Great Britain. The United States. Canada. Italy. Belgium. These are nation states. And their future is unclear.  Nation states have historically provided 2 key benefits: The ability to pool resources for a common defense and a single market. Globalization and the slow pacification of the modern states of the world are taking away much of that benefit. For example, what exactly does Texas get out of being a state in the United States? What about British Columbia in Canada? W...

Since political debates on this site are so common and debate over the budget is very common, here's a handy link to detailed information on the 2007 Federal Budget: http://www.answers.com/topic/united-states-federal-budget-2007   Highlights:   Below is federal spending and federal tax receipts by year:  

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/002-0593763-7135257?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=The+Politically+INcorrect+Guide+to There's some interesting books coming out of this series in which the authors defend some of the minority views on different issues. The problem I'm having with the series is that even on issues I agree with, some of their arguments are really weak or (in my opinion) deceptive. Thus, I lose faith in the parts that I'm not as familiar with. For ...

The problem with our governmental tax system in the United States is that it has slowly been morphed into a coercive charity organization. Below is a chart of the 2007 federal budget courtesy of the CBO:   If you look closely, "health" and "income security" (not to be confused with social security) now make up 25% of our budget and grow year after year. Those programs are essentially government charity programs in which we take from one person to give to another. ...

The biggest reason the left and the right of American politics fight on issues of social policy has to do with the diverging views of what the role of the federal government is. To the right, the federal government is analogous to a neighborhood association (NA). In a NA, the residents get together and vote on common rules for everyone to follow as well as an association fee that each neighbor has to pay in to the general fund to pay for things such as trash pickup, snow removal, lawn car an...

How the federal government of the United States spends tax payer money has changed dramatically since 1960.   The priorities of the federal government have shifted from national defense and interstate development to providing a social safety net.   At the dawn of the 60s, national defense was 52% of our expenses. Social security and Medicare and Health were relatively small.   A relatively new category of spending called "inc...

CO2 produced by humans is causing the recent increase in temperature is a hypothesis. But it has no evidence to support it. It's not even what one would label as a theory. It could be correct, it might not be correct.  I have about the same opinion of it as I do for the hypothesis of "intelligent design".  Maybe it's true, maybe it's not. But there isn't evidence.  Given the movement's spotty record for yearly temperatures (it's actually gotten cooler since 1998 incidentally, not ...

Lifelong meterologist and the founder of the Weather Channel has written an article denouncing the "global warming" movement as nothing but the "greatest scam in history". Read the whole thing.

Exit polls are wonderful. They cut through all the speculation and inuendo and simply ask the actual people who voted what their opinions are on a variety of issues. The exit polls for the 2004 election are available here . Here, without commentary, are some of the results: Overall : Bush won 51% to Kerry's 49%. Bear this number in mind. Men: Bush: 55% to Kerry's 44%. Women: Kerry 51% to Bush's 48%. Income is less than $15,000: Kerry 63% to Bush's 36%. Income is gre...

Over the years I've gotten to see first hand how people make decisions that make them financially successful or financial basket cases. The sad thing is, it's not very hard to be financially successful. It takes no luck. It takes no particular skill. All it requires is a sense of DELAYED GRATIFICATION.  A sense that, sadly, most people don't have. Becoming financially successful is the simple matter of building assets that appreciate in value over time at a greater rate than inflation...

Often in debates you see Demcorats argue that we need to raise taxes in order to help society. Hillary Clinton said it best: “We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.” This is the kind of thinking one would expect from people who don't have the foggiest understanding of real-world economics. First, some facts to begin with: The wealthiest income earners 10% pay the vast majority of the taxes (nearly 3/4ths of it). The wealthiest income earners work...

One of the things that I find maddening about the American left is its penchant for saying something is bad or that something should be done and then sitting back and doing nothing themselves about it. Whether the case be health care (where they simply expect other people to pay for their "compassion") or more notoriously, global warming. The United States produces (for now) the most CO2 on the planet .  Eventually China will catch up (who isn't govered by Kyoto incidentally - and pe...

If someone invented a pill that would add 25 years of robust, perfect health life to anyone who took it but cost $10,000 per month to produce the pill, is society entitled to this pill? That is, should the government, and therefore the taxpayer pay to make sure everyone has free access to such a pill? Clarification: You have to take this pill every month to have the benefit ($10,000 per month for the person taking it).

As more reports come out of Iraq, it does seem to appear that "The surge" is working.  The new tactics are working.  Of course, much of the mess the US finds itself in in Iraq is due to the lack of planning and poor handling of the victory on the battlefield in 2003. Al Qaeda moved in and for awhile, it appeared that they were gaining the upper hand. But then they managed to lose the support of even the insurgents who are increasingly seeing that the US doesn't want to be in Iraq an...