Words & Numbers

Americans have the distinct reputation of being incredibly selfish. All things considered, it’s not exactly unearned. That said, every year, Americans also quietly give a rather astonishingly large amount of money to charities, particularly during the holiday season. Over $400 billion, in fact, 75 percent of which was for those less fortunate. And that’s simply the cash and goods. Beyond that, 60 million Americans each donated an average of 120 hours of their time to charities. This is, incidentally, more than the federal government spends on all of its welfare programs combined. What does this actually mean? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they discuss this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Penguins fan gets a kidney

South African politician calls on people to kill whites

Foolishness of the Week

Nurse denied life insurance

Topic of the Week: Giving

Giving Tuesday

Statistics of US generosity

Arthur Brooks: Who Really Cares?

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Words & Numbers Backstage

Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent the country into a tizzy not long ago when he declared that the federal government would start cracking down on state-legal marijuana. This is problematic, but it's a symptom of a larger problem. Article I, Section 8, of the US Constitution lists the things that the federal government may concern itself with. Marijuana — indeed, any drug — is not on that list. In fact, a great many things that the federal government concerns itself with are not on that list. So how did we get to the point of having federal laws and regulations about marijuana and a number of other things? We had to have a Constitutional amendment to ban alcohol, so why doesn't the government need one to ban marijuana? James Harrigan and Antony Davies discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Sarah Silverman https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/sarah-silverman-befriends-troll-insulted-pays-medical-treatment/

CT considers raising its excise tax on cigarettes. Again. http://www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-lafaive-ct-cigarette-tax-smuggling-0109-20180108-story.html

What will mass-market driverless cars look like? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-12/gm-drops-the-steering-wheel-and-gives-the-robot-driver-control

Foolishness of the Week

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/business/economy/irs-debt-collection.html

Topic of the Week: Federalism and Constitutional Amendments

Federalism and marijuana http://reason.com/archives/2018/01/10/federalists-cant-support-a-cannabis-crac

Article One, Section 8 of the US Constitution https://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_A1Sec8.html

Wickard v. Filburn https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/317us111

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn

The Congressional Budget Office is tasked with forecasting the federal budget. Over the past twenty years, the CBO has tended to over-estimate future tax revenues and under-estimate future government spending. The result is that CBO paints an unrealistically rosy picture of the government’s financial future. If we take CBO’s forecasts and compensate for their historically rosy biases, we find that, where the CBO predicts trillion-dollar deficits forever, the likely reality is actually worse.

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Quick hits

Europe votes for standardized phone chargers

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xgqwbd/europe-just-voted-in-favor-of-making-iphone-and-android-use-the-same-charger

Pledge

https://www.wgal.com/article/student-sues-lebanon-school-district-over-alleged-punishment-for-refusing-to-stand-for-pledge-of-allegiance/30732086

WV Board of Education v. Barnette

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_State_Board_of_Education_v._Barnette

Foolishness of the week

Punxsutawney Phil and PETA

https://www.fox5ny.com/news/peta-calls-for-punxsutawney-phil-to-retire-be-replaced-with-ai-robot-for-groundhog-day

Topic of the week

Latest CBO report

https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2019-08/55551-CBO-outlook-update_0.pdf https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/budget-deficit-hit-1-trillion-year-cbo-200128193731479.html

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Last week, we talked about the incongruity of not only having a majority of voters not like either major party candidate, but to have those two candidates appear twice in back-to-back elections. This week, we explore what happens when a President is incapable of fulfilling the duties of the office.

Foolishness of the Week: 09:59 Main episode: 12:50

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Quick Hits https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2024/02/blazing-saddles-five-funny-facts-at-50/

Foolishness of the Week https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/taylor-swift-biden-psyop-conspiracy-b2489364.html

Topic of the Week https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-25/

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We all know that the FDA saves lives by keeping bad drugs off markets. But far fewer of us understand that the FDA costs lives by keeping good drugs from markets. Often all it takes to see this other side of the FDA is to be confronted with a life threatening disease for which there are treatments - just not FDA-approved treatments.

Foolishness of the Week: 08:38 Main episode: 14:53

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Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers

Quick Hits https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/optimist-pollster-finds-americans-are-far-more-alike-than-different-in-this-election-year/

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/ohio-man-brings-voters-of-all-stripes-together-to-agree-to-disagree-over-dinner-and-a-dialogue/

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/24/playground-bullies-do-prosper-and-go-on-to-earn-more-in-middle-age

Foolishness of the Week https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/03/21/apple-doj-antitrust-lawsuit-explained/

Topic of the Week https://xtalks.com/top-10-foods-banned-in-the-us-3611/ https://www.amazon.com/Free-Our-Markets-Essential-Economics/dp/098442542X/

Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/

More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig

More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies

Let Us Know What You Think mailto:[email protected]

Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies

James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan

#AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational