... or, the difference between mass  production and massive  production. But first -- how do you hide the fact that the US economy depends on weapons production? You probably think it doesn't or at least that nobody hides it, since it's a known fact that the US outspends all of its allies and enemies by miles: according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies , in 2020 the US spent $738 Billion on its defense  budget , which -- in order to equal it -- would require the combined military spending of the next fourteen highest-spending nations to exceed it (China, India, UK, Russia, France, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Australia, Italy, Brazil, Canada, and Israel). That, however, is only a tiny fraction of the story. The US is the world's largest arms exporter , racking up $10.752 Billion in 2020. That actually doesn't seem very large, considering that the entire US exports the same year were valued at $208.6 Billion, meaning that arms ex...

Capitalism  and  free markets  (or,  a market economy ) are two really basic, critical terms for libertarians, so much so that many consider the two terms synonyms. They aren't. The purpose of this article  is to examine definitions of capitalism, extract the consensus, and suggest that many of the key factors you need to understand the operation of  free market capitalism  are NOT included in the standard definitions. This will be the first installment of explaining why neither capitalism nor the State ever really act in the way you have been conditioned to believe they will. This is going to be long, because if I am going to piss you off to make you think, then I might as well take the time to do it right. Let's start with definitions of capitalism, initially relying on pretty standard libertarian sources: A proper beginning is with the man most associated with Austrian economics,  Dr. Ludwig von Mises , who defined the terms many times, and (as...

Let's assume a libertarian community, and visualize a swimming pool on private property (what other kind would there be?) at which a lone individual sits in a deck chair by the edge, reading a book and working on a tan. This person is a guest of the property owner, not the owner of the pool. At some point during this fine July afternoon, a four-year-old child wanders into the area. The child is not related to the property owner or the guest, has not been invited onto the property. He or she has somehow gotten away from parents and been led by curiosity to wander the neighborhood ... finding the pool ... ... and falls into the deep end ... and can't swim. I don't know if the guest can swim or not -- it's actually immaterial because there is one of those very long poles with the scoop on the end and a life preserver, both sitting right beside his/her chair. It is likely that the guest doesn't even have to stand up to rescue the child, just reach down and pick up the p...

I am in the process of working on a new approach to an American History textbook on the collegiate level, which will tell a much broader story that includes not just wars, presidents and social history, but a significant amount of economics, political science, intellectual history et al. The first volume actually begins in 1400 and ends in 1500 -- just eight years after Columbus lands on San Salvador, accidentally sort-of discovering the Americas. It's necessary because students today have no idea of the world into which this country was born. The individual segments are told in present tense (for the purpose of immediacy) and are each limited to 10 numbered paragraphs of no more than about 1,500 words total (so that students might actually read them). So here is the segment on Sir Arnold Savage, the man who engineered the principle that taxation was only legit when approved by the people and their representatives ... in 1404. Because it is the second segment on English history in ...

A state minister being interviewed about the social value of the "Universal Card" From Authorized Happiness   #2 (van Hamme & Griffo) Cinebook has published a tour de force  three-issue series that qualifies as "must reading" for libertarians. Written by Jean van Hamme , with illustrations by Griffo , it begins as a series of seemingly unrelated series of fables about life under a completely over-reaching bureaucratic state ... These are individually entertaining enough, but early on in the second issue you begin to realize that these are not small stories with the same background,  but one very intricate tale with a final twist that will leave you ... what? ... breathless ... vindicated ... gasping ... If you are not familiar with European comics, the Cinebook brand is a great place to start. The entire Authorized Happiness  series is available at Comixology for only $5.99/issue.

2013: one of my proudest moments in Delaware Libertarian history as my daughter Alexis (who was 17 at the time) joined the Libertarian Party of Delaware and activist Chuck Mead-e garnering signatures for marriage equality. From late 2007 to Spring 2014 I published The Delaware Libertarian , aided and abetted by an ever-changing cast of co-authors, at a time when blogs (at least in the First State) were the heart and soul of political activism on all points of the spectrum. Between 2011-2013, this blog was the second most widely read political blog in the State. If you care, there are over 3,500 posts in the archives covering (then) current political news on both State & national levels; lots of reporting on Libertarian candidates & party infighting; policy commentaries; analytical pieces; amateur science fiction; and a whole series on Thai Ladyboys and sexual slavery in Southeast Asia. Then life happened, and all of us here got -- not quite bored, but at least uninspired -- an...

Posts here have been in short supply as I have been living life and trying to get a campaign off the ground. But "11 questions to see if Libertarians are hypocrites" by R. J. Eskrow, picked up at Salon , was just so freaking lame that I spent half an hour answering them. In the end (but I'll leave it to your judgment), it is not that Libertarians or Libertarian theory looks hypocritical, but that the best that can be said for Mr. Eskrow is that he doesn't have the faintest clue what he's talking about. That's ok, because even ill-informed attacks by people like this make an important point:  Libertarian ideas (as opposed to Conservative ideas, which are completely different) are making a comeback as the dynamic counterpoint to "politics as usual," and so every hack you can imagine must be dragged out to refute them. Ergo:  Mr. Eskrow's 11 questions, with answers: 1.       Are unions, political parties, elections, and ...

