Why Economic Growth Matters

An excerpt from an upcoming article I am writing for the Cal Patriot:

The good news is the world is becoming more capitalist over the years. It’s completely possible in a few generations to make drastic economic progress. A 6 percent annual increase in GDP results in a doubling per capita income every twelve years. This is the track that “growth-miracle” South Korea is currently on. If these South Korean growth rates continue, the average citizen of South Korea will be twenty times richer than his grandparents. This is an amazing feat of economic progress.


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Who Are You Calling Friend, Buddy?

An email I received this morning from attorney general candidate Alberto Torrico with critical commentary by yours truly:

Dear Friend,
For the first time in California’s history, our state government spent more money on prisons than higher education.
So? This is a meaningless comparison. Maybe it costs more to lock someone up than to send him to school. I’m all for controlling penitentiary costs, but don’t think there is a meaningful trade-off between total expenditures spent on prisons and schools. Ultimately I’d prefer if the state government spent 0$ on higher education and a positive amount on enforcing the rule of the law.

My name is Alberto Torrico, and I know we need to reform prisons and recognize that education is the key to our future and public safety.
Education is the best way to shut the revolving door of our prison system – where 70 percent of released inmates return after three years. I’m fighting to reform the prisons by requiring inmates to rehabilitate themselves through work, study or treatment before they are released.
Indoctrination of prisoners is way too creepy of a position. There are both innocent people in jail, and people locked up for harming nobody. Should they be subject to Torrico’s rehabilitation mandates? I think not.

Education creates strong communities. That’s why I’m working to expand preschool in every neighborhood so kids start school ready to learn. And I’m leading the fight to lower college tuition by taking on Big Oil with an extraction fee that can’t be passed on to consumers.
I’m more fearful of the power of Big Government to interfere with commercial activity and our lives then the effects of Big Oil. Petroleum is awesome. There, I said it. Eventually we’ll stop using oil, but right now it’s a good source of cheap energy.

I’m the child of Latino and Asian immigrants who worked as janitors so I could be the first in my family to attend college. I went on to teach college courses to new citizens. I know the true spirit of California opportunity and optimism is nurtured in great schools, not failed prisons.
Great. Then you should support school choice.

My campaign for Attorney General has earned the overwhelming support of law enforcement because they know that with 60 percent of prisoners functionally illiterate – education is the best strategy to prevent crime and rehabilitate criminals.
Does the industrial law-enforcement complex want more or less prisoners?

I hope you will join the California Federation of Teachers, the California Professional Firefighters, scores of local labor organizations and over 60,000 cops and deputy sheriffs who have endorsed me because they agree that the best way to protect public safety is to invest in education.
Unions are not guardians of society. They are cartels that raise wages above the competitive level through unfair Government privilege. Lawmakers should craft public policy without cowing to unions.

Believe it or not, Alberto Torrico does not have my vote.

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March 4th

Tomorrow is a “day-of-action” strike in response to UC budget cuts, fee increases, and Subway shops. Based on the previous walkouts and the March 4th rhetoric, I’m predicting campus tomorrow will devolve into a destructive clusterf&#* of various politicos competing to make the most noise and gain status.

You can read a pro side here, at “Occupy CA.”


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Ideas pt.2

Last post, I talked about the dangerous potential of government implemented top-down bad ideas. I think every sane person will agree that Chinese peasantry backyard steel production was clearly a horrible blunder. However, it’s not satisfactory to eliminate only the obviously foolish government programs (farm subsidies come to mind). There are high costs of government implemented top-down potential “good ideas.”

Today in the DeCal, we talked about school choice and American education. The free-market solution to the problems of our failing public school system is competition, whether it be vouchers or government entirely leaving the field. The federal solution is to incentive schools to set the bar high.

Two proposals on how to fix schools

Free-market:  competition
Government run: standards

Read More »


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State-Run Schooling


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Blogging Break

In lieu of upcoming midterms and essays, I will not have an opportunity to blog about a number of things that have been on my mind lately. I’m going to outline a few things that I expect to have time to blog about later on this week:

  • Thinking clearly about health-care reform.
  • Book review of Albert Jay Nock’s Memoir’s of a Superfluous Man.
  • My experience as it relates to Bryan Caplan’s microecomic interpretation of Thomas Szasz’s theory of mental illness. Do preferences and constraints represent two distinct categories or are the lines impossibly blurred? The answer portends a radically different way of thinking about ethics on both a small and a large scale.
  • Examination of the obsession with income inequality over other forms of inequality which cannot be remedied by changes in government policy.

Stay tuned, won’t ye?


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More on Ideas

A successful implementation of an idea in a particular time and circumstance may not produce the same results elsewhere. This recognition of the indispensable role of local knowledge is critical to understanding why top down solutions are dangerous. When an unsuccessful top down solution is forced upon a people through government, the accountability feedback mechanism does not function well. Instead of trying something else, politicians save face and ask for more funding.

A classic example of a government top down action that had horrible consequences is Chairman Mao’s furnace mandate as part of the Great Leap Forward. From Wikipedia:

With no personal knowledge of metallurgy, Mao encouraged the establishment of small backyard steel furnaces in every commune and in each urban neighborhood. Huge efforts on the part of peasants and other workers were made to produce steel out of scrap metal. To fuel the furnaces the local environment was denuded of trees and wood taken from the doors and furniture of peasants’ houses. Pots, pans, and other metal artifacts were requisitioned to supply the “scrap” for the furnaces so that the wildly optimistic production targets could be met. Many of the male agricultural workers were diverted from the harvest to help the iron production as were the workers at many factories, schools and even hospitals. Although the output consisted of low quality lumps of pig iron which was of negligible economic worth, Mao had a deep distrust of intellectuals and faith in the power of the mass mobilization of the peasants.

If an entrepreneur tried a backyard furnace and failed it would not be a big deal. Innovators are constantly experimenting and trying to figure out ways to create value for other people. A positive profit means the entrepreneur is creating more benefits than the costs he is incurring. The profits signal to other individuals that they should consider doing something similar. No profits, and the business venture isn’t worth it. Read More »


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“Whose street? Our street!”

The internet was abuzz this morning with the social chatter of another Southside riot instigated by activists upset with the University. What started as a dance party became a destructive and violent mob that clashed with the police. The news story from the Daily Cal can be found here. I’m going to focus my attention on a brief from the blog “occupy california.” Let’s see what the author of “occupy california,” presumably someone who participated in last nights events, has to say.

The dance party continued to move past Bancroft, down Telegraph as more people joined the march and joined the destruction of capital. Now the windows of fast food chains smashed, the party settled in the intersection of Durant and Telegraph.

Hold up. Beyond the poor grammar lies a disgusting neglect for peoples’ property. I have no problem with rioters destroying their own capital. But anyone who breaks a window should have to compensate the window owner for the replacement cost plus pay a fine. There’s nothing ethical about breaking windows on Telegraph. Read More »


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Unsupported Statement

Everyone will be twice as wealthy under minimal (to no) government.


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