Freedom in the Hills of New Hampshire

Well, I was going to write a post about how to not pay taxes, but I delayed too much and now I’m writing a post telling you about how I’m going to Germany.

I’m going to Germany.

I wasn’t going to go so that we could save money, but then I talked to my host family on the phone and realized how much I missed speaking German, being in Germany, and I really wanted to see them again. Add in the fact that this is probably going to be the last time I can travel easily, since we have one kid already and are planning more and we decided I ought to take the opportunity and go. Fortunately, plane tickets are pretty cheap still pre-memorial day. They’d be cheaper if it weren’t for stupid taxes and fees. Tickets for Haakon and I total cost $250. Taxes and fees were $300 some odd. Talk getting ripped off.

In preparation for my trip, I’ve been watching lots of German TV shows so that my German doesn’t sound like I haven’t been speaking it for 3 years. As a result of this, I have some really funny news stories my libertarian readers might be interested in.

As a result of the “Wirtschaftskrise” (economic crisis), many Germans have seen their retirement funds oblitarated and while there is a similar Social Security scheme, many have private funds as well. So, in order to ease their pain, the German government is guaranteeing all retirement funds. This means that they won’t lose any value at all, ever. They won’t sink below the amount that you put in them (if I understood correctly) and this will be in effect until the economy recovers. Kind of makes me hope it doesn’t so I can see what they try next.

But that’s not the funny part. The reporter than stated that this was causing somewhat of a divide between old and young people and they interviewed a young person who stated that he did not think it was fair that the government was doing this. Then they interviewed an old person, who said, “I think it’s completely fair, but then again, I’m already retired!” That, my friends, should sum up the entirety of transfer payments.

The second humorous report involved a bunch of cars being smashed up that had “schrott” written on them and the reporter discussed something about “Umweltprämien” and a “Abwrackprämie” and how hundreds of thousands had yet to be paid them. So I looked it up on Wikipedia and discovered that the German government has been doing what the American government is thinking about doing: paying people to get rid of their old cars and buy new ones! The perceived benefits of this act are many fold: 1) people will buy new cars that are more friendly towards the enivornment (dubious, but ok) and 2) the autoindustry will be strengthened, since obviously only cars from the European 4 (analogous to the Big Three) can be purchased.

Sigh. Bastiat is spinning in his grave. It’s been hundreds of years since he first disproved the idea that doing such things could have any economic benefit whatsoever but politicians apparently know better. I mean, heck, the people get money for new cars so they’re happy and the politicians get more power, so they’re happy. It’s a win-win situation!