Yesterday's WNJ carried a story entitled  Stopping 'Chameleon' Bus Lines is No Easy Task . Notice first, the assumption inherent in the title:  somebody in authority is trying to look out for you. Here are the first several paragraphs:     At the end of 2011, federal regulators slapped a shutdown order on Double Happyness, a private, super-low-cost bus line running from Wilmington to New York’s Chinatown, for what they called  “a management philosophy indifferent to motor carrier safety.” But buses kept running from the station, a spartan storefront at 3 W. Fourth St., under the name New Everyday Bus Tour, a company owned by the brother of Double Happyness’ owner. Last month, after racking up a long list of violations of its own, New Everyday’s authority, too, was revoked by the U.S. Department of Transportation after it did not provide proof of insurance. And, once again, buses are still running from in front of the station, to the same termin...

Like the Vichy French police official Louis in Casablanca  who was "Shocked! I tell you, shocked!" to discover gambling at Rick's Place (while pocketing his winnings), the strategy of Governor Jack Markell, the rest of Delaware's "major party" politicians, the Editorial Board of the Wilmington News Journal, and our so-called "corporate leadership" has been to pretend that the discovery of pollution in the First State is the fault of . . . Delaware citizens. More to the point, it is Delaware citizens who are going to be hit with a $700,000,000 bill for a multi-year clean-up--the overwhelming majority of which will find its way into the hands of the same corporations who dumped toxic chemicals into our air and water for years. THIS is the famed "Delaware Way." I'm going to lay it out for you.  It will be long and it will be unlovely, and I will take no prisoners. I'm not ready to get into finding (and funding) the solutions ...

Two months ago, in a post covering the Delaware government's immense surprise at rising Medicaid costs , I quoted this from the WNJ: Officials in Markell’s administration say they were surprised this fall when the federal government signaled it would shift some Medicaid costs back to the state. The move was triggered by a technical change in the way federal economists calculate personal income, and could cost the state an unexpected $25 million. And I said this: I'm not sure who really believed that (A) adding 20,000-30,000 people to the 215,000 people in Delaware already on Medicaid wasn't going to cost more; or that (B) the cash-strapped Feds weren't going to look for a way to shift more of the expense downward.  Nobody's repealed the law of gravity recently.   Last week the WNJ reported that the General Assembly's budget committee and the 22nd State Representative District's own incumbent Joe Miro are now getting around to grappling with this issue...

With today's WNJ story about the fact that Delaware flunks any reasonable standard of effective Public Defenders for our poorer citizens, we come full circle to discover the Democrats' and Republicans' plan for eliminating poverty in Delaware . . . . . . which is to convict and incarcerate poor people. Remember 2001, when Delaware was criticized by the ACLU for cutting the budget of the Delaware Parole Board?  More than likely you don't, because I can't find evidence that any news organization in the State picked up the story. Remember "bail reform" last year?  It's really important to note exactly who the State bragged about as the support for this bill: Reform efforts led by Attorney General, Rep. Keeley, Senator Henry [and] . . .  the Wilmington Mayor’s Office, the Wilmington City Council, Wilmington PD, the Fraternal Order of Police and the Delaware Police Chiefs Council. I'm sure you saw this hailed as a major "anti-violent cri...

There is an old saying, "The beatings will continue until morale improves." This is pretty similar to what various Delaware educrats and (unfortunately) union leaders are saying about the new Smarter Balanced Assessment and Common Core Standards. To wit: "The reality is that our 15-year-olds are below average on mathematics, and they're average in reading," Michael Watson, the state's chief academic officer, told a gathering of school leaders last week. "These higher standards mean our students will be more competitive, and it means they will be more ready for college and careers." This is in fact such an idiotic argument that in an culture run by common sense (as opposed to Common Core), Mr. Watson would have been required to quit his position in abject shame. Think about this:  "Higher standards mean our students will be more competitive." What they don't want you to look behind the curtain and see is that this is the old...

A lot of people have asked me why, if I intended to be a serious candidate for the Delaware General Assembly, I didn't bite the bullet and run as a Democrat. Here's a major reason why I can't do that: Senator Thomas Carper (D-Fortune 500) has taken a firm stand as one of only three US Senators voting against the restoration of Cost of Living Allowances for retired military veterans. Senator Carper is, of course, a former Naval aviator, who receives $1,400/month in retirement pay. He says, “We‘re making some progress on def­icit reduction in this country, but our def­icit is still a half-trillion dollars this year, and that's huge," he said.  "If we are serious about making progress, all of us who are able to do something to help out need to do that.  I think Americans are willing to do their part if asked, and I think they look to people like me to try to provide some leadership and set an example." No, Senator Carper, we're not look...

Every two years the citizens of Delaware take part in taxpayer-funded elections, choosing between the ballot-qualified candidates of two "major" and three "alternate" or "minor" parties. In many cases there clashes within the Democratic and Republican parties--primaries--to determine who will be the candidate in the General Election.  These are purely partisan contests that benefit only the parties themselves, and yet taxpayers--including non-affiliated and alternate party voters who comprise about 35% of the electorate--pay for them. Moreover, these primary elections are expensive.  A recent Pew study concluded in March 2013 that, across the nation, Democratic and Republican primaries cost American taxpayers over $400 million.  The "per voter" cost of such elections varies wildly, from $1,57/voter in Tennessee and Texas to over $11/voter in New York.  A reasonable average cost (since I cannot find specifics on Delaware costs) would be about...