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America's massive decline in gun violence - CSMonitor.com: "In 1993, there were seven homicides by firearm for every 100,000 Americans, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By 2013, that figure had fallen by nearly half, to 3.6 — a total of 11,208 firearm homicides. The number of victims of crimes involving guns that did not result in death (such as robberies) declined even more precipitously, from 725 per 100,000 people in 1993 to 175 in 2013."
Saturday, April 02, 2016
A lawyer leads a life on the wild side – rescuing those sold into slavery - CSMonitor.com
A lawyer leads a life on the wild side – rescuing those sold into slavery - CSMonitor.com: "Van Ta estimates in the past decade he has rescued more than 480 women and girls sold into prostitution or sexually abused as well as victims of forced labor working in Vietnam."
Piketty Is Wrong: Markets Don’t Concentrate Wealth | Mises Daily
Piketty Is Wrong: Markets Don’t Concentrate Wealth | Mises Daily: "a situation with one big cartel or one owner is equivalent to full socialism and therefore, to a situation where no rational allocation of resources would be possible, as Mises showed in Socialism. It is Rothbard who brilliantly pointed out that calculability is an upward limit to the size of the firm."
"On the unhampered market, those who tend to be the wealthiest tend also to be the most efficient men at allocating capital. If their ownership ability is poor, the consumers sanction them. If their ownership ability is good, the consumer will reward them."
"For Piketty, the rate of return on capital is a mythical stream of income which depends not upon ownership abilities but on how much capital you own. But the distribution of wealth is not as arbitrary as Piketty would like to think. The consumer has the final word in the decision of who must own the factors of production. As Mises in Human Action explained, the wealthy “are not free to spend money which the consumers are not prepared to refund to them in paying more for the product.” On the unhampered market, the rich can accumulate more wealth only if he is efficient to the task of allocating capital, for the benefit of all."
"We should also highlight that 56 percent of Americans are, during at least one moment of their lives, part of the top 10 percent in incomes (a ratio of 5.6), and 12 percent are in the top 1 percent (a ratio of 12). Therefore, we can conclude that the richer you are, the more volatile is your wealth."
"On the unhampered market, those who tend to be the wealthiest tend also to be the most efficient men at allocating capital. If their ownership ability is poor, the consumers sanction them. If their ownership ability is good, the consumer will reward them."
"For Piketty, the rate of return on capital is a mythical stream of income which depends not upon ownership abilities but on how much capital you own. But the distribution of wealth is not as arbitrary as Piketty would like to think. The consumer has the final word in the decision of who must own the factors of production. As Mises in Human Action explained, the wealthy “are not free to spend money which the consumers are not prepared to refund to them in paying more for the product.” On the unhampered market, the rich can accumulate more wealth only if he is efficient to the task of allocating capital, for the benefit of all."
"We should also highlight that 56 percent of Americans are, during at least one moment of their lives, part of the top 10 percent in incomes (a ratio of 5.6), and 12 percent are in the top 1 percent (a ratio of 12). Therefore, we can conclude that the richer you are, the more volatile is your wealth."
'Common-Sense' Gun Reform Is Overrated. Here's Why. | Cato Institute
'Common-Sense' Gun Reform Is Overrated. Here's Why. | Cato Institute: "So-called “assault weapons” and “high-capacity” magazines are easy political targets because they sound scary to people unfamiliar with firearms. However, restricting either or both would likely have no measurable effect on gun crime rates."
"firearm homicide clearance rates — that is, police apprehending a suspect and charging him for the killing — are embarrassingly low in minority neighborhoods. In her book, “Ghettoside,” Los Angeles Times journalist Jill Leovy argues that an absence of trust between police and black communities, along with a lack of adequate police resources aimed at solving homicides in black neighborhoods, combine to cheapen black life by allowing black murder to go virtually unpunished. If there is a gun violence “epidemic” anywhere in America, it is in the impoverished black neighborhoods of Los Angeles, Baltimore and similar enclaves."
"More than three decades of high murder rates show that restricting legal access to guns was not the answer to gun violence problems and that making legal firearm acquisition harder is unlikely to meaningfully impact violence in America’s inner cities."
"firearm homicide clearance rates — that is, police apprehending a suspect and charging him for the killing — are embarrassingly low in minority neighborhoods. In her book, “Ghettoside,” Los Angeles Times journalist Jill Leovy argues that an absence of trust between police and black communities, along with a lack of adequate police resources aimed at solving homicides in black neighborhoods, combine to cheapen black life by allowing black murder to go virtually unpunished. If there is a gun violence “epidemic” anywhere in America, it is in the impoverished black neighborhoods of Los Angeles, Baltimore and similar enclaves."
"More than three decades of high murder rates show that restricting legal access to guns was not the answer to gun violence problems and that making legal firearm acquisition harder is unlikely to meaningfully impact violence in America’s inner cities."
Bernie Is Not a Socialist and America Is Not Capitalist | Cato Institute
Bernie Is Not a Socialist and America Is Not Capitalist | Cato Institute: "First, Sanders is not a socialist, but a social democrat. Second, the United States does not have a strictly capitalist economy, but a mixed one. As such, it combines a high level of private ownership of capital and the means of production with relatively onerous regulation and taxation. Third, to the extent that what anti-capitalist Sanders supporters really want is a Scandinavian-style social democracy, with its high level of wealth redistribution and income equality, they should consider that even some of the most socially democratic countries on earth are, in one crucial way, more capitalist than the United States."
"lack of private enterprise resulted in low economic growth and, consequently, low standards of living. Thus, while income equality was relatively high (if party bosses and their cronies were excluded from the calculations), people in Soviet-bloc countries were much poorer than their counterparts in the West. Nobody has yet figured out a way of combining genuine socialism with high rates of growth over a long period of time."
"Capitalism is often confused with “crony” capitalism—an odious nexus of corporate and political power that crushes the worker and cheats the consumer."
"when supporters do refer to “capitalism,” they mean the exact opposite of what people on the left sometimes mean by crony capitalism."
"the government is by far the single most important spender and, consequently, the single most important economic actor"
"lack of private enterprise resulted in low economic growth and, consequently, low standards of living. Thus, while income equality was relatively high (if party bosses and their cronies were excluded from the calculations), people in Soviet-bloc countries were much poorer than their counterparts in the West. Nobody has yet figured out a way of combining genuine socialism with high rates of growth over a long period of time."
"Capitalism is often confused with “crony” capitalism—an odious nexus of corporate and political power that crushes the worker and cheats the consumer."
"when supporters do refer to “capitalism,” they mean the exact opposite of what people on the left sometimes mean by crony capitalism."
"the government is by far the single most important spender and, consequently, the single most important economic actor"
How the CIA 'inadvertently' left explosives on a school bus - CSMonitor.com
How the CIA 'inadvertently' left explosives on a school bus - CSMonitor.com: "Following a training exercise last week, the CIA "inadvertently" left explosive material under the hood of a school bus in northern Virginia.
With the material still sitting in the engine compartment, the bus was then used to ferry elementary and high school students to and from school Monday and Tuesday, according to the CIA and law enforcement officials in Loudoun County, Va."
No only was it left there, the didn't know it was missing...
With the material still sitting in the engine compartment, the bus was then used to ferry elementary and high school students to and from school Monday and Tuesday, according to the CIA and law enforcement officials in Loudoun County, Va."
No only was it left there, the didn't know it was missing...
Is It Time for America to Quit NATO? | Cato Institute
Is It Time for America to Quit NATO? | Cato Institute: "The primary reason that the EU countries have not done more to manage the security of their own region is that the United States has insisted on taking the leadership role—and paying a large portion of the costs. As a result, the United States spends nearly 4 percent of its GDP on the military; for NATO Europe, the figure is barely 1.6 percent. That disparate economic burden is only one reason why we need to conduct a comprehensive review of whether the NATO commitment serves America’s interests any longer, but it is an important one."
Free markets and helping the poor
"from about 1980, the world had embraced the free markets that Nobelist Friedman had championed. Shleifer also indicated that living standards had risen sharply, poverty had declined dramatically, while life expectancy had increased. Shleifer asked whether the spread of free markets accounted for the improvements, and he answered with a resounding, “Yes.” "
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/pictures-pope-progressives
Inequality and poverty
"Critics of inequality would have us believe that rising inequality is responsible for poverty. But at a time of increasing inequality, world poverty has never been lower. The researchers project that fewer than 10 percent of the world’s population will live in extreme poverty this year."
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/democrats-vs-facts-inequality
Corporate 2nd amendment rights
"The Deacons’ nonprofit exercised its Second Amendment rights by conducting nighttime patrols of black neighborhoods. The agents of the corporation carried .38 caliber revolvers and M-1 rifles with their standard 15 and 30-round magazines. Deacons chapters proliferated to protect community organizers. The Deacons even provided armed security for the largest civil-rights march in Mississippi history, the “Meredith March Against Fear” in June 1966."
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/planned-parenthoods-right-bear-arms
Gun shop owner thwarts possible mass shooting
"John Downs, owner of a Logan gun shop, refused to sell a gun to 25-year-old James Howard. Howard passed a background check, but he made statements that indicated he may want to harm himself or others, according to ABC 6.
"There was a red flag for me," Downs told ABC 6. "I won't allow that; I don't want that to be on me." "
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/03/gun_shop_owner_thwarts_possibl.html
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