Profit is not the enemy in healthcare. Its banishment from government books does not improve societal welfare once the loss of potential profit by private citizens is accounted for.
Worth A Look
Throw Cold Water on Bulk-Water Export Opposition
“A recent special report on water in The Economist offered a provocative comment: “The trouble with water is that it’s all politics, no economics.” How else to explain why a pro-free-trade government in one of the world’s most water-endowed countries would seek to ban bulk water exports?”
It’s all Greek to Quebec
“Equalization in Canada was established to ensure that “have-not” regions could enjoy the same programs as “have” regions and most Canadians wouldn’t quibble with that. But that has not happened. In fact, the reverse has occurred. The have provinces have fewer services than the have-nots.”
The Western World Keeps Spending Its Way To Disaster
” ‘The BIS paper notes that the public debt of 30 OECD countries will (on average) exceed 100 per cent of GDP within the next year, “something that has never happened before in peacetime.” ‘
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To Infinity and Beyond
Space exploration is fraught with a wide variety of hazards; solar storms could irradiate astronauts, collisions with small, unseen objects could cause instant death, and the acts of both leaving Earth and coming back are high risk maneuvers that involve high speeds...
Global Minimum Tax Is Cartel Scam with Loopholes
Rhetoric is one thing; reality is another. As is becoming increasingly clear, the OECD’s July 1 proposal for a 15 per cent global minimum for corporate taxation is nothing of the sort. Although the awaited initiative slated for 2023 will not and cannot achieve a level...
Council Votes 7-4 to Expropriate Land
“The fair determination of any private transaction should and can only be characterized by two fundamental principles – the first that the transaction should be voluntary, and secondly that the price is between the maximum that the buyer will pay for it and the minimum that the buyer will accept. >”This is not fair. There’s nothing fair about this transaction. Some may consider this extreme, but I look to this as theft.”
Next Step: More Accountable And Transparent Native Governments
Similar to the municipal level, the effective use of public money by first nations requires transparent governments responsible to their own citizens, who pay a significant part of their cost by taxing themselves. It also requires a vigorous civil society in which most people are self-supporting, own property and are not dependent on government to do everything for them.
Nitrogen Must Go: Province
The Doer government is forcing Winnipeg to spend $10 million to $50 million on a sewage-treatment process that one of the world’s leading freshwater scientists believes will actually make Lake Winnipeg filthier.
One Trip Around Houston, And They’re Preaching To The Converted
The idea of a city without zoning might imply anarchy. Houston avoids this through protective covenants. All the home owners in a neighbourhood can band together and agree that no development can take place without the approval of the community. These covenants cover a large proportion of the city, but they don’t cover vacant land, so they don’t impede development and growth. In effect, they provide privatised zoning, but at a local level and without the interference of government and all the corruption that brings with it.
Abundant Energy Will Power Future Growth
The world is consuming more and more energy and, as if by miracle, the amount left to consume grows ever higher. Never before in human history has energy been accessible in greater abundance and in more regions, never before has mankind had more energy options and faced a brighter energy future.
Fish Board’s Ship Sinking, Report Confirms
People who lived in rural or remote communities can now communicate via telephone or more importantly, the Internet. This medium has brought profound changes as the average fisher can surf the web and find out how much the free-market system is paying for various species of freshwater fish. In addition, they can now see that “value-adding” to their catch (smoking, marinating and modified atmosphere packaging) can derive not only better returns and longer shelf life, but provide meaningful jobs in their communities.
The Genius of Adam Smith
More fundamentally, Smith’s insights remain valid because he was not merely a supporter of markets and a critic of overweening governments, but also a student of human nature. Smith painted humans as complex and often internally conflicted creatures whose prudence, benevolence and ingenuity is nevertheless best encouraged in a free and open society with minimal government, clear laws and strong external defences.
Idea Power
Unquestionably, the idea that it’s important to keep promises, to be honest, to treat strangers with respect, to work hard, to take responsibility for one’s own failures rather than blame others — these and other such ideas that are so fundamental to modern commercial society are imparted more by example than by exposition. They are the soil of capitalist culture. Any government planted on such soil simply cannot grant privileges to special-interest groups if these privileges are widely perceived as violating these bedrock ideas.
Free Trade In Food? Not Until The Milking’s Done
Freer trade in agricultural goods would be a $3-billion annual boon to Canadian farmers, from grain growers to hog producers, not to mention offer a few developing countries a way out of destitution. But for the Canadian cow owners, the latest WTO proposals aren’t worth mulch.