By Isaac Morehouse on 7/28/2007 2:24 PM

Canadian Physician David Gratzer explains his realization that Canada's health care system is backward and cruel in an Investor's Business Daily article:

"I was once a believer in socialized medicine. As a Canadian, I had soaked up the belief that government-run health care was truly compassionate. What I knew about American health care was unappealing: high expenses and lots of uninsured people.

My health care prejudices crumbled on the way to a medical school class. On a subzero Winnipeg morning in 1997, I cut across the hospital emergency room to shave a few minutes off my frigid commute.

Swinging open the door, I stepped into a nightmare: the ER overflowed with elderly people on stretchers, waiting for admission. Some, it turned out, had waited five days. The air stank with sweat and urine. Right then, I began to reconsider everything that I thought I knew about Canadian health care."

Gratzer goes on to detail many more, and very serious, problems with Canadian, British, and other government-controlled health care systems.

The many years of inhumane and treatment-denying care in these countries are reaching a breaking point - people are starting to simply break the law and seek private care in the US and elsewhere; others are challenging the government system through the courts or legislation.

While the gross realities of socialized medicine are being felt in other countries, and more market-based solutions sought, here in the US many are looking to these dysfunctional systems for guidance.

While the US system suffers from many problems - overregulation, subsidies, tax favoritism and government programs all create perverse incentives and drive up the cost of care - it's strengths are due to ... Read More »

By slemrod on 7/27/2007 3:17 PM

 

 

Yesterday, Forbes ran a great article entitled "Washington's Hidden Taxes." Sure, everyone knows that they pay the income tax each year. But did you know you pay federal taxes on gasoline?

The Tax Foundation estimates that 46 cents for each gallon of gas pumped goes to the government. Some politicians want to raise it by an additional $.50 to slow climate change.

What about cigarettes?

Although this regressive tax is currently $.39 per pack, it could be hiked all the way to $1.00 to fund the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) if some Congressional Democrats have their way.

Other hidden taxes include the payroll tax, alternative minimum tax (AMT), and a tax on airline tickets. Check out the Forbes article for more information.

 

 

 

By Isaac Morehouse on 7/26/2007 5:12 PM

The Washington Post reports that a group of picketers in Washington D.C., identified by a sign as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters, turned out to be a group of non-union, mostly homeless individuals paid $8/hour to picket a non-union construction site.

Apparently, this is not the first instance of a labor union "outsourcing" its picketing to low wage non-union picketers. One can't help but recall the passionate arguments made by union bosses against bidding out government union services to the lowest bidder; cries that unsafe, unknowledgeable workers would be unable to deliver the services and that wages below the "living wage" would be inhumane and result in poor quality of workmanship. Apparently when it comes to the union's picketing activities, outsourcing to low wage non-union workers is not a problem.

This begs several very interesting questions:

-Should it be mandated that picketers receive a "living wage"?

-What if the picketers organized and formed their own union demanding higher wages, lighter signs, and more strikes to keep them busily employed?

-What if an actual carpenter joined the picket line...would the picketers file a grievance against him for taking their work?

Curious indeed...

By Isaac Morehouse on 7/22/2007 2:22 AM

An unexpected movie review by Andrew Humphries. From www.mackinac.org:

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"Using hindsight, we discover that the individuals who have been leaders came from strange and odd beginnings. No one of them could have been predicted ahead of time."
— Leonard E. Read.

"Ratatouille," the new animated film by Disney/Pixar, is remarkably favorable to the free-market perspective. It praises human creativity, entrepreneurial spirit and property rights while taking a few well-aimed shots at welfare and government health inspectors. More than this, "Ratatouille" puts forth the idea that people must have the humility to learn from unexpected sources.

Unlike most films in which the hero is a talking animal, "Ratatouille" has a very strong pro-human and pro-entrepreneurial message. In this instance, the animal is Remy, a rat who becomes a great chef in Paris.

Early in the film, Remy is displaced from the French countryside to the big city. This would usually serve as the pretext for the screenwriters to make underhanded quips about the horrors of free enterprise and how urban life is destroying the environment. But Remy is actually a great admirer of the city and what it represents. He is sick and tired of being a rat, by which he means a freeloader, thieving or digging through garbage for food. He doesn’t want to live off the leftovers of others’ creativity. Instead, he longs to be more like humans, who "don’t just survive," but "discover and create." He often stops and stands in awe of the Parisian cityscape. He unders ... Read More »

By Isaac Morehouse on 7/20/2007 2:06 PM

Michigan's unemployment rate for June is at 7.2%, up from the May rate of 6.9%, and higher than last June's rate of 6.7%.

The administration has a few thoughts on why this is happening. Rick Waclawek, director of the Department of Labor and Economic Growth's Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives (only a bureaucrat could have a title that long), was quoted in MIRS news,

"The increase in the June jobless rate can be partially traced to the very competitive nature of the state's current labor market. Typically, many young people enter the work force this time of year seeking summer jobs. Early indications are showing a more sluggish season for youth hiring."

Recall late last year when the legislature passed, and the administration supported and signed, a state minimum wage increase. Basic economics predicts that when entry level, part time and summer employees will cost more, employers will hire fewer of them. While the administration and the legislature were touting the great benefits the higher wage mandate would have for workers, free-market supporters were warning that the hike could decrease employment among the very workers the bill intended to help.

Now apparently DLEG sees that youth hiring is "sluggish" this summer, and Michigan's labor environment is more competitive. Maybe they're finally getting it. When you increase the cost of something (labor), you get less of it; i.e. higher unemployment. In this case, the effects center mostly on unskilled and younger workers, since they are most likely to be competing for minimum wage jobs.

DLEG apparently sees the symptoms...will they recogniz ... Read More »

By Isaac Morehouse on 7/18/2007 3:34 PM

USA Today ran this blurb from the AP today:

"NEW YORK (AP) — Mayor Michael Bloomberg conceded failure Tuesday on his controversial plan to reduce traffic by charging drivers extra fees to enter Manhattan's most congested neighborhoods. A day earlier, the plan had collapsed in the state Capitol.

"I can't ascribe motives to the lack of action in Albany, but I can definitively say the environment and the future quality of life in New York took a beating," Bloomberg said in a statement.

Bloomberg proposed the congestion pricing plan, similar to one in London, less than three months ago as part of a wide-ranging package of environmental proposals that won him national attention. The mayor, who is said to be contemplating a presidential bid, vowed Tuesday that his administration would go ahead with its other proposals.

The congestion pricing plan had called for an $8 toll for cars and a $21 toll for trucks entering Manhattan's most heavily traveled business district during workdays. The money was to go toward transportation improvements."

Note the last sentence, "The money was to go toward transportation improvements." Huh? The driving tax was being promoted as an environmental measure, ostensibly to curb emissions spewed by commuters...but the money take ... Read More »

By slemrod on 7/15/2007 4:42 PM

Jennifer Granholm can boast all she wants about how "Michigan is open for business," but the facts show quite the contrary. Read More »

By Jack McHugh on 7/14/2007 3:13 PM

CAFE fleet mileage standards and destructive carbon "cap and trade" schemes are just hidden taxes. A carbon tax has the virtue of being honest and transparent - and that's not all. Read More »

By Jack McHugh on 7/13/2007 11:50 PM

Shame on state universities for imposing higher tuitions on already-stessed students and families rather than reining in their own excessive costs! Read More »

By Isaac Morehouse on 7/6/2007 7:03 PM

The Detroit Free Press ran a short AP story today, proclaiming the Great Lakes "toxic", based on a study of Canadian government fish consumption warnings.

Article below...

 

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Fish report suggests toxic chemicals in Great Lakes

ASSOCIATED PRESS

TORONTO — A report from Canada about contaminated ... Read More »

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Morehouse Less Government

By Isaac Morehouse on 7/4/2007 4:23 PM

The New York City based Center for an Urban Future recently conducted a study on a summer youth employment program and found that higher than average minimum wage laws are hurting youth employment. The study states,

"The higher state minimum wage that went into effect in 2005 added to the challenge of funding SYEP [the youth employment program] by increasing the cost per participant, making it difficult to keep SYEP enrollment levels the same without year-over-year budget increases or additional administrative cuts."

The fact that minimum wage laws effectively push the youngest and lowest skilled workers out of the work force is well documented, and predicted by economists. When the minimum cost of a new hire goes up, businesses will be much more selective in who they choose. They may be willing to give an unproven and unskilled young teen her first job at $5.40/hour, but at $7.40 it may be too costly to risk.

Michigan's minimum wage just went up from $6.95/hour to $7.15, and will go up to $7.40 in 2008. The federal minimum is $5.15.

While $7.15 an hour may seem like too little to live on, the fact is most minimum wage earners are not living on their earnings. As the Wall Street Journal recently noted,

"...most people who are poor already earn more than the minimum, and most who do earn the minimum aren't living in poverty. They are retirees, homemakers, part-time workers, and teenagers ..."

Raising the minimum wage is analogous to removing the bottom rungs of the ladder to prosperity; many unskilled and younger workers cannot reach the higher rungs without their first job, and many cannot get that first job ... Read More »

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