Just do it

Hey, if you think the earth is full and we use too many resources, then cut the hell back your own damn self.
From his column:

We will realize, he predicts, that the consumer-driven growth model is broken and we have to move to a more happiness-driven growth model, based on people working less and owning less. “How many people,” Gilding asks, “lie on their death bed and say, ‘I wish I had worked harder or built more shareholder value,’ and how many say, ‘I wish I had gone to more ballgames, read more books to my kids, taken more walks?’ To do that, you need a growth model based on giving people more time to enjoy life, but with less stuff.”

Sounds utopian? Gilding insists he is a realist.

“We are heading for a crisis-driven choice,” he says. “We either allow collapse to overtake us or develop a new sustainable economic model. We will choose the latter. We may be slow, but we’re not stupid.”

Well – apparently Mr. Friedman is stupid. He believes this stuff, right? Yet he doesn’t live it.

And seriously, how hard is it to live it? Live smaller, buy less stuff. Bag your lunch. Mr. Friedman – you’re a loon.

Friedman has built a comfortable life, even leaving aside his wife’s family fortune. His speaking fee recently passed $50,000; with his Times salary, syndication rights, and royalties from his bestselling books, his annual income easily reaches seven figures. When he’s not on the road, he is a regular fixture in Aspen where his in-laws have a house, and at his country clubs. Locally he belongs to Bethesda Country Club and Caves Valley near Baltimore.
In 2003, the Friedmans built a palatial 11,400-square-foot house, now valued at $9.3 million, on a 7½-acre parcel just blocks from I-495 and Bethesda Country Club.

The Mandate

Good news on the mandate: Judges are really wondering about this power grab. And the government? Well, lets see.

Parts of the overall law should still survive, said government lawyer Katyal, but he warned the judges they’d make a “deep, deep mistake” if the insurance requirement were found to be unconstitutional. He said Congress had the right to regulate what uninsured Americans must buy because they shift $43 billion each year in medical costs to other taxpayers.

BUT that shift in costs is there because Congress mandates that hospitals see patients without money/insurance.

So in the world of the insurance mandate and “what can’t Congress do, if it can do this” we are screwed.

1) Congress requires all universities to accept all applicants
2) Because all applicants have to be admitted, all people must now start savings accounts for college.

1) Congress requires all HOA’s to accept all applicants
2) Because HOA’s must accept anyone, Congress requires that all people pay HOA dues (which HOA? only the ones that Congress approves of)

1) Congress requires all restaurants to serve all people (eliminating the “we reserve the right…”)
2) Because restaurants must now serve everyone, everyone must now always wear shoes.