Quiet Declarations

My house has a room opening up — check out the listing here if interested.

It’s worth noting that I’m probably moving out in the next two months, in case your reservation is living with me.

From yet another excellent George Will column:

But before embarking on Stimulus III, note that only about 10 percent of Stimulus II has yet been injected into the economy. This is not the administration’s fault, the administration’s defenders say, because government is cumbersome, sluggish and inefficient. But this sunburst of insight comes as the administration toils to enlarge governmental control of health care, energy, finance, education, etc. The administration guesses that these government projects will do better than the Postal Service (its second-quarter loss, $1.9 billion, was 68 percent of its losses for all of 2008) and the government’s railroad (Amtrak has had 38 money-losing years, and this year’s losses are on pace to set a record).

Let’s guess: Will a person or institution looking for a place to invest $1 billion seek opportunities in the United States, where policy decisions are deliberately increasing taxes, debt, regulations and the cost of energy, and soon will increase the cost of borrowing and hiring? Or will the investor look at, say, India.

Related: what it feels like to be a libertarian

Here’s a cute slideshow identifying the different types of Facebook updates.  The descriptions are worth reading in their entirety, but I will identify the categories for you here:

1. Sean Is Hungry, Chris Is Tired
2. The ‘OK, This Person’s Life Is Legitimately Interesting’ Update
3. The ‘My Job Sucks’ Update
4. The ‘Oh Come On, Just Tell Us What It Is ─ Are You Dying?’ Update
5. The ‘You Never Seem This Happy in Real Life’ Update
6. The ‘Look How in Love I Am’ Update
7. The ‘Big News Break’ Update
8. The ‘Too Much Information (TMI)’ Update
9. The ‘Passive Aggressive’ Update
10. The ‘Song Quote’ Update
11. The ‘I’m Tired, and Here’s How Many Hours of Sleep I Got Last Night’ Update

2 and 7: you rock.  Continue using Facebook.

3, 10, and 11: you are far more boring than you realize.

8 and 9: you are more annoying than you realize.

1, 4, 5, and 6: you just suck.  Get over yourself.

Vote for Vandy’s basketball court in the latest edition of Arena Wars:

 You’ve heard about raising the roof, but what about raising the floor? That’s the unique element these two arenas share. At both arenas, the playing surface is elevated a few feet off the ground.

At Williams Arena, also known as “The Barn” due to its barrel-vaulted roof and loft-style seating in the second deck, the setup is such that team benches, officials tables, etc., are actually below the court. The Golden Gophers’ all-time record at Williams Arena, which opened in 1928, stands at 710-279. This excludes the seasons of 1993-94 through 1998-99, which were vacated as a result of NCAA sanctions.

In addition to its raised court, Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gym also features an extra-wide sideline unlike any other in the nation. Opened in 1952, it was dedicated as a campus memorial to students and alumni killed in World War II. The Commodores have posted a record of 682-188 in Memorial Gym.

Minnesota has over 50,000 students compared to around 10,000 at Vandy — compounded over time that’s a significant disadvantage, so we need all the help we can get!

Good news: Stephen Spruiell and Kevin Williamson read the bill so we don’t have to, and they provide a helpful look at what’s inside.

Bad news: if you suffer from a heart condition or are prone to any sort of violent tendencies, you can’t actually read it.

The talking heads of the blogosphere went another round last week on health care, including commentary on Wal-Mart’s support for an employer mandate.  I have three broad comments on their discussion:

1. Ezra Klein makes several points here regarding healthcare.  I agree with the first but we’re strongly at odds on the second.

The employer-based system is a dumb beast. I don’t support policies that entrench it. I support policies that blow it to smithereens and build something better atop its ashes. But we’re not going to get that sort of reform. So the question, then, is whether I support the employer mandate in the context of this system.

An employer-based healthcare system is the worst of all worlds.  It amounts to a tax on labor (as Tyler notes) and, to the extent that it crowds out more competitive private healthcare, it restricts access to those who need it most — namely, the unemployed.

I try to keep a simple principle in mind when I’m tempted to oppose mediocre policy because it doesn’t fit into my normative view of the world: I don’t need help. Thinking of health-care reform as a fascinating policy puzzle is a luxury. There are, however, a lot of people who actually need help. They don’t need the “right” solution to their plight. They need a solution, full stop. Meanwhile, the system that is supposed to develop solutions seems to me to be irrevocably captured by partisanship and special interests and anti-majoritarian institutions. It’s not clear to me that, under the circumstances, actual “change” is possible. But improvements might be.

Yes, improvements are possible, and the perfect shouldn’t be the enemy of the good.  But Ezra’s view of “a solution, full stop” always means something “positive” (have the government conceive of something, pass some version of it, and use tax dollars to finance it) rather than something “negative” (remove barriers to accessing that said something, and then see where we stand).  That’s not based on logic; it’s based on a worldview.  It may well be that wiping the slate clean is actually far better than grafting a significantly flawed new policy on top of a significantly flawed existing infrastructure.  There may be cases in which something is better than nothing — we may approve blueprints for a fancy new building knowing full well we won’t be 100% satisfied with the finished design.  But I’m certainly not okay with using that as an excuse to lay the foundation atop the previous building’s rubble or to locate the construction site in a floodplain.

2. Radley Balko lays into Ezra — rightfully in my view — for a separate post pronouncing that Wal-Mart’s decision to support employer-mandated health insurance is good business without ever addressing the fact that it’s only good business because Wal-Mart has figured out its interests are better served by getting into bed with the politicians.

Supporting new regulations is usually good business if your company is big enough to absorb compliance costs that could slow down or cripple your competitors. Even better if can you sign on early and win over a few influential opinion makers, interest groups, and politicians so you’ll have some pull over how the regulations are written.

In a separate venue, Radley smells hypocrisy in Ezra’s position.  It does seem as though corporate welfare — which I see as despicable — attracts more opponents when it’s not leftist-supported policies the corporations are actively supporting in exchange for a hearty portion of regulatory capture.

3. Okay, so now I’ve become nancy negative.  What should we be thinking about with respect to healthcare then?  Read this succinct Bryan Caplan post in its entirety if you’re interested in my take on the issue.

Titans Fans Loved Steve McNair’s Resilience
Sorrow Is Great Because McNair Was One of Us

I never met Steve McNair, but it’s surprising how paying to watch a guy showcase his talents a hundred or so times makes you really feel like you know him.

Everything California gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman says the Golden State is correct — too bad that, all added up, what she wants to improve is going to enrage every enriched interest group in the state.