A Liberdade Vale Muito

[A Liberdade Vale Muito @justfixthings]

@ConstantUnder @SenSanders Don't post things that aren't true. Bernie Sanders is not a millionaire.

He's a multimillionaire.

[Brivael Le Pogam @brivael]

My post about France went viral. Thousands of likes. Many Americans told me: "Democrats aren't socialists. America will never be France." I want to answer that seriously, step by step.

Start with a simple observation. Look at what has gotten cheaper in America over the last 25 years: TVs, phones, software, clothes, toys. Now look at what has exploded: college tuition, healthcare, childcare, housing.

What separates the two lists? The first lives in competitive markets. The second is exactly where government is most involved: subsidies, mandates, licensing, zoning, regulation.

College. Washington lends students almost unlimited money. Universities know the money will always come, so they raise tuition and hire more administrators. The student pays the bill for twenty years. More government money, higher prices.

Housing. Why can't a nurse buy a home in the city where she works? Not because of capitalism. Because of zoning laws, permits, environmental reviews, years of procedure to build a single building. The most expensive places to live in America are the places where it's hardest to build. When building is nearly illegal, prices explode.

Healthcare. The patient almost never sees the price. A third party pays, regulations limit who can compete, and costs climb year after year with no one able to say no.

So here is the trap. The problems you suffer from are not the failure of free markets. They are the places where the market has already been replaced by the state. And the solution you're being offered is more of the same.

That's the Trojan horse. It always works the same way. A real problem. A generous-sounding promise. A program that makes things worse. Then the failure of that program becomes the argument for the next one. People who lived under communism in Poland learned to recognize the lie and the mask the lie wears. The lie never presents itself as a lie. It presents itself as compassion.

In France we are at the end of that road. Debt we can never repay. Young people who can't afford a home. Our best people leaving. And every few years our cities burn. Nobody voted for this. They voted for one more generous promise, fifty years in a row.

If you're a Republican, share this with the Democrat in your life. Not to win an argument. To start a conversation.

If you're a Democrat, I'm not asking you to switch teams. I'm asking you to look at the pattern. Wherever the state took over, life became unaffordable. Don't fix the failures of government with more government.

Stay American. Ask for less state, not more.

[A Liberdade Vale Muito @justfixthings]

@KATUNews Time to resign.

[David Marcus @BlueBoxDave]

What if we just shut down AI for two weeks to flatten the curve?

[Cutter Whitley @iamcutterbutter]

A recap of Texas vs Ohio State

[br_betting @br_betting]

JEREMIAH SMITH HIT THE HORNS DOWN AND TEXAS CAME ALL THE WAY BACK 😭

[Jim Osman @jimcosman2]

I want a government so small and powerless that neither party can use the public treasury to bribe the citizenry.

[A Liberdade Vale Muito @justfixthings]

@ABC It's crap like this that makes it so none of us can ever trust anything you say to us about anything.

You're willing to mislead us on something minor. What will you do (or have you done) to mislead us when the stakes are higher?

Untrustworthy.

[A Liberdade Vale Muito @justfixthings]

@DearGozde 55

[A Liberdade Vale Muito @justfixthings]

@liadreaamy 30

[A Liberdade Vale Muito @justfixthings]

This is a critical policy question that we need to get right really quickly. I've seen too many independent physicians forced into this box by the anti-competitive environment created by the "non-profit" hospital systems.

Administrators win. Providers and patients lose.

[Dutch Rojas @DutchRojas]

Sunday question:

Is it morally right for a tax-exempt hospital to use tax-exempt capital to purchase a competing physician practice that pays taxes?

The hospital begins with a financial advantage provided by the public.

It uses that advantage to purchase the competitor.

The physicians become employees.

The independent practice disappears.

The hospital can now charge a higher price for the same physician performing the same service.

Who financed that acquisition?

What charitable purpose was served by eliminating the competitor?

Why should taxpayers subsidize the purchase of a business that was already serving patients?

And how many competitors may a charitable institution eliminate before it stops behaving charitably?

[A Liberdade Vale Muito @justfixthings]

@DrDiGiorgio @marcjoffe Do you think you would travel way less or waymo?

[A Liberdade Vale Muito @justfixthings]

@DrDiGiorgio It gets easier when you start to understand that not everybody around you is debating an issue in good faith.

[A Liberdade Vale Muito @justfixthings]

@elonmusk Let's get those tunnels going from Denver up to Summit County. Would make that mountain commute weatherproof, safe and fast.

[A Liberdade Vale Muito @justfixthings]

@educator4ever36 And just remember, we're paying for all of this. The investment thesis for the instructional component of higher ed is that we build skills in our young people who provide a positive return on investment for society.

[A Liberdade Vale Muito @justfixthings]

@waitmaya 31

[A Liberdade Vale Muito @justfixthings]

@DrDiGiorgio I hope we get mass rollout of self-driving cars soon enough to allow my parents and wife's parents to maintain their mobility and stay in their homes a few extra years.

Transportation independence is a key lever for increasing healthspan.

[Dutch Rojas @DutchRojas]

Charity moves mercy.
Business creates the surplus mercy often needs.

The Good Samaritan did not help the wounded man with vibes.

He paid the innkeeper two denarii.
Then he promised more on credit.

That means he had earned money.
It means he had creditworthiness.

It means mercy had a balance sheet behind it.

A culture that praises compassion while despising the work that funds compassion eventually gets neither.

[A Liberdade Vale Muito @justfixthings]

@SenSanders Wait, Apple gave $310B back to the people who invested in the company, and somehow that makes them greedy? I'm so confused.

[A Liberdade Vale Muito @justfixthings]

@RoKhanna This is how vampires talk.