Friday, October 14, 2011

The Council Has Spoken!! This Week's Watchers Council Results


The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this weeks' Watchers Council contest!

Ah, choices....we all make them in life, and this week's winner discusses his choices freely, choices based on what he values as opposed to what he doesn't. And that's freedom, isn't it? Here's a slice from The Razor's fine essay Chosen Paths: Why I Don't Resent People Making More Money Than I Do :

Our system has its flaws. I have personally lost a job in a futile campaign against offshoring and labor dumping through the government’s meddling in the labor market. I worry about things like the cost of education and the future value of college degrees. Just like many liberals I too resent seeing the same people who caused the financial meltdown still in power instead of the chains they deserve. But for all of its flaws, it’s still the best at providing choice to anyone who demands it.

If you want to become a doctor, you can become one. If you want to start your own business and sell tutus to little girls studying dance, you can. If you want to start a restaurant or cook at one, there is no bureaucrat needing a bribe or law preventing you. Our system excels at providing choices to people whereas other systems provide outcomes. You are a farmer, but you will sell your produce to us at a price we determine. You are a doctor, but we will determine how much you are paid for each patient. You want to sell shoes in my district, you will have to pay me a flat fee every month (that’s how my friend Jan Mohamed was shaken down in Tanzania under socialism).

It takes much more than education and hard work to become a millionaire or a billionaire. To reach those heights one needs luck, family connections – a variety of things that are out of reach to all but a very few. But if you are young and your goal is to make a solid middle class salary of $100k a year, or $200k for the top 2% of households, you have to choose a career that pays well and you have to marry or live with someone with the same goal. There’s nothing magical about that formula, and no reason to resent those who have achieved that goal.

As my late mother-in-law said, usually when I had come home complaining after a rough day at the office or the Wife had a particularly tough night on call, “You chose this path.” And we have, all of us, chosen our paths. The Wife and I could have chosen to forgo having children, moved to a major city and gotten higher paying jobs; but we chose to live in a rural area with our rescued animals and our son. She could make much more money as a dermatologist or cardiologist, but she chose the lower paying specialty of family medicine because she wanted to be an old country doctor.


In our Non-Council category the winner was a superb piece by The Investigative Project On Terrorism entitled Abbas could be next Domino To Fall submitted by Right Truth, an examination of why the corrupt, unelected Arab dictator of the 'Palestinian' Authority could easily be the next victim of the Arab Spring.

Here are this week’s full results. New Zeal was unable to vote this week and was affected by the mandatory 2/3 vote penalty:

Council Winners



Non-Council Winners



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