The Rule Of What?

Stacy McCain is bemoaning the destruction of the property market in Maryland caused by a ruling against the banks who created fraudulent documents. From a report he linked to:

In a major ruling Friday, a coalition of nonprofit defense lawyers and consumer protection advocates in Maryland successfully got over 10,000 foreclosure cases managed by GMAC Mortgage tossed out, because affidavits in the cases were signed by Jeffrey Stephan, the infamous GMAC “robo-signer” who attested to the authenticity of foreclosure documents without any knowledge about them, as well as signing other false statements.

What? The banks don't have to follow the law Mr. McCain? They can lie and the lies have to be accepted? I dunno Stacy. What ever happened to your respect for the rule of law?

You are correct about the destruction of the property MARKET. The alternative is the destruction of the rule of LAW. Choose one.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Amateurs Beat Professionals

Thomas Sowell is looking at one of the most glaring and obvious places in our society where amateurs beat professionals. Education.

When amateurs outperform professionals, there is something wrong with that profession.

If ordinary people, with no medical training, could perform surgery in their kitchens with steak knives, and get results that were better than those of surgeons in hospital operating rooms, the whole medical profession would be discredited.

Yet it is common for ordinary parents, with no training in education, to homeschool their children and consistently produce better academic results than those of children educated by teachers with Master's degrees and in schools spending upwards of $10,000 a year per student-- which is to say, more than a million dollars to educate ten kids from K through 12.

Nevertheless, we continue to take seriously the pretensions of educators who fail to educate, but who put on airs of having "professional" expertise beyond the understanding of mere parents.

Now it is obvious why home schoolers beat the professionals. First is motivation. Second is tailoring the product to the customer. The professionals are hampered by rules and directives. The amateur need only get results.

He then ties that into the knowledge problem in economics. The problem of central planners.

...central planners in the days of the Soviet Union had to set over 24 million prices. Nobody is capable of setting and changing 24 million prices in a way that will direct resources and output in an efficient manner.

For that, each of the 24 million prices would have to be weighed and set against each of the other 24 million prices. in order to provide incentives for resources to go where they were most in demand by producers and output to go where it was most in demand by consumers.

In a market economy, however, nobody has to take on such an impossible task. Each producer and each consumer need only be concerned with the relatively few prices relevant to their own decisions, with coordination of the economy being left to supply and demand.

In short, amateurs were able to outperform professionals in the economy because the amateurs did not take on tasks beyond the capability of any human being or any manageable group of human beings.

Put differently, "expertise" includes only a small band of knowledge out of the vast spectrum of knowledge required for dealing with many real world complications.

In other words it doesn't matter that central planners are geniuses and the population is a bunch of morons. No one genius or even group of geniuses can know as much as a million morons.

The Brits have a wonderful saying about just such problems: "too smart by half". Or stated another way - it is the problem of smart people thinking they know more than they know just because they are much smarter than most people. It doesn't matter. If they apply their smarts to a broad enough domain they can never be smart enough.

So the upshot is: let supply and demand sort out distribution. Or as I said on another forum: the problem with stealing is that it short circuits the productive system. It doesn't matter if the thief is a guy down the block or the Government in Washington DC. It short circuits the productive system.

Which gets us back to the importance of private property. The poor shouldn't steal from the rich and the rich shouldn't steal from the poor. It short circuits the productive system.

Remember The Warsaw Ghetto

I just got an e-mail from one of my friends at Jewcy repeating in full and providing the url for this article trashing Thanksgiving because of the destruction of the Native Americans. Let me quote a bit of this noxious screed.

After years of being constantly annoyed and often angry about the historical denial built into Thanksgiving Day, I published an essay in November 2005 suggesting we replace the feasting with fasting and create a National Day of Atonement to acknowledge the genocide of indigenous people that is central to the creation of the United States.

That is the first paragraph and you know where this is going. Let me get a little deeper in the muck and see if there is a particularly Jewish angle.

Imagine that Germany won World War II and that a Nazi regime endured for some decades, eventually giving way to a more liberal state with a softer version of German-supremacist ideology. Imagine that a century later, Germans celebrated a holiday offering a whitewashed version of German/Jewish history that ignored that holocaust and the deep anti-Semitism of the culture. Imagine that the holiday provided a welcomed time for families and friends to gather and enjoy food and conversation. Imagine that businesses, schools and government offices closed on this day.

What would we say about such a holiday? Would we not question the distortions woven into such a celebration? Would we not demand a more accurate historical account? Would we not, in fact, denounce such a holiday as grotesque?

