Democracy? What Democracy?

2011-06-11 6 min read Musings Marco

We live in a free-market, democratic republic. We hold each of these descriptors very dear, and we believe that – through trial and error, not through philosophical debate – we have found this is the most stable, prosperous, fair society we can live in.

On the other hand, we live in a world with huge enterprises larger (in financial terms) than most countries. Walmart, for instance, would be a country whose GDP (revenue) sits between that of Taiwan and Norway. As a U.S. State, Walmart would have about the same size as Virginia. Can you imagine? A company the size of a whole nation? Of one of the major American states?

When is Taxation Fair?

2011-06-02 8 min read Musings Marco

I had a long conversation with my brother while in Europe, and it sparked a lot of thinking inside me. We were talking about the Obama Administration’s concessions during last year’s budget negotiations and the resulting extension of tax cuts for the rich. From that instance we moved on to a more general topic: what is fair taxation?

We noted at first that since the beginning of the idea, taxation was driven by ease of implementation more than by the idea of fairness. It’s not just about who can afford to pay taxes, it’s also how you assess taxes in a way that a government bureaucracy can successfully monitor and demand. Additionally, it’s pointless to demand money where there is none, so a lot of governments focus on taxes to be paid while money changes hands – in that case, you know there is money somewhere.

Chance, Ayn Rand, and the Triumph of Narcissism

2011-04-09 8 min read Musings Marco

[Long post, with a rambling story. It’s worth it, I promise.]

When I was a wee lad in Italy, I had a horrendous Latin teacher. You must know that all high school kids in Italy need to learn Latin (at least back then), and in the higer grades of high schools Latin was taken very seriously. That meant that one of the two essays in the graduation exam had a good chance of being about Latin (the other was always about Italian literature). Having a lousy teacher meant that the rest of us had to go to remediation classes – long, boring, expensive.

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