Yesterday, as I was winding down at work, I felt like eating something else for dinner than my usual frozen fare. So I searched for some easy recipes on the web. No problem.
Saw a recipe for a tasty looking Mexican Lasagna: cheese, taco sauce, chicken, tortillas, cheese, what's not to like? I got stoked. Printed out the menu even so I could go to the store and buy the ingredients.
For those who know me or have read previous blog posts of mine on how much I dislike cooking, this is a huge step. I actually planned to cook and buy ingredients. I felt pretty good about myself.
All went well until I saw that ground cumin was $5.29 a thing. That was a buzzkill. I could buy a whole frozen pizza for that much, no preparation required. So I went to check to how much 2lbs of ground chicken was. That was like $10. Already the price tag was up to $15.29 for ground cumin chicken.
No gracias.
So I ate a frozen pot pie that night.
My experience was an indication to me that 1. there is a high entry cost into good cooking, such as buying a thing of cumin and 2. that utter culinary boredom with heat and eat foods will most likely drive me into actually cooking for myself someday. I will start saving now.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Rate of Disillusionment
While I don't have quantitative data to back me up, I believe I have anecdotal and qualitative data to back me up.
I think there are far more people disillusioned with the promises of Collectivism than Individualism. What do those words mean?
Collectivism being socialism, communism, fascism, nationalism, etc. The State (government) knows best. Individualism being capitalism, constitutionalism, limited government, etc. The individual knows best.
Think of all the most oppressive governments in history and they promised prosperity and well-being through coordinated efforts on the part of the government. The prosperity and well-being only lasted a short while at the cost of freedom and in the end, poverty and no freedom.
Think of the freest governments in history and they promised to protect life, liberty and property and you have the most prosperous, healthy populations in history. And they are free.
Even when the government is seemingly motivated by the best of intentions to use the force it has in order to secure "well-being" for the poor, 99/100 times it ends up back firing and creating a long running institution that does perpetual harm to the poor while rewarding those in power.
People knock capitalism all the time, but capitalism rightly understood and implemented works in reality while collectivism, even when rightly understood and implemented (!), does not work in reality. History shows that.
I think there are far more people disillusioned with the promises of Collectivism than Individualism. What do those words mean?
Collectivism being socialism, communism, fascism, nationalism, etc. The State (government) knows best. Individualism being capitalism, constitutionalism, limited government, etc. The individual knows best.
Think of all the most oppressive governments in history and they promised prosperity and well-being through coordinated efforts on the part of the government. The prosperity and well-being only lasted a short while at the cost of freedom and in the end, poverty and no freedom.
Think of the freest governments in history and they promised to protect life, liberty and property and you have the most prosperous, healthy populations in history. And they are free.
Even when the government is seemingly motivated by the best of intentions to use the force it has in order to secure "well-being" for the poor, 99/100 times it ends up back firing and creating a long running institution that does perpetual harm to the poor while rewarding those in power.
People knock capitalism all the time, but capitalism rightly understood and implemented works in reality while collectivism, even when rightly understood and implemented (!), does not work in reality. History shows that.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
A Great Post on Failure, Writing and TV
Warning: For the more sensitive readers, there is language of the less than clean type within.
But this is a great blog post by the guy who wrote the best selling book Sh*t My Dad Says. It's an example of how failure is an important part of any successful person's history. It demonstrates a spirit of gratitude. It gives insight into an industry we all have enjoyed, namely TV. And it's pretty darn funny.
Well worth the read.
Some great passages:
"After eighteen episodes we were pulled off the schedule and cancelled, but it was hard for me to be upset. I had just launched an entire career off a Twitter feed. It’d be like winning the lottery and getting pissed off because they only give you the money in increments of fifty thousand dollars a year."
"Generally, studio executives try incredibly hard to be jovial when addressing writers. They understand that we don’t tend to enjoy their company because spending time with them means we’re going to get “notes,” and notes are like Yankee fans; not all of them are bad, but all of them are annoying."
"TV writers sit around a room seventy hours a week trying to make our friends laugh, have access to more bottled water than entire African countries, and we get paid handsomely for our efforts."
