KA-POW! #11 - Lilburne

This week's “Kick-Ass Post O’th’ Week” (KA-POW) goes to J. Grayson Lilburne, who quotes Ludwig von Mises in “For Civilization, It Is Mises or Bust” :

But once a society has plucked all the low-hanging fruit of "no-brainer" productivity improvements, what then can its members do to improve productivity? The only thing left to do would be to adopt improvements in productivity that involve more roundabout methods of production.

... However, since making bows and arrows takes more time [than making pointed sticks], and perhaps more resources, the hunters and their investment must be sustained by an adequate stock of food and other materials; even though the bows and arrows will yield a greater bounty, they will only do so after a longer period of time. Thus, savings are an indispensable prerequisite for increases in productivity that involve lengthening the structure of production.

KA-POW! #10 - Douglass

This week's “Kick-Ass Post O’th’ Week” (KA-POW) goes to student Brian Douglass for “On the Road to the Servile State” :

Belloc defines the Servile State as "that arrangement of society in which so considerable a number of the families and individuals are constrained by positive law to labor for the advantage of other families and individuals as to stamp the whole community with the mark of such labor." ...

The Servile State is not the market economy. It is also not simply socialism. Instead, it is a creation of the State to benefit a class, which is considered free, and for which class the system is perpetuated by force of law. Essentially, it is a State marked by artificial, government-created monopolies. ...

"Somewhere Else"

Billy always seemed to be somewhere else. Vernon once asked him...

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KA-POW! #9 - Bastiat

This week's “Kick-Ass Post O’th’ Week” (KA-POW) goes to Frederic Bastiat for “Should the State Support the Arts?” excerpted from That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen, 1850 :

But, by a deduction as false as it is unjust, do you know what economists are accused of? It is, that when we disapprove of government support, we are supposed to disapprove of the thing itself whose support is discussed; and to be the enemies of every kind of activity, because we desire to see those activities, on the one hand free, and on the other seeking their own reward in themselves.

“Great Grammy”

Dear Santa,

Thanks for the race car last Christmas...

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KA-POW! #8 - Chodorov

This week's “Kick-Ass Post O’th’ Week” (KA-POW) goes to Frank Chodorov for “Economics vs. Politics” :

Economics is not politics. One is a science, concerned with the immutable and constant laws of nature that determine the production and distribution of wealth; the other is the art of ruling. ...

Back in the USSA

I was lately reminded of the west’s self-righteous news reporting...

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"Thanks Given"

We used to brim with boundless vitality...

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KA-POW! #7 - Bonner

This week's “Kick-Ass Post O’th’ Week” (KA-POW) goes to Bill Bonner for “Merkel Joins the Fool’s Parade” :

One thing Americans take for granted is that they will always be the richest, most successful people on earth. They think that because that is what they have always known. The US economy became the biggest in the world before 1900. Americans had just what it took to become the richest people on the planet. They worked hard. They saved their money. They had little government interference. They had the industrial revolution at their backs…and nothing in their way. And they had a dollar that was ‘as good as gold.’ By the time the baby boomers were born the US had such a big lead over the rest of the world, it seemed like nothing could stop it. Free enterprise guaranteed new innovations and new wealth. Democracy guaranteed a political system that would adapt to the needs of the evolving economy.

Same As We Ever Were

A few weeks ago I heard recordings by the Jean Goldkette Orchestra...

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KA-POW! #6 - Staib

This week's “Kick-Ass Post O’th’ Week” (KA-POW) goes to student Eric M. Staib for “Obamacare is a Devastating Tax on the Working Class” :

The implication of this increased cost is that workers [with individual coverage] whose revenue productivity is less than $300 [or nearly $700 for those with family coverage] per month higher than their wages will be laid off, or have their hours cut to the level that will classify them as part-time. Ignoring established labor law, the bill leaves the definition of part-time and full-time to the discretion of the Commissioner of Obama's massive new health bureaucracy. The lower the new "Health Choices Commissioner" sets the threshold in an attempt to maximize the number of people receiving the employer contribution, the more hours of production employers will have to shave off to push their employees under the threshold, and the less those workers will take home in wages each week.

“Sitting on Dynamite”

It all started by accident. Six days ago, Billy ran a routine...

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Social Security Trust Fund Existentialism

When pundits, politicians, and bureaucrats speak of...

