Imagine that you have a series of plumbing problems in your house—clogged sinks, backed up toilets—and decide to hire a plumber. Which of these two incentive structures would you choose?

(A) The plumber only gets paid when the problems are fixed.
(B) The plumber will continue to be paid indefinitely for working on the problem, and will continue to get paid as long as the problem persists

Most of us would choose option A since we are more interested in functional indoor plumbing than we are in providing a paycheck for plumbers. Hard-working plumbers should prefer option A too since it respects their dignity and skills. The vocation of the plumber is to solve plumbing problems, not to latch onto make-work projects.

So if most people would choose option A, why does the government almost always adopt an incentive structure that reflects option B?
Read more on Why Government Workers Should Get Pay Decreases for Longevity…

“Power permits people to do enormous good,” Lord Acton once said, “and absolute power enables them to do even more.”

This wisdom from the nineteenth-century’s champion of state prerogative applies as well today. Politicians are crippled by the lack of the one thing they need to yank our hobbled economy out of the mire of recession: adequate power. It is our duty to grant it to them.

Yes, from time to time this commentary space has been critical of government meddling in economic affairs, surmising, for example, that trying to cure poverty by funneling more money through Washington would do less to assist the poor than to pad the salaries of middle-class bureaucrats. We have emphasized the effectiveness of private and faith-based charity, of its capacity at once to use resources efficiently and to respect the individual’s dignity. We have argued that persons, morally formed, acting freely, and operating within the context of a rule of law, will generate a bountiful and equitable economic environment without counterproductive interference by the state. We have posited that our current difficulties derive from a combination of moral turpitude and government bumbling.

We were mistaken. Read more on Acton Commentary: An Ode to Power…

Aaah, Social Security and Medicare: A soothing balm for the young at heart, but a source of boiling rage for the ACTUAL young.

Every now and again, I stumble across an article that just gets me going. Today was one such day, and this was one such article. Robert Samuelson takes aim at the baby boomers and their entitlement mentality in the Washington Post:

Read more on Take a Guilt Trip with FREE RIDE!…