Reblogged:Ten Wonders of Capitalism

[Gus Van Horn blog]

I usually reserve Friday for blogging positive things, but I think this week -- which has seen Donald Trump all but guarantee the destruction of the Republican Party as a home for supporters of economic freedom -- has earned an extra day of positivity here.

Without further ado, I share a neat post by software consultant Hillel Wayne titled "Ten Weird Things You Can Buy Online (And Why You Would)."

His criteria should tell you that this is a cut or two above some dude finding random, stupid things -- as you might understandably be inclined to think after spending too much time on social media or following the news:

• Not a one-off. It's either something a merchant is selling on an ongoing basis or something with an active marketplace of buyers and sellers.
• There's an actual legitimate use. No gag gifts or collectors items.
• There's an actual price. It's not "call for a quote". If I have to call for a quote then I can't just buy it on a whim.

I'll list the items here -- not to steal thunder, but to pique curiosity. It's worth learning something about each:

1. Three Yards of Books
2. Human Milk
3. A Life-Size Animatronic Whale Shark
4. Private Islands
5. Uranium
6. Chlamydia
7. Live Bees
8. Bedbugs
9. Rollercoasters
10. Oil Tankers

It's a mostly light-hearted post, but Wayne is within inches of the awe and reverence that are strangely missing from our age.

There's a measure of having a fresh look at things too many of us take for granted, as we see with the market for human milk:

I really like how this is the perfect example of how marketplaces develop. Some women overproduce milk, some underproduce it, there's an inefficiency in allocation, therefore market!

And you might also get a sense of awe at what the Invisible Hand of mutually beneficial trade has wrought:

It's insane to think that there'd be a secondhand market for eight-hundred foot oil tankers. This sent me down the UN Maritime Transport Review rabbit-hole, where I learned that in 2021 shipyards built the tonnage-equivalent of 1200 Aframaxes (pdf. 43). Nothing else made me realize just how unimaginably vast world trade is and just how much work goes into keeping the international supply chains running.

The post is a fun read, but I read it while on a walk, so I also reflected on it a bit.

So let me recommend this fun and thought-provoking read with the modest additional suggestion of giving yourself some time to let it sink in, and to ponder that this is just a small sample of the limitlessness potential of human creativity and trade.

-- CAV

Link to Original

[Jon Letendre]

22 minutes ago, Gus Van Horn blog said:

Republican Party as a home for supporters of economic freedom

When exactly in your imagination was it that?

[necrovore]

https://drhurd.com/2024/07/18/there-is-no-free-trade-without-free-countries/

[Doug Morris]

Trump has taken very anti-freedom stands on abortion and immigration, although he has toned down the former.  Even where he supports freedom, he hasn't been very effective.

With his stolen election lie and his policy of winning at all costs, he threatens to destroy our system of democratic elections and orderly transfers of power.  If he does destroy it, we will be left with a contest of physical force to determine who gets power, which will result in dictatorship of one sort or another.  This is an imminent danger.

The Democrats' ignorant path to dictatorship will take much longer to get there, so our best bet is to stop Trump, continue teaching fundamental principles, and do what we can to slow down the slide into more and more statism.

 

[tadmjones]

Don’t support the politician who wants one day qualified in person paper ballot voting , because that is an all rhetoric and just a ploy to have himself , I guess legimately ‘installed’ as dictator. 
 

Because the rational course of action is to support the statist party actively diluting the citizenery with illegal voters in order to have them gain majority control of all branches of government and I guess wait for an opportunity to wrest political power from them legitimately ie fair elections in the near or distant future? An incremental growth in statism is the best path to thwarting statism? That sounds safe and effective

[Doug Morris]

19 hours ago, tadmjones said:

Don’t support the politician who wants one day qualified in person paper ballot voting , because that is an all rhetoric and just a ploy to have himself , I guess legimately ‘installed’ as dictator. 
 

 

19 hours ago, tadmjones said:

party actively diluting the citizenery with illegal voters in order to have them gain majority control of all branches of government

More of Trump's iies.

19 hours ago, tadmjones said:

An incremental growth in statism is the best path to thwarting statism?

