Joel Gross's Blog

All of my socialist and far left friends, what would you think of the adoption of these policies? Rent caps / abolition, communalized department stores, nationalizing businesses, etc:

We demand the nationalization of all businesses which have been formed into corporations (trusts).

We demand profit-sharing in large industrial enterprises.

We demand the creation and maintenance of a healthy middle class, the immediate communalizing of big department stores, and their lease at a cheap rate to small traders, and that the utmost consideration shall be shown to all small traders in the placing of State and municipal orders.… read more “Socialists Policy Platform”

Every single one of the worst dictators of the last century was a socialist – Chairman Mao Zedong, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Kim Il Sung, Fidel Castro, Nicolas Ceausescu, Saddam Hussein, Muammer Gaddafi, Nicolas Maduro, Kim Jong Un, and Pol Pot. Do a search on any of them to read about their atrocities against their own people.… read more “Every One of the Worst Dictators Started as a Socialist”

Seattle and New York City both elected socialists as mayor in the last couple of weeks. How do you think absolute dictators came to rule over people in Germany, China, Russia, and North Korea? It seems like a pretty diverse array of countries with very different cultures? These dictators were all from socialist parties and all promised that the government would solve the problems facing the people.… read more “Socialists are here to help!”

The far left believe that you should not be able to keep the money you work for. They believe they have a right to use the government to steal the product of your labor.

The problem is once the government starts stealing from those who work, they stop working. When everyone stops working, the government has to force people to work.… read more “Don’t take from those who work”

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?”