But this is a great blog post by the guy who wrote the best selling book Sh*t My Dad Says. It's an example of how failure is an important part of any successful person's history. It demonstrates a spirit of gratitude. It gives insight into an industry we all have enjoyed, namely TV. And it's pretty darn funny.
Well worth the read.
Some great passages:
"After eighteen episodes we were pulled off the schedule and cancelled, but it was hard for me to be upset. I had just launched an entire career off a Twitter feed. It’d be like winning the lottery and getting pissed off because they only give you the money in increments of fifty thousand dollars a year."
"Generally, studio executives try incredibly hard to be jovial when addressing writers. They understand that we don’t tend to enjoy their company because spending time with them means we’re going to get “notes,” and notes are like Yankee fans; not all of them are bad, but all of them are annoying."
"TV writers sit around a room seventy hours a week trying to make our friends laugh, have access to more bottled water than entire African countries, and we get paid handsomely for our efforts."
Friday, December 16, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Minimum Wage Strikes Again
As I tweeted, San Francisco is raising its minimum wage to $10.24 on Jan 1st (HT to my dad for bringing my attention to this story).
The minimum wage is probably one of my most despised government interventions. Like most other policies, it purports to help those most disadvantaged yet does the exact opposite, all to the benefit of politicians. Amongst other factors, it's like a slow acting poison to those in business.
Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman and reporter John Stossel have excellent basic explanations of how poor a policy the minimum wage is.
The minimum wage is probably one of my most despised government interventions. Like most other policies, it purports to help those most disadvantaged yet does the exact opposite, all to the benefit of politicians. Amongst other factors, it's like a slow acting poison to those in business.
Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman and reporter John Stossel have excellent basic explanations of how poor a policy the minimum wage is.
Monday, December 12, 2011
A Few Freedom Resources
Here some excellent resources to check out if you are interested in academic studies on how free different countries or states are.
This one, the Economic Freedom of the World, by the Fraser Institute is global in scope and is great "big picture" stuff. Canada is freer than the United States according to their analysis.
The Mercatus Center puts out a Freedom in the 50 States that garners attention.
Rich States, Poor States by the American Legislative Exchange Council offers a more detailed index on what states are more business friendly compared to others.
In these reports, especially the Freedom of the World report (which is 2009 data, no less), the United States is sliding down the scale of freedom toward statism, i.e government control. While we are no Soviet style nation, we should not take for granted the liberty those before us fought to obtain.
This one, the Economic Freedom of the World, by the Fraser Institute is global in scope and is great "big picture" stuff. Canada is freer than the United States according to their analysis.
The Mercatus Center puts out a Freedom in the 50 States that garners attention.
Rich States, Poor States by the American Legislative Exchange Council offers a more detailed index on what states are more business friendly compared to others.
In these reports, especially the Freedom of the World report (which is 2009 data, no less), the United States is sliding down the scale of freedom toward statism, i.e government control. While we are no Soviet style nation, we should not take for granted the liberty those before us fought to obtain.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Top 100 Global Thinkers 2011
Foreign Policy has a fascinating list of those people with short bios and interviews. If you haven't seen it, check it out.
Also, there is a reading list of the top 20 books recommended by the top 100 thinkers. How could you pass that up?
Also, there is a reading list of the top 20 books recommended by the top 100 thinkers. How could you pass that up?
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Surfing...On Lake Tahoe
This is crazy! It looks absolutely frigid though. But I've never heard of this happening.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Saturday, December 3, 2011
A Bigger Deal?
Operation Fast and Furious emails released last night. It's amazing how more people in the DOJ and administration haven't lost their jobs over this.
I'm not necessarily a G.W. Bush fan but anytime something sketchy like this (Solyndra, et al) happens in the Obama administration, I can't help but see how differently it is handled by the media and others than were it to happen in the Bush administration.
I'm not necessarily a G.W. Bush fan but anytime something sketchy like this (Solyndra, et al) happens in the Obama administration, I can't help but see how differently it is handled by the media and others than were it to happen in the Bush administration.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)