The Y-Intercept Podcast

Welcome to the y-intercept podcast

The y-intercept podcast will include posts about the classical liberal tradition. The first post is a test of my equipment and this web site.

I was hoping to start a youtube channel. I discovered that youtube was censoring and demonization people that the management considered to be conservative. Many people confuse classical liberals with conservaties. I created a protest video and began looking for alternatives.

I finally decided that best solution for an indepedent publisher is to use a hosted application like podbean.com. I signed up for an account and paid $108 for the account.

Since I am paying for the account, I need to find a way to get money for the podcast. So, I thought I would sell advertisements. I am currently charging $25.00 for 100,000 page views. The amount is based on what I get for Adsense. I have a page for ordering ads on irivers.com.

About Me

I believe that every web site should have an about page. This is my attempt to create an about me page.

This turned out to be a really hard episode to record because I don"t like talking about myself and I really dislike my voice.

You can skip this page.

The podcast points out that I live in Utah which is a notoriously oppressi ve area. I am not LDS.

Mormism is a nasty culture war religion. People engaged in culture war tend to treat their fellow man like dirt.

My about me story is pathetic. I wanted to be a math teacher so that I could continue math research. I was asked to write a paper about school choice. i actually wrote a paper that discussed the pros and cons of school choice. The essay was a litmus test. I ended up flunking three classes.

Because I flunked out of college, my career options were limited. I took a job writing computer programs for an insurance company. Because I flunked out of college, I was paid only five dollars an hour.

Because I was paid so little they gave me free range. I knew calculus inside and out and rewrote the actuarial analysis programs from the ground up.

As I did this I began realizing that the insurance industry was messed up. The model we use for health care is fundamentally flawed.

I eventually quit largely because the pay was too low. After I quit, I created an alternative model for funding health care that I will present in later episodes.

So, thirty years ago, I developed a method for free market health care reform.

I believe that what I have to say on this issue is quite important. If I am correct; we could make some simple changes to our health care system that would dramatically improve care in this nation.

Here is the kicker. I have done everything I possible can to find people interested in talking about this subject.

What I discovered is that every single time I questioned the insurance industry. Conservatives would start beating me down.

I've gone thirty years with a great idea that I want to express. All that I've received in that time is flack and even open hatred.

Two years ago, I suddently realized that I had essentially lost my ability to talk.

I am forcing myself to record this podcast because I want to regain the ability. I am tired of living in a world where people wear their partisan hatreds on their sleaves.

Rather than just  talking about health care. I decided to take on partisanship itself. I want to present a series of articles titled "The Two Sides of the Coin."

The articles state that just as the two sides of the coin are made of the same metal, Progressivism and Conservatism come from the same source. The left/right split was a nasty thing created by the ruling elite in Europe in an effort to destroy the American experiment in self rule.

It took ten days to record this 8 minute episode. Hopefully I will be able to accelerate my production rate and start producing the episodes faster.

The Two Sides of a Coin - Episode One

In this episode I criticize the left/right split and hint that our partisan ideologies have roots in Toryism. I conclude by presenting my definition of Classical Liberalism.

Highlights:

I point out that the Party System is not in the Constitution.

The founders wanted a system where legislators represented the people. In the current system, legislators represent a party. The people choose which party controls Congress but are essentially disenfranchised. Hence the metaphor: the Two Sides of a Coin.

I define classical liberalism (the ideology I wish to defend) as the application of classical logic to the question of liberty.

I use a fancy term "partisan dialectics" to define the common core between progressivism and conservatism. Partisan dialectics is a nasty style of discourse where people heap praise on their leader and viciously attack opponents.

You can read more on the y-intercept blog.