A Quick Thought on the UN

The U.N. is, and will likely remain, a farce. It is no accident that people trust local government more than state government, state government more than federal government, and federal government more than–and God help me for even saying it–international government. The farther the government is from you, the less it understands you. The U.N. reminds us this too often.

Perverse Incentives

Today, I learned of an excellent real-life example of perverse incentives. One of my younger siblings is employed at a restaurant. My sibling works shifts as both a maitre d’ and server. Because of the cash tips (largely tax-free as most go unreported), a shift worked in the server capacity is significantly more profitable. Unfortunately, my sibling is scheduled for a far greater amount of maitre d’ shifts than server shifts. My sibling wisely spoke to the manager and inquired as to the reason for this scheduling. The manager replied that my sibling is very good at the job and so is scheduled for more maitre d’ than server shifts.  Having had many grueling conversations with me, my sibling replied to the manager “So, because I work hard I get paid less? Well then, I’ll have to start doing a bad job on my maitre d’ shifts.”

While I am proud of my sibling, it amazes me that such a successful restaurant is providing such perverse incentives for its employees. Unfortunately, many government programs operate in much the same way. For instance, welfare programs pay people when they don’t work, and our tax code raises the rate of taxation as they earn a higher income!

Random Thought

There is a difference between the “Obama administration” and the “idea of the Obama administration.” Soon the two will collide.

Random Thought

Finding a loophole is different than breaking a law. While both are objectionable, the law is to blame for the loophole, not the individual.

Random Thought

When someone supports an increased minimum wage and another supports a reduction in poverty, they are supporting two separate objectives. When someone supports an increased minimum wage in order to reduce poverty, he is supporting two contradictory objectives.

Random thought

I was running through a wealthy neighborhood yesterday and it got me thinking. As a Capitalist I looked around and saw the wealth and thought, “Everyone should live like this.” I knew that if I was a Socialist I would have instead thought, “No one should live like this.”