nonprofit ≠ not profitable

without a doubt, the biggest scam in america is the entire concept of “nonprofit” organizations. and these guys are making a mint.

this quote is from a baltimore sun article:

Seven of the state's 501(c)(3) organizations - charities, the most common nonprofits - paid more than $1 million in salary and benefits to at least one official during their 2003 fiscal year, according to the most recent Internal Revenue Service data consistently available. Thirty shelled out more than $500,000, a Sun analysis found.

granted, the number and complexity of these monstrosities are expanding at an alarming rate, so we should expect to see higher salaries.

but you need to understand that the biggest secret of all about these “nonprofits” is that the only difference between them and a regular company is that they don’t have shareholders. (there are other restrictions, but they amount to little more regulation than any for-profit company is subject to.)

but if shareholders aren’t keeping an eye on the board as it sets executive compensation, who is?

effectively, no one.

non-profits are subject only to pressure from decreased donations, be they government aid or private donors.

but with non-profits reporting – rather conservatively, and according to generally lax rules – millions of dollars spent lobbying every year, why spoil the party? if you think for one second that a politician would say “no” to spending your tax money on a non-profit in exchange for campaign money, you should have your children and small animals taken from you.

and then there’s you, the donor. how are you supposed to know that when you donate the national federation for the blind, only 20% of your donation will go directly to helping the blind?

so what is there to do?

remove the politicians and make charities compete.

the bums go on strike... from other people's jobs

i first encountered this phenomenon when, in a truly surreal moment, i watched dick butkus
stand in front of walgreens and lead a black chorus in a negro spiritual.

well, it wasn’t a negro spiritual, per se. but i had the definite sense that someone was capitalizing on a struggle in which he played no part. (or, at least, no constructive part.)

our worst fears have been realized, and the vicious subcontracting cycle has finally reached the bottom rung of the economic ladder. it is now common practice for labor organizers to hire homeless people to do their protesting for them.

“…the union carpenters couldn't afford to put aside their work and join the protest.”

however, it seems that they can afford to 1) hire organizers who 2) pay protesters to march around and sing in front of 3) giant, inflatable rats.

i’m not saying there’s anything wrong with asking for a raise. i’m just saying that there’s got to be a better way to go about it than hiring one of bill swerski’s superfans to give out money so a bunch of addicts can get back on the nod a.s.a.p.

let firms hire mediators, arbitrators, counselors. almost anything would be better than the n.l.r.b. and their political driveling.

myth & property

last summer, i went to hawai’i to visit my girlfriend, who was there to study law and surfing (but not the law of surfing). to kill time before her meeting with a state senator, we took a tour of the state capitol.

usually i hate tours, but a hawai’i boasts one of the most interesting public buildings i’ve ever seen. also making it easier was the fact that our guide was a very nice local woman who served double-duty as some sort of secretary. she told us all about the island and the building, and local customs and culture.

not surprisingly, the locals are still a bit peeved that the doles and various other dead, white people came and brought with them their western concept of “property.” now, without delving into the history and politics of the bayonet constitution, i will say that somewhere along the line, someone got a raw deal.

but what amazed me was her concept of hawai’ian society before westernization. “you see,” she explained, “before the europeans came, no one ‘owned’ the land. the islanders were custodians of the land, and it belonged to the gods. we just took care of it.”

and all i could think was, whoever came up with that lie was effing brilliant.

so, to commemorate this shining moment in history, i composed this one-act play.

i’m now proud to present :

“talk to the gods”
by: afuturehead

hawai’i, circa a really long time ago. a peon farmer cowers before his mighty king.

“hey, king?”

“yes, peon farmer?”

“let’s say there’s this guy, right? we’ll call him… leon. yeah, leon farmer. and he – for some crazy reason that i literally cannot even grasp with my tiny, not-royal mind – he questions your legitimacy and doesn’t see why all the land should be yours and why we can’t own it. what would you say to this person who is obviously insane and definitely not me?”

“ummm… lemme think. because… uh… oh wait, i know! you see, peon farmer, we all know that you don't own the land. you're much too stupid and smelly for that. but you see, neither do i -- this land belongs to the gods! we’re just taking care of it for them. and in order for us to take care of it, i have to tell you what to do, and you have to give me half of your food in return.”

“ahhhh! ok. good to know. i thought that was all just because your dedication to violence afforded you the most power. gosh, thanks for clearing all that up! well, i better get back to doing what you tell me to, then giving you half of my stuff. thanks, king!”

“no problem.”

[exit peon]

(king, to guard) “have that peon farmer burned alive. also, find leon farmer and have him burned alive.”

and then, the monarch sold everyone’s land to the europeans and got really, really rich.

fin.

high and tight

i love france. i love my family there. i love the food. i love the art and the music. i love the fact that they have produced the likes of robert pires, thierry henry, and zinedine zidane.

but mostly i love france because it's the only place in the world where a footballer can dedicate a goal to his hairdresser and not a single person will make fun of him.

euthanasia

activists -- especially students -- are drawn to anything caught between a rock and a hard place. how could one not be moved to act when healthcare and pharmaceutical costs are now so high that senior citizens are forced to choose between food and medicine?

and so we join, in throngs, the battle against evil healthcare corporations.

alas, we are all too quick to blame industry and the spectre of capitalism for driving costs through the roof and robbing us of our “right” to healthcare. for few who point to the aforementioned hobson’s choice seem to have considered the fact that thirty years ago, this decision was not so difficult for our octogenarians: they ate their food, and they died.

we didn’t even have a treatment for parkinson’s, much less a bevy of erectile dysfunction medication, until within the last decade.

what has changed between then and now is not that healthcare costs so much today, it is that we now have the ability to purchase, and thus spend, so much more on curing our various ailments. high prices are simply a byproduct of dedicating to medicine an amount of resources unparalleled in history.

this notion rarely elicits a meaningful reply. the typical, bewildered response is to ask how we could possibly question our legal and ethical obligations to care for our own. unwavering proponents of natural rights declare that the value of human life transcends all other considerations and unites americans with even a shred of moral fabric, left and right, blue- and red-state.

besides the question of our practical abilities, do-gooders have overlooked what is really at stake in this controversy over physician-assisted suicide: our freedom to choose.

we have yet to come to an understanding as to precisely what sort of life we seek to protect, so doctors are stuck in the default position of being ethically bound to protect all life. in doing so, we force our society to spend exorbitant amounts of money prolonging the part of life that many find the least fulfilling.

these obligations have led us to some quite irrational legal results. a physician may withhold “heroic” measures if they are already being administered, but cannot otherwise bring life to an end. any act that brings peace is deemed criminal unless the life is wholly dependent upon medical wizardry.

now, there is good reason to prohibit assisted suicide in certain problematic situations, but the existing distinction turns solely on the physician’s actions and utterly ignores the patient’s needs and desires.

meanwhile, we hinder any and all actions that might shorten one’s life but bring greater overall happiness (except alcohol, the boorish drug for the boorish nation).

some of this obstruction is accounted for by what i would call “torts of regret” -- lawsuits that blame others for deliberate tradeoffs made earlier in one’s life. (“surgeon general? never heard of him. *cough* *hack*”) but these efforts should not surprise us, given our society’s unhealthy fixation on benchmarks, be they stock prices, income, or our average life expectancy.

the baby boom is retiring, and laws designed to protect life are set to become manacles on our generation. social security and medicare/medicaid reform will not be enough. what we need, in order to free our future generations from a crushing burden, is to establish the individual right to terminate his or her own life.

of course, many will see this as an impossible proposition, one that debases life.

but might we not also see it as a tribute? our forefathers risked, and many sacrificed, their lives so that we could live – and die – in peace.

perhaps, instead of forcing our doctors’ blind adherence to the hippocratic oath, we should allow individuals to improve their quality of life as seen fit. for some people, this will mean bringing it to a peaceful and deliberate conclusion.

my father likes to quote garrison keillor, who might have said it best:

“the death of an old man is not a tragedy.”

water, water everywhere

early last summer, i was lucky enough to spend two weeks in southern california. but i was unlucky because its blisteringly hot days found me in the shade and, for the most part, alone thanks to my pasty, east-coast complexion, inapposite among the bronzed locals.

to maintain my dignity, i had to make lemonade from an otherwise sour situation. so, i took it upon myself to ponder the divide between our nation’s coasts (aside from the swath of red states lying between them). but the thought of lemonade made me thirsty, and being surrounded by flowing water made it so much worse.

funny, i thought, how in the heat of summer and in the dry air of the california desert, people would just let water run. it gushed from sprinklers and fountains everywhere, joining streams in the streets and emptying into storm drains. it made islands in the road literally so as it poured out of haphazard pipes, for no apparent reason other than flooding tiny patches of soil (i can only assume that the grass died from over-watering).

this made me think that with a little elbow grease, i could turn a tidy profit collecting all this water and selling it. but no, surely someone would already have thought to do that. and moreover, why wouldn’t everyone do what amounts to the same thing by reducing their water consumption and saving on their water bill?

later that day i erupted in archimedean euphoria at the sight of a banner for water conservation. when i was finished, i found my friends – who had stolen away – and explained my euphoria. if the city were really concerned about conservation, they would just raise prices. but here’s the genius part: they could give what’s saved to those who value it more – even in other areas – and then return that value to the consumer as a discount on his bill. that way, no one would lose.

the problem is that california, like most places, lacks an efficient water property system and allocates water rights by use. this means that if the city stops using the water, it can’t direct who gets it, and there cannot be a mutual gain. what’s worse, there is actually incentive to waste water, just to preserve one’s rights therein.

