March 16th, 2010
It is funny to hear a politician use the word truth when making an argument for their ideas or policies. First, we all know that most politicians will say and do what it takes to get reelected every 2, 4 or 6 years. Second, we all know that generally government does everything worse than the private sector. Third, we all know that there are a certain percentage of people, a growing percentage, that expects something for nothing. Fourth, we know that a politician never meant a dollar that he or she didn’t want to spend. Fifth, we all know that empires rise and fall. And sixth, we all know that there is a constant battle between those who want freedom and those who want to take away freedom. Let’s call those two groups of people the innovators and the other group the leaches.
So the question becomes, what happens to a country that allows it’s elected official to tax up to 100% of their income. which the progressive income tax structure we have does, and to have a monopoly control over the printing and issuing of money? There is no check to keep the politicians from taking up to 100% of your paycheck. The only check would be your threat to throwing them out of office. But they don’t have to directly take your paycheck from you. They can use regulations and rules to control where you spend the rest of it. The federal government, right now, can print up whatever money it needs or wants or is unable or unwilling to tax out of the people from thin air. The only check on this power is inflation. In other words, the federal government doesn’t have to work for its money, like you or I. It can just print it out.
Well, to me, it is pretty obvious that what happens is this. The non-rich, in general, believe the promises of the politicians that they can get something for nothing. The politicians increase the size of the government. The wealth of a country disappears as the incentive to innovate and improve one’s living conditions is take away by the government’s increasing reliance on increased taxation grows. The economy is dragged down by a majority of the people producing nothing of importance and relying more heavily on the government’s hand to get what they want. In other words, the mob rules and wins. The only way to stop this from happening is two things.
First, you must make it illegal for the federal government to progressive tax. They can only be allowed to implement a fair tax. Everyone pays the same amount no matter what. Any government that treats citizens differently and applies the laws differently is corrupt and on the path to ruining its civilization and its people. It is unjust for any government or group of people to use the force of government to treat others differently. Second, you must eliminate the government’s monopoly control over the money supply. As we all know from Economics 101, a monopoly is a terrible thing for consumers and a money monopoly or the ability to print money from nowhere dilutes the hard working American and rewards the lazy, slothful bureaucrat and politician who gets to implement their ideas in society without having worked for the money to try them out.
The United States is rotting from the inside out. It is dying of the progressive taxation and monopoly of the money supply. Failure to change these two things means that the United States can never be great again and will be another empire that has fallen.
Posted in Economics, Gospel of Irrationality | 1 Comment »
November 13th, 2009
Recent Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, threatened Hawaii that they would have a hard time receiving grants from federal government if they didn’t restore furloughed class days that were the result of state budget problems. Arne said, “There’s got to be a better way…When you have tough budget times, what you do with scarce resources reflects your priorities. I don’t know anyone who could make a case that eliminating 10 percent of your school days is good for Hawaii.” I guess that Arne hasn’t taken a really good look at the success rates of our public schools. Last time I checked most kids can’t read, write, or do math at a sufficient level to succeed in a globally competitive world. One could make the case that less school days would be better because public schools do such a terrible job. There is way too much propoganda taught in schools today and not enough reading, writing, and math. Perhaps the worst thing a state could do is suck up to the federal trough and become nothing more than a slave to the federal government instead of protector of its individual citizens. I would tell Arne and all of the other freedom haters in the Obama administration that they can keep their dirty, filthy federal dollars and I’ll keep my freedom from your arbitrary freedom-hating central planning decisions. Public school education as a whole fails miserably. Every year, more and more money is put into the system with the promises that things will get better, but do they really improve. No, yet the unions and freedom haters continue to demand more. I think it is time for Arne to open his eyes and start facing the obvious, less class days might be better for our children.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
November 13th, 2009
Secretary of Transportation, Roy LaHood, held an airline industry forum on Nov 12, 2009 to discuss the state of the airline industry. This presidency is the presidency of forums and meethings and government takeover of industry. The DOT has created a panel to come up with a plan to restore the health of the airline industry. Secretary LaHood said that the panel will produce a plan to restore the health of the industry. Not surprisingly, this meeting today was held at the request of the labor unions, a large political force for the Democratic Party. I guess that President Obama’s promise of getting lobbyists out of Washington doesn’t extend to his own party or his government. The unions felt that the industry was suffering including the passengers. Last time I checked, I don’t think I’m suffering. I think that low airfare prices are great for consumers. Really what the unions want is for the customers to pay whatever price they need to sustain high wages and benefits for their workers, even if it comes at the expense of consumers like you and me, and they are willing to use the government to get what they want in the form of as “plan”. The unions complain that low cost airlines hurt the industry. If Obama and his administration don’t see the benefit in low prices then we are all in for at least 3 more years of nice, fresh koolaid. The silliness of these freedom haters is reaching heights that defies all common sense. What makes Obama and his administration think that they can plan the airline industry? It feels more like the Soviet Union than the United States of America when every other month you read about another plan or another summit where Obama and his thugs are trying to change some industry to fit their philosophical likings. Thank heavens this country is built on rugged individualism and that there are still a large percentage of folks that when pushed far enough won’t stand for this freedom hating silliness. And thank heavens they have the God-given right to defend themselves against a tyrannical oppression of government.
