Humpday Humor: Government Buildings

The Department of Labor in Washington, D.C.

Photo credit: Benny Johnson 

Check out more awesome government buildings at BuzzFeed

Putting War Casualties in Perspective

52,000 U.S. soldiers suffered serious physical wounds during the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.  These are the men and women who were lucky enough to make it out of the war zones alive.

52,000 is a hard number to comprehend.  Here are a few attempts to put the number of war casualties in perspective:

• 52,000 is nearly identical to the entire student body at the University of Texas in Austin    
• 52,000 is slightly more than the total number of adult males in Jackson, Mississippi (the state capital)
• 52,000 almost equals the combined number of people working in the U.S. forest, conservation and logging industries
• 52,000 is the total number of employees at Google

Now imagine a scenario where each subset of people listed above have all sustained serious injury. 

The potential ingenuity, productivity, enjoyment and resources created by these 52,000 people at full strength is immense.  Thanks to these two invasions we have all sustained a great magnitude of loss with the steepest burden felt by the surviving war veterans.

  

Property Rights on The Rocks in Texas

Eloisa Tamez and fence on neighboring property.
  
(Photography by Jeff Wilson)

Because the state just enjoys dividing people...a tragic story from Texas:

Following two years of courtroom battles with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the agency got the go-ahead in 2009 to extend its controversial border fence across her land.  Since then, roughly 75 percent of her formerly three-acre lot has been behind a steel barrier, land that's now the property of the federal government.* 

This is an example proving that property rights are not enforced in Texas.

You may think you own land but how is that possible if someone else can come along and take it from you in exchange for payment they deem appropriate?


*From The Texas Tribune

The Nearly Free University

With millions of third party payers artificially boosting demand for higher education it's very difficult to estimate the real cost of a college degree.

In this clip from the Tom Woods Show, author Charles Hugh Smith speculates about the cost of "higher education" in a free market.  Do you think it's closer to $120,000 or $5,000?

To learn more about the declining costs of education be sure to check out Charles Hugh Smith's new book "The Nearly Free University"...

File Under: Medicaid Fraud

The Texas Tribune reports on the most recent case of Medicaid fraud:

State spending on orthodontic services spiraled out of control: Between 2003 and 2010, Texas Medicaid payments for orthodontic services grew by more than 3,000 percent — from $6.5 million to $220.5 million — while program enrollment only grew 33 percent.

Just the state being swindled out of millions of your dollars, again.

Funny that you never hear about Starbucks squandering billions of dollars which lead to a 3,000% jump in coffee prices.  The people who serve you coffee seem to be better stewards of resources then the people who collect the taxes.    

Humpday Humor: IRS Unaware of File Back-Up Services

Email exchanges for at least seven IRS employees are lost because of habitual computer crashes at the agency.  To investigate the unfortunate situation the U.S. has spent $10,000,000.

The money quote from the news item:

IRS technicians went to great lengths trying to recover data from Lerner's computer in 2011.  Technicians said they sent the computer to a forensic lab run by the agency's criminal investigations unit. But to no avail.

Message to the IRS: File back-up services exist.    

Story from the AP 

Malinvestment is Poison says Charles Hugh Smith

Charles Hugh Smith explains "How Malinvestment Poisons the Entire Economy":

Today's asset bubbles in stocks, junk bonds, housing, art, bat guano futures, etc. are being driven by the Federal Reserve, which has replaced the nuisance of no-document liar loans with unlimited liquidity for bankers, financiers and insiders. The super-wealthy and corporate cronies can borrow as much nearly free money as they want from the Fed, without even bothering with qualifying for the credit.

Read more at OfTwoMinds.com 

State Induced Chaos in Iraq

The showdown between the "Republic of Iraq" and the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" has led to massive chaos and violence in the city of Mosul.

 

As these few thousand people calling themselves "the state" waste resources to achieve political gains, 500,000 non-state people flee.

Security checkpoint in Kurdistan (Getty Images)

The Australian Navy buys American

Raytheon's Evolved Seasparrow Missile or ESSM

Last month the U.S. Department of Defense awarded Raytheon $30,891,282.

What did the Navy ask for in exchange for the 30 million bucks?  A bunch of missile's for the military's of...Australia and the Netherlands.

People in Tucson, Arizona will be manufacturing the missiles.  They will be ready for use by 2017.

Is the next president of the U.S. already planning a war?

The Booming Brazilian Riot Gear Market

Supporters of a native community living at the Indian Museum
are hit with pepper spray. (Rio de Janeiro, March 2013, Reuters/Ricardo Moraes)

Two weeks ahead of the month-long World Cup the people calling themselves "Brazil" have stocked up on non-lethal weapons.  Why?

