Obamacare: America’s Bestest Idea

You can say a ton of things about Healthcare.gov, but you can’t say that it’s boring.

Former Fetus Seeks Charity, Denied

Nice try, mooch. They only care about you when you’re not around to contribute to the menace of the zombie Nanny State.

Want To Get Rid Of The Welfare State? Pay People For Being Alive

The Article: Switzerland’s Proposal to Pay People for Being Alive by Annie Lowrey in The New York Times.

The Text: This fall, a truck dumped eight million coins outside the Parliament building in Bern, one for every Swiss citizen. It was a publicity stunt for advocates of an audacious social policy that just might become reality in the tiny, rich country. Along with the coins, activists delivered 125,000 signatures — enough to trigger a Swiss public referendum, this time on providing a monthly income to every citizen, no strings attached. Every month, every Swiss person would receive a check from the government, no matter how rich or poor, how hardworking or lazy, how old or young. Poverty would disappear. Economists, needless to say, are sharply divided on what would reappear in its place — and whether such a basic-income scheme might have some appeal for other, less socialist countries too.

The proposal is, in part, the brainchild of a German-born artist named Enno Schmidt, a leader in the basic-income movement. He knows it sounds a bit crazy. He thought the same when someone first described the policy to him, too. “I tell people not to think about it for others, but think about it for themselves,” Schmidt told me. “What would you do if you had that income? What if you were taking care of a child or an elderly person?” Schmidt said that the basic income would provide some dignity and security to the poor, especially Europe’s underemployed and unemployed. It would also, he said, help unleash creativity and entrepreneurialism: Switzerland’s workers would feel empowered to work the way they wanted to, rather than the way they had to just to get by. He even went so far as to compare it to a civil rights movement, like women’s suffrage or ending slavery.

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A Stunning–And Banned–TED Talk About The Rich And Job Creation

Billionaire Nick Hanauer let loose on the misguided, barely-concealing-the-glut notion that taxes on the rich must remain low so that jobs will be created. And believe it or not, TED Talks refused to air it. But here it is.

The Democracy Scam

That’s the funny thing about voting: sometimes, when the individual you vote for wins and enters office, he or she can act according to your will and to advance life, liberty and prosperity. Assholes.