The Transformative Power of Capitalism

Hans Rosling, one of the foremost minds in statistics and medicine, shows us an incredible presentation about the transforming power of capitalism in the world of public health and debunks the myths of the “third world” and the aid flow between the rich and the poor. With profound evidence of the driving power of the middle class in changing the way the world works, Hans Rosling leaves no room for cynicism about the growth of world markets and the profound effect these markets have on improving the lives not only of Westerners, but of people everywhere.

The way Hans dances around the screen, sending data bubbles flying through time and across axes makes him look less like a scholar, and more like a marvel madman genius WIZARD.  This truly has to be seen to be believed!

1 / 3

2 / 3

3 / 3

Hans Rosling’s blog can be found here.

Ron Paul Is Guaranteed Victory in 2008

5 days ago my post referenced the number of Ron Paul supporters who were members of Meetup groups similar to our Meetup group in Delaware. In the past five days, the number of supporters has climbed from 20,303 to 22,447, a 5-day increase of 2,144. I showed you a map that looked something like the following:

Go ahead and click on the map to be taken to the site I snagged it from so you can see what the current numbers look like.

After running an exponential regression based on the average increase in rate of growth per half hour, it becomes clear that by December 19th, 2007, Ron Paul’s Meetup membership will be 259,582,280 people, or in other words, roughly 85% of the American population.

Google Ovates Ron Paul

“You don’t reach perfection in freedom — but you don’t reach perfection in socialism either.” — Ron Paul

Ron Paul appeared on July 14th, 2007 before an overflowing room of Google employees and delivered a STUNNING interview following what can only be described as a profound ovation. Ron Paul enumerates his stances on the supremacy of the Constitution (calling it the best Constitution ever written), the irrationality of the US foreign policy of “nation building” and the inevitable failure of the US if it continues to police the world.

Paul spends a good amount of time talking about problems with NAFTA and the problems of government-imposed tariffs (which he calls a tax on the poor) and government management of trade economics. He compares economic voluntarism to sexual and interpersonal voluntarism, enumerating for the first time that this author has seen his stance that gay marriage should be honored as a form of voluntarism (“whatever you’d like to call it,” says Paul).

Citing Houston as an example of a city constructed without zoning laws, Ron Paul sounds more Libertarian in this interview than I have ever seen. Ron Paul supports the 2nd Amendment fiercely, saying that gun laws most strongly hurt inner-city minorities who aren’t allowed to defend themselves, and further says that gun deregulation may well have prevented 9/11, since terrorists might have thought twice about hijacking a plane with armed citizens on it.

Paul would like to slash the defense budget to about 1/3 of the level it is at now, but only because he’d like to do away with the military-industrial complex. He would like the taxes for national defense to come from a UNIFORM tariff (not a specialized tariff), eliminating the income tax and thereby freeing American citizens from having their lives “owned by the government.”

If you really care about people, says Paul, it’s capitalism that eliminates famine and poverty. Paul blames the dissolution of charity healthcare and the rise of university costs on government intervention. Paul attacks America’s currency policy, essentially calling our current prosperity an illusion created by a constant flow of lending from China and Japan — lending which *will* run out and bring our country to its knees if we do not return to basing our currency on a gold standard or some other form of hard assets.

In response to a question about requiring collective action to protect the environment, Paul calls environmental destruction a failure on the part of the government’s role in protecting private property (and thereby allowing companies to destroy rivers with toxic dumping). Paul supports local city ordinances to protect individuals from environmental damages just like local noise pollution laws with the advent of the automobile. He finds significant flaws with environmental lobbies which become entities that begin to live for themselves and fund bureaucrats and lose their purpose. Paul advocates for environmental groups to behave like consumer groups, advocating for environmental reform by reporting on companies that commit environmental atrocities to remove popular support for those companies (instead of relying on an administrative bureaucracy which is, by nature, inefficient).

Ron Paul goes on to answer a number of questions about Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, illegal immigration, his campaign strategy, and the American defense of Taiwan, and the rights of pharmacists to deny birth control on religious grounds, the decriminalization of marijuana, and opening up medical care without licensure. Ron Paul is written a check by a Google employee *on the spot* during his interview — do you see that happening for other candidates? No, you don’t.

Military Favors Ron Paul Over McCain

The US Federal Election Commission has released the Selected Presidential Reports for the 2007 July Quarterly, and there are a few surprises. No surprise, of course, is that people in the armed services and veterans overwhelmingly support the Republican Party. However, after digging through individual candidates’ contributions by employers, we find an elating (or disturbing, if you’re rooting for Rudy McRomney) trend. The breakdown? Here you go.

	Army	Navy	USAF	USMC	VET	TOTAL
Ron Paul	6975	7765	4650	1500	1250	22140
McCain	6225	6480	1570	1600	800	16675
Romney	2051	0	1500	0	1000	4551
Giuliani	1450	370	250	0	250	2320
Hunter	0	1000	0	0	0	1000
Richardson	50	750	0	0	0	800
Huckabee	250	0	500	0	0	750
Tancredo	350	0	0	0	0	350
Brownback	71	0	0	0	0	71
T. Thompson	0	0	0	0	0

This table expresses in dollars the total campaign contributions that each candidate has received from individuals who marked “Air Force,” “US Marines,” “USMC,” “Army,” “Navy,” or some other such permutation of letters as their employer that gives the appearance that they are a member of the armed services. The “veteran” column was derived by looking for “retired ______,” “______ retired,” or anything containing the word veteran, with the exception of Veterans’ Affairs (or the like).

What conclusions can be drawn from this surprising, exciting information? One might jump to the conclusion that the troops are tired and demoralized and angry to be fighting in the desert sand, and willing to leap on the only Republican candidate who wants an immediate end to the war. But that’s an insufficient explanation, since veterans favor Ron Paul as well.

Our military forces have a strong tradition of valorization and an implicit belief that they have served to protect the freedom of private citizens in the United States. So profound is this belief that it ranks as the #1 reason that veterans and active duty say they joined (even though education ranks as the #1 reason prior to enlistment).

This culture of pride in service particularly to safeguard American liberties and freedoms — regardless of whether it is true or not — disinclines those in service to contribute to candidates like Romney and Giuliani who want to expand Executive power and increase spying on Americans. This is why Ron Paul and John McCain are the clearest front-runners in terms of contributions. Well, that and the fact that McCain was a Captain in the Navy and Ron Paul was a flight surgeon.

Or … (one final thought) … does it run in the other direction? Does the military favor Paul and McCain because they were military, or do Ron Paul and John McCain have a favorable set of values for military servicemen and women because they themselves have served?

Look for more analysis of these contribution schedules in the upcoming days!