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Taxation is Theft

Taxation, by any measure or method, is theft. Debating this with a statist can be an exercise in frustration, but can be a learning experience (for the statist) if they have an open mind and the ability to reason.

Anyone care to begin?

Quote from The Case for Discrimination

From Walter Block's book, the Case for Discrimination:

In the previous census, the female-male income ratio for 30-and-over never-marrieds was 99.2 percent; and in that year, the ratio rose to 109.8 percent for those with a university degree who were never married. That is, the average salary of females was 9.8 percentage points more than that of males.

Wait, what? Women with comparable education and experience earned more than men? If sexual "discrimination" exists, why do the statistics tell the opposite story? What does this tell us about the motives of policymakers and groups working to change what statistically appears to be a lack of "discrimination" through public policy?

The second nail emerges when we consider the exotic implications of the employer discrimination hypothesis of the pay gap. If this analysis were true, one would expect to find a systematic and positive relationship between profit levels and the number of women in the firm or industry.

Full book available free in electronic formats:

http://mises.org/document/6078

Coursera starts to turn a profit

The Silicon Valley-based company brought in $220,000 in the first quarter after it started charging for verified completion certificates, its co-founders said. The company also receives revenue from an Amazon.com affiliates program if users buy books suggested by professors.

People tend to treat things they pay for differently than things they receive for free, a common observation in economics. By encouraging students to take advantage of low-cost courses, they might see more students complete the courses rather than simply casually observing. The low costs for MOOCs and similar platforms help to make education more accessible and affordable. With just an Internet connection and a computer, companies like Coursera might well change the nature of education in the near future, leaving traditional institutions to fade into the past.

The vast majority of users are just dropping in to take free courses, but the company introduced a “Signature Track” to try to put more weight behind the end-of-course awards issued by universities that offer courses through its platform. Users who pay for this have to submit a photo ID of themselves to the company and are also tracked based on their “unique typing pattern” to ensure that people who take tests or turn in assignments are who they say they are. Prices are set around $50 so far.

Free to consumers does not mean free to produce, so profits are necessary to keep the company, and the idea, moving forward into the future. 

The company remains interested in keeping courses free, Koller said. That’s how the company took off in the first place, as one of the top providers of massive open online courses, or MOOCs. But a free course does not mean a free end product, so the company is looking at commercializing its certificates. It suggests users can put Signature Track certificates on their resumes as "professional development" or "additional coursework." Coursera is committed to only offering courses from elite universities.

More:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/04/08/coursera-begins-make-money

Statism and Student Debt

What most folks fail to umderstand is that government guarantees and student loan subsidization is a part of the cause of this constant increase in higher education costs, and is its greatest weakness since these increases are unsustainable and the bubble that this public policy creates also leads to its collapse. As Margaret Thatcher said, "the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." Statists tend to disregard this reality and favor violece (forced redistribution of wealth and resources), but theft is theft regardless of the cooorful language used.

Anti-tax Day in Auburn

For anyone lucky enough to be near Auburn, Alabama, the Mises Institute is holding an anti-tax day event. Should be both educational and enlightening.

"As Murray Rothbard pointed out, taxation is the worst method of looting us. Inflation, for example, is destructive, of course, and it might make a loaf of bread cost $10. But at least you get a loaf of bread. With taxation, you get nothing."

http://www.mises.org/WorkInProgress/MisesCirclePostcards/Apr2013HS.html

Build a School in the Cloud

Onstage at TED2013, Sugata Mitra makes his bold TED Prize wish: Help me design the School in the Cloud, a learning lab in India, where children can explore and learn from each other -- using resources and mentoring from the cloud. Hear his inspiring vision for Self Organized Learning Environments (SOLE), and learn more at tedprize.org. 

Educational researcher Sugata Mitra is the winner of the 2013 TED Prize. His wish: Build a School in the Cloud, where children can explore and learn from one another. Full bio »

Sugata Mitra: Build a School in the Cloud | Video on TED.com