Reuters reports that the state is expecting small "anti-government protests" during the Cup.

The people of Brazil are not so pleased with the government spending nearly $4 billion (US) of taxpayer funds on a dozen soccer stadiums.  Not to mention the state paving over an Indian museum in Rio de Janeiro and arresting the native residents who have lived there for eight years. This to make room for a parking lot outside the stadium.      

Police, military and politicians are confiscating another $850 million for World Cup security.

But no need to worry concerned taxpayer of Brazil.  The Defense Minister said:

"If troops have to use weapons, they will first use non-lethal arms"

"First".  

Police Arresting Indians at an Indian Museum in Rio.
(March 2013, AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Are Cities Smartening Up About the Olympics?

Not the most efficient use of resources. 

After multiple cities have removed their bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics the organizers are having a tough time selling the event.  Why are potential host cities reluctant?  They have finally figured out that massive projects built for one-time use is a big waste of scarce resources.

Regarding the Olympics The Guardian reports:

It's blisteringly expensive to put together, doesn't improve infrastructure as much as anybody claims and will almost certainly leave a wonky legacy of deserted ski-jumps and bobsleigh tracks littered around the host city.

Abandoned pool in Helsinki

   
We can hope this small show of constraint on the part of event organizers, sponsors and politicians is a building block for sanity.  Barring taxpayer funds entirely from supporting the Olympics would be a nice culmination.  The world doesn't need more unused cement ditches.

Another Housing Bubble?!?!

It seems that bankers and home buyers the world over have already forgotten about last decade's housing bubble.  Loose lending standards, low down payment requirements and really cheap credit have contributed to another housing boom.

From The Sydney Morning Herald:

Nominal house prices have risen 29 per cent in Australia, 28 per cent in Canada and 61 per cent in Israel, form the first quarter of 2009 to now, according to Goldman Sachs.

We are talking about returns of 6%+ per year from housing during The Great Recession.

Let's remember what a house actually is, a depreciating asset that costs money to maintain.  It should not increase in value unless the land it sits on becomes more desirable.  Increased appeal of land is logical in some cases (i.e. an oil discovery) but land values should remain very stable over centuries.

Things like this shouldn't occur...  

Boom > Bust (from OfTwoMinds.com)

  
So what will be the conclusion to this most recent housing bubble?

Drone Crash in Texas

A drone for your local SWAT team
(AP Photo/Lance Bertolino, Vanguard Defense Industries)

Police are searching for a drone which crashed in Lake Conroe, Texas last week.  The robot, which could be fitted with a grenade launcher, malfunctioned while the sheriff's were practicing flying over the lake.

In addition to the $250,000 cost of the drone, more resources are being wasted as divers are spending time on a search and rescue mission of the flying machine.  

From the Houston Chronicle.  

150 Troops to Kill One Man?

The Mexican navy killed one of the leaders of the "Knights Templar" gang last week.  The GlobalPost reported that over 150 troops were needed to take out this one man.

So what heinous crime was the gang leader accused of?  Supplying the American consumer with crystal meth.

Save lives.  Decriminalize drugs.  

The Greatest Investment Return on Earth

The Interpublic Group is one of the world's largest advertising agencies and is parent company of McCann.  OpenSecrets.org tells us that Interpublic invested about $800,000 in political bribes during the 2012 U.S. election cycle.  Add another $100,000 per year in non-election campaign style bribes and they are looking at an investment of almost one million dollars.

So what does Interpublic/McCann receive for these bribes?

Would you believe $565,128,853?

From an April 2013 U.S. Army press release:

               McCann World Group Inc., New York, N.Y., was awarded a modification to a previously awarded fixed-price-award-fee contract, with a maximum value of $192,114,076 for professional marketing and advertising services in support of personnel recruitment and retention programs throughout the Army.  The cumulative total face value of this contract is now $565,128,853.   

IPG investors and executives are getting a return on their money of 565-fold in just twelve months.

The U.S. Department of Defense is providing their favored investors with the greatest investment return on Earth. 

Billions Squandered at the Hoover Dam

Doug French at the Mises Institute explains why the Hoover Dam may be the "biggest malinvestment in history".

A few highlights from the article:

• Over 100 workers died on the job
• The construction costs in today's dollars were over $700 million
• 16,000 people worked on the dam

Today, the southwest U.S. including southern California has little to show for these investments save for a water-shortage, an unsustainable farming economy and a huge tax bill to bailout the dream of a few long-dead politicians.

Just imagine what all of those resources expended in the free market during the 1930's could have provided people in need of food, shelter, clothing, electricity and transportation.