The thing is - it was not some round up and mass slaughter of the Indians. There was fighting all the way. Initiated by both sides. It is why we used to like giving our sports teams Indian names. Fierce Warriors. Even famous American Generals. William T. Sherman. You can look up what the T stands for.

Funny thing is when the Indians stopped making war the war stopped. Indians joined the American culture. They fought in our wars. They have even written operas. Surprisingly it was about the attempted extermination of the Jews by the Germans.

In any case it looks like the Hate America Holiday Season is in full force. Columbus Day was just a start. Here is the gist of what I had to say on Columbus Day about the myth of the white man's genocide.

You know "the evil white man destroyed the noble Indians and we therefor wish to atone for the sins of our ancestors" types. Have I got news for them.

The Indians fought wars with each other all the time for territory.

The white man was just a better Indian.

So let us bring this back to the Jews. Here was my response to the person who sent the e-mail.

You know the Indians regularly fought each other for control of territory.

The Euros were just better Indians.

If only the Jews had been better Indians. Remember the Warsaw Ghetto. That is how Jews should die. Expensive, not cheap.

And I might add that had more Jews done that we might have some sports teams (besides the Maccabees) named after us. Which brought up thoughts of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership which is always good.

Then it seemed like a good idea to see if Bad Eagle had something to say on the subject. And yes he does.

I want to see change in Indian country. I'm not talking about new cars, dental work, or even Nikes. I'm talking about attitude. I'm talking about our view of ourselves in American history, and especially in our modern day.

But old AIM (Angry Indian Men) still holds the dominant and destructive image over many Indians today. Casting blame on America's past is still the easiest self-starting motivation for many Indians. They learned to protest in college, and this is still an important part of their lives. But it is a deceptive self-start. It sets forth before our young people that the media is the only goal in life. To hold a protest, to be seen, to be heard, to be in the papers, to be in TV--this is all there is to live for. This is the meaning of being Indian. What is the cost? Psychological disconnect. Negativity, a crippling outlook on life, and a penchant for strife and corruption.

I think that shows there is a big difference between the defeated like Bad Eagle and the demoralized. Note that term de-moralized. Without morals.

So let me see if I can bring this back on topic. Bad Eagle refers to a piece by I. Ahron Katz. Which made me think of a lot of things in a new light.

It started when I noticed that in the escape from Egypt, a strange thing happened. At least it seemed strange to me when I read it. Especially in the context of what I’d learned. When the Hebrews came to the Red Sea, they were confronted with a dangerous and seemingly overwhelming dilemma. The sea in front of them, and the Egyptian army coming up behind. What were they to do?

The Hebrews cried out to Moses saying that they should have stayed in Egypt, rather than dying here like this. Moses told them to stand fast and God would help them. Then something very strange happened. God said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me”?

My first thought was, “Let’s see now. God took them out with miracles. Why shouldn’t they look to Him for help now. That’s a very strange question that He was asking. What’s going on here?” I know that the accepted opinion is that God meant that they should show faith in him and plunge into the water of the sea. Of course, He did split the waters and you know what happened then. It does say “Speak to the children of Israel and tell them to journey forth. And you lift up your staff, etc.”

If we go back a few pages, we see that the children of israel left Egypt “armed”. They built cities. They were construction workers. Did you ever see a weak construction worker?

Let’s review the scenario. Six hundred thousand armed construction workers being chased by the Egyptian army. How many in the army chasing them? Let’s see what the Torah says about it. It says, “He took six hundred elite chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt with officers on them all”. It seems to me that the tenth plague, killing all of the first-born males of Egypt, must have created a significant shrinkage of the men in the army. No matter how I calculate it, I can’t imagine the Egyptians outnumbering the Hebrews. I believe that it’s probable that when God asked “Why are you crying to me?”, he was really asking why don’t you defend yourselves. For goodness sakes, I set you up with weapons and superior numbers, why don’t you stand up and fight for yourselves? But they didn’t. So He had to do it for them. But He was forced to do something to correct the problem of the slave and victim mentality that the Hebrews were afflicted
with.

I believe that forty years in the desert happened in order to accomplish the purpose of having a complete recycling of the nation of Israel. Remember that the census showed six hundred thousand men between twenty and sixty years of age. Those are the fighters that are needed to win wars. Forty years completely eliminated all of the original fighting force and replaced them with a new generation of experienced warriors, that were capable of invading and defeating the Canaanites, with God’s help, of course.

Now let’s look at the stories of Purim and Chanukah. Did you realize that when Haman was exposed to the king, the remedy was to simply decree that the Jews would be allowed to arm and defend themselves? Interesting. I also notice that most people think that the main miracle of Chanukah was that the oil lasted for eight days. But to me, the main miracle was that a small band of courageous Jews fought against overwhelming odds and numbers, and were victorious, with God’s help. That’s the real miracle.

