A Gaggle of Contrarian Political Links....

Think you know what's going on?

Maybe not entirely.

John Stossel, Feb 10, 2010, in his Townhall column "Hurtling Down the Road to Serfdom" and again on his excellent Fox opinion show, "According to the Tax Foundation, 60% of the population now gets more in government benefits than it pays in taxes. What does that say about a society in which *more than half* the people live at hte expense of the rest? Worse, the dependent class is growing. The 60% will soon be 70%.

"Rep Paul Ryan of Wisconsin seems to understand the threat: He's worried that 'more people have a stake in the welfare state than in free enterprise. This is a road that Hayek perfectly described as "the road to serfdom." '

"Do we want a culture of takers or makers?"

"Fiscal Stimulus is Buying Trouble: Why government spending hasn't brought the economy around" is a Reason magazine piece worth reading.

Also insightful is Big Government's Cronies: The real reason politicians like complicated tax and regulatory schemes. If you don't know the corrupt fundamentals of this article, you need to read it fast. 

And for all those high-speed rail enthusiasts who think it will change transpo for the better, Reason's High-Speed Rail Plans Are Misconceived: What problem are these trains solving? Who will pay the annual operating costs? should slow your mental train to a more reasonable speed. Rail enthusiasts of all stripes have been getting a free ride for decades; it's about time they were run out on a rail themselves, before we're even broker than we already are. And bear in mind that Reason started out as a research firm specializing in transportation. Go to the Reason.org site for much, much more from these train experts.

"Who's Greedy?" is a good healthy counterweight to self-righteous blather about the evils of greed. Cafe Hayek is a great blog site with much sense about economics in our confused modern world. The author points to a difficult contradiction in the thinking of those who accuse capitalists of greed.

Cafe Hayek is also the source of the wonderful Fear the Boom and the Bust, a video 'starring' free-market economist F.A. Hayek 'debating' government-market enthusiast Lord Keynes in a rap-music argument and counterargument that will knock your socks off. It's such a Youtube hit that it's been translated into several dozen languages around the world already. Dee-lightful! And a surprisingly accurate summary of the economics of each!