…is killing the skilled trades.
The entire educational establishment in this country is a disaster, from top to bottom.
Category Archives: Business
More Critique Of The “Constitutional Law” Professor
…from Richard Epstein:
Unfortunately, Seidman has the causation reversed. The reason why the situation today is so perilous is that Congress is not strictly bound by the Constitution, just as Seidman advocates. There are currently no constitutional constraints limiting the discretion of Congress to decide what tax burden will be placed on what groups for what reasons. In fact, the only restraint on taxation is a broken-down system of public deliberation, which results in a fruitless question to find, as Seidman puts it, “a common vocabulary to express aspirations that, at the broadest level, everyone can embrace.” Otherwise, Congress is free to dispense tax favors and impose tax burdens as though there were no tomorrow.
…The older conception of public goods has been entirely rejected by all justices on the Supreme Court regardless of their political persuasion, so we have a current legal regime that is just the one Professor Seidman craves. On taxing and spending, we have a constitutional structure that is not informed by a single action or statement of James Madison or any other founder. Instead, our structure allows Congress to debate the many vexing problems of current times unhindered by constitutional principle, passing statutes whose “wisdom or fairness” is beyond the power and the competence of the courts to judge.
We need more, not less, adherence to the Madison’s Constitution. And as he notes, strictly followed, Madison’s principles would require a flat tax. A progressive one is unconstitutional.
New CSF Members
I just got a press release from the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. The big news is that Boeing has finally joined:
The Boeing Company: Boeing Space Exploration division, headquartered in Houston, is at the forefront of development of new spacecraft systems, as it has been since the beginning of the Space Age. For more than 50 years, Boeing has designed, developed, built, and operated human and robotic space vehicles as well as supporting hardware: from the X-15 to Gemini, Mercury, Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle, the International Space Station (ISS), Commercial Crew Development and the Space Launch System. NASA’s Commercial Crew initiative is providing a unique opportunity for Boeing to accelerate development of its Commercial Crew Transportation System (CCTS) that will provide a domestic capability for crew to access the International Space Station.
“We are proud to join the Commercial Space Federation and help support the stimulation of this exciting new market”, said John Mulholland, Vice President and Program Manager, Boeing Commercial Crew Program. “We believe that our unique combination of commercial aviation and legacy human spaceflight experience will be beneficial to the community as we move forward.”
Paragon Space Development Corporation: Paragon is the premier provider of environmental controls for extreme and hazardous environments. Paragon SDC designs, builds, tests and operates premier life support systems and leading thermal control products for astronauts, contaminated water divers, and other extreme environment explorers, as well as for unmanned space and terrestrial applications.
Joining as Associate Members are:
Firestar Technologies: Firestar Technologies is a research and development company funded through both government grants and private investment. The firm has a rich intellectual property portfolio including NOFBXTM “green” propulsion, SonicExhaustTM aftermarket exhaust technology, and several developments in power conversion and next generation renewable energy technologies.
Golden Spike Company: Golden Spike plans to provide complete, turn-key commercial human lunar expeditions to countries, corporations, and individuals. The company is conducting lunar architecture and systems design studies with leading aerospace companies, and will be taking flight reservations and entering into vehicle development and flight contracts in the near future.
Spaceflight Services: Spaceflight is a one-stop shop that rapidly manifests, certifies and integrates secondary payloads on a suite of established and emerging launch and space transportation vehicles. Published commercial pricing reduces project planning and budgeting risks, and having a single point of contact simplifies integration efforts by enabling customers to plan to standardized processes while retaining access to multiple launch opportunities. Spaceflight has launch contracts to fly secondary payloads on several launch vehicles.
That’s funny, I had thought that Paragon was already on board. Perhaps they just upgraded?
Expanding ISS
I’d gotten a heads up about this over the holidays, but now it’s official:
- This new funded contract follows an unfunded agreement signed in 2011 under which Bigelow has worked on various “procedures and protocols for adding BEAM to the space station”.
- As indicated above, the module would be delivered to the station by either a SpaceX Falcon 9 or Orbital Antares rocket.
- BEAM would provide extra storage while also providing data and experience for both Bigelow and NASA on installing and using a module with a non-metal structure in a working space station environment.
It doesn’t sound like it will create more habitable volume, in terms of allowing bigger crews, but it will provide valuable experience, and allow more useful expansion later.
SpaceX’s Busy Year
…but not quite as busy as it looks. In addition to the points made, there will doubtless be delays. But it’s still great progress considering that the company didn’t exist a decade ago.
BTW, as an aside, note that in comments over there, Tom Elifritz actually sounds sane. I hope he’s doing better than historically.
Texas’s Budget Problem
It’s a good one to have.
I’d suggest returning it to the taxpayers with a reduction in sales or property tax rates. Show the rest of the country what a virtuous, and opposed to vicious cycle looks like.
Clueless Greens
We’re betting that this news won’t dent greens’ self-confidence. They will still insist that unless they are put in charge of the entire world economy we face disaster. The sad truth is that the more power they get, the more damage they do.
They don’t care about poor people. They don’t care about people at all, except themselves.
When Seconds Count
The FBI is years away.
Well, the head of the agency doesn’t even know how to use a computer.
Inflation
…since the Republic was founded. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that it accelerated about the time we abandoned the Constitution.
[Update a few minutes later]
Paul Krugman, economic soopergenius.
To Those Who Oppose The Constitution
A response:
…there always have been American Tories—people who chafe at restraints on central power and would prefer a British-style government. In recent years, as political “progressives” have gradually lost the scholarly battle over constitutional interpretation, some have stopped pretending the Constitution means whatever they want it to, and have begun to trash the document itself.
But the source of the claim is more shocking, because it comes from one who has taught constitutional law for 40 years. And who should know better.
Did the Constitution cause our present “fiscal chaos?” Quite the contrary. The crisis has arisen not because we followed the Constitution, but because we have allowed federal officials to ignore it. In the 1930s, the Supreme Court announced that it would stop enforcing the Constitution’s limits on federal spending programs. Without meaningful spending restraint, Congress became an auction house where lobbyists could acquire new money streams for almost anything—a redundant health care program; a subsidy for an uneconomic product; or a modern art museum in Indiana.
It is hard to believe there would be a fiscal crisis today if federal spending had remained within the Constitution’s generous but limited boundaries.
…Although it is true, as Professor Seidman states, that politicians have violated the Constitution, it is rarely true that we have been better off for it. The breaches have included incarceration of innocent citizens during World War II, ill-advised attempts to micro-manage the economy through monetary and regulatory policy, and unrestricted spending. We have lived to rue them all.
The thought of limited government is anathema to would-be tyrants. Read the whole thing, which demolishes the ad hominem arguments put forth by those who want to ignore our founding document.