30 Million People Unemployed? No Problem! They Can Rebuild Minneapolis!

The idea that a city being burned and looted (like has been happening in Minneapolis) could be an economic blessing sounds ridiculous—right? And yet it’s precisely the thing that John Maynard Keynes and those of his ilk would say in regards to current events in the United States. In fact, politicians and bad economists have been repeating the same tired message for so long that even Frédéric Bastiat took pen to paper, all the way back in 1850, to refute it with his essay That Which is Seen and That Which is Not Seen which included his famous parable of The Broken Window. Here’s the story (very much worth reading!): Have you ever witnessed the anger of the good shopkeeper, James B., when his careless son happened to break a square of glass? If you have been present at such a scene, you will most assuredly bear witness to the

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We Should Reject a “New Normal” But We Can Still Choose to Leave Some Things Behind

Happy Wednesday! Summer is rapidly approaching, and with it comes at least a semi-return to normal for a lot of families. Some states are opening up, and some are still locked up tight, but the end of the school year—even this school year—still stands as a transition to something that at least resembles life the way we remember it pre-COVID-19. I’ve talked about it several times now, and I see others talking about it as well, but I want to reiterate that I will not be using the term “new normal” to describe post-COVID-19 life. As far as I can see, there is no reason that we can’t assume a perfectly normal “normal” again. I’m encouraged to see studies that give credence to the idea of this virus not being as contagious as we had once feared, and also being far less deadly for the majority of healthy people than

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Maybe it’s Time to Make Some Hard Choices About Education

Have you seen this?! Yesterday I came across a post on Facebook that listed out all the “precautions” that the CDC is recommending schools implement before reopening. I’m not going to lie… I assumed that it was exaggerated, or that someone had taken some liberties with it or maybe just had bad information to base it on, so I started poking around on the CDC website in the hopes of finding some source info. And yeah—it’s actually this bad. This is an accurate (albeit simplified) representation of what the CDC thinks should be done in order for schools to reopen this fall. Apparently in the last couple of days, the CDC quietly published a whole lot of information detailing their vision for a phased reopening of the United States. The document is about sixty pages long, with the information about schools beginning on page forty. It’s worth taking the time

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The Word You’re Looking For is “Government”

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the “new normal” that we are being conditioned to accept, and pointed out that each crisis brings with it new words, repeated again and again by those in government and media in an effort to frame the narrative around the entire experience. The words we use matter—they mean things—and it’s important that we are aware of the way words are used to influence us. After all, those who choose the “new” words are most certainly aware of their effect. I’ve noticed something in nearly every single article I read and news story I watch that relates in any way to the events surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. I suspect that you’ve either noticed it also, or as soon as you read it here you will immediately recognize that you find it to be the case as well. An article in Bloomberg opens by

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Government and Many Americans Get an “F” in Economic Literacy

Greetings Earthlings! I know I am not the only one who finds reality sometimes bordering on being more unbelievable than science-fiction at this point. Every time I watch the news or poke around on social media I understand a little better why some people have simply chosen to bury their heads and adopt an “ignorance is bliss” attitude toward politics and current events. That could never be me—but I sure do see how people can get to that point. Inspired by articles I’ve seen circulating about the “grade” that states and communities are being given based on how well they are obeying stay-at-home orders (let’s not even talk about how they collect the data to give those grades) I decided to create my own grading system and am confident in my decision to award the U.S government and many Americans a solid “F” in economic literacy. One of the most

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Are All Laws Inherently Violent?

It’s the weekend! Wait… are weekends still a thing? So I’ve been watching with interest the situation in Texas involving jailed (and subsequently released) salon owner, Shelley Luther. I know most of the country has been watching. I’ve seen some people hail her as a hero, and others decry her as everything from an example of privilege to a danger to the health of others. I see her mostly as a person who was trying to take care of her family and her employees, and the rest of it is mostly media spin that people relate to depending on their personal biases. I’m probably never going to be a person that faults someone for wanting to keep their business from crashing, or from having to rely on the government to support them. But I didn’t sit down to write today about Shelley Luther and her fight. Her case has, for

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