What You Should Be Reading

I took a real vacation and paid only a little attention to the political world and made no attempt to blog.  It was worthwhile to re-unite with my oldest son and enjoy some of God's creation and some good man-made stuff too.  Mrs. Daddy and I loved the colder and wetter weather we encountered, not typical of Arizona.

We visited historic Jerome, AZ, where everything is reputed to be haunted, even the hamburger joint.

And we hit the trails to enjoy the local beauty of Sedona, AZ.  

And didn't neglect man-made pleasures either. Famous Pizza had great pizza and craft beer on tap including quite a few San Diego offerings.

In the meantime other San Diegans kept up the good work on keeping tabs on our state and local government.  

• Dean posted his latest entry in the long running saga of the California high speed rail debacle.  Was Judge Kenney's ruling that funding must halt and that the High-Speed Rail Authority had abused its discretion a death blow?  Read and judge for yourself.  The U-T has the full story.
• Felipe Monroig, president of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, has done a public service by pointing out that the so-called linkage fee revenue isn't spent on affordable housing for the working poor, as the council debate would lead you to believe.  The Voice of San Diego's in depth analysis of the issue is also a public service.  Bottom line, most of the money goes to the homeless, not affordable housing for the working poor.
• The U-T reports that San Diego home prices increases are slowing. This is good news.  All of the conditions that caused the housing bubble and subsequent collapse in 2008 are still present.  Artificially high housing prices are not healthy for the economy.
• College Insurrection reports on how the ACA is affecting students at SDSU, bottom line: unintended consequences not making health care more affordable.

Vacation and Those Who Did Build That

Mrs. Daddy and I took a little vacation to San Luis Obispo, staying at the Madonna Inn and visiting the Hearst Castle and Paso Robles Wine Country. If I get a little time tomorrow, I will post some highlights on my other blog. But I was struck by the extent to which we were surrounded on our trip by people who built things, with great passion, energy and vision.

William Randolph Hearst was the classic 1%er. His castle is certainly a monument to his ego. But it is also a singular achievement, a symbol of the business empire he built. Our tour guide on the wine country tour remarked how Hearst brought thousands of jobs to San Luis Obispo county through the construction and maintenance of his castle. Further, his work continues to keep people employed to this day. He built little of his empire nor the mansion with government help, yet there it stands, now the property of the state of California, but maintained by the fees and revenue generated from visitors.

In a similar vain, the original owner and visionary who built the Madonna Inn, Alex Madonna, also left a legacy in the hands of the government. According to our guide, Madonna was the prime contractor who built a key stretch of U.S Highway 101 in San Luis Obispo county (I can't find confirmation of this fact). But when Obama says, you didn't build that, I note that seldom does government build that either. They turn to the businesses and entrepreneurs in the private sector to build that, whatever that is that needs building. Alex Madonna also created a unique motif, re-using the rocks in region to build the Madonna Inn, it even has a rock waterfall urinal in the men's room of the downstairs wine and gift shop.

Finally, all of the wineries we visited were owned by families, often a husband and wife team. These owners put toil and love into an enterprise that takes years to pay off. They invite us into their business and share their knowledge and love of wine in their tasting rooms. I found the whole experience very moving, because we could see the effort it takes to get the wine just right and to be able to sell it to us at affordable prices. They deserve our praise, not a scolding from our President for taking too much credit for themselves.

Which leads me to an editorial from Virginia Postrel (H/T Left Coast Rebel). She summarizes the work of Deirdre Mcloskey, who argues that it is the celebration of entrepreneurship that is essential to economic growth, not merely or even largely capital formation.

McCloskey’s book is not only a useful survey of how scholars answer the biggest question in economics: What causes growth? It is also a timely reminder that prosperity depends on more than effort or resources or infrastructure or good laws. Attitudes matter, too. You don’t build a wealthy society by deriding bourgeois enterprise -- or the people who take pride in it.