Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson

One of the benefits of running a blog for the last seven years has been interacting with so many smart people. During these daily interactions I am introduced to new ideas, different points of view, and become acquainted with a plethora of great thinkers. When I was younger, before kids, long commutes, running a blog and being beaten down by life, I was a voracious reader. My regular commenters direct me towards writers and books I wish I had read in my twenties rather than my fifties.

But I guess it is never too late to learn something new. I’ve now read the first two of the four books I bought myself at Christmas: The Law by Frederic Bastiat; Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt; The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek; and Tragedy & Hope by Carroll Quigley. What is so striking after reading The Law (written in 1850) and Economics in One Lesson (written in 1946) is humanity’s foibles, belief in fallacies, and ignorance of economics hasn’t changed over the last two centuries.

Continue reading “HILLARY: DECEIT, DEBT, DELUSIONS (PART ONE)”

THE LAW by FREDERIC BASTIAT

Bastiat wrote this essay in 1850, but his words perfectly describe why our dysfunctional government run by politicians and bureaucrats is on the road to ruin. Socialism is the scourge of the world, and the ignorant masses want more of it. Liberty, freedom and free markets are no longer possible in a society controlled by narrow minded nincompoops who pass laws and inflict regulations on every inch of our society. Bastiat’s essay is one of the finest ever written and should be read by every high school student in America. But, since the government controls education, they would never allow it to be read.

The law perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it! The law, I say, not only turned from its proper purpose but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose! The law become the weapon of every kind of greed! Instead of checking crime, the law itself guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish!

If this is true, it is a serious fact, and moral duty requires me to call the attention of my fellow-citizens to it.

Life Is a Gift from God

We hold from God the gift which includes all others. This gift is life — physical, intellectual, and moral life.

But life cannot maintain itself alone. The Creator of life has entrusted us with the responsibility of preserving, developing, and perfecting it. In order that we may accomplish this, He has provided us with a collection of marvelous faculties. And He has put us in the midst of a variety of natural resources. By the application of our faculties to these natural resources we convert them into products, and use them. This process is necessary in order that life may run its appointed course.

Life, faculties, production — in other words, individuality, liberty, property — this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it. Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.

Continue reading “THE LAW by FREDERIC BASTIAT”