Done with classes, exams, schoolwork.

Finally; what a relief. Now I get to do more interesting things this summer: internships, freelance jobs, etc. Technical work primarily. My last piece of work was an essay on libertarianism and Ron Paul; about 7 pages, not bad. Anyway, I also have to visit colleges and work on applications this summer, along with the various work I do this summer (more on that later). I’m going to try updating more often this summer.

Quick update

Well, I am a bit tired, and so I don’t have anything substantial to say. Instead, here are some random things.

I spent most of the afternoon working on research for a paper, and I have two runs of Urinetown (tonight and tomorrow night). Both tech week and school have been exhausting. Fortunately, the end of the year is approaching, and I feel that my plans will successfully bring me to the end with all my work done on time and done well.

Last night I tried to explain libertarianism to some of the actors in between scenes, but I don’t know if I explained myself coherently. What I do remember is that I was dehydrated and hungry, so I am going to make sure that I am not affected by those problems tonight.

Why Socialism is discredited

Ludwig von Mises wrote a book called Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis which explained that socialism and its related systems do not work because there is no way to do economic calculations which are necessary to efficiently allocate goods for production. It is available here.
F. A. Hayek wrote The Road to Serfdom which explained that all socialist systems must devolve to totalitarianism. Oh well.
Anyway, that should clear that up.

Spring Musical at School

So, I have been working on the tech crew for the spring musical, which is Urinetown. It claims to be a criticism of capitalism, but it is not. I think the main problem is that the writer, Greg Kotis probably does not know what capitalism is. Capitalism is a system involving voluntary exchanges of goods and services. Both the pre- and post-revolutionary systems of Urinetown resemble Socialist systems.
In the pre-revolutionary system, there is no free market in the use of toilets. One can only use the public toilets, which are pay-to-use, and it seems that this money goes back directly to the government. The Urine Good Company (groan) is effectively an arm of the government that is a perfect copy of most real government “services”. It only survives because a static economic situation has been created. The purpose that the UGC serves, which is to maintain water levels in a drought, would be rendered useless if an efficient water purification system was created.
The post revolutionary system has removed the pay-to-use aspect of the UGC, but is still maintains a monopoly on bathrooms. Soon, the people die, because the lack of a free market and the disturbance of the static economic situation means that there is no economic calculation system; the law of supply and demand can do no work here.
In both situations, the effects of the drought would have easily been mitigated under a free market, because the cost of water would have been raised, reducing the usage of water without any top-down coercion; at the same time, demand for water purification would lead to a boom in this market, soon destroying the effects of the drought, while keeping everyone alive in the meantime.
At the end of the musical, there is a piece entitled “Hail, Malthus”. Well, I hate to be the one to break it, but Malthus has been discredited; the fact that I can waste time writing this testifies to that. The free market is not a zero sum game; the saying “make money” is true under such a system (voluntary exchanges increase the value of money). Any time a good decreases in supply, it becomes more expensive, and the demand lessens, and new goods tend to fill the gap. Oh well. Greg Kotis is a playwright; feelings are the rule, who cares about reason?

Fears.

Well, I’ve got the end of this year, then senior year, then college, and then it’s time to use what I’ve learn and make money. Ok, sounds good; it makes sense that life requires effort, mental and physical. However, I have a few fears.
I’ve been hearing about this thing known as political correctness, which says that I can’t say various things, and have to feel guilty about being born, about being a white American male, because some enraged groups demands it. When I first heard of it, I believed that it was unimportant; nobody could be that crazy, right? Well, I’ve now been hearing that this sort of irrational behavior exists on the majority of college campuses; in fact, when I get to college, I will probably have to put up with all sorts of garbage. Heck, being a libertarian will probably make it worse for me; my political ideology probably offends all of those socialists who cannot figure out how to prove their ideology using logic. And when I get a job, if I am at a large company, I’ll have to put up with things that are named sensitivity training and team building; having any strong opinion, or disagreeing with any person will probably get me in trouble.
Violence seems to have gotten worse; there seems to be more psychopaths and sociopaths. I am going to need to be able to defend myself, but if I am not allowed to carry a gun, what hope do I have? Apparently, the majority of (gun based) mass murders have occurred in gun-free zones; every time they happen, the screams for more gun control get louder. The gun-grabby types seem like members of a cult of death; they deny us any means to even hope to defend ourselves, as though they want us to give up and let ourselves be murdered by the mindless. I feel sickened every time some person demands gun bans, because I think of myself being robbed and killed, unable to defend myself against violence.
I don’t know why, but it seems that there is a broken culture in America, a culture of giving up, both mentally and physically. I want to be able to live my life, to accomplish my goals and take pride in my successes, without the fear of violence (and a lack of defense against it) hanging over my head.