We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
"Free market capitalism" is just what trustworthy people naturally do to make stuff, get stuff, and do things without violence or threat of violence: "I'll give you two arrowheads for that nice spearhead." The only "system" in free markets are government constraints to preserve orderly markets, to protect people from fraud, and to reward government friends. Those constraints are sometimes helpful, often destructive.
Other things - not "systems" but really just conditions - which make non-violent interactions possible are free speech, voting, a legal structure, honest people, and property ownership.
Lefties have a knee-jerk suspicion of those fine foundations for civil society.
There is no Russia threat. Obama and Hillary tried hard to cozy up to Putin. Russia is a pathetic country, but no danger to the US at all. This whole thing was started by the Clinton campaign. From now on, I will ignore it all.
I was lukewarm about Trump, but I figure I felt like the Hillary supporters did - it was a rotten character but preferable to the other one. I never expected Trump to have a chance.
"...All the nice cutesy little ethics that used to get talked about in journalism school you're just like, that's adorable. That's adorable. This is a business."
CNN producer John Bonifield. If anybody doubted Trump's accusations of fake news...
Under the heading “Myth of Meritocracy,” for instance, the document asserts that saying “Everyone can succeed in this country, if they work hard enough” constitutes a microaggression, advising students and faculty members to respond to such statements by challenging the speaker to provide examples.
They are welcome to use me as an example. Meanwhile, I wonder how all of this nonsense does college kids any good. I had some blue-collar white privilege, but I did learn stats, calc, and physics. It was not easy but I earned my stripes. If you go to college today, you had best take on the hard stuff or nobody cares.
Policy think tanks across the country have analyzed the finding of Maine’s experiment and have called on their state governments to follow suit. Some even heralded the program as a model for the nation. The problem facing many action oriented states come from restrictions put in place by the federal system. While the Republican lead welfare reform of the 90s did a great deal to push welfare to the state level, it also left a great deal to be desired.
To function as independent bodies, as the federal system intends, and better serve their most vulnerable citizens’ states ought to have greater freedom to experiment with welfare reforms. Congress could act to give states a greater say in how welfare is implemented within their borders if reform is to be both helpful to those in need and sustainable.
It's an optimistic article. However, there are really no solutions. Modern societies will always have populations who will not or can not function very well. As far as the guaranteed government income idea goes, forget it. People too low-functioning to hold a job probably could not handle money well. The only thing that saddens me about American state and federal welfare programs are the numbers of potentially-functional people who settle for life on the dole and/or the underground economy instead of a life of dignity and self-reliance.
Dr. Tim Ball's new book: