Not much today. Things are hectic at the office right now. We're finishing the re-modeling this weekend, starting this afternoon, and I have work pouring in. During this economic slowdown, I'm grateful for the work and wonder how I keep attracting new clients. The vain part of me says it's because I do competent work in a limited number of fields and always strive to charge a fair fee (far more clients have told me that I don't charge enough than have told me I charge too much).
My more modest side says the clients come just because of my rippling abs and bulging biceps.
Just this for now: Shall on disorder at ISI. Pretty good stuff. Excerpt:
But the title of this essay has to do with the “most disordered” soul. And that soul is the one that lies to itself about what is. It is the soul that does not want to know the truth, or even more basically that there is a truth. It suspects that truth will demand something of us, something that we want to blind ourselves about so we can do what we want. We “voluntarily” miss the mark and do what is shameful, knowing it is so, but convincing ourselves that it is good for us. We lie to ourselves, even in our own souls, about the truth of things.
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And this:
The leftist Citizens for Tax Justice want more Americans to pay estate taxes. Why? Because the government allowed them to earn their money, so they ought to give more back to the government. “Looking at America's millionaires today, one doubts that very many of them would ever have acquired their wealth if the government had never provided these goods and services. It's entirely logical that the families who have accumulated large fortunes be asked to contribute more to the society that made these fortunes possible.”
The argument fails on so many grounds, it's impossible to get into it here. But just two points for now:
Is someone a millionaire because he saved all his life and, thanks to an inflated money supply, now has over a million dollars? Or does he need to earn $1 million annually in income? Or is there some other test?
Society provides a framework for a man to make money, but does government? And since when are the terms “society” and “government” synonymous? Many cogent thinkers, such as Robert Nisbet and de Tocqueville and Nock, have pointed out that government (at least big government) is often anathema to society: the more government does, the less the little platoons of society have to do, and then those little platoons start to fall apart. Kiwanis groups and the altar society build societies and provide the stable atmosphere in which businesses thrive, not Washington, DC.
