Author: Joel Gross

Our new baby is a lot of work and a lot of lost sleep. My wife does the majority of the work, but I still lose a lot of sleep and productivity.

I am a libertarian and prefer minimal government involvement, but if the government is to do anything in the entitlements area, I think there is a good case to be made to pay mothers.… read more “New baby + state pay for women with children”

Government building over-regulation makes housing far more expensive and generic for everyone. Building code mandates one way, a quite expensive way, of building homes. It forces builders to use old techniques despite advancing technology. If cars were over-regulated in the same way housing is, you would still have everyone driving Model T Fords!

We can maintain safety levels in housing without regulations by simply making builders personally liable for issues and removing the limited liability protection.… read more “Model T Housing”

Why is housing so expensive? When the far left passes laws making it very costly to build new apartments and houses, builders stop doing new construction. This constricts supply and demand grows and causes prices to shoot up.

Then in response, the far left seems even more control and passes rent caps. Landlords respond by quitting upkeep on their buildings since there is no money for it and ghettos are created.… read more “Why is housing expensive?”

We all have watched so many TV shows and movies, and read so many books, that we look at real life like it is a storybook. The main character always wins in the end.

These stories are fun, but wildly misleading. We have basically brainwashed ourselves through our entertainment into thinking life is a narrative.

In real life, the good guys often do not win.… read more “Stories”

Fixer upper junk homes in Seattle now cost over $800,000 according to this article. https://archive.is/Vf9cJ

Why?

Government over-regulation drives up costs in every area:
-Approvals and permits required dozens of times, each requiring substantial time, effort, and money to obtain.
-Purchases of new houses have taxes used for racist policies discriminating against asians, whites, and others.… read more “Seattle fixer uppers $800,000”

I am selling a small piece of land to a guy who wants to build a home for his family in rural Pierce County. As part of splitting a parcel of land, Pierce County has many layers of bureaucrats that must provide approvals. One of these layers is “Archaeology”… basically looking for supposed artifacts before you are allowed to build.… read more “SCAM: Archaeological “Surveys” in Washington State”

What happens when you stop paying your military? The military often will launch a coup or simply see its combat effectiveness collapse. The government shutdown is a disaster.

I beat my drum about shrinking the federal government, but shutting it down arbitrarily including the parts we very much need is idiotic.

How is this even the mechanism we ended up with for situations in which we don’t pass spending bills?… read more “The government shutdown is a disaster”

I have read thousands of sci fi and fantasy books now and have been running out of good ones to read, so I asked AI for recommendations based on other books I liked. Gemini recommended I read Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio. I bought the book for $10.

I tried reading it and got about 11% in and just could not go further it was so poorly written.… read more “Book Review: Empire of Silence”