The Law of Intended Darkness - Jason King - Mises Institute

The Law of Intended Darkness - Jason King - Mises Institute:

"Let's first consider what a family is saving by turning their 'nonessential' lights off. To do this we'll do some very simple math: being generous, one 100-watt light bulb costs around a penny per hour to operate and generates around 1 tenth of a pound of carbon. If one therefore ran 10 light bulbs, then, a little over 1 pound of carbon would not be emitted and a dime would be saved by Earth Hour.

The question all individuals should ask themselves is, since this decision doesn't occur in a vacuum, what alternatives are present to sitting in a dark, lightless house. What is this family going to do in the dark? They might burn candles — and if they're paraffin, they are based in fossil fuels and will provide a dubious savings in either carbon or monetary cost. If they were to use flashlights instead of light bulbs the result would be an increase in carbon because candles and light bulbs are less energy efficient.

What if that family drove for 15 minutes, went and watched the stars, and drove back home? That trip would cost whatever a half-hour's worth of driving costs. If this trip took a gallon of gas, that would create around 20 pounds of carbon dioxide and would cost over $2 … for a dramatically increased cost in cash and carbon.

One can wonder further about the ramifications on safety and efficiency of turning off "nonessential" lights and conclude that no meaningful savings can be had. Because households are responsible for only 25% of the total electric lighting, we must also consider the commercial and industrial sectors. Instead of being at home, in darkness, will shopkeepers have to return to their stores to guard them for an hour? Will adults turn on lights in dark rooms when they need to move around the house? Will candles generate more fires? Obviously none of these unforeseen circumstances — all of which seem plausible — will improve our carbon footprint."

Now if they suggested that everyone went to bed an hour earlier and assumed that they would still get up after it was light and therefore save an hour of electric light then it could reduce the carbon output but possibly not significantly because residential use is only a small portion of total use.

Teacher Unions vs. Poor Kids

Teacher Unions vs. Poor Kids: "Two of the kids affected by the action, Sarah and James Parker, attend Washington's prestigious Sidwell Friends School. Their scholarships will end with the next school year. The classmates they'll be leaving will include Sasha and Malia Obama. The Obama children, of course, do not need voucher money to avoid Washington D.C.'s failing and sometimes dangerous public schools."

Better education while savings the taxpayers money -- who could oppose D.C.'s voucher program?

The Indefensibility of Political Representation - Gerard N. Casey - Mises Institute

The Indefensibility of Political Representation - Gerard N. Casey - Mises Institute: "Given the contemporary firm linkage between democracy and representation, a problem in political philosophy is how best to conceive of political representation. Is a political representative an agent of those whom he represents, limited to the carrying out of their instructions? Or is he a trustee, free to act in the interests of those whom he represents according to his own best judgment of what those interests are? Or is he neither an agent nor a delegate, being simply able to do more or less whatever he likes once elected? Or are there other possibilities in addition to these?"

The Indefensibility of Political Representation - Gerard N. Casey - Mises Institute

The Indefensibility of Political Representation - Gerard N. Casey - Mises Institute: "In what way are our political representatives representative? What does it mean for one man to represent another? Under normal circumstances, as our examples show, those who represent us do so at our bidding and cease to do so at our bidding. They act on our instructions within the boundaries of a certain remit and we are responsible for what they do as our agents. Furthermore, the central characteristic of representation by agency is that the agent is responsible to his principal and is bound to act in the principal's interest. Is this the situation with my so-called political representatives? Political representatives are not (usually) legally answerable to those whom they allegedly represent. In fact, in modern democratic states, the majority of a representative's putative principals are in fact unknown to him. Can a political representative be the agent of a multitude? This also seems unlikely. What if the principals have interests that diverge from each other? A political representative must then of necessity cease to represent one or more of his principals."

One type of representation in the private sector that seems to be similar to political representation is a corporation's board of directors that is elected by the share-holders. Does that type of representation (and political representation) fall under rule #2 (freely arrived-at binding agreement)? As long as citizens are free to leave a country (exit the agreement) then is the law and political representation a form a of a freely arrived-at binding agreement? Looking back to the countries found it does appear to be something like that.

The Indefensibility of Political Representation - Gerard N. Casey - Mises Institute

The Indefensibility of Political Representation - Gerard N. Casey - Mises Institute: "In iconic representation, A is said to represent B if A is like B in some particular respect; so, a woman, simply by virtue of being a woman, represents other women; a person of a particular skin color, simply by virtue of that fact, represents other people with the same skin color. But there is a logical problem here. Everything is like everything else in some respect or other, and so it comes about that, on this notion of representation, anything or anybody represents any other thing or anybody else. Such a notion of representation evacuates it of any real significance. What sense can be made of claims sometimes made that some group, say women, are 'underrepresented' in particular professions? In most contexts, there is simply no representation at all going on. Suppose that I, a man, am employed in a particular capacity in a particular firm — just by virtue of being a man I do not represent men. By the same token, I don't represent fathers, philosophers, the middle-aged, the cranky, or any other group.

These are not appropriate arenas for representation and so there can be no under-representation simply because there can be no representation. (Oddly enough, one rarely hears complaints of groups being underrepresented in such nonglamorous occupations as trash collection or sewage works.)"