Happiness versus Freedom

Thought provoking piece in the London Times, The End of Government that points out quite a bit of attention has been focused on government providing services that make people happy instead of focusing on freedom. Part of the recommended piece:

When the crisis in the public finances is over, should the Government buy everyone a garden? Or an allotment, at least? There is a close correlation between having a garden and being happy. By asking two Nobel laureates, Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, to think about how to encode well-being in policy, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, has raised this fundamental question: what is the end of government? Precisely, is it a function of the State to promote the happiness of its citizens? The politicians, philosophers and clerics who assembled in Rennes yesterday to discuss the idea certainly think so.

They are not alone. There has been a surge in the economics of happiness in the United States and Britain too ever since, in 1974, Richard Easterlin pointed out that people in advanced capitalist societies were getting richer but no happier. In Britain, Richard Layard and Andrew Oswald have written in a similar vein and the psychologist Oliver James has gone one step farther by claiming that getting rich is liable to make us ill.

The implication for policy is that, once basic needs are met, governments should abandon a narrow focus on economic growth or gross domestic product (GDP). They should, instead, define collective wellbeing and seek policies that promote happiness. The Department for Children, Schools and Families recently introduced wellbeing classes. David Cameron has expressed some interest in GWB (gross wellbeing).

I'm thinking about my doorbell...

Actually I'm not thinking about my doorbell at all, but I am thinking about the video that White Stripes did for their song "Doorbell" -- it's a strange video that really doesn't fit the song. I'm sure there is some type of a subliminal or hidden message behind it if you are a more hard core White Stripes fan. It was recorded in 2005, before they got a bit more airplay for Iggy Thump...

Looking for jobs in all the wrong places...

The job market is tough out there, especially in my area where there are hundreds of applicants for every advertised job. This can make your job search a bit more challenging. It means you have to do more than just the traditional looking at the classifieds to find the right job, you should take advantage of the internet and the vast number of job listing websites and don't forget to check out what your state offers. Ohio as an example has a website of job listings that many times end up on their service before they are anywhere else.

Will pot become legal in Cali?

Kevin Drum thinks it just may happen this time in an article in Mother Jones. Ten months ago he thought it would take at least ten years, now? He thinks it may happen sooner:

The initiative, sponsored by Richard Lee, who owns several marijuana businesses in Oakland, would legalize possession of up to an ounce of cannabis and cultivation of up to 25 square feet on private property for personal consumption. Beyond that, it would permit local authorities to go further: They'd be allowed to legalize commercial cultivation of larger amounts for sale to anyone over the age of 21.

So, is this a good idea? The fear of moderate proponents of legalization has always been the possibility of large corporations, like Philip Morris, getting into the marijuana business and marketing pot to heavy users. "One person smoking eight joints a day is worth more to the industry than 50 people each smoking a joint a week," says Mark Kleiman, a drug policy expert at UCLA. "If the cannabis industry were to expand greatly, it couldn't do so by increasing the number of casual users. It would have to create and maintain more chronic zonkers."

Lee's initiative opens that door. Philip Morris wouldn't be allowed to engage in interstate commerce of marijuana, but if, say, Humboldt County agreed to allow unlimited cultivation of cannabis, they could grow it in their own fields and sell it through licensed outlets in any other county in California that also permitted commercial sales.

The article is a recommended read, there's much more than what's shared above.

If I had a spa, it would not be bare...

If I should ever get to the point where I have a spa, I would invest in a spa cover, because it does extend the time needed between cleaning. We have a small pool in our yard and while it's great for the kids to cool off when it's hot, it takes more time to keep the leaves, bugs and other material out of the pool than seems worth it. The downside of course to covering a small pool is it creates algae and heats up the water, which defeats the purpose of having a pool if it is as warm as bath water. Hence? No cover for the pool, but a spa? You want to have warm anyway, which is another plus of a cover when it is a bit colder, it helps keep the heat in longer.

:-)

Most of us don't eat healthy...

