Thoughts Aloud

Archive for the ‘Economics’ Category

It is past time to call BS on the Obamessiah’s damnable lies regarding taxes, which he forcefully repeated last night. He again told the lie that he was going to raise taxes on only the top two percent of earners and said everyone earning less than $250K would not pay one more “dime,” and would in fact be getting a tax cut. Many are quick to point out that an income tax “rebate” to those who pay no income tax is really a welfare payment; but the big lie is much worse than that.

Taxes can only be extracted from wealth. Wealth is created by the industry of productive private sector individuals. When someone applies their labor, talents, and intellect to producing a good or service desired by others, the earnings they receive for their efforts, beyond the very basic needs for survival, is wealth. The premise of capitalism is that individuals have an equal opportunity to create and amass as much wealth as their talents, industry, and personal ambition can muster.

What industrious individuals do with the wealth they earn is their business. They can spend it on luxuries and toys. They can risk losing it, by loaning it at interest to someone else, or investing it in hopes of a return. They can save it for a rainy day and their retirement; or they can give it away as charity to a worthy cause of their choice.

Then, of course, they can contribute some of it to pay their fair share of the costs of the infrastructure of their community, and the services they receive from public servants like fire and police protection. Few wealthy individuals begrudge these necessary public expenses, which benefit everyone; but many challenge the notion that they should pay more than their neighbors for similar benefits. Equitable user fees, infrastructure assessments, bridge tolls, etc. are seldom protested.

It is when individuals are taxed for unwanted and never used services that they balk. However anyone tries to justify it, coercing someone to pay an objectionable tax is arguably armed robbery. It is also akin to serfdom or slavery, since taxpayers are required to toil, effectively without compensation, to earn the confiscated tax money. The Progressives should be cursed daily for foisting the Sixteenth Amendment on an ill-informed public, to undo the wisdom our Founders demonstrated in Constitutionally preventing the Federal government from taxing American citizens directly.

Speaking of Progressives, the core of the aforementioned big lie is that taxes are “progressive.” The rhetoric is rooted in class warfare, and the demagogues are masters at convincing the public that they tax the “rich” at a much higher rate than the “poor.” Leaving aside the absurdity of calling any American “poor,” when the poorest among us is wallowing in an embarrassment of riches compared to life in many regions of this planet, this simply isn’t true. The vast majority of taxes collected in this country are ultimately paid by the Forgotten Man, not the so-called “rich.” Who is the Forgotten Man? He is the seemingly invisible working class stiff, who earns too much to be entitled to the welfare largess of the state; but not enough to afford the luxuries and lifestyle of the upper class elites.

He is diligent, reliable, and responsible. He asks little of government other than to be left alone to raise and take care of his family as best he can. Yet he is caught in the middle between the indigent victim class, demanding their “entitlements,” and the wealthy class, assuaging their guilt for their success, by pushing the notion of altruism for the “less fortunate.” Unfortunately, he ends up paying for the sloth and the guilt. How can this be if taxes are “progressive?”

It is elementary, actually, and it is amazing that the truth is so easily obscured by the politicians. The reality is that most all wealth flows from the sale of products and services. It matters not where the politicians pretend to extract the taxes; whether on income, profits, property, dividends, capital gains, etc. The money that is paid in taxes ultimately came from a paying customer. Taxes are just a cost of doing business to an enterprise. Raise corporate taxes, and they will have to raise their prices to cover the increased cost. It could not be otherwise.

Thus, it should be obvious that most all taxes are ultimately paid by consumers. When anyone buys a loaf of bread, every tax incurred by anyone or any entity along the entire chain of production – from the farmer who grew the wheat, through the truckers, mills, bakers, packagers, marketers, wholesalers, etc. all the way to the retail grocer who sells it to the consumer – are built into the price the consumer pays for the loaf. Even if your State does not add sales tax to food purchases, most of the cost of a loaf of bread is a well hidden tax on the consumer. That is bad enough for the Forgotten Man, but it is actually even worse, and getting more oppressive every day.

For a large and growing segment of our society pays no taxes at all, not even as consumers. Those who receive their income from a government check are tax spenders, not taxpayers. Only private sector producers really pay taxes. It is merely a charade for the government to pay public servant employees or welfare recipients enough extra cash, so they can pretend to give some of it back as their own fair share of taxes. This sleight of hand adds no new revenue to the treasury; it only shuffles real taxpayers’ money around between bank accounts. It matters not how useful or necessary the government employee’s job is to society, he is by definition a spender of taxes, not a taxpayer.

This is why the burgeoning rolls of public employees are so insidious to the Forgotten Man forced to pay for them. Every job that is removed from the private sector, where they would be taxpayers, to the public sector where taxes are only consumed, increases his tax burden. This is why New Deal style make work projects won’t grow an economy out of a depression. It matters not how useful some may find the infrastructure enhancements of WPA type projects; they only provide a measure of dignity to those forced on the dole. They do not create the wealth necessary to provide sustainable jobs in the private sector.

