Posted on 03/28/2016 6:42:37 AM PDT by Uncle Miltie
"If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free."
"You can't get rid of poverty by giving people money."
"It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money."
"There is no virtue in compulsory government charity, and there is no virtue in advocating it. A politician who portrays himself as "caring" and "sensitive" because he wants to expand the government's charitable programs is merely saying that he's willing to try to do good with other people's money. Well, who isn't? And a voter who takes pride in supporting such programs is telling us that he'll do good with his own money -- if a gun is held to his head."
"The complexity of economics can be calculated mathematically. Write out the algebraic equation that is the human heart and multiply each unknown by the population of the world."
".......the poor of the world cannot be made rich by redistribution of wealth. Poverty can't be eliminated by punishing people who've escaped poverty, taking their money and giving it as a reward to people who have failed to escape. Economic leveling doesn't work. Whether we call it Marxism, Progressive Reform, or Clintonomics, the result is the same slide into the stygian pit. Communists worship Satan; socialists think perdition is a good system run by bad men; and liberals want us to go to hell because it's warm there in the winter."
"The U.S. tax code was written by A students. Every April 15, we have to pay somebody who got an A in accounting to keep ourselves from being sent to jail."
"Adam Smith pointed out that there were three things that make us more prosperous, in a general sort of way: freedom to pursue our own self-interest; specialization, which he called division of labor; and freedom of trade."
"Arguing, in the sense of attempting to convince others, has gone out of fashion with conservatives."
Podcast of his book "Eat the Rich": http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/wbc/all
Ping to the Economic Conservatism list. Please let me know if you want to added or removed.
Today’s posting is lighter, soon to be followed by more weighty material. Ricardo, anyone?
“Giving money and power to Government, is like giving Whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. . .”
“Giving power and money to politicians is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.”
GMTA
Great list.
PFL
P.J. is a hoot.
Love the guy.
L
Fun, Milt - thanx.
I always thought the quote “identifying the problem is tgree fourths the cure” was true.
Except with emotions and politics.
The cure is like trying to get your youth back.
PJ O’Rourke for President—Now More Than Ever!
(Well, I can dream, can’t I? At least the satire would be intelligent, concise, aimed in the right direction, and intentional.)
As a 12 year old I used to read a lot of National Lampoon. It twisted me.
I still get the creeps thinking about urban dog fishing.
Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink.
In reference to an Irish high rise built to house the poor that was being torn down after just a few years because it had been trashed by the residents:
“It proved that you can’t stack poor people who drink.”
His quote of Alan Greenspan was classic, too. On being told by a Swedish economic minister that socialist Sweden had a very low poverty rate, Greenspan replied that the poverty rate in the US, among Swedes, was also very low.
I must be a lot older than you because I remember enjoying National Lampoon as an adult.
My favorite issue was the one simply titled “Food.”
In it was a recipe for “Romanian Hay Sausage.”
You started by feeding a bale of hay to a horse.....
Peej is a longtime favorite, and I've got and have enjoyed the audiobook version of "On The Wealth of Nations" over recent years. Thanks Uncle Miltie.
Urban dog fishing? Didn’t read much Lampoon, so IDK.
Discovered O’Rourke thru books and articles.
His book on etiquette, Modern Manners, is a favorite.
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