Tom Woods Flashcards
What must we ask whenever someone points to a bill and says look, this act is falling/rising since its passage?
We must act what the trend was before the bill was passed.
What was the economy like in Sweden in the 1950s?
In the 1950s, Sweden had lower taxes and less public spending than in the US and the rest of Europe. That is one of the reasons they became so wealthy.
What happened in the early 1970s in Sweden?
In Sweden, at the time one of the wealthiest countries in the world, Democrats began to hike public spending and increase taxes, and they could do so because of Sweden’s wealth, first created because of its free-market and the fact that it had stayed out of two World Wars.
What had happened to Sweden by 2000?
It had fallen from being the 4th richest country on the planet (70s) to being the 14th richest country on the planet.
How many jobs, on net, were created in Sweden between 1950 and the mid-1990s?
zero.
What has been beginning to happen in Sweden over the past 20 years?
They have begun to scale back their welfare system and high tax rates.
Who, overall, is more economically free right now, Sweden or the US?
Sweden
What has caused unequal growth around the world?
The unequal distribution of capitalism. Where you have capitalism, you see this progress, where you don’t you see stagnation, poverty, and misery.
What does a legally required 52-week maternity leave do?
It makes hiring mothers and potential mothers less attractive.
Despite having a larger public sector, why does Denmark have nearly the exact same economic freedom score as the US?
Because parts of Danish society are far more capitalist than the U.S. Property rights protection is among the finest in the world, and the labor markets are more or less deregulated. This creates the wealth that supports their larger welfare state.
How has the larger public sector impacted Denmark?
They have fallen from being the 4th richest country (30s) to being the 15th wealthiest country.
How does the number of global climate-related deaths today compare to global climate-related deaths in the 30s? How has the climate changed? What does this show?
They are down 98% since the 30s (note this is not per capita so it’s even more incredible when you talk about the decrease from millions of people annually to less than 30,000 annually). It is also despite the fact that the climate is supposedly far worse today than it was back then. This shows that we need to focus not on climate change per se, but rather on climate livability.
Is climate danger just what nature does? What is the natural climate inherently? What does this mean? What does energy allow us to do? What does this mean for say, drought?
No, climate danger is a function of interaction between what nature does and what human beings can do. And it turns out that the natural climate is inherently variable, it’s inherently volatile, and it’s inherently vicious. So that’s a constant. So climate is a huge problem that we have to deal with as human beings in any era, whether we have fossil fuels or not. And what energy allows us to do is to master that. In the case of drought, through technolody, we’re progressively really redefining drought or almost making it nonexistent in many ways. Because once you can purify water, and transport it long distances, the impact of a drought begins to go from meaning I die to meaning by the price of fruit goes up a dollar.
What have fossil fuels and other technological advances that release CO2 allowed us to do?
They have allowed us to begin to master the climate.
How has getting water changed over the past 300 years? How has heating impacted clean air over the past 300 years?
We’ve gone from needing to walk long distances to collect bacteria-filled water to being able to turn on the faucet and have essentially as much clean water as we want. We’ve gone from massive indoor air pollution caused by fires to keep us warm, to being able to breath clean air at home even if we live next to a coal plant.
What is always left out in the debate between $7.25 and $15.00?
The fact that they might be making $0 because they won’t be hired in the first place.
What is the Democrat mentality surrounding improving living conditions?
That instead of trying to increase productivity and capital accumulation in order to increase prosperity for everyone, we just wish, we just write words on a piece of paper and sign it.
What is more important, decreasing income inequality or increasing income mobility?
Increasing income mobility, the ability to rise from the bottom quintile to a higher one, and then a higher one further and further.
What question shows a moral paradox regarding the minimum wage?
Why is it ok to fire an employee that does nothing and pay him $0, but not okay to pay a worker $14? Why is it immoral for an employer to pay such a worker only $14 per hour in wages if that’s what the person produces?
What happens to higher-skilled workers when minimum wage laws are raised? How does the impact low-skilled workers?
They become more willing to take low-skilled jobs because the pay gap between lower-skilled jobs and higher-skilled jobs has shrunk. This means that lower-skilled workers are now in direct competition with higher-skilled workers.
Why are insurance companies able to offer lower rates to people who use direct primary care?
Because in those cases they are only in the business of insuring rare, catastrophic events, not the daily things.
Why is health insurance so expensive?
Because its insuring common things that we know are going to happen. It’s like the equivalent of having car insurance for gasoline, oil changes, new tires, windshield wiper fluid, etc.
Medicaid
Medicaid is a health care program that assists low-income families or individuals in paying for doctor visits, hospital stays, long-term medical, custodial care costs and more. Medicaid is a joint program, funded primarily by the federal government and run at the state level, where coverage may vary
Medicare
Medicare is the United States federal government health insurance program for Americans who are 65 years of age and older. … These benefits are intended to cover the costs of healthcare associated with advanced age.
