The Binary Circumstance

I have made reference to Sweden in a previous post about socialism, gay and straight marriages and childrearing

Now Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution has an article about the current state of the Swedish economy.

1. No new net jobs have been produced in the Swedish private sector since 1950.

2. “None of top 50 companies on the Stockholm stock exchange has been started since 1970.”

3. “…well over 1 million people out of a work force of around four million did not work in 2003 but lived on various kinds of public welfare programs, such as, pre-pension schemes, unemployment benefits, sick-leave programs, etc.”

4. “Sweden has dropped from fourth to 14th place in 2002 among the OECD countries (i.e., affluent industrialized countries) in terms of GDP per capita since 1970.”

Read the entire post for the source links and Tyler’s comments.

Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok are both professors of economics at George Mason University in Northern Virginia.

They co-author Marginal Revolution which is always full of interesting studies and links. Their writing is always interesting, smart, and humorous with a libertarian bent.

Since I’ve been reading them regularly and often pull links and quotes from their articles, I’m adding them to my short list of Blogs I Read.

I have not followed the Jayson Williams trial at all. My only familiarity with it is what I’ve heard on the news.

But this article about the verdict, made me laugh.

According to testimony, Williams, who had a skeet-shooting range on his 65-acre estate, took a loaded shotgun from a cabinet in the master bedroom. According to witnesses, he turned, uttered an expletive at [Costas] Christofi, possibly in jest, and then snapped the weapon shut, and it went off.

Christofi was struck in the chest and died within minutes. Williams dropped to his knees and wailed, “Oh my God! Oh my God!??? and “My life is over,??? according to witnesses.

Witnesses testified that Williams wiped the gun down and then put it in Christofi’s hands. The former basketball pro stripped naked, pushed his clothes into the arms of a friend, told him to get rid of them, and took a swim in his indoor pool before police arrived.

What struck me as kind of funny was that Williams thought his life was over.

The evidence in front of his eyes pretty clearly indicated it was Mr. Christofi’s life that was over.

Some people just can’t see for lookin’.

As in so many other things, the government has greatly inflated the cost of free speech.

In a post about political ads related to drug policy reform, Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolution reminds us that saying something the government doesn’t like can be very expensive:

The Metro accepts all kinds of political ads but if it accepts any ad arguing against drug prohibition it, or any other transit authority, will lose all of its Federal funds.

In one way or another, the Federal government has its hand in everything, including the schools, the universities, and the airwaves. If the government can withdraw its funds from anything associated with arguments it doesn’t like then free speech will be very expensive.

The cost of the government’s intervention in the market of speech is much more than just dollars and cents.

As I’ve noted before, mandatory, coercive governments are based upon irrational premises. To be rational, it is necessary, by definition, to reject that which is irrational. The rational and the irrational are a binary circumstance; they are mutually exclusive. Rational people will by their very nature be at odds with irrational governments.

To speak out against the irrational nature of government, say at a university or on the airwaves, or, even worse, act upon your speech, could cost you funding, your job, your freedom or whatever the government wants it to cost.

To speak in support of irrational systems of government will make your life easier, it will be more financially rewarding, and you will keep your freedom.

When being speaking rationally becomes more expensive than speaking irrationally, what will people do?

Do that math and then consider the ramifications for the evolution of our species. When the government makes it too expensive to live a rational life, our society will evolve toward the irrational and the mystical. In that society rational speech will become even more expensive.

The cost of the government’s intervention in the market of speech and reason is not just financial; it is biological and psychological. The cost is the loss of our minds.