Mises Lecture

Took the day off from work today, to attend a seminar at the Mises Institute. The Seminar was titled "Does Alabama Need More Taxes." The answer, obviously, was "No." But the discussion was great, and the topics we covered were many. Dr. Mark Thornton, the speaker, made some very interesting points. He compared Alabama to its neighboring states, thus making the comparison a regional one, rather than comparing it to basically meaningless national averages. His argument was that the surrounding states have a similar population, similar economies, and so forth, making a comparison more meaningful.

Alabama's Government, it turns out, has a higher revenue stream per capita than any of the surrounding states. It also spends more per capita, to generally less effect. One of the biggest spending items is education, and I think we all know how well that works (i.e. it doesn't). So we got into a big discussion about education issues, the consensus being that there needs to be separation of school and state.

It's so nice to be able to spend time with intelligent and educated folks.