The sad reality is despite the number of food items available to most of us, from natural to organic to good old processed food, from a huge selection of different in season fruits and veggies, most of us do not eat the type of a balanced diet we should. Whether you take a general vitamin supplement or prefer gender based womens vitamins or mens vitamins, you should take vitamins.

In theory it would be better to get the right amount of vitamins you need from your diet, but look at the food pyramid. Do you?

If you want to punish greedsters, scamsters, fraudsters, let them eat dirt.

Interesting transcript and video from the Real News, (link) titled, "A libertarian take on the Tea Party movement. One part of the recommended piece:

JAY: Now, the tea movement gets used—I don't know how to say it now that you told me [inaudible] completely screwed me up. They've become an ally of the insurance industry, because in the name of small government, you attack any kind of health-care reform, indirectly become an ally of Wall Street, because in the name of small government you don't want regulation on Wall Street. So with the bugaboo being big government, the Wall Street, pharma, health care, and other corporate monopolies don't get touched by this movement. Don't they see the contradiction that?

WELCH: I would say: don't you see the contradiction in this? Which is that the bank bailouts, the bailouts of Wall Street, are exactly what's unpopular. That's what has caused a bunch of this. It's not—.

JAY: But why isn't the Ponzi scheme unpopular too?

WELCH: It is unpopular as well.

JAY: Well, how are they going to deal with a Wall Street that wants to sell—.

WELCH: By letting them go bankrupt. If you want to punish these people, let them fail. If you want to publish greedsters, scamsters, fraudsters, let them eat dirt.

JAY: Right, but they won't be eating dirt alone. A lot of these tea activists, tea baggers, are going to be out of work, and they should understand that.

WELCH: They're out of work now. I mean—.

JAY: Well, but when this crashes there'll be millions more.

WELCH: Well, I don't think that's a solved question. I mean, you remember when Barack Obama said we need to pass the stimulus or else, the "or else" was, you know, we might get unemployment above 8 percent. Well, they passed a stimulus, and unemployment went north of 10 percent. I think it's not solved at all.

Products that you wish could do more...

At times it feels as if government is a huge monster with a personality and an existence of it's own. I at times ponder what would happen if there was a diet product for government, or some all natural fat burner that could be sprinkled upon the halls of government that magically created a focus on cutting the fat from this huge creature.

It's critical to the health of our nation that we eventually start focusing on how we can reduce government yet still provide core/key services. As we focus as a nation on how we can become healthier, thinner and more productive, it's hard not to wish for that attitude to also be adopted by elected officials when it comes to their jobs.

My way of dealing with depression...

All of us feel depressed at one time or another, and there are those of us out there suffering to the point where they need to seek professional treatment for depression. However, for the days when I feel depressed and I wonder what the purpose for doing all that I do is, that nothing good is coming my way, I turn to the video below. It has never failed me as far as making me smile and feel much better, though I admit sometimes I've had to watch it more than once to get the full impact...

1851 Center for Constitutional Law & ACORN

1851 Center for Constitutional Law is considered a Libertarian group, they filed a lawsuit against ACORN to get ACORN out of Ohio. While the terms of the lawsuit/settlement has not been made public, it's been reported that ACORN is going to shut down their Ohio operations. ACORN says it is not related to the lawsuit, 1851 is saying it is a result of the settlement.

Associated Press story:

The community organizing group ACORN has agreed to permanently give up its business license in Ohio, under a settlement with a libertarian organization.

The 1851 Center for Constitutional Law had filed a lawsuit against the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, ACORN's full name. The suit alleged that ACORN's voter registration drives amounted to organized crime because the group turned in a pattern of fraudulent forms.

Attorney Maurice Thompson with the 1815 Center calls the settlement mostly confidential but says it calls for ACORN to cease operating in Ohio by June 1.

ACORN attorney Alphonse Gerhardstein says the group denies any wrongdoing in Ohio. He says ACORN has already pulled out of the state for reasons unrelated to the lawsuit.

