Tim Nerenz's Blog (52)

Freedom is difficult, but it is not complicated. Either you wish to make your own choices in life (freedom) or you wish to let others make them for you (government).

Ron Paul likes to say “freedom is popular” and he is right, when it comes to our own freedom; none of us wants someone else to spend our money and tell us what to do. That’s not complicated. It is when we think about extending that same courtesy to those who spend their money in ways we find offensive (buy drugs, for…

Everybody has an opinion about trade with China, and here is mine: let’s trade ‘em Ben Bernanke for Fu Ying. Throw in a minor league pitcher if we have to – President Obama comes immediately to mind.

Fu Ying is China’s Vice Foreign Minister, who Friday announced that China would not use its foreign exchange reserves (i.e. dollars) to rescue other countries (i.e. Europe). She explained that “foreign reserves are akin to savings” and not to be squandered by governments.…

Of all of the myths that persist about wealth and work, perhaps the most stubborn is the myth of the working man; that stoic character who toils harder, grinds longer, contributes more, and is paid less than his presumptively non-working overlords.



Socialists, liberals, and Democrats claim to be "for" the working man – as long as it’s the union-represented working man. Capitalists, conservatives, and Republicans also claim to be "for" the working man, too – mostly they mean the…

In a response to my piece entitled, "Taxeaters", a reader who favored progressive income taxation posed this question back to me: why shouldn’t the top 50% of income earners pay 96% of the taxes?



My answer: for the same reason that they shouldn’t have to pick up 96% of the state’s collective bar tab. All knowledge builds upon what you know.



That evening, I pondered his question some more and was inspired while enjoying a pub meal that Michelle Obama would ban if…

Welcome to the second Civil War. This time it is the taxpayers against the taxeaters; the hand versus the cookie jar. The tea party sparked it, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey declared it, and now Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin has fired the first shot.



On one side of the economic Mason/Dixon line are taxpayers, people who send more money to government than they receive from it. On the other is taxeaters, whose ledger balance is reversed. Pick your side, either by…

Congressional sessions have become like NBA games: they pose, sleepwalk, and talk smack for most of it, then play like they mean it for the last five minutes.



So in a flurry of activity that included every manner of legislative maneuver except for actually reading any of the bills that they passed, our 111th Congress wrapped up its lame duck session by passing a new arms treaty, an extension – sort of - of the Bush tax cuts, unemployment benefit extension, emergency funding to keep…

A bright young man noticed my Libertarian Party lapel pin and posed this gotcha question to impress his friends: "so what is your answer to current suffering?" My response: "quit suffering". His friend’s analysis of the exchange: "schooled".



"Schooled" may be a bit harsh, but "quit suffering" was certainly not the answer that the first fellow expected. The modern-day debate about poverty has always revolved around what the government should do about it. Government spending on…

Commenting on last week’s post, Pension Choice, a reader questioned how we would provide jobs for younger workers if older workers postponed their retirements. Once again, my libertarian solution for jobs is ridiculously simple: eliminate the corporate income tax.



Before you let fly with the angry anti-corporate letters, bear in mind the corporate income tax only brings in about $300 billion in a good year, while estimates of the costs of corporate subsidies, bailouts, price…

For more than 50 years, Democrats and Republicans have known that us baby boomers were going to bankrupt the Social Security system; and for more than 50 years they have both kicked the can down the road. Welcome to the end of the road.



Only the seriously delusional still pretend that any real funds have been accumulated in the Social Security Trust Fund. You can’t spend the same dollar twice, and we have raided the fund year after year to pay for other current government services.…

Libertarians are to conservatives what socialists are to liberals – ideological anchors that restrain drift to the unprincipled middle. Libertarian principles intensify the conservative message, and conservative political potency acquaints the public with libertarian themes. We need each other.



