July 17, 2021

Another Manhattanite Mugged By Reality: The Case Of Maud Maron

July 17, 2021/ Francis Menton

Further to Jane’s post a couple of days ago about the political conversion of her friend Jackie (“Interview With Jackie,” July 14), I thought that readers might be interested in a similar story involving a somewhat more public resident of Manhattan named Maud Maron. Maron was the subject of a post by Bari Weiss at her Substack site on July 12, with the title “A Witch Trial at the Legal Aid Society.”
Maron’s story gives a good indication of just how difficult it is to think independently and break free of the Manhattan groupthink, particularly if you want to have any kind of public profile.
Weiss’s post contains substantial biographical information about Maron that paints her as being, until recently, a rather typical left-wing Manhattan Democrat.

July 14, 2021

Interview with Jackie: How the Combination of Living in Spain and Covid-19 Turned a Liberal Into a Libertarian

July 14, 2021/ Jane Menton

I’ve known Jackie for at least a decade. I met her while she was working at a local gym as a personal trainer, a grueling 12 hour/day job. A few years ago, she was experiencing burnout and decided to move to Spain to teach English in primary school.
We reconnected a few weeks ago after not speaking for a few years. As we were catching up it became clear to me that several of her political opinions had changed. I remembered her as a typical New York liberal and now she sounded like … a libertarian.
Jackie didn’t hesitate to share how the combination of living abroad in a country with a more socialized economy, plus the global turmoil of the Covid-19 pandemic, had completely transformed her political views. She described it as a multi-year political awakening. There were several turning points and several steps.
I asked if she would be willing to share her experience and she readily agreed. The following essay consists of excerpts from an interview we did, edited for length and clarity.

July 13, 2021

July 13, 2021/ Francis Menton

In our freedom-based economic system, we are accustomed to economic growth of a percent or two or three every year. How does that happen?
Every person with a private business quickly catches on that they can make a little more money if they can just figure out how to make the product a little better, or a little more efficiently, or with slightly less input material or labor. Millions of people working independently on this project in the aggregate deliver a little economic growth most every year.
Meanwhile, socialism follows the incentive system of the bureaucracy. If you are the business manager, your superior in the central planning bureau headquarters has no idea whether the product you are making is any good or not. Your way to get ahead is to convince that guy that you need a bigger budget and more staff to accomplish your mission.
Each year you use more people and more materials to produce less and lower quality product. In the aggregate, the economy is shrinking,

July 10, 2021

July 10, 2021/ Francis Menton

The great thing about our freedom-based economic system is that the government doesn’t have to do much at all in order for the people to prosper and the economy to grow. Just sit back and watch the people create businesses, put each other to work, and provide for every imaginable human need.
But we now have a government in the hands of people who hate America and hate its freedom-based system. The current administration is actively working to undermine the American economy and advance the interests of our geopolitical adversaries.
In no area is this more true than the field of energy. In this field, the Biden Administration came in with the explicit goal of undermining American energy production. Indeed if an administration wanted to undermine American energy prosperity as much as possible and comparably benefit our adversaries, it is difficult to think of anything it would do different from what the Biden Administration is doing.

July 08, 2021

July 08, 2021/ Francis Menton

In the 2019 off-year election here in New York City, there was almost no reason to bother to vote. There were no elections on the ballot for any significant political office, whether federal, state, or local. But they took the occasion to put to the voters five propositions to amend the New York City Charter. One of those propositions provided for replacement of then-current voting procedures with a complicated “ranked choice voting” (RCV) system. Nobody can remember what the other four Charter amendment propositions were about. (Go here if you are curious.)
Throughout New York City in the recent election, voters had to contend with multiple races with five or ten or even more candidates running. In my own district, besides the race for Mayor, there was a race for City Comptroller, one for Manhattan District Attorney, and another one for City Councilman. All had large fields for voters to learn about and then rank.
The newly-proposed system in 2019 seemed overly complicated to me, and I didn’t see what was wrong with the occasional runoff. But RCV was pitched as a form of “instant runoff.” It won with about a 3-1 majority.
Now we have just had our first experience with the new system.

July 05, 2021

July 05, 2021/ Francis Menton

What is the most important defining characteristic of today’s progressive left movement? My answer to that question would be, hatred of America and everything it stands for.
The progressive looks at today’s United States, and all he can see are flaws. And he thinks he has a vision that can, through the magic powers of government coercion, fix all those flaws in short order.
Ask college-age kids what they dislike most about America, and the answer you are likely to get is “capitalism.”
But what is “capitalism”? The funny thing is that it’s not an “ism” at all.