In recent years there has been a plethora of negative articles about America. The tenor of these articles is that America is not what it once was; that America is on a downward trend in global influence and prosperity; that economic disaster lies ahead for America. Continue reading
Your Money and Your Life
In the book of which this blog is a part, Capitalism: The Liberal Revolution (CTLR), the discussion of freedom would be incomplete without a discussion of money, for which a full chapter would be appropriate. Such a chapter is planned. Continue reading
Conscious Capitalism book
John Mackey is the co-founder of Whole Foods Markets, which has grown from a single store in Austin, Texas in 1978 to a group of 343 stores in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The Harvard Business Review Press has just published a book by John Mackey and co-author Raj Sisodia entitled Conscious Capitalism. Continue reading
The Price of Politics
In the just concluded presidential election campaign in the United States, the candidates and their party allies spent a combined $2 billion according to a report on Reuters on November 7, 2012. Journalist Bob Woodward has published a book entitled The Price of Politics (2012). The $2 billion of spending by the presidential candidates is just the tip of the iceberg represented by the idea behind the title “The Price of Politics.” Continue reading
The American Dream
Whether Americans have cause to give up on the historical American dream of an ever better future is the subject of the cover story by Jon Meacham in the June 21, 2012 issue of Time magazine. Continue reading
Education and compulsory schooling
People exposed to the ideas of this website—that everything in society should be on a voluntary, non-coercive basis–sometimes ask how, without the state and taxation, education would be provided to children of impecunious families. Continue reading
Electricity shortages in the third world of the U.S.A.
August 2012
“Rotating outages” of electricity happen routinely in third world countries. Now parts of the U.S., including Southern California, are in danger of periodic loss of electricity for extended periods of time. Southern California Edison is notifying its customers to “start planning now for potential rotating outages [which] can occur whenever SCE is urged by state officials to reduce the energy load.” Continue reading
Federal election 2012 in America: both political parties are incompetent to solve the financial problems of the U.S.
A YouTube presentation [link below] shows that all the taxes the U.S. federal state will collect in the year 2012 are used up by mandatory entitlement programs (Medicare, Social Security, etc.) and interest on the national debt. So Congress has no recourse but running a $1.3 trillion deficit to pay for everything else the federal state does. Continue reading
Announcement: Publication of Taming the Violence of Faith by Jay Stuart Snelson
Jay Snelson spent many years compiling material and marshaling his ideas for a book which has just been published: Taming the Violence of Faith: Win-Win Solutions for Our World in Crisis (2011). Although the copyright date is 2011, actual printing and distribution occurred only in mid-2012. The book may be purchased from Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com Continue reading
Understanding America’s Economic Doldrums (2008-2012)
We reproduce below a letter from Jeff Herman of Bell Canyon, California to the editors of The Wall Street Journal published online on August 1, 2012 and in the print version, Opinion section, on August 2, 2012. It is published here as it is about as clear a statement as can be made about the cause of the lingering unemployment problem in America. Continue reading
Happy Birthday America–July 4, 2012
America is spacious and beautiful. It is the birthplace of the idea that people do not need a king to rule over them.
America has enormous strengths of which often its own native-born residents are either unaware or which they take for granted. Among these strengths is the continual enrichment of the country by immigration from abroad. America is truly a world country, perhaps, along with Canada, being the prototype of a country built up in large part by immigration. Continue reading
Our Lives—Thoughts on Freedom
It is the time of the summer solstice, a daily reminder of the life-giving energy that comes to us from the sun at this time of year in the temperate latitudes when the sun is with us through most of our day.
Our sun, as Giordano Bruno was the first to say, is one of a perhaps infinite number of stars. Our sun’s energy supports life on earth because it is so relatively close to us–just a little over eight minutes away at the speed of travel of the energy that comes to us from the sun as light and heat.
Andrew Galambos and Jay Snelson taught us one of the precepts of the wisdom of the ages–that in our lives we are all free as long as we hold on to the freedom of our primary property, our property in our thoughts, ideas, and actions. Continue reading
Jay Snelson V-50 lectures available in DVD format
After delivering the V-50 lectures for fourteen years, in 1977-1978 Jay Snelson presented his last V-50 lectures. Thanks to the endeavors of Charles Holloway, those lectures were reproduced in DVD, MP-3 format in the year 2008 and published with the consent of Jay Snelson. The publication consists of a set of six compact discs and an illustrated booklet setting forth the background and summarizing the content of the lectures. Continue reading
Political Democracy in America, a new chapter, added June 21, 2012
On June 21, 2012 there has been added to the website, Capitalism: The Liberal Revolution, a new chapter entitled “Political Democracy in America.” The link to this new chapter is https://www.capitalismtheliberalrevolution.com/chapter/political-democracy-in-america/ Continue reading
The Futility of Higher Taxes on High Incomes
Buffett Rule Tax Increase Would Not Put a Dent In U.S. Debt and Deficits
A currently debated idea of the incumbent President of the United States of America is to impose a 30% income tax on all income of individuals with $1 million or more of taxable income in a year. This proposal, known as “the Buffett Rule,” is based on ideas espoused by multi-billionaire Warren Buffett, whose proposal was previously described in an entry in this blog dated August 25, 2011. Continue reading
Building a defense that defends
Thoughts on building a defense that actually defends, on this tenth anniversary of the successful terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11)
The most successful defense is one that makes it unnecessary to strike back at an enemy, because the enemy is either unable to mount a successful attack, or is deterred from doing so. Continue reading
Taxing the “Super-Rich”
Master investor Warren Buffett published an Op-Ed essay in the New York Times of August 15, 2011, entitled “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich.” Buffett said that his income tax rates are lower than tax rates on the other 20 people in his office. Buffett overlooked the fact that 99% of his wealth is invested in his company, Berkshire Hathaway, where corporate income is taxed at a rate about twice as high as Buffett’s personal tax rate and about as high as individual tax rates on Berkshire’s office staff. Buffett advocated significant tax rate increases on the “Super-Rich,” a group that he says includes 236,000 Americans generating $1 million or more of annual income. Continue reading
Health Care Added to Chapter “Replacements for the Political State”
Today we have added an essay on health care to the chapter of the book entitled “Replacements for the Political State.”
Famine — Its Source in War and Politics
While famine can be caused by extremely adverse climatic conditions, the most severe examples over the past century have been man-made via coercive politics and warfare. Sources for statements below are provided at the end of this post. Continue reading
Book Continual Editing
Taking advantage of the unique characteristics of Internet publishing, we have already made editorial changes in the Book section of this site, and expect to do so in the future. If you have already read portions of the book, they may have been expanded since your last visit to the site.
A Few Recent News Items and Observations on the High Cost of State and Local Government
HOW EVEN SMALL-TIME POLITICIANS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF TAXPAYERS: TO BE A CITY EMPLOYEE OR AN ELECTED OFFICIAL IS BLESSED—because you may receive extraordinary health insurance benefits. Continue reading
Happy Birthday America!
July 4th is our favorite holiday, as it marks the largest step forward so far in the advance of human freedom. Continue reading
The Decline and Fall of The Modern Welfare State
The problems of Greece have been much in the news of late. Because such problems are not unique to Greece, we prepared the following last year as an article for another publication we issue quarterly. Continue reading
Announcing Capitalism the Liberal Revolution
This website will publish a version of the work of Andrew J. Galambos (1924-1997). Mr. Galambos lectured on science and freedom in the greater Los Angeles area from 1961 until 1984. Continue reading