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
November 12th, 2009
Today President Obama said, “The economic growth that we’ve seen has not yet lead to the job growth that we desperately need.” How can you have economic growth without job growth? Only a politician or economist would say this. The reality and truth is that government spending and taxes only hurt job growth and drive all the good private sector jobs outside of the US. I currently live and work in Chile. My standard of living is higher here. I have one of those outsourced jobs that used to be located in the US. Sure I make less money, but I pay less taxes and the cost of living is much lower. My net is actually higher. When will koolaid drinkers start figuring out that the bigger and more involved government becomes, the more jobs are created for bureaucrats and government workers who produce nothing that you or I consume. This in turn drives up the cost of manufacturing and building things because the private sector has the pay for the largesse of the public sector. Take a look at government worker benefits. Retirement after 20 years. Secure jobs. Do you see that anywhere in the private sector? No, but the private sector has to pay for it. The only way that businesses can do business is by outsourcing jobs. The koolaid is strong folks among the true believers in Obama.
Posted in Common sense, Gospel of Irrationality | 2 Comments »
November 11th, 2009
I recently read a phrase that will stick with me for a long time. Ludwig von Mises spoke about the gospel of irrationality. I think we live in the time of irrationality where people, for reasons that are not easily explained, believe in things that just don’t make any sense. If you believe the government can run things better than private individuals, that is irrational. Just take a look at Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, China, and the former Soviet Union. Are these countries that prospered? Of course not. They are countries that suffer or suffered from chronic shortages of goods and services. They were decades behind other freer countries. What is the one thing they held in common? They were run by strong central governments who planned their economies. The government ran everything. Individuals had very little say in their lives. The gospel of raionality says that it only makes sense to think that government does things better than individuals. I found a recent articles that exposes a little of this irrationality. There might be people that believe the government does things better, but it isn’t rational. I choose to not believe in the gospel of irrationality.
Read the article here.
Posted in Common sense, Economics | No Comments »
February 18th, 2009
Today, Eric Holder lectured Americans by saying the following, “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.”
So this is what change feels like? It feels awfully close to being a child once again and being lectured by mommy or daddy, in this case, for something that I have done wrong. But then again, this is what I expect from holier than though progressive liberals who search for cosmic justice, as Thomas Sowell puts it, or the kind of justice that only God can meet out. For liberals though, they try and meet it out here on the Earth with their special form of justice, which is nothing more than injustice heaped upon others. America is no more cowardly than any other nation when it comes to race relations. We are far from perfect, but we fought a Civil War to end slavery. How many other nations did the same thing? Most nations were forced to end slavery because the US and Great Britain forced them to end it. It was because of our example that slavery was ended. Now, I don’t know about you, but Eric Folder has quite a bit of gumption to call us cowards, but then again, his boss, President Obama often can be found lecturing Americans on what they should think, drive, expect, etc. so this MO is not much different and isn’t unexpected. It is going to be a long 4 years of koolaid listening to this sanctimonious bunch tell us that we need to unite, we need to get along, we need to be bi-partisan when in reality they want us to just fall in line and think what they think, do what they want us to do, and feel what they want us to feel. This kind of behavior is just like a father or mother scolding a child, which is really how liberals love to operate for they feel that they know what is best for us, that they are gifted beyond what we are blessed with, that their brains function on a higher level, and that the government should bestow upon us what we need. Such arrogance is never found in a conservative or traditionalist. Sure we have values, but rarely do we wish to use the government to force them upon people like the liberals so often love to do.
