Low-Income Housing

I am a retired senior, and my sole source of income is my monthly Social Security check.  I rent an apartment on the South side of town, and I pay probably less than any of the rest of you because I cannot afford to pay much more.  But I do not live in low-income housing, and this is NOT a quibble.  Low-income housing is government subsidized housing.  The reason that I can pay so little to rent my apartment is manifold: I live far from the cultural centers of town, I do not live very close to any big box stores (where I typically shop due to their low prices), I am not close to any hospital, and I have no luxuries.  If some low-income housing was less desirable than my apartment, it would cost less to rent than my apartment without a government subsidy.  So, by definition, low-income housing – housing that is partly paid for by the government – is more desirable than my place but costs its tenants less than what I pay for my place.  Which means, partly, that someone who could afford the rent of a place more desirable than mine is losing out to someone who cannot afford the rent.  And that is a solution that no classical economist would favor.

Hate Speech

In the year 2005, a Dutch cartoonist by name of Kurt Westergaard drew this brilliant cartoon.  In case it needs explanation, it depicts the prophet Muhammad as a man of war.  The cartoon set off a worldwide controversy for its blaspheming the prophet Muhammad and, by implication, the religion of Islam.  Westergaard died in his sleep at age 86 in 2021.

In the year 2015, two Muslim brothers murdered a dozen people and injured 11 others in response to the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo's persistent satirization of Islam and its prophet Muhammad ("We have to carry on until Islam has been rendered as banal as Catholicism").

Israel-Palestine

To those of my readers who entertain the notion that the Palestinians are the good guys, and the Zionist Jews are the bad guys, here is a challenge for you.  Google “list of terror attacks by {Palestinians or Muslims} against {Jews or Israelis or Christians or Americans or Europeans} over time” (this is ten searches) and compare the results with “list of terror attacks by {Jews or Israelis} against {Muslims or Palestinians} over time” (four searches).  Or, just four Google searches, “list of terror attacks perpetrated by {Jews or Israelis} over time” and “list of terror attacks perpetrated by {Muslims or Palestinians} over time.”  My use of curly brackets (“{“ and “}”) means choose one before making the search.  If you believe that Google is prejudiced, use another search engine.