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KA-POW! #5 - Vox Day

This week's “Kick-Ass Post O’th’ Week” (KA-POW) goes to Vox Day for “Extend, pretend and defend" :

There is always a fraudulent aspect to democratic government. There are things the electorate does not want to hear, so any candidate who hopes to win their support quickly learns to avoid subjecting the voters to uncomfortable truths. Once safely in office, it seldom serves the interests of the elected official to tell the people whose interest he nominally represents anything that will highlight the divergence between what is good for the legislator and what is good for those who will be subjected to the legislation he helps create.

"Where Is My Home?"

One bright sunny day, Toby wanted to play...

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Hypocritical Indignation

There has been much ink spilled condemning...

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"All Hallows’ Day"

“Come on, Jimmy, we have to go pay our respects...

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Marred Monk

October 10th is not only Thelonious Monk’s birthday...

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KA-POW! #4 - Mises

This week's “Kick-Ass Post O’th’ Week” (KA-POW) goes to Ludwig von Mises for “Freedom Is Slavery" :

There prevails in the writings of many contemporary authors the disposition to represent every extension of governmental power and every restriction of the individual's discretion as a measure of liberation, as a step forward on the road to liberty. Carried to its ultimate logical conclusion, this mode of reasoning leads to the inference that socialism, the complete abolition of the individual's faculty to plan his own life and conduct, brings perfect freedom. It was this reasoning that suggested to socialists and Communists the idea of arrogating to themselves the appellation liberal.

About This Site

Why “a Bohemian…”?

• Literally, Bohemia (and Moravia) was the European homeland of the author’s ancestors.
• Literally, and quite coincidentally, the author was raised in a town named Bohemia.

(Note that ‘bohemian’ may not be taken figuratively: the author has no gypsy tendencies, has no pretense that he is an ‘artist’, and is not unconventional for the sake of being against convention.)

KA-POW! #3 - Harper

This week's “Kick-Ass Post O’th’ Week” (KA-POW) goes to F.A. 'Baldy' Harper for “The Omelet Has No Rights" :

The omelet, or collectivist, concept holds that the social omelet is the sole concern and objective of humanity. "When you are making an omelet, you must break the eggs." By this view, human rights are vested completely in the collective of persons, not in individuals. Since the will of the collective is deemed to be the same thing as justice, it follows that rights reside in the omelet and not in the individual eggs. So it becomes humane and socially justifiable to break the eggs for the omelet because that is what eggs are for. ...

"Greenspace Press Release"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Greenspace Commences the Liquidation of Mankind

...

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Persecuting Enterprising Gossips

A television celebrity has recently collaborated...

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KA-POW! #2 - Mallick

This week's “Kick-Ass Post O’th’ Week” (KA-POW) goes to a student named Abhinandan Mallick for “How I Found the Austrian School" :

In Human Action, Mises identifies a methodological dichotomy between the social and the natural sciences. This dichotomy is in how we use teleology and causality to explain different kinds of events.

These two terms are best explained by use of examples. When we throw a ball, for instance, we do not reason that it is guided in a teleological way by some mystical spirit or "prime mover." Instead we use the laws of mechanics and causality to examine the position, velocity, and forces acting on the ball, in order to predict the future position and velocity of the ball.

Resurrecting Bessie

On Sept. 26th, the anniversary of Bessie Smith’s death...

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KA-POW! #1 - Rothbard

My inaugural “Kick-Ass Post O’th’ Week” (KA-POW) goes to Murray Rothbard for “Capitalism versus Statism” :

If we are to keep the term "capitalism" at all, then, we must distinguish between "free-market capitalism" on the one hand, and "state capitalism" on the other. The two are as different as day and night in their nature and consequences. Free-market capitalism is a network of free and voluntary exchanges in which producers work, produce, and exchange their products for the products of others through prices voluntarily arrived at. State capitalism consists of one or more groups making use of the coercive apparatus of the government — the State — to accumulate capital for themselves by expropriating the production of others by force and violence.

“Letter of Recommendation”

To Whom It May Concern,

As a professional in our field, I can testify...

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A Minsky Mistake

Last week's issue of a financial news-weekly...

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“La Lata”

“¡No puede morir! ¡Cristo Jesús! ¡Es la una lata! ...

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