*In the early 1960′s Europe (attempting to bolster its poultry industry) tariffed (added a tax to) U.S. chickens… President Johnson retaliated with a tariff on Europe-made commercial vans… Both tariffs are still on the books… Today, there’s a Ford plant in Turkey that affixes rear-side windows and back seats to what would have been commercial vans (i.e., transforming them into consumer [duty free] vehicles)… They’re then shipped to America, where they’re stripped of their rear-side windows and back seats (materials shredded and sent for recycling) and voilà!, become commercial vans… Apparently the above waste costs less than the utterly idiotic tax…
*When teachers are rewarded for their students increased test scores; do we get more effective teachers and better educated kids? Or more effective test-teachers and better test-takers?
*When teachers are rewarded for student evaluation scores; do we get better teachers? Or easier courses and inflated grades?
*Government can indeed create industry… For example: In Hanoi, under French colonial rule, they had a rat problem… Therefore, in its infinite wisdom, the government instituted a program where folks were paid bounties for rat pelts… And thus a new industry, rat farming, was born…
*Would a farmer who comes across a chartreuse-spotted salamander immediately contact the Fish and Wildlife Service? Or would he engage in “preemptive habitat destruction” (with a shovel) over fear he’d lose the use of his land due to The Endangered Species Act?
*Ask yourself, honestly, if unemployment benefits ended at 26 weeks, like they used to, would the long-term unemployed be unemployed so long-term?
*When government mandates mileage standards for new automobiles, thus you get more miles per gallon, will you be nearly as odometerphobic? In other words, as driving gets cheaper would traffic get denser (more drivers, more traffic jams, more roads, more cars, more pollution)?
One Response
Regarding unemployment benifits, when benifits run out employment goes up. That’s a fact.