Just two short years ago, libertarian Ron Paul was ridiculed within his own Republican Party for demanding Constitutional limits on government, cutting government expenditures, calling for…

When the President’s own supporters skewered him in his town hall meeting this week, he dodged their questions by challenging the tea party movement to name specific spending cuts we would approve. Ok, since you asked …



Abolish the Department of Education; leave the money in the hands of local school boards and parents. Implement FairTax and abolish the IRS. Abolish the Agriculture Department, and privatize the FDA. Abolish the Department of Energy, and maybe we would finally have…

100 of us go to a tavern; the richest guy buys 42 tap beers, the next 9 buy 48 tap beers, 43 buy 10 tap beers, and 47 of us drink tap beers for free. In Wisconsin, we say "thank you" when someone else buys our beer; apparently in Chicago, they go find a community organizer and demand martinis.



The top 1% of income earners in this country - nice people like Oprah and Aaron Rodgers - make 28% of the income, yet they pay 42% of the income tax. 47% of Americans pay no income tax. Is…

This November’s choice between capitalism and socialism is not about whether you are rich or poor right now; it is about which of those two you wish to be tomorrow.



The inescapable lesson of economic history is that free market economies make everyone unequally richer, while state-controlled economies make everyone equally poorer. Which do you prefer – rich or equal? Free people overwhelmingly choose rich, which is why socialism can only be imposed by force or fraud.…

Last weekend, we went to one of our favorite tavern-burger joints for the first time since Wisconsin’s smoking ban went into effect. No ashtrays, no smoke, and no customers – nice going, do-gooders.



This was a biker bar, past tense. It is an empty bar now – soon to be a closed-down bar unless there is a federal bailout in the works for dives. It wasn’t the kind of place you would walk into by mistake, not a place to take your kids. Nobody was inadvertently exposed to second-hand…

The magic number is $50,000 – the median compensation rate in the private sector. The math is simple: for every $50,000 of cost laid on business by government, one job must be cut.



Government burdens businesses in three ways: taxes, mandates, and regulations. Ultimately, these costs are passed to consumers in the form of increased prices; but in the short run, increased government burden must be offset with cost reductions elsewhere in the firm, and elsewhere these days almost…

When President Obama returns to Wisconsin this month, you can have your picture taken with him for $10,000. I think I will bring a check for $1,427 to teach him how his new tax rates will impact those of us who actually pay our taxes.



First of all, let’s assume he is a responsible retirement saver and is putting away 8% of his $10,000 earnings into a 401(k) - that is an $800 withholding that we will tax later. His Medicare tax on the balance is $267, Social Security tax is $1,150,…

Opponents of free market capitalism ritually object to its alleged unfairness. This is not a deficiency in economic literacy, it is a deficiency in vocabulary – "free" and "fair" are two different concepts.



In economic exchange, "fair" is a subjective term; what is fair to one is seen as unfair to another. It is an emotional response made after the fact. "Free" is an objective term; it is an observable attribute of the process of exchange.



Freedom in economic exchange is…

If I wanted to research the Tea Party, I would not send Katie Couric to interview Sheryl Crow for Glamour magazine. But then again, it would not occur to me to ask for Shakira’s advice on immigration law.



Prompted by Ms. Couric, Ms. Crow recently informed Glamour readers that all Tea Partiers are uneducated, angry, and ignorant. She forgot to say racist and violent - perhaps she should have wrote a list on her palm. The mainstream media was happy to run with "uneducated" in a…

It is a uniquely American holiday, this upcoming Independence Day; it is the day we commemorate the abolishment of our government.



This nation did not materialize from the vapor one day in 1776. There was nearly 200 years of colonial life, and there was government for all of that time. We did not create a new government on that Fourth of July; we just dissolved the old one.



The national holiday which commemorates our disposal of unwanted government is properly called…

None of us who actually create jobs were surprised at the dismal May employment numbers, while the President’s economists were shocked. What does that tell you.



Excluding temporary census workers, only 25,000 private sector jobs were added in May, less than 20% of the number needed just to keep pace with the growth in the workforce. The President’s crack team of Keynesian number crunchers had forecasted around 500,000.



Mr. Obama somehow managed to blame businesses for the…