Clarkson Energy Homes

Aargh!

The worst traps are not those which opponents deliberately place in your path. No, the worse traps are those placed there by people who are unaware they are laying a trap. Can you spot the trap in the question blow? I was asked it on a forum while debating free markets with a mixed market enthusiast. My answer is also presented.

Please explain The actions of the robber barons and the dismal conditions of workers health standards not to mention child labor laws and more in the 19th century? Business had little regulation and did what they always do without outside regulation.

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I ran across this web site while researching Cholesterol. It’s a cruelty to animals site about the abuse of hens which provide eggs. If you have no clue how a farm works, you will probably like the web site. If you grew up on a farm you will be fascinated just how naive people can be about where their food comes from.

I grew up in the suburbs if New Orleans with over a million people and now live in a rural town of about 14,000. Having been exposed to both farming and the city life, I have found few city-dwellers understand how farmers think about animals. Conversely, few farmers grasp the perspective of city-dwellers.

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It is impossible to aid others by forcing them to believe as you do. Doing so always creates a society in which the free exchange of ideas is limited. A circumstance which will eventually destroy that society. Might does not make right, cooperation does.

Uh-oh! Look out. Those economists are at it again. This time, they are using statistics to show that the trade deficit is actually good for the U.S.

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Yesterday (2/23/2007) 20/20 reported on the use of vaccines and the hazards associated with them. Some hazards are not founded, while others are suspect. One point not covered is the reason for the controversy. Vaccinations are required by government to protect citizens.

The term required by government seems innocuous, but liberty lovers realize it means enforced by government through violence or the threat of violence. Unethical people try to convince us that the ends justifies the means. After all, forced vaccinations have ended many diseases which hurt, maimed and killed children. The end result can never ethically justify the means to that ends.
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It is not uncommon to run across arguments which insist that if a particular society does not exist now, it is unlikely to exist in the future. I often find this situation with free markets. The argument goes something like this.

If free markets are such a good idea, why aren’t there any free market societies?

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Milton Friedman died this morning after a bout with pneumonia. As a sufferer of a rare respiratory disease and as a libertarian I feel a real loss on more than one level. There are already many tributes to him around the web. If you are unfamiliar with his work and with his passions I urge you to look him up. Mr. Friedman, you will be missed.

I frequent the John Stossel message boards at ABCNews. I often find little morsels of economics misunderstanding like this.

LUCKY are those people who have full time employment whose employer pays all or part of their health insurance. Those people are becoming far fewer now that many companies are discontinuing health insurance benefits because they are more interested in larger profits than helping their employees stay healthy, so these same employees can continue to generate large profits for their company.

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Look at the bottom of your toaster or the back of your television set and you will probably see that it is UL listed. Underwriter’s Laboratories has had the same mission for more than a century. Look in your garage and you are likely to find a shovel whose blade has a curve in it. That curve was first added by an innovative young company before Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence.

More than 200 years later the Ames company still makes shovels. UL certification spans continents. The Catholic church has changed culturally over the millennia of its existence, but its core message remains pretty much the same. The Red Cross still saves lives. In this day of disposable everything, we sometimes forget that many private organizations have outlasted governments and can influence more than just one country.

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Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

More than 200 years ago, the United States created a free religious market. Religion is a market which was kept relatively free for quite some time. It flourished when similar markets in other countries did not. In fact, the freedom of religion is now often considered a basic human right in many countries.

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