I believe that these experiences show that God wants us to fight our own battles, and He helps us with his might and benevolence. Conversely, I believe that when we don’t do anything to help ourselves, and keep praying for, and expecting miracles, He won’t lift a finger to save us. The holocaust is an example of this.

It is not about might makes right, but right makes might. If you are willing to fight.

So how about a rousing cheer this Thanksgiving for the Indian Warriors. The Comanche, The Arapaho, The Sioux, The Cheyenne. And their great war leaders like Geronimo and Tecumseh. And the white men who brought a better civilization by eliminating all the warring over property by providing a system of secure property rights (excepting for Kelo).

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Missing Proletariat

As some of you may know I'm a big fan of Economist Hernando DeSoto. I covered some of his thinking in Property. Which is all about the historical origins of property. Of course the origin of the desire for property is biological. What property rights do is minimize the fighting about property. Making the owner more secure.

Economic development expert Peter Schaefer says we have a property problem in Iraq.

Vietnam sparked Schaefer’s interest in economic development. I spoke to him yesterday (March 2) on the phone. Pete told me: “I couldn’t get my mind around the fact that the Vietnamese people were so smart and industrious and yet they were just so damn poor. The (destructive effects of the) war didn’t answer that for me. Why would someone choose Mao over Jefferson?”

Schaefer concluded the Vietnamese Communists pursued a calculated land reform policy, one that leveraged Vietnamese villagers’ traditional recognition of property rights.

He also looked at World War Two. “One of the crucial pieces of what we did in Japan was to give property rights to peasants who didn’t have them,” Schaefer said. “That was fifty percent of the population, approximately. General MacArthur (on the advice of his staff) gave the peasants their land and almost overnight created middle class. It was a brilliant move.”

In the 1990s, Schafer noted, Peru turned the “land reform” tables on the Communists. Property right reform helped defeat Peru’s “Maoist” Shining Path guerrilla movement.

OK. That was the wind up. How about the pitch?

“The Third World is not populated by proletariats, it’s populated by entrepreneurs– successful small business people,” Schafer said. (And that is what I’ve seen in the time I’ve spent in developing nations.) He added: “If you are someone who is surviving and raising a family by taking a bunch of bananas from out the city and bringing it in (to sell) you are an entrepreneur. You understand business —by low sell high And if you come to them and say you want to extend credit to them they understand that.”

In Schafer’s view, property right reform gives Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government a very powerful political weapon, one that has war-winning potential.

Schafer supplied some fascinating evidence. According to Schafer, less than five percent of Iraq’s cultivatable agricultural land is “freehold” (owned with clear title). 95 percent of the cultivatable land in Iraq is therefore “dead” (illiquid) and cannot be used as security for a bank loan. “Iraqi farmers who lack clear title can’t get (bank) loans,” Schaefer said. That limits economic creativity, particularly in a population demonstrably successful at small business operations. Schafer believes that 95 percent of family homes in Iraq also lack clear, secure title.

“Prime Minister Maliki needs to go on television,” Schaefer advised, “and say “Citizens of Iraq, 95 percent of the property in this country is not legally in your name. You don’t have title to your own land or your own houses. We’re going to change that right now.””

The article gives lots more reasons for doing property reform. So go read it all.

H/T Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values and at The Astute Bloggers

Euston We Have a Problem

There has been quite a bit of talk lately about the Euston Manifesto and what it means to be a principled leftist in time of war. Jeff Jarvis is covering it (with a link to Austin Bay included). Harry's Place covers it in a number of posts. Go here and here to start. Norm Geras also has a bit on it.

Here is something I sent to Norm:

Nice bit of work.

Still the adherence to socialism seems to me similar to Einstein's rejection of quantum mechanics. True socialism is a much prettier economic theory than
capitalism. The problem is it doesn't work.

Marx understood the problem well. Capitalism is necessary to create the capital that socialism intends to re-distribute. Full socialism will only be possible when capitalism is no longer profitable.

In the mean time the greater the inequality the faster the progress to socialism.

In other words all real socialists should be as much
as possible free market capitalists. The less capitalism is hindered by socialist policies the more wealth there will be at some future point.

It is very difficult to sacrifice today for tomorrow. Especially for socialists.

BTW if you really want to make poverty history read DeSoto. He says that the problem is government not money. I have a short introduction to DeSoto with links here:

Property.

As you know DeSoto is from Peru. His basic premise is that poor people are poor because they are shut out of the property system. It is not property that is bad
but the lack of it.

M. Simon

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