The World Just Continues To Get Better & Better

National Review ^ | Sept 25, 2015 | Kevin D. Williamson

[expat_panama]

[snipets:]

From polio to poverty, we are winning. Well done, human race. Well done.

At the end of September, the Global Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication convened in Bali and, after reviewing the reports of its member nations, declared poliovirus type 2 eradicated in the wild. This was really only a bureaucratic stamp on a fact: The last case of type 2 polio was identified in Aligarh, India, in 1999. Thanks in no small part to...

***

Despite the no-knowthings who go around complaining that “we don’t make things here anymore,” the United States continues to make the very best of almost everything and, thanks to our relatively free-trading ways, to consume the best of everything, too. General-price inflation, the bane of the U.S. economy for some decades, is hardly to be seen. Flexible and effective institutions helped ensure that we weathered one of the worst financial crises of modern times with surprisingly little disruption in the wider economy. Despite politicians who would usurp our rights, our courts keep...

The world isn’t ending.

***

The world is healthier, wealthier, and less hungry mainly because of the efforts of millions of unknown investors, entrepreneurs, farmers, workers, bankers, etc., all working without any central coordinating authority. But the spread of those benefits to places such as India and China was the work of political actors, and the entrenchment of free enterprise will require...

***

...all the real problems and real solutions are terribly specific and particular and, being embedded in real conditions rather than theoretical conditions, resistant to purely ideological management. The world is getting better because real people are doing real work to make it better, not because your political preferences or mine are attached to some sort of Hegelianly inevitably capital-H History.

[TBP]

Yes, it does — much to the irritation of progressives.

[ShadowAce]

Not from a moral perspective, it's not.

Health, wealth, and other physical desires/needs--perhaps. But that doesn't make it "better."

[Buckeye McFrog]

Odds of being killed by a microorganism, down.

Odds of being killed by a sword-wielding Jihadi, way, way up.

[expat_panama]

--and a very happy 'feel good' Monday morning to all!!  Last week ended w/ a NASDAQ gap up in hefty volume and this morning futures traders say we now got another 0.68% in store.  They really ought to tell us the time frame tho, as SAJ was telling me this page doesn't say the contract date while this gloomy page does... Metals continue their controlled profit taking being seen by futures @ -0.31%.

In a few hours we'll be hearing about New Home Sales, and we already got plenty of interesting news blurbs:

Death to Capitalism at Marx's Grave? - Alistair MacDonald & Ese Erheriene
A War on Small Business by Big Govt & Business - Joel Kotkin, Daily Beast
Carl Icahn Is Right: Corporate Tax Is a Monstrosity - Editorial, Investor's
Walmart's Wage Increase Hurts Its Price - That's Ok - Bryce Covert, Nation
Unable to Fire Geo. Bush, Canada Voted Out Harper - John Tamny, Forbes
Why Africa's Economy Is In Grave Danger - Roger Bootle, Daily Telegraph
'Liquid Alts': Right Way to Protect Your Portfolio? - Sarah Max, Barron's
Why Earning Misstatements Come In Bunches - Gretchen Morgenson, NYT
Would ECB Easing Give Yellen Rate Hike Pass? - Joe Chidley, National Post
Central Bank Skeptic Who Helped Create the Fed - Roger Lowenstein, NYT
Roger Lowenstein Whitewashes Fed's Checkered History - Editorial, NYS
What GOP Should Ask For In the Debt-Ceiling Fight - Jeff Dorfman, RCM
Time to Simply Dump the Debt Ceiling - Robert Samuelson, Washington Post
Let's Honor Our Obligations, And Raise Debt Limit - Jack Lew, USA Today

[The_Media_never_lie]

So, we are winning the human race? How ‘bout a little human race baiting just to slow us down a bit?

[Gay State Conservative]

Isn't polio one of the medieval,Third World diseases that's on the rise in the US?

[expat_panama]

— much to the irritation of progressives.

That's for sure, you'd think they'd be happy about success but progressives are permanently in denial over any well, progress.

[expat_panama]

Not from a moral perspective, it's not.  Health, wealth, and other physical desires/needs--perhaps. But that doesn't make it "better."

Ah.  Then again, if you want you can always sicken in miserable squalor and enjoy pontificating about your moral superiority...

[ShadowAce]

Yeah—because those are the only two choices we have, right?

[citizen]

The radio news guy just said "Looks like a strong start on Wall Street, futures are up 11."

That's not very strong and they were down anyway at that point.

...progressives are permanently in denial over any well, progress.

Bush's fault. The 43 one, I mean.

[expat_panama]

Odds of being killed by a microorganism, down.  Odds of being killed by a sword-wielding Jihadi, way, way up.

Most folks threatened by "a sword-wielding Jihadi," have seen Indiana Jones.

Indiana Jones - Arab Swordsman Scene

[expat_panama]

...those are the only two choices we have...

Oh my goodness, you're right!  We're dooomed!!!!

Gloom, Despair & Agony...

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Hey, it’s the Democrat theme song.

[citizen]

IJones and the sword-wielding Jihadi were supposed to have a big fight scene but Ford was dealing w/ dysentery and told Spielberg “Let’s just shoot the sucker.” So they did.

Mega-stars (and super heroes) have real life problems to deal with sometimes.

[expat_panama]

...futures are up 11."   That's not very strong...

Hard to say which futures contracts they mean, but rechecking this morning's list here they've been trending up nicely.

[expat_panama]

imho it worked out a lot better.

Ford's a real trooper. He got his back super messed up on the elephant in the second movie and they had to shut the whole thing down and put him in the hospital.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Yeah—because those are the only two choices we have, right?

Shadow, dude, YOU were the first one to initiate the false choice....

[ShadowAce]

I mentioned no choices--I merely mentioned perspectives.

I agree that from a health/wealth perspective, we are better off. We are not better off from a moral perspective.

That's all I was saying.

[SVTCobra03]

The world is more corrupt, violent and depraved than ever before. And it is about to get much, much worse. The Great Restrainer is loosing his grip and demonic activity is increasing exponentially. Don’t take the Mark.