Under current circumstances, unfortunately yes.

Of course no approach will work without teaching enough people the basic principles involved.

 

[necrovore]

2 hours ago, Doug Morris said:

More of Trump's lies.

The best way to refute these "lies" would be to point to the mechanisms that prevent them from being true.

But there's no way to point to those mechanisms, because they don't exist.

[tadmjones]

Well technically my delusions based on Trump’s ‘lies’ , be a little gracious and give me some credit.

Still wrapping my head around the best path idea.

[Doug Morris]

21 hours ago, necrovore said:

The best way to refute these "lies" would be to point to the mechanisms that prevent them from being true.

But there's no way to point to those mechanisms, because they don't exist.

Actually, the burden of proof is on Trump.

[necrovore]

1 hour ago, Doug Morris said:

Actually, the burden of proof is on Trump.

Actually, the assertion that "the election was fair" is the one that isn't backed by any evidence, and what can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

[Jon Letendre]

 

[Boydstun]

37 minutes ago, necrovore said:

Actually, the assertion that "the election was fair" is the one that isn't backed by any evidence, . . .

Not

[Boydstun]

On 7/10/2024 at 2:43 PM, Boydstun said:

. . .

At the national convention, if not sooner, he [Biden] needs to withdraw from the contest and throw his support to his VP, who was being also voted for by those who were voting for him in the primary elections. Harris and her running mate might very well defeat Trump and his and to a clear degree (if you win by 5% in the popular vote, you will have enough electoral votes to win for sure). For all I can see. I don't mean to make a prediction of such a race: for all I know, either side might win by a landslide on the order of Nixon v. McGovern. Moral character of the candidates (and hopefully, policies) would still be issues getting attention in the race, but cognitive decline of the Democratic candidate for President would fall to the floor.

Unlike Mr. Musk, I did not hear this scenario from "widespread knowledge[?] in DC." It's just that I was not born this morning.

[tadmjones]

50 minutes ago, Boydstun said:

Not

Six AP reporters went to interview election officials in several states and asked the people in charge of the process if they had failed or cheated and they all said ,no?

That is some exhaustive investigation from a venerated  news conglomereate and reported by a state funded agency. 
 

Is it meant as satire ?

Edited July 22, 2024 by tadmjones

[Boydstun]

5 hours ago, tadmjones said:

Six AP reporters went to interview election officials in several states and asked the people in charge of the process if they had failed or cheated and they all said ,no?

That is some exhaustive investigation from a venerated  news conglomereate and reported by a state funded agency. 
 

Is it meant as satire ?

& Not . . . Always a Winner – Earlier Big Fabrications . . . A Legend in His Own Mind

Fortunately, young Americans have plenty of worthy role models over the Subjectivist-in-Chief Mr. Trump, models who admit their losses, such as my guy Djokovic.

Edited July 22, 2024 by Boydstun

[tadmjones]

One of the first things Trump did when elected , which I actually forgot about so thanks for the reminder, was to launch an investigation into voter fraud. I’m not sure how that can be used as a charge against his integrity or desire to ensure freer or fairer elections.

Of course the mainstream media castigated him for it and by doing so focused on his suspected megalomania and not what such an investigation would or might uncover. I doubt either the Rs or Ds want anyone focused for very long on the question as to whether or not the ‘system’ is game-able and certainly not any attention to instances of gaming. It is also not surprising that DC Rs ridiculed and tried to quash the effort. State governments actually refused to give information too.

So now we have less secure chain of custody verification and obiquitous electronic machines for tabulation that confer neither monetary savings or efficiency or security, but do guarantee the opportunity for fuckery. I know, no one has stood up in court (no one has been forced yet) and attest to fuckery which is the same thing as there being now and has been in the past none.

Edited July 22, 2024 by tadmjones

[tadmjones]

Georgia SEB is still stonewalling airing evidence of 20k missing ballot images that would have needed to be present to certify the original count and subsequent recounts from Fulton county. 3k verified doubles and still 20k missing in a district decided by 12k, the same number Trump was indicted for asking to ‘find’. Would have turned the state , go figure.