I Don't Know - Leonard Read - Mises Daily

I Don't Know - Leonard Read - Mises Daily: 'A person can no more explain how the free market would attend to mail delivery than his great-grandfather could have explained how television could ever emerge from free-market forces!'

'How would the free market attend to mail delivery were the postal service desocialized? I don't know! Nor could anyone have known 100 years ago how the free market would develop the means to deliver the human voice from city to city. But take note of these facts: we have maintained mail delivery as a socialized operation; its service is getting worse, not better; its costs and prices are increasing, not decreasing; since 1932 it has accumulated an acknowledged deficit of $10 billion, and the deficits increase annually.[4]

Voice delivery, on the other hand, has been improving. Just a century ago the human voice could be delivered at the speed of sound, but only the distance two people could understand each other's shouting. Today, the human voice is delivered at the speed of light; and as to distance, it's any place on earth — you name it! The service has improved enormously; and the cost has decreased steadily.

In human-voice delivery, free-market forces have been more or less operative. No one could have predicted in 1865 what form these forces would take during the next hundred years. Even more remarkable, no one can describe how the miracles were performed after the fact. Once we realize that we cannot explain what has happened, it becomes obvious that we can never explain what will happen.'

Four Policies: The Original Intent - Brian Anderson - Mises Daily

Four Policies: The Original Intent - Brian Anderson - Mises Daily: 'In the Politics, Aristotle explains the character of law well. He recommends that there be as few laws as possible, and that they be altered as seldom as possible. The reason for this is that law should be an extension of our normal sense of right and wrong, so that people can observe it, for the most part, simply by living what they regard as morally upright lives.… The less frequently it changes and the more permanence it has, the more citizens will feel reverence for it.'

'Sustainable Planning' Is Not So Sustainable | Randal O'Toole | Cato Institute: Commentary

'Sustainable Planning' Is Not So Sustainable | Randal O'Toole | Cato Institute: Commentary: 'Since 1980, Portland has spent more than $3 billion building light-rail lines. Far from improving transit, the share of commuters taking transit to work has fallen from 9.8 percent in 1980 to 7.5 percent today, mainly because the region cut bus service to pay for the trains. Traffic congestion quadrupled between 1984 and 2004, which planners say was necessary to get people to ride transit.

The region's housing policies made single-family homes so expensive that most families with children moved to distant suburbs where they can afford a house with a yard. Residents of subsidized high-density housing projects drive just about as much as anyone else in the Portland area, and developers have learned to their sorrow that if they follow planners' guidelines in providing less parking for these projects, they will end up with high vacancy rates.

Despite these problems, Portland has received lots of positive publicity. The reason for this is simple: By forcing out families with children, inner Portland is left mainly with young singles and childless couples who eat out a lot, making Portland a mecca for tourists who like exciting new restaurants. This makes Portland a great place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there unless you like noisy, congested streets.'

Are Government Jobs Productive? - Ryan P. Long - Mises Daily

Are Government Jobs Productive? - Ryan P. Long - Mises Daily: 'Thus, the impact of paying government employees is to transfer economic resources from the production of economic goods and services to the performing of services for which there is no market demand.'

DOJ: Lying on Match.com needs to be a crime | Privacy Inc. - CNET News

DOJ: Lying on Match.com needs to be a crime | Privacy Inc. - CNET News: 'the Justice Department argues that it must be able to prosecute violations of Web sites' often-ignored, always-unintelligible "terms of service" policies.'

Should violating a TOS be a federal felony?