Archive for November, 2007

Rapping In Euros

The current weakness of the US dollar vs. the Euro is a well-discussed topic - everyone is trying to figure out what the abandonment of the dollar as the primary world currecy would mean.

Andrew Sullivan notes that rapper and mogul Jay-Z is counting his stacks in Euros these days.

But, maybe a weak dollar could be good news from rappers, as I think we can safely assume that United States is the biggest exporter of rap, and with a weak dollar there should be a corresponding increase in demand for the music, yo.

But Not The Only Anti-Pollutant

Cafe Hayek praises capitalism as the “anti-pollutant”:

A principal cause of our good fortune is the fact that capitalism makes our daily lives so clean, sanitary, and healthy — and, generally, wealthy — that we can afford to stew in concern about environmental problems that are more speculative and far more distant than were the environmental problems that plagued our ancestors — problems such as houses with thatched, bug-infested roofs and no indoor plumbing or hard flooring.

I call capitalism the great anti-pollutant. Our lives truly and thoroughly are cleaned by capitalism. This realization first hit me several years ago as I stood at an automatic-flush urinal in LaGuardia airport. “I don’t have to touch this thing to flush it; how wonderfully sanitary!” I marveled.

Aside from auto-flush toilets, capitalism has produced much in this world. But let’s not go so far as to say that we capitalists are the first to enjoy the “luxury” of worrying about our environments. Our ancestors, starting with hunters and gatherers understood that their livelihood depended upon not having too great an impact over their environment. Ancient horticulturalists rotated productive plots for this reason, and hunting bands understood that they needed to allow game in a given area to replenish.

Humans have always had to consider their effects on their environments as part of their survival strategy - those who didn’t perished(just ask the Maya).