Free Market
« Previous EntriesI Wish I Were A Rich Man?
Thursday, October 6th, 2022I am always struck when I come to the end of the Good Samaritan parable in the gospel of Luke. The parable ends with the rich man begging Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead to warn his brothers. Abraham ridicules the rich man. Abraham said “If they do not listen to Moses and […]
Public Service vs. Private Profit
Thursday, September 15th, 2022Conservatives have been pretty clear about one aspect of their governing philosophy. They say that they will run government like a business. Liberals, however, see government as public services. The results are dramatically different. Liberal policies shaped American politics after the Great Depression. Franklin Delano Roosevelt provided a role model for creating government services. The […]
Break Big Oil’s Monopoly
Thursday, March 17th, 2022Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result. The first oil shock happened in 1973. Energy prices are set by “the market. The global energy market keeps failing us. We have known the market is failing us for 49 years. We know what can fix it: conservation and competition. Conservatives […]
Natural Monopolies
Friday, March 11th, 2022In 1776, Adam Smith published a ground breaking book, The Wealth of Nations. Smith introduced the French phrase laissez-faire to the English speaking world. The phrase best translates as “free market.” Smith criticized European monarchs for subsidizing domestic production and granting monopolies for foreign trade. He argued that monarch redistributed income from small farmers and […]
Earth Race
Thursday, October 21st, 2021You don’t have to listen long to hear what workers are saying about their lives. Their hours are long. Their pay is stagnant. They want more time with their children. They live one healthcare emergency away from bankruptcy. Millionaires and billionaires, however, have never had it better. They have the lowest tax rate since the […]
I’m Not Scared of Words
Tuesday, October 12th, 2021Every time we turn around Fox News and the rest of the professional conservatives cry like babies about scary socialism. It doesn’t take much education to know they haven’t a clue what socialism is. They simply want to scare and paralyze American. In the early 1900’s apartment and factory fires killed thousands. As a society […]
Unreliable Energy
Thursday, June 17th, 2021Here we go again. ERCOT, Electric Reliability Council of Texas, has warned us that the Texas power grid is about to fail. That doesn’t sound very reliable to me. It must sound reliable to Greg Abbot and Dan Patrick. They failed to provide solutions in the last legislative session. A few ERCOT Board members did […]
Safe and Secure Markets
Thursday, February 25th, 2021Markets are truly a human wonder. They allow us to buy products which we lack the skill, resources or time to make for ourselves. We rarely think about markets until they leave us in the cold. Markets are simply part of our everyday life. We shop for food and clothing. Sometimes we make big decisions […]
Moments of Clarity.
Friday, March 13th, 2020Moments of crisis are also moments of clarity. The very same politicians who scream prolife to get elected are now telling us to focus on profits, not saving lives. The very same politicians who scream get the government away from businesses are now throwing money at banksters faster than they can light it on fire. […]
Home of the Brave
Saturday, February 22nd, 2020“People who have opportunity to work and earn, and who have an assured income in their old age, are free. They are free of the fear of poverty. They are free of public or private charity. They can live happier, more useful lives. That’s real freedom. And that is something we should be proud of-that’s […]
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