Libertarianism and urban sprawl...

If you missed the drama created by Jon Stossel's show on Fox, I recommend reading A Libertarian view of urban sprawl by Randal O'Toole. He gives you the basic jist of what happened as well as some of the reaction in the blogosphere to the comments made by James Kunstler.

An ounce of prevention...

One of the largest problems we face when it comes to health care is the lack of access to well care health care. For many with the increasing costs of co-pays and deductibles even if you have well care coverage, it can be more than you can afford. This is especially an issue when it comes to the working poor and pregnancy, all too often women wait to make that first appointment and they don't take the extra step of getting prenatal vitamins which are available online and at every pharmacy. If you are not eating right, which many are not no matter their economic status, prenatal vitamins are critical...

It's almost door hanger season!

With the primary approaching in May, soon many residents will find door hangers to mark the visit of a candidate or campaign workers for a candidate. A campaign that has opted for door hangers demonstrates they care enough about their message to want to leave it for you in a less offensive manner than sticking it in your mail box (which is against the law) or leaving it on your porch to blow around and decorate the neighborhood with.

When I'm asked by candidates whether they should opt for print outs, which the smaller ones are called "palm cards" or door hangers, I say both. Palm cards for the voters who are at home when you call, door hangers for the ones who are not. Nothing turns off a prospective voter than coming home and finding a bunch of campaign material in their yard, it's well worth the small extra expense.

CATO is unusual in its consistent libertarianism

Highly recommended article Will the Right Find Libertarianism? that raises some interesting questions and points. One of which is what I find most interesting about some on the right and the whole tea party mantra being still labeled as being Libertarian when that aspect of the influence appears to have been diminished by those who are not the accepted definition of mainstream Libertarianism, "fiscally conservative and socially liberal."

The religious aspect to some of the tea party movement is not remotely aligned with Libertarianism. One part from the recommended piece by Wendy Kaminer:

Libertarians are labile voters, "torn between their aversion to the Republican's social conservatism and the Democrat's fiscal irresponsibility," CATO asserts; they shifted away from George Bush in 2004 and toward John McCain in '08. McCain was an odd choice for libertarians considering his abysmal record on civil liberty. "Straight talk for me but not for thee," might have been his motto (to paraphrase Nat Hentoff); he was no friend of the First Amendment, supporting a constitutional amendment banning flag burning, restrictions on indecency as well as political speech, and declaring America a Christian nation. That libertarians preferred him to Obama suggests that fiscal conservativism (or at least the image of it) was more important to them than social liberalism, or civil liberty. Before assuming the presidency and adopting key Bush-Cheney national security policies, Obama looked like a civil libertarian; indeed his claim to civil libertarianism was a lot stronger than the claims of Bush-era Republicans to fiscal conservatism.

Terms of endearment...

A common mistake people make when they have lost a job is to forget that they may no longer have life insurance coverage since many people rely on the coverage from their employer and have not purchased additional insurance. When money is tight it can be difficult to take on another expense but there are a variety of Wholesale term life insurance policies out there that can give basic coverage without being expensive. If you have already lost your income, the last thing your family would need is the trauma of trying to figure how how to pay for funeral expenses should some type of illness or accident happen. I've seen more and more situations where someone is killed in an accident or dies unexpectedly and the family is forced to try to turn to friends, family and the media to try to get donations to pay for funeral expenses.

I'm not completely plugged in...

While I may spend over 80 hours a week on my various blogs and doing research for the newspaper I work for, I admit I am not completely plugged in. I have resisted getting a BlackBerry or any type of a phone that has internet on it. My phone as an example has an SD card slot where supposedly I can download more music and other things to it. Yet, the idea of attaching my phone to my computer is one I have resisted. It's as if I realize that if I start there, I may decide that I need an iPhone or a BlackBerry or a similar model that connects to the net. Then? I would never be unplugged...Part of the reason only a select number of people have my cell phone number is so that when I need to? I can escape it all...