You've written a textbook worth of economic theory in BB comments, but you are extraordinarily out of the loop on real life. You've gone over to the dark side where people are just numbers and lives are only theoretical models. What if they didn't plan for retirement? What if their stock value was wiped out by an economic downturn? What if their home is now functionally worthless due to a real estate crash or a local industry drying up? You theorize and theorize and theorize, but you never say anything that could actually be of any value to real, live human beings. It's not reality. It will never be reality. Your whole economic platform boils down to "Let them eat cake."

Not one thing he's posted precludes charity.

Zuzu: Ugh, no no no. Do not frame this in terms of incentives; that betrays the informational value of a small-model analysis (and encourages Machiavellian manipulation). The issue is perhaps subtly but importantly actually about signaling.

I was thinking more about how such a system was not much different from some folks who got a free boat ride and an "opportunity" to work in the field of agriculture in the New World.

BTW, what is the proper technique for quoting a previous post?

Takuan: "I can never understand this conceptual blind spot about funding health care. You pay taxes. You get stuff because you pay taxes. Roads. Armies. Aqueducts."

I also get a whole lot of stuff I would not want even if it were free.

* Airports that resemble outposts of the Iron Curtain.
* A "War on Drugs", to include crime created by a black market on narcotics, the funding of DEA and narcotics divisions, the clogging of the court system, and the cost of incarcerating buyers and sellers of narcotics.
* Not being able to legally obtain Cuban cigars.
* Having to play book keeper / accountant all year for the IRS.
* Farmers not growing things.
* Increased cane sugar prices.
* Not being able to purchase a five-gallon flush toilet.
* The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
* Police officers whose sole duties consist of hassling prostitutes, their customers, and those who violate the state's monopoly on gambling.
* Foreign aid to countries that will hate America in ten years.
* The "War on Terror" with unprovoked attacks on two countries.
* Having to store my trash cart and recycling cart in my garage, or having to deal with the municipal trash police. Leaving them outside the garage means a $300 ticket and mandatory attendance to "garbage school".

I could go on, but you can get the point. And for the stuff that could be considered a useful, I either get far too much of it (military), or it is of inferior quality (roads).

Yes, government and insurance companies exist outside the model.

Let's break down health care to small model. A doctor and a dozen of potential patients. To keep the model simple, leave third parties out of it, such as insurance companies and governmental agencies/ministries.

If health care is a right, then does it follow that each of the dozen can demand free treatment from the doctor? If that's the case, what incentive does the doctor have to continue this arrangement? I suppose the dozen could hold the doctor captive and rely on the doctor honoring the Hippocratic Oath.

Instead of carting off the National Guard (which are supposed to be the state militias until Perpich v. US) to Iraq, they should be sending every swinging ATF Richard and Richardette out to Iraq for the duration. They can confiscated all the things that go boom that the insurgents have. After all, they are a federal agency that was created expressly for that purpose.

Colonize Mars?

Mars ain't the kind of place to raise a kid. In fact it's cold as hell. And there’s no one there to raise them if you did.

#109 Dang it, Joe, you stole my thunder!

The "under God" clause of the "The Pledge of Allegiance" is a red herring. The debate should be framed in the context of should the pledge be used at all, given its history.

Likewise, the "In God We Trust" on the money is a similar red herring. What should really be discussed is the wisdom of allowing politicians to control currency. It strikes me as blasphemous to mention God on crap fiat currency.

"I'd like to see more urban bee-keeping."

Your wish is granted: http://www.nypost.com/seven/05192008/news/regionalnews/the_perfect_swarm_111498.htm

They preferred to be called "Apparition-Americans".

Outland is very reminiscent of High Noon.

What's this, then? "Romanes eunt domus"? People called Romanes, they go, the house?

MythBusters found fruit flies to be more hardy than cockroaches in regards to radiation exposure.

Sandpiper,

How did the Great Depression discredit the Austrian school of economics? The consequences of excessive credit expansion have been detailed by their economists, especially Menger and Mises.

Ugly Cannuck,

Inflation is creating money at rate faster than goods and services are created. Deflation would occur if the amount of goods and services increased while the supply of money remained the same (or decreased).

Money, a.k.a "money in the wider sense" is more than the currency in circulation. It is also the creation of credit which can be used in lieu of physical currency or bank drafts.

The reason the dollar is doing poorly compared with other currencies is that it has been devalued through inflation. The housing bubble is a different but related phenomenon that was fueled through reckless credit expansion.

Coaxial,

This mess has almost a century in the making, going back to the coin clipping...I mean Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Although Reagan and that Congress certainly didn't help matters in that regard.

I cannot see how allowing a cabal of bankers to manipulate money (in the wider sense) at the pleasure of politicians cannot fail to lead to trouble. Compound that with a "war" that's going to wind up flushing trillions down the toilet, the USA will become as bankrupt as the USSR. Come to think of it, flushing a trillion dollars down the toilet would be a wiser move.