Category: Economics

The Problem of Property

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There’s been a lot of controversy about the Bundy Ranch situation, and like basically every other high-profile news event, there’s an awful lot of hype associated with it. I’ve been following the story, but I haven’t dug into all the details. However, this article from the Mises Institute is a thought-provoking exploration of property rights in the West. While the 19th century “Wild West” was in some ways an excellent example of anarcho-capitalism, this freedom was eventually overshadowed by the federal government’s intrusion into the West and its claim on much of the land. Just as one could point to the…

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Transform Rockford: Consensus or Compromise?

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After my previous posts about the Transform Rockford movement, I’ve been asked about the organization’s process to create consensus during their visioning sessions. To recap what I previously explained…at the meeting I attended, we were asked to write down the top 10 things we would like to see in Rockford’s future. Then the attendees were split into groups of 5 people to narrow down their own vision statements into 5 statements for each group. I was going to try to explain the details of the process, but it is confusing unless you actually do it. The process goes, generally speaking, like this: your…

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Thoughts on Transform Rockford

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After attending the last Transform Rockford community visioning session last night, I wrote a post describing the event. For the sake of brevity (or my feeble attempt at it) I didn’t really give much commentary on the organization itself. I am never short on opinions, so I know my readers would be disappointed if they didn’t get to hear my views on Transform Rockford.  As an introduction, I’ll admit I went to this meeting with much skepticism. I didn’t want to actually make a judgement without attending at least one event, but I was cynical, to say the least. The event turned out to…

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Transform Rockford: Final Visioning Session

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After a couple months of following the Transform Rockford calendar, I was finally able to attend their meeting tonight, at the RVC Woodward Technology Center. I almost didn’t go (there is a chemistry final looming over me this week…) but figured I better go now or I’d never make it. It was a good choice because as it turns out, this was the last community visioning session that they are holding, so I was glad to participate in that. A little background for those who aren’t familiar with Transform Rockford. I was not aware of the organization until February…I think they launched some time…

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Rousseau and Marx on Historical Progress

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This is an essay I wrote last semester for my Modern and Postmodern Philosophy class.  For Rousseau, historical progress only further removes man from his natural state of living. He argues that the cultivation of civilized studies weaken the natural virtues of men; in his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, Rousseau writes, “our souls have become corrupted to the extent that our sciences and our arts have advanced towards perfection.” He cites Romans of old as saying, “Since the learned men began to appear among us, good people have slipped away.” Rousseau attributes this decline to the intentional pursuit…

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Yes, I’m still alive…

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There’s a lot I could say. I think this post is so delayed because whenever I think about writing I wonder where in the world I’ll start. I guess the logical place to start is where I am right now. And I’m actually in the lovely town of Auburn Alabama, enjoying the Austrian Economics Research Conference at the Mises Institute. Yes, I know you’re jealous. It is amazing. Seriously. I think we sometimes get really distracted by our circumstances in life. We get caught up in where we’re at and forget where we want to be. Sometimes we need to…

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Liberalism and Mobilization

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Here is my most recent essay for the World War I course I’m taking from Mises Academy.   Liberalism and Mobilization During World War I Based on the readings, how did the broad social and military mobilization for the war contradict the liberal civilization that Europe had developed by the last third of the 19th century? In this essay we will first briefly define what liberalism means, and then explore the influence of liberalism during the late 19th century in Germany, France, Britain, Austro-Hungary, and Russia. After understanding the scope of liberalism, we will look at the consequences of mobilization…

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The Lesser of Two Evils

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The Republican National Convention has been nothing short of a complete overthrow of any pretensions of justice, as Dana Milbank of the Washington Post explains. “The Romney campaign had taken pains to stifle the Paul rebellion, by denying him a speaking role, expediting the roll call, changing party rules and even unseating Paul delegates from Maine.” I haven’t even bothered to follow the events because it sickens me to think of the utter lack of principles, the blatant disregard for integrity, and the deep animosity against the libertarian movement. And regardless of the Republican Party, the presidential and vice-presidential candidates have…

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Savannah: Resurrected

So it has been a long time, but as Pascal said, “the silence of these infinite spaces frightens me” so my fear of this dreadful silence drove me back. Actually…I felt rather guilty about having such good readers (at one point) and then dropping them so callously. I feel like I’m starting all over again, but that’s okay. And I also felt bad about putting so much time into this site and totally neglecting it. I had been something of a plugin junkie, so I’ve been dreading coming back and trying to clean up all my old plugins but it…

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The Law of Diminishing Returns Demonstrated

I don’t really have a ton of time for blogging (have you noticed?) but there was this interesting example I wanted to share with you. I was introduced to the idea of the Law of Diminishing Returns in a lecture by Peter Klein several years ago. At first it didn’t make sense, but after I realized it was true only when a factor of production is limited, I understood it. Basically the law is that if one of your factors is “stuck” and can’t be increased, there comes a point when no matter how many other factors you increase, your…

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