German “Free Democratic Party” members vote pro-bailout

Alas, it’s another sad day for Germany. Frank Schäffler, the one member the national German parliament who actually seems to understand the issues, was not successful in persuading his fellow party members to actually consider sanity as a response to the “Euro crisis”. It wasn’t for lack of trying. The leadership of Schäffler’s “Free Democratic Party” was pro-bailout anyway, for “political reasons”, as opposed to Schäffler’s economic arguments. However, I would had hoped that the rank and file members of the supposedly (classical) liberal party were on Schäffler’s side. According to polls, some 70% of the general population is, more or less. This seems to not have been the case.

All I can say in this humble medium is Thank, you, Frank Schäffler, for trying.

Economic facts are like physical laws: They won’t change even if you have every political reason to change them. Printing money won’t save the EU, it will only make us poorer. Bailing out banks won’t save the economy, it will only make the rest of us poorer. Centralization won’t help us, it will only make us less free. Mr Schäffler will be vindicated soon enough.

Have a nice day.

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German feminist complains about women

A certain feminist by the name of Melanie Mühl complains bitterly about fellow (younger?) women in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine. The main problem seems to be that younger women seem to be less feministic then herself. They, so Ms. Mühl, seem to have that idea that they are not actually hold back by society because of their sex. Not so!, claims Ms. Mühl:  First of all,  many years ago there was a German TV commercial about business women! That seems to play some role for Ms. Mühl, but I couldn’t gather exactly why. Also, a German single mother whose child is sent to some (state-financed) kindergarden stop getting money for having a child, once that child is three years of age! Ms. Mühl calls that “being forced to work full-time”. Thus, not getting money the state stole from her fellow citizens (men?) seems to be a problem as well. Also featuring in her list of complains: Couples choosing certain divisions of labor. Or at least, women being happy with certain divisions of labor in their relationships (“I clean more because I care about cleanliness more” = bad, bad, bad!).  The choices of women seem to be bad in general: On average they don’t work that much and (thereby, also Ms. Mühl forgets about this implication) don’t get the same average pay. That really bothers Ms. Mühl, who seems to want women’s choices not to matter in their lifes. Or does she want to make those choices herself for all womanhood? That, too, wasn’t entirely clear from the article.

Having read that, here’s something to make the pain go away: Dalrock on “the missing fear”. Go and read that! It’s too funny and too true to not be read.

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Marriage Contracts

Roissy writes about marriage contracts in Mexico, which would expire after 2 years. We’ve had similar suggestions in Germany, but only by fringe politicians. For moral reasons, I would never leave my wife, nor would she leave me. However, most people don’t share my moral convictions, as can be seen everywhere. Since I don’t want to force people to adhere to my moral standards, I do think a complete withdrawal of marriage law is a good idea. Let people come up with their own contracts, enforceable by courts like any other contract. (And for a change, actually make contracts enforceable.) Like every other thing, wedding ceremonies are better done privately (in your Church, Synagogue, Demon summon circle) than by the state.

In Germany by the way, it is not that easy to tell the marriage bureaucrats from the Standesamt to not make any show: You’ll have to insist on that. But should you ever decide to marry (for tax reasons, say), you’d be wise to make yourself clear on that point.

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Interview mit Rudolf Mellinghoff, Präsident des Bundesfinanzhofs

Die FAZ hat ein Interview mit Rudolf Mellinghoff, Präsident des Bundesfinanzhofs. Wer Ohren hat, zu hören, weiß, daß das deutsche Steuerrecht kein Recht als solches mehr ist. Scheinbar wollen es aber die wenigsten hören.

Die liberale Alternative: Flat Tax mit Freibetrag und negativer Einkommenssteuer, d.h. die Brutto-zu-Netto-Funktion ist affin linear. Nicht so liberale Leute, z.B. so manche Mitglieder der FDP, finden diesen Vorschlag wahrscheinlich nicht so gut. Warum wohl?

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Charter Cities for real?

The Economist has an article describing a Charter City approach in Honduras. If we (most of all, the people of Honduras) are lucky, Paul Romer‘s idea will indeed come true and give prosperity to unknown millions of human beings.

What are Charter Cities? Bryan Caplan speaks about it better than I could, so here you go:

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