Posted in Progressives, Racism | No Comments »
February 10th, 2009
Today I read the following article. It was filled with koolaid moments overflowing. I guess that politicians actually believe the stuff that comes out of their mouths. I just think it is all koolaid. So Obama today said the following, “It’s a little hard for me to take criticism from folks about this recovery package after they’ve presided over a doubling of the national debt…I’m not sure they have a lot of credibility when it comes to fiscal responsibility…You get a feeling that maybe we’re playing politics instead of actually trying to solve problems for the American people.” Facts are a funny thing. Congress controls the budget. The President decides to veto it or not. Congress is the one primarily responsible for the deficits that we experience, not the President. Bush never presided over anything. The Congress is a separate part of the government. It doesn’t follow the President’s lead. The Republicans controlled Congress and the Presidency from 2003 to 2007, for 4 years. The Democrats have controlled Congress for the last 2 years. Where were they when it cames to stopping these deficits. They were no where to be found. They weren’t doing anything to stop it, to spend less money. The Democrats controlled the House from 1949 to 1995, almost 40 years. Were they cutting programs? Nope. They were inventing new ones such as Medicare, which is the fastest growing expense on the books. The Democrats controlled the Senate from 1955 to 1995, except for 6 years. While it is true that the deficit doubled while Bush was President, it is not true that he is at fault. The fault squarely lies with the Congress who sets the budget or the primary fault lies with Congress. But is much easier for Obama to be cute with words and make off-handed sleigh comments and half-truths than admit the truth. There is plenty of blame to go around here. When a Democrat calls a Republican not trustworthy on financial issues, it is like Hannibal Lecter calling Jason from Halloween a good guy. It just isn’t true. Both parties are terrible at managing finances. That is why the founding fathers attempted to limit both parties ability to spend by making progressive taxation unconstitutional until that was changed in the early 1910s and by requiring Congress to use only coins for currency, not paper money. Once the Constitution was amended and both those provisions were thrown out the window with the 16th amendment and the creation of the Federal Reserve, the federal government slowly began centrally planning the economy because they could now control the money supply, the amount of money they could both tax from the people, and print from nowhere. Obama has his facts wrong. The Republicans and Democrats are both guilty and should be punished for crimes against this country and this people, for spending us into a ditch, and then having the audacity to point the finger.
Posted in Debt | 1 Comment »
January 30th, 2009
I read today that Joe Biden said that the reason America has a middle class, according to what he thought, was because of organized labor. I love it when idealogues from both sides make statements like this without ever backing it up with any proof. They just go ahead and blabber about whatever they feel fits their vision of the world and history. I am so glad that I do not have such closed minded thinking. These progressives, liberals walk around as if they are so open-minded, yet in reality they are trapped within a very narrow way of thinking. They always defer to the idea that government is good and that labor has saved the day from evil business. It’s comments like these that really get my goat, because in reality, they are lies which are told for the sole purpose of maintaining votes and winning votes. Organized labor has played a part in enriching a few people. Their wins or gains come at the expense of everyone else who is not part of organized labor. Their superior benefits come on the backs of the poor and uneducated. Look at how the unions and their crazy benefits have ruined the Big Three auto makers and they want more. They could care less that they have asked and received far too much for what they do. Come on, they sit in a building and operate a screw driver for over $50 an hour. That is ridiculous. How long does it take to learn how to operate a machine… a couple weeks at tops. America has been prosperous in the past because the government has stayed out of the economy, but for the last 100 years, the government has increasingly gotten involved in the economy and look what has happened. People are in more debt than ever. The government is in more debt than ever. We are in another post bubble recession created by the government meddling in the financial sector and encouraging banks and other lending companies to lend to poor credit risks so that they could buy votes. And now you have Joe Biden making ridiculous comments that organized labor has saved the day. Ha.Ha. What a joke. Unfortunately there are a lot of people that fail to ask Joe to offer some proof. Instead they blindly believe what he says, like turkeys going to slaughter before Thanksgiving. Any, that was my koolaid moment of the day.
Posted in Unions | 1 Comment »
January 29th, 2009
Click here to read the article. In an nutshell, the government wants to give you tax breaks to buy a car. Hasn’t the government screwed up the economy enough with their various tax incentives, regulations, laws, and incentives which have caused the economy to become so distorted towards construction and building that we now have too much housing? Let me see if I can dissect this great koolaid moment. People are in too much debt. The government made it too easy to borrow money. Our economy has been distorted because the government and its financial system, the Federal Reserve, have benefited those companies that went into debt. Now that people can’t pay off their debts, the government wants to encourage them to go into more debt in order to solve this problem. Pass the koolaid folks. I’m going to need a couple gallons of the strong stuff. Just goes to show you how stupid most politicians are.
Posted in Debt | No Comments »
January 29th, 2009
Click here to read the article. In a nutshell, this article qualifies for koolaid drinking status because General Motor’s union had a “job bank” program did the following: “The program gives union workers at the Detroit Three most of their pay and benefits while they are laid off — sometimes for years.” And people wonder why American car companies cannot succeed. It is because the government has backed the unions for way too long. Therefore the unions have extracted such crazy programs as a job bank for so many years. Now the companies want the taxpayers to bail them out. If that doesn’t qualify as a koolaid drinking moment, I’m not sure what does.
Posted in Unions | No Comments »