The Occupy-Wall-Street Crowd and Political Humor

I haven’t been paying much attention to the protests in New York City and elsewhere (though that will change if they began to interfere with my commute).

Indeed, I’m very sympathetic to their outrage about corrupt bailouts and crony capitalism.

But these people don’t draw the right conclusions. They complain about the problems caused by government, yet they generally think the solution is…you guessed it…even more government.

Obviously, they are not familiar with Mitchell’s Law.

But this post is not for serious discussion. Instead, here are two humorous attachments about the protests.

I like the first one because it mocks Mayor Bloomberg’s nanny-state policies.

And I like this image because it makes fun of those who think they should never be responsible for the consequences of their own choices.

I have no idea whether this is the real life story of a real person, but it has that snarky sense of humor that I enjoy. But if you’re a regular reader, you know that already.

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New Video Has Important Message: Freedom and Prosperity vs. Big Government and Stagnation

The folks from the Koch Institute put together a great video a couple of months ago looking at why some nations are rich and others are poor.

That video looked at the relationship between economic freedom and various indices that measure quality of life. Not surprisingly, free markets and small government lead to better results.

Now they have a new video that looks at recent developments in the United States. Unfortunately, you will learn that the U.S. is slipping in the wrong direction.

The entire video is superb, but there are two things that merit special praise, one because of intellectual honesty and the other because of intellectual effectiveness.

1. The refreshingly honest aspect of the video is its non-partisan tone. It explains, in a neutral fashion, that Bush undermined prosperity by making government bigger and that Obama is undermining prosperity by increasing the burden of government.

2. The most important and effective argument in the video, at least from my perspective, is that it shows clearly that a larger government necessarily comes at the expense of the productive sector of the economy. Pay extra-close attention around the 2:00 mark.

It’s also worth pointing out that there are several policies that impact on economic performance. The Koch Institute video focuses primarily on the key issues of fiscal policy and regulation, but trade, monetary policy, property rights, and rule of law are examples of other policies that also are very important.

This video, narrated by yours truly, looks at economic growth from this more comprehensive perspective.

The moral of the story from both videos is very straightforward. If the answer is bigger government, you’ve asked a very strange question.

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