this system of political control does not incorporate the opportunity cost of the water, which is how much outsiders would value it and, hence, what they would pay for it. the key to efficient use – or “conservation” – is to let people capitalize on the situation through a free market.

of course, the slightest hint of commoditization raises alarms (alienation!!!!!), especially in california. but there need not be an evil water conglomerate; all that is needed is a central authority to enforce a few simple rules, monitor “accounts,” and keep track of private bargains – in other words, a bank. the rest could be left to competition. furthermore, there could, and should, be competition between those banks.

and those who fear unbridled consumption must be blind to the fact that people are currently wasting water precisely because they are not paying for it. the best way to conserve is to let people save money by reducing consumption, and the best way to preserve is to let owners invest to protect these resources for the future.

to each according to his need is a great idea. but when allocating a scarce resource – which is any resource – pricing by a valid market provides the best way to include others in their consumption choices and, thus, balance competing interests. with the state of today’s science, an open market can preserve and conserve better than any government.

idiotmatic

it’s amazing how easy it is to end up saying absolutely nothing when you don’t understand the idiom you’re using. witness this comment from one of my law school's professors, which was -- regrettably -- chosen as a pull-quote in the school paper:

“we really need to start training students in the uses and pitfalls of film in the courtroom. law schools are way behind the 8-ball” [emphasis added].

of course, if she meant that, being way behind the eight ball and therefore unlikely to scratch, law schools are on top of things, my point is moot. but who am i kidding?

a new anarcho-capitalist paradigm

this is something i posted in the anarcho-capitalist forum. check out the wikipedia page if you need a primer.

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i was thinking hard about intellectual property a few days ago and as my mind wandered onto grander things, i had a small ephiphany and saw a new agenda for anarcho-capitalists. i'll try to convey my thought process as best i can.

i began by trying to answer this question: what is the value of i.p. law? i know we usually talk about incentives, etc., but i was trying to look at it another way: from a perfect contracting perspective (since laws can properly be considered pre-fab contracts).

putting aside higher-order issues such as simultaneous invention and authorship, i focused on copyright and piracy. the question i had was, when and why would one consent to laws such as the d.m.c.a.?

the answer i struck upon was this: given our potential for opportunistic behavior, it could very well be pareto-optimal to consent to some sort of punishment regime and thereby lend credibility to your side of the bargain. that way, rather than force the musician to hire an encryption expert, you can just say: "look, if i'm caught by this auditing agency [the government, in this case], i'll get punished and you know i don't want that."

in an anarcho-capitalist society, i believe things would work out roughly the same, but as a more efficient manifestation. for example, i could choose the auditing agency i want, and musicians could choose their consumers, rather than have them allocated by geography and inheritance. also, chances are that my auditing agency would do some due diligence and adjust my punishment according to the tenets of marginalism.

if the potential for opportunistic behavior can pave the way for pareto-optimal consent to punishment (now known as law), this has some surprisingly broad implications. first, in an anarcho-capitalist society, people would voluntarily choose to join groups that invade their privacy in the name of full disclosure. what's more, people would even volunteer to be part of a punishment regime.

importantly, i believe that this latter point supports the anarcho-capitalist critique of classic anarchism. classic anarchists are likely to say that withdrawing consent at any time violates our "free will" or "natural rights," or somesuch nonsense. thus, one could change one's mind at any time, paving the way for opportunistic behavior. crucially, i believe that this forms the basis of their mistaken belief that capitalism requires the state. the more accurate thesis is that it is not "the state" which is necessary for capitalism to benefit a society, it is merely enforcement, which can be provided in the absence of the usual statist voting regimes, geographical fixation, and nationalism.

i also believe that fully incorporating the utility of credibility can help make ours a positivist philosophy, rather than have us come off as simply nihilistic anarchists. to me, the most important question is always, "well, then what?" so we get rid of government, how do we build a better society? i submit that the study of how people would choose credibility-providers in the absence of the state helps fill this theoretical void, while remaining within the bounds of economic theory.

additionally, i think it may help to counter statist critiques of anarcho-capitalism. namely, if efficiency and its analogues are based on choice, and (assuming) people chose governments, how can they be inefficient? furthermore, how do you explain the indisputable success of capitalist nations?

with all this in mind, i think we might help refine anarcho-capitalism and put some distance between it and classic anarchism (and its failings) by focusing our critique on populism, geography, and the nationalist mythology.

"consumer protection"

so the better business bureau of greater maryland issued a consumer protection bulletin regarding psychics, called "Psychics and Clairvoyant Counselors Are You a Believer?"

you might think it would contain warnings such as "don't be a fuckwit," or "if you're even considering it while sober, please sterilize yourself."

sadly, you'd be wrong.

my favorite tips are:

"Get a referral. Ask a friend or contact a reputable organization, such as a psychic research center or alternative bookstore."

and,

"Be cautious if an advisor indicates that you have a curse, hex, etc. which will require frequent returns in order to remove."