Digital World to Real World?
The digital revolution keeps going and picking up pace: "YouTube serves up 2 billion videos a day. Twitterers tweet 750 times a second. Internet traffic is growing by 40% a year. The internet has morphed into a social medium. People post 2.5 billion photos on Facebook every month. More than half of American teens say they are 'content creators.'" Link. * * * * * * * So what's it matter? Well, it could be fueling a new wave of individualism, like the printing press, modern science, and the discovery of new worlds did. The folks at The Daily Bell are kind of excited at the possibility that we might actually be seeing the beginning of libertarian popular thought and acceptance. A Newsweek writer laments, “What's distinctive about the Tea Party is its anarchist streak ”“ its antagonism toward any authority, its belligerent self-expression, and its lack of any coherent program or alternative to the policies it condemns." The Daily Bell breaks down the comment, then speculates hopefully, "We see plenty of signs that the hold the current elite has over society is fading ”“ that its wars are not necessarily ending in victory, that its promotions (global warming) are foundering and that even its hold over economic matters (via central banking) is slipping. We see renewed freedom and a retreat of authoritarian thinking.” Link. * * * * * * * Meanwhile, another revolution continues: "A human-rights group has ruled a school must accommodate the sexual preferences of a sixth-grader. The Maine Human Rights Commission recently ruled that Orono Middle School erred by assigning a separate bathroom to the boy, who wants to live as a girl." Link. Look, here's the stark reality: We either (i) stomp out stuff like this with our heel or (ii) we dismantle all public institutions so there are no public battlegrounds over this unbridgeable divide in values and worldviews. I prefer the latter. If the flamer pre-pubescent wants to hang with others of his ilk, let him . . . but don't force the flamer on all the other kids. As long as there are public schools--or public anything that is subsidized through implicit coercion (i.e., taxes)--these battlegrounds will exist. Dismantle all state institutions and let people do and behave how they want. * * * * * * * A public letter to a liberal proponent of higher minimum wages. Great stuff:
Your office is advertising for an unpaid intern ”“ one whose responsibilities will be quite extensive.
But on your webpage you boast of your efforts to fight poverty by raising the national minimum-wage.
Are you not concerned that you are promoting poverty by paying this intern an hourly wage of $0.00? Or are young men and women who choose to build their resume by working free of charge for you more intelligent and far-sighted than are young men and women who would ”“ were it not illegal to do so ”“ choose to build their resumes by working in the private sector at wages below the legislated minimum? If not ”“ that is, if your interns aren't generally more smart and prudent than are young people who seek employment in the private sector ”“ then why do you continue to deny low-skilled employees generally the right to choose the terms of their own employment?
