A second list: maxims and quips

This go around I didn’t feel it inherently necessarily to title these.

1. It is often implied by statists that there is a pie that has to be divided up, that the ‘rich’ must attain their wealth at the expense of the poor. It is often said outright by free market proponents that to grow wealth, the pie must be made bigger. These are both incorrect. The truth is that the economy is not a pie, the economy is a kitchen. Wealth is created by baking new pies.

2. What is the best way to create wealth, adding a zero to everyone’s bank account, or subtracting a zero from the cost of everyone’s budget?

3. An impoverished nation will more quickly discover that even the most modest of differences between people needs to be documented. Whereas in a wealthy society Mr. Donovan and Mr. Weinstein would be good friends, in an impoverished society they would become the Irishman and the Jew.

4. It is no coincidence that those who claim superiority of their respective country are the most likely to have contributed the least to its affluence. Rather than giving respect to the individuals or group of individuals for their innovative prowess, they digress to an intellectually lazy “we” to mask the fact that the individual who is asserting superiority has done virtually nothing of substance.

5. In 2010, the approximate value of wealth confiscated [through force] by the federal, state and local governments of the US was approximately 4.2 trillion dollars. The approximate value of wealth confiscated [through force] by national, statewide and local businesses was approximately 0 dollars. Who is the greedy person, the man who created the wallet, or the man who stole it?

6. The mob is always in favor of democracy; that is to say, the mob is always in favor of itself.

7. The American corporation, made of normal people, is legally protected like an aristocracy. However, the corporation has far less to fear. Whereas the aristocracy was given their legal protection by a quick-tempered, arbitrary and absolutist monarch, the corporation is given their protection by an indecisive, amorphous, and weak-willed bureaucracy.

8. It is far easier for the citizens to take up a cause against an aggressive regime than it is to take up a cause against a passive-aggressive regime. Why chance harm by stealing the money of the people, when you can steal its value without ever touching it?

9. I was looking through the constitution and to my great bewilderment I couldn’t find any clause that says American government shall send the confiscated money of its people to pay the governments of other countries.

10. It is in my opinion that debates need only exist in 4 parts. The first party confers the logical paradigm in which he works with, the second party can then confer the logical paradigm he works with that must necessarily refute the first party’s logic. The first party is then obliged to use empiricism to support his logical paradigm, the second party can then use counter-empirical data that must necessarily refute the first party’s empiricism. After these 4 parts, the discussion is over. The longer a discussion continues, the less likely either party will be convinced of anything. A debate is, after all, a capital investment. The more you put into it, the less likely you want to lose. Should your opponent not offer the former, the logic, you are sincerely not obliged to offer the latter, the empiricism.

11. Reason is a seed of the mind, do not expect it to immediately flourish when first planted.

12. If you impart only logic, you are not in the debate. You are merely the messenger of cosmological constants. If you impart only empirical data, you are the messenger of shadows in the light of reason. Knowing this, when you gaze only upon a shadow, what do you see? The illusion of an object, but never its source.

13. A crass opponent will not admit defeat on a point, he’ll merely not mention it again.

14. A good debate is like a martial arts tournament, do no more than score points effectively and efficiently. It is poor form to the judge and to the audience to kick the opponent after knocking him down. This is not how you win friends, and certainly not the way to influence anyone.

15. Be careful of whom you spite, for it may just be a manifestation of your own cognitive dissonance. Perhaps your opponent is correct, and you are wrong. Continuing to believe you are correct, your mind must take refuge in the irrational, making friends with fallacy and anger.

16. It’s easiest to sit on a fence when you’re made of plastic.

17. Four European men find themselves alone on an island: a farmer, a doctor, a teacher, and a house builder. According to EU charter, which one isn’t a slave to the others?

18. The only reason to call trade both free and fair is for the latter to negate the former.

19. A free trade agreement is a strange concoction of the state. It is a written agreement between people who don’t trade anything for people that would already be trading freely without such an agreement.

20. The American politician must think himself a god! He can create an immortal institution to be defended with the consummate passion of those who think they are saved by it.

21. Just as the seed of reason takes time to flourish in the mind, the best time to plant is after a flood. 

22. It may sound like a cliche claim to humility, but I can say in all sincerity that the phrase I use more in a day than any other is: “I don’t know.”

My personal list of axioms, maxims and so forth.

Every now and then I observe a phenomenon that gives me an opportunity to comment on it, and occasionally be correct.

1. Anti-capitalist axiom: the less free a market becomes, the more the free market is to blame.
2. Anti-capitalist corollary: the less an institution has in common with the free market, the more it is associated with the free market (or capitalism).
3. Charts, graphs and statistics: quantifying outcome is good, it gives us reference, albeit often misleading; identifying cause is infinitely better. The man who sees that the color of the table is black is no more nearer to discovering the truth of why it is black.
4. The crafty politician will take credit for the creation of productive sector jobs; he will dismiss capitalism just as quickly when it doesn’t, therefore enabling him the power to intervene.
5. Socialist axiom: it is infinitely better for the monopolist to be an agent of the state than a private business that is an agent of the state.
6. Socialist corollary: the crime of the federal reserve, in the opinion of socialism, is not that the federal reserve board of governors is a monopolist, it is that it has shareholders.
7. A deceived zombie is more dangerous to freedom than a sleeping one
8. Statist axiom of taxation: Because growth in federal budgets is a given, independent variable, a cut in taxes must necessarily cost the state money because taxation is the dependent variable.
9. Statist corollary of taxation: Because the state has the monopoly on money, all money is necessarily owned by the state. Therefore, your income is a cost to the state.
10. Statist axiom of corruption: It was the private business that created corruption in government, even before there was private business.
11. Statist axiom of politicians: The politician is an unthinking vessel that is always under the control of someone else; therefore, they are not ultimately to blame for their actions.
12. Statist axiom of regulations: more regulations necessarily means a more honest economy. Inversely, all economic problems are caused by a lack of regulations.
13. Reason is the root of compassion, not its antithesis; Otherwise, compassion without reason can be misdirected towards unknown, but negative ends.
14. Mob’s law of incoherence: in order to organize an angry mob, be sure to have a common, yet intangible object of hatred. Recognize axiom #3, use charts and graphs. Tell them how to fill in the blank, namely the intangible object of hatred. This allows for avoiding rational debate, rational debates are the bane of angry mobs; Indeed, a quantified argument is the only argument that can be defeated.
15. Statist patriotism: The American colonies revolted against the British for many reasons, but one such reason was taxation. Whereas under British rule the British tax man was tarred and feathered, after independence the American tax man was tarred and feathered. Despite this, the statist will now assert “paying taxes is patriotic”. 
16. National borders are merely an excuse for keeping national governments. They are a vestige of the colonial age when European nations cordoned off swaths of uncharted land under the auspices of monopolists chartered by the crown. The national government believe they are still entirely necessary to keep order. State governments want to keep a national government, for without the national government, they would have to be a lot more competitive.
17. Nothing is scarier to the crony capitalist than free market competition. My god, they’d have to actually compete for a change! When the statist cries “more regulation!”, the crony capitalist sighs in relief as one more barrier is erected around his domain.

If you have some good suggestions, let me know.