The Morning Roar: Google Co-Founder Says Government Will "Collapse Under It's Own Weight", CBP Tells Whistleblower to "Cease and Desist", Israel Calling Up 40K Troops for Gaza
Welcome your Wednesday edition of The Morning Roar!Google Co-Founder Larry Page Says Government Will "Collapse Under It's Own Weight"This past weekend, the co-founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, took part in a public interview during which Page made some notable comments on government. As reported by Reason's Jim Epstein , when an audience member asked Page if government makes long-term business planning difficult, Page responded:
Page responded by offering some perspective on how regulation that "increases without bounds" is likely to lead government "to collapse under its own weight:""I was trying to reduce the complexity in Google. I was thinking, "We're getting to be a bigger company. Let's take our rules and regulations. Let's make sure they stay at 50 pages, so people can actually read it." But the problem that I discovered about that was that by reference, we include the entire law and regulation of the entire world, because we're a multinational company. We operate everywhere. Our employees, what they do affects everything. In some sense, we'd have to read the hundred million pages of law and regulation that are out there."
Page's comments are notable, in that regulations serve to greatly hamper the ability of individuals to conduct freely exchange with other individuals. Massive corporations such as Google have the ability to deal with the "entire law and regulation of the entire world", but the average individual will never be able to compete in such an environment.While the media will likely focus on Page's comments, his co-founder Sergey Brin also had some very interesting remarks why Google is not investing in health care technology:
Generally, health is just so heavily regulated. It's just a painful business to be in. It's just not necessarily how I want to spend my time. Even though we do have some health projects, and we'll be doing that to a certain extent. But I think the regulatory burden in the U.S. is so high that think it would dissuade a lot of entrepreneurs.
The more that the government strangles a sector through coercive regulations, the more that the ability to innovate is stifled. Health care is quite possibly the most heavily regulated sector of the economy, and while Obamacare is the latest incarnation of that regulation the root problems lie much deeper in the regulatory ground. This burden must be freed to allow unfettered access to health care markets and for true innovation to occur.That's a fancy way of saying "Allow people the freedom to exchange goods and services with others, and save a $#!# ton of lives!"The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Tells Whistleblower to Cease and DesistThe National Review Online is reporting how the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) has apparently sent a letter to one of it's agents ordering him to stop speaking with the media. This agent is apparently a whistleblower who has helped expose the poor conditions in which illegal immigrants are being held.
Kathleen Scudder, assistant chief patrol agent of the San Diego Sector, sent the letter to agent Ron Zermeno, health and safety director of National Border Patrol Council Local 1613, notifying him of an investigation into his conduct and to “remind” him that no agent should make statements or issue press releases “without proper authorization.”Zermeno confirmed the validity of the letter to NRO. He says he thinks the order is retaliation for his actions as a whistleblower, which have involved exposing the public-health risks associated with the illegal immigrants transported to the San Diego Sector. “As a union officer, I feel it’s my job to expose when management is putting people at risk,” he says. “They violated their oath as Border Patrol agents.” Before receiving the cease-and-desist letter, Zermeno wrote Paul Beeson, the San Diego Sector’s chief patrol agent, to explain that two agents at the Brown Field Border Patrol Station contracted scabies after processing illegal immigrants transported from Texas last week, according to a letter obtained by NRO. Zermeno has spoken to local news outlets about the scabies outbreak too.
Contrary to what many libertarians might tell you, borders are a critical element to a free society. But the borders should be those defined by private property, not through a coercive government which often arbitrarily dictates which territory is under its own jurisdiction, including vast swaths of unused land that any man should rightfully be allowed to travel through.While a free society would likely include more borders than we have today, they would not include organizations like the U.S. CBP which deem certain individuals to be "illegal" and proceed to hold them in reportedly inhumane conditions, let alone attempt to gag one of it's own employees for exposing said conditions.The full story at National Review Online.Israel Calling Up 40,000 Reserve Troops for a Ground Invasion of GazaJason Ditz of AntiWar.com describes how Israel is preparing for an all-out assault on Gaza in response to the latest round of violence in the Middle East:Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich today ruled out any ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, as the Israeli military continues to escalate airstrikes against the tiny Gaza Strip, and is building up for a ground invasion.
The cabinet has given the military authorization to mobilize up to 40,000 reservists as part of preparations for a ground invasion of Gaza, though so far there is no confirmation that such an invasion yet. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did, however, say that whatever sort of war Israel carries out “may take time.”Army sources also say that the planning right now is for a “long operation” against Gaza, and with so many hawks in the government pushing for a full conquest of the strip it is hard to imagine Israel stopping short of such a war.Israel invades or attacks the Gaza Strip on a fairly regular basis, and threatens to do so even more often. Since the large-scale 2008-09 invasion of Gaza, Israel has launched significant operations against Gaza at least once a year, including a massive aerial campaign in 2012.As is always the case during Israeli attacks on Gaza, the US government has endorsedthe operations, saying that Israel has ever right to conduct military offensives in the name of “self defense.”
The tension in the Middle East is largely due to imperial powers creating states by arbitrarily assigning certain land to certain groups of people, instead of allowing those people to peacefully form their own communities through the acquisition of private property. The sad result of this historical dilemma, combined with the United States' unwavering support for Israel financially, is that many many innocent people end up maimed and dead.The situation in the Middle East is the ultimate result of people having bad ideas about individual rights, property, and government; only the right ideas can stop the madness from continuing ad infinitum.I discussed the Middle East political situation with Code Pink's Alli McCracken on a recent episode of the Lions of Liberty Podcast.Read The Morning Roar every weekday Monday-Friday!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!
