Government failure: bureaucracy consumes money

Public Servants threaten recovery in The Australian

The total number of workers employed by the six states jumped by 28 per cent between 2000 and 2008.

Victoria led the way with a 37 per cent increase in the total number of public servants. NSW, South Australia and Tasmania each recorded growth of about 25 per cent or more.

But frontline services such as health, education and policing have not benefited from the boost in numbers.

Instead, the greatest growth in state public service staffing has been in administration.

The paper finds no clear evidence that the bigger bureaucracies have led to better service delivery.

And public service earnings have grown strongly, with average pay increases outstripping those of private sector workers.

The research warns of an “unsustainable trend” that has seen state general government sector employee expenses rise from $43.3 billion in 2000-01 to $77.1bn in 2007-08, an increase of almost 9 per cent a year in the period.

Surprise surprise!

Government failure – street beggars face $6500 fine

Street beggars face $6500 fines

The government is retarded on so many levels. Ok, so people who are begging for spare change in the Northern Territory can face a fine of up to $6500. But don’t think people who have houses are getting away with it, they face fines of up to $2600 for not keeping their own yards tidy. Yeah, why not? It’s not like you own your own yard anyway, the government owns everything, including you. Never mind about property rights or freedoms, these are but minuscule obstacles for the all-mighty and all-knowing government, with such farsighted and impartial rulers as these.

NT Attorney-General Delia Lawrie said the penalties were being increased to meet inflation, with the maximum penalties only a guide for the courts.

But don’t worry guys, they’re only only raising the penalties in line with inflation. Too bad it is entirely irrelevant when you consider the simple fact that homeless people have no way of paying this fine.

I’m so tired of people turning a blind eye to all the government failure, and only seeing opportunities for the government to “need” to step in. Clearly governments are not fit to rule over us. There’s an elephant in this room.

School Sucks podcast

This podcast is interesting and deserves your interest.

School Sucks podcast: The END of Public Education

“How are many things that are good for you, that you will benefit from, need to be imposed on you with force?”

What would we do without police?

Because without police, we’d have special ed kids walking around without their shirts tucked in! Thank god for the policeman who came to the rescue and brutally beat this 15 year old kid up using a dangerous chokehold (outlawed in some US states), and breaking his nose. That’ll teach them! I love the police. Don’t you?

Open Letter to Nobel Peace Prize Committee

Found at Wendy McElroy, feel free to circulate widely

“Open Letter to the Members of the Nobel Prize Committee:

While we respect that this award is yours alone to give, we request you to reconsider this year’s recipient — President Barack Obama.

The awardee is pursuing and, in fact, has increased the efforts in two acknowledged wars; he has also engaged in acts of war against the civilians of at least one other nation. While it is true that he did not initiate the two wars, neither has he used his power to withdraw from them, reduce their scope or cease the killing of individuals who do not threaten him or America. .

We have been told the reason for Obama’s Nobel Prize is his frequent references to peace in speeches and his appeals to the hearts and consciences of people. Yet, historically, some of the most famous leaders who have been responsible for the deaths of millions made similar orations. Speeches are not a sufficient indication of a peaceful intent; they are not demonstrations of successful peaceful efforts. On this basis, we ask you to reconsider your decision.

Thank you in advance for considering a new candidate — one who has truly embraced peace, not merely in words but through the demonstrated preference of his or her actions.

Sincerely,
The innocent people of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan

How to prolong recession

In Extending the recession indefinitely, Vin Suprynowicz points out how Rothbard wrote about how not to get out of recession. Not surprisingly, it matches up pretty well with Obama’s economic policy.

If anyone in Washington were to be so wacky as to seek to extend the pain of a recession, what course would they follow? On Page 26 of “America’s Great Depression,” Rothbard presents that very catalog of idiocy.

“Here are the ways the adjustment process can be hobbled:” he writes.

“1) Prevent or delay liquidation. Lend money to shaky businesses, call on banks to lend further, etc.

“2) Inflate further. Further inflation blocks the necessary fall in prices, thus delaying adjustment and prolonging depression. Further credit expansion creates more malinvestments, which, in their turn, will have to be liquidated in some later depression. A government ‘easy money’ policy prevents the market’s return to the necessary higher interest rates.

“3) Keep wage rates up. Artificial maintenance of wage rates in a depression ensures permanent mass unemployment. Furthermore, in a deflation, when prices are falling, keeping the same rate of money wages means that real wage rates have been pushed higher. In the face of falling business demand, this greatly aggravates the unemployment problem.”

In addition to “minimum wage laws,” don’t we now have “living wage” ordinances, “project labor agreements,” and, for our unionized government employees, “automatic step and seniority raises” in addition to cost-of-living adjustments that boost the pay of government employees as well as welfare recipients … even when the cost of living is falling?

“4) Keep prices up,” Rothbard continues, cataloguing precisely the wrong things to do if you want a recession to end. “Keeping prices above their free-market levels will create unsalable surpluses, and prevent a return to prosperity.

“5) Stimulate consumption and discourage saving. We have seen that more saving and less consumption would speed recovery; more consumption and less saving aggravate the shortage of saved-capital even further. Government can encourage consumption by ‘food stamp plans’ and relief payments.”

Note that “America’s Great Depression” was published in 1963. How’s Rothbard doing at predicting Obamanomics, so far? About the only thing he seems to have missed are “Cash for Clunkers” and the fledgling “green jobs” boondoggle.)

Government “can discourage savings and investment by higher taxes,” Rothbard continues, “particularly on the wealthy and on corporations and estates. As a matter of fact, any increase of taxes and government spending will discourage saving and investment and stimulate consumption, since government spending is all consumption. …

Good on you Obama!

The Case Against IP: A Concise Guide

The Case Against IP: A Concise Guide by Stephan Kinsella

Here’s a relatively short summary of the argument against intellectual property as well as some useful links to anti-IP resources.

Oh no! Greed!

Something that annoys me is how often people point to greed whenever they’re talking about markets. Oh no, you couldn’t have an unregulated market because people are greedy and would do bad, evil things.

How is this any different to the system of democracy where a person’s vote is typically driven by greed? Do people somehow not vote for the candidate that promises them the most? Do people somehow not lobby the government for special privileges that benefit them at the expense of everybody else?

When people point to greed as the reason for massive government control over our lives, they are committing the Nirvana fallacy.

There Are No Words To Describe The Following

http://dailybail.com/home/there-are-no-words-to-describe-the-following-part-ii.html

How Health care becomes a game

Here is a great 90 second video about government intervention in health care