Izzit.org Teacher Inspiration

Menckenism: HuffPost � Scientists Outraged That Elected Reps Control Their Handouts

by BILL FREZZA

            "Concerned scientists on the dole reacted with fury when an amendment to the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013, offered by spending scold Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla), passed the Senate. It will limit the National Science Foundation�s ability to award political science grants to only those projects directly related to national security or the economic interests of the United States. �The amendment makes all scientific research vulnerable to the whims of political pressure,� shrieked the American Political Science Association in a press release.

            The horror! Imagine what would happen if entrenched technocrats and the tenured professors they support were actually held accountable by the elected representatives of the taxpayers who pay their bills?"

Becker on the Perception of Markets

Introduction to Bitcoin

            Bitcoin is a wildly popular, unregulated, and open-sourced digital currency that may have major implications on the future of both investment and monetary policy.  

            Now priced at over 88 dollars per Bitcoin, the currecy got its start in July 2010 at under one cent per Bitcoin.  In the Business Insider article What the Rise of Bitcoin Teaches us about Money, Cullen Roche challenges us to consider what makes good money good.  Does a digital currency make the cut?  Below is a graph depicting the rise in value of Bitcoins.

Cafe Hayek: But Who Am I to Argue with Ralph Kramden?

by DON BOUDREAUX

"Here�s a letter to the New York Times:

Lawrence Zelenak wants us to �celebrate� the annual ritual of reporting to the government the intimate details of how much money we earn and how we go about earning it (�When We Loved Form 1040,� April 1).  According to Prof. Zelenak, �the filing of Form 1040 draws our attention to our duties as citizens in a way that no other levy, including a national sales tax, could.�

Overlook the dubious presumptions that constitute Prof. Zelenak�s understanding of government � an understanding that rises no higher than the offering in a typical 1950s high-school civics text.  Focus instead on Prof. Zelenak�s applause for tax withholding.  This applause is at odds with his larger point.

If spending time and effort connecting with tax collectors helpfully �draws our attention to our duties as citizens,� then tax withholding short-circuits that attention.  So why not eliminate withholding and oblige each income earner to pay every cent of his or her tax bill by writing personal checks to the IRS?  Not only would elimination of withholding make us even more attentive to our �duties as citizens,� we would also � as any behavioral economist would point out � gain a truer and more fully felt sense of the price we pay for Uncle Sam�s splendors.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA  22030

Upon Jim Buchanan�s death in January, more than one pundit claimed that Buchanan is overrated because he, allegedly, said only what is obvious to everyone.  Zelenak�s op-ed in today�s NY Times is evidence against these pundits� claims."

US Debt, Visualized

            This is a fantastic resource for anyone seeking to better comrehend the financial ruin currently facing America: usdebt.kleptocracy.us

Tibor Machan on Philosophy, Knowledge and Reason