Comments for Without Eyes

Comment on Politics Explained by withouteyes

withouteyes — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 02:24:28 +0000

I was wondering if anyone was listening to the music. It occurred to me that each post has a perfect song to go with it, it’s just a matter of finding it.

Comment on Broken Windows and the March to War by withouteyes

withouteyes — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 02:21:40 +0000

I didn’t catch it the first time either (but I was much younger then and I don’t think I had encountered Bastiat yet). The scene is practicably verbatim from Bastiat. The writer must have been aware of these works to have put such words into the mouth of his tyrant, it’s hard to imagine otherwise. Obviously, others thought so, also (the person who made this video, for instance).

Comment on Broken Windows and the March to War by The Liberty Scientist

The Liberty Scientist — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 01:33:08 +0000

After I learned of the broken window fallacy this whole movie changed for me because of this one scene. Probably shot up from number 4 to number 3 on my top favs list (as if that means anything). I’m so glad someone else pointed this out about The Fifth Element, although it means I’m not the only one who thought of it, ha!

Comment on Politics Explained by Stephen LaChance

Stephen LaChance — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 05:01:27 +0000

Good stuff! I have done some work on the political spectrum as well. Check it out here: http://littlebrothergov.wordpress.com/ if you want. I tend to prefer the one dimensional spectrum, arguing there should be no distinction between economic and social controls. I’d love to hear what you think of that and of the blog itself. This is a great liberty-minded blog, and (as an avid Radiohead fan) I particularly like the way you incorporate music.

Comment on Another OWS Misfire by withouteyes

withouteyes — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:57:50 +0000

Personally, I don’t think it’s so much the prices that they charge that makes them insolvent. The problem is that their true goal is not mail delivery, it is employment. They are a jobs program. If they charged enough to say in business with their current business model, they would be too expensive to use. But since they are not a private company, they do not need to consider prices, costs, or whether they provide useful services. They can go on being a jobs charity program and become insolvent, eventually needing bailout. A private organization could not just say, “hey, I don’t feel like spending money on our core business anymore…lets start hiring lots of extra workers we don’t need and open lots of empty branch offices in congress members’s districts.” They would go out of business when price increases couldn’t keep them in cash. Not so with the Post Office. They can even run a series of television ads bragging about how they are cheaper than the private companies who don’t have endless resources, even while they are way past the point where a private company would have to declare bankruptcy.

Comment on Another OWS Misfire by richard40

richard40 — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 22:35:51 +0000

Perhaps the next post office bailout should have a mandate for them that requires they ensuer that future rates for any class of mail must be high enough so that class is profitable. It seems pretty idiotic to me that the post office is providing a service to anybody that loses money for them.

Comment on Another OWS Misfire by submandave

submandave — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:26:13 +0000

These OWS folks continue to amaze me with their twisted efforts to do the most convoluted thinking and actions to involve everyone in their little fantasy except for the one group over which they actually have control: their elected officials.

Don’t want the “Big Banks(tm)” to lobby and get favored legislation? Work to unseat politicians who take the money. It’s not that hard, bro.

Comment on Another OWS Misfire by withouteyes

withouteyes — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 23:52:45 +0000

First, I find it hard to believe that anyone of any significance to the company is opening these letters. Most likely temp workers or mail room employees, possibly not even related to the company (they are probably contracting it out). The returned shims will just be tossed. No one will see it. Also, It would be a substantial cost to the banks if not for the reasons outlined above. Their postage is artificially low because the Post Office is undercharging them to inflate their business, becoming insolvent because of it, and is asking to be bailed out right now. Second, we already bailed out the banks, so they are not feeling the true costs of their bad decisions anyway, taxpayers are, which is one reason they couldn't care less if you send them roofing shingles. Because of a failure to realize the current reality that both the banks and the Post Office are supported by taxpayers instead of by the value they produce, increasing costs to either at this time only hurts taxpayers. Such a postage paid protest would only make sense for private companies that are not shifting their losses onto the public, which describes neither the banks nor the Post Office. Essentially, this protest gesture fails to understand current reality that -- when you send them roofing shingles, society pays for it, not them. That's the point. A more serious protest aimed at root causes would target the public/private partnerships involved first.

Comment on Another OWS Misfire by Ken

Ken — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 23:29:02 +0000

You seem to be missing the whole point. It’s not about the post office. It’s about the BANKS. The credit card applications are normally machine read. Using the prepaid envelopes to send back messages (or pieces of wood or whatever) causes them to be kicked out to be examined by a human employee at substantial cost to the banks.

Comment on Another OWS Misfire by withouteyes

withouteyes — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 12:31:52 +0000

I don’t think I said otherwise. Perhaps you are referring to my suggestion to cancel your junk mail thereby reducing the business to the Post Office. Of course, their customers (the banks) cannot send you junk mail after this, so it lowers the volume of mail going through the Post Office causing the green bar graph above to drop more steeply. Ultimate this would result in the Post Office spending less money that they will eventually ask the taxpayers to cover for them, and foil their plan to use junk mail as a way to justify their continued existence as a public service. –> Privatization.