So, if you find yourself among the ranks of the Forgotten Man (or woman, of course), please realize that you are the one being saddled with all the expense and debt for the glorious Marxist revolution going on in Washington DC at the moment. Don’t believe the spin and outright lies being told by the silver tongued Obamessiah. The socialist utopia this man is peddling won’t work here any better than it has worked anywhere else, and for the same reason.

You, my friend, are the golden goose who pays for it all; and you just cannot afford all the wonderful programs he is promising. You will break under the load and our economy will collapse in a spectacular crash. Hopenchange may have sounded good; but the change he is bent on implementing will bury you in a hopelessly unsustainable mountain of debt, as he chokes the life out of the golden goose he doesn’t even understand.

His Marxist mindset thinks he will only be fleecing the fat cats, who can afford it and are not paying their fair share. He is wrong. They are not the golden goose… it is you; and you are paying far more than your share already. Buckle up, pay attention, and don’t be fooled… this is going to get ugly… and soon. â—„Daveâ–º

Wow! Who would have expected sage advice from the former head of the KGB? Here is a transcript of Putin’s speech at the opening ceremony of the world Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last month:

There is a certain concept, called the perfect storm, which denotes a situation when Nature’s forces converge in one point of the ocean and increase their destructive potential many times over. It appears that the present-day crisis resembles such a perfect storm.

Responsible and knowledgeable people must prepare for it. Nevertheless, it always flares up unexpectedly.

The current situation is no exception either. Although the crisis was simply hanging in the air, the majority strove to get their share of the pie, be it one dollar or a billion, and did not want to notice the rising wave.

In the last few months, virtually every speech on this subject started with criticism of the United States. But I will do nothing of the kind.
[…]
The entire economic growth system, where one regional centre prints money without respite and consumes material wealth, while another regional centre manufactures inexpensive goods and saves money printed by other governments, has suffered a major setback.
[…]
Unfortunately, excessive expectations were not only typical of the business community. They set the pace for rapidly growing personal consumption standards, primarily in the industrial world. We must openly admit that such growth was not backed by a real potential. This amounted to unearned wealth, a loan that will have to be repaid by future generations.

This pyramid of expectations would have collapsed sooner or later. In fact, this is happening right before our eyes.
[…]
Excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state’s omnipotence is another possible mistake.

True, the state’s increased role in times of crisis is a natural reaction to market setbacks. Instead of streamlining market mechanisms, some are tempted to expand state economic intervention to the greatest possible extent.

The concentration of surplus assets in the hands of the state is a negative aspect of anti-crisis measures in virtually every nation.

In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state’s role absolute. In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.

Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.
[…]

[bold emphasis mine]

While the rest of the speech reveals his concern over falling oil prices, which are devastating his own economy, and nervousness over the specter of us destroying them again with another military spending spree, the above remarks were profound. I just cannot imagine one of our own politicians delivering such a frank speech in an international forum. I am glad I treated myself to reading it.

What I can’t understand is why our own academics and politicians can’t see what he acknowledges was the failure of socialism and the advantages of capitalism. It is downright embarrassing that now that the world has seen the folly of Marxism and is trying their best to free themselves of its cancer, we are plunging headlong into it. I weep for my country. â—„Daveâ–º

Here is an interesting address by Ron Paul to the Von Mises Institute, discussing the need to end the Federal Reserve system. He discusses what is happening in the world economy, and predicts that a new world central bank will emerge to take control of the world’s reserve currency away from us:

It is interesting that some of his congressional colleagues are starting to take him seriously. His enthusiasm for the awakening on college campuses would be encouraging if it weren’t too late already. â—„Daveâ–º

Let the revolution begin:

Wow! Is this guy awesome, or what? The market dropped a percent and below 7500 immediately after this performance. We need more people who can stand up on their hind legs and speak truth to power like this. â—„Daveâ–º

I think I will order H. L. Mencken’s 1926 book, “Notes on Democracy.” Perusing this book review, it seems like $15 well spent:

It’s no wonder it’s hard to get. There is more truth in these pages than most Americans are willing to face. Nor will there ever come a time when they will face them. For what Mencken delivers here is probably the most scathing attack on the idea of mass rule that has ever been written.
[…]
Mencken is known as the chief heretic of the American civic religion, and this book shows why. Your eyes will pop out at not only his dazzling prose but, and most especially, at the thoughts that he dares put in print, almost as a revolutionary act.

Here is a slight sample, passages sampled nearly randomly:

What does the mob think? It thinks, obviously, what its individual members think. And what is that? It is, in brief, what somewhat sharp-nose and unpleasant childrern think. The mob, being composed, in the overwhelming main, of men and women who have not got beyond the ideas and emotions of childhood, hovers, in mental age, around the time of puberty, and chiefly below it. If we would get at its thoughts and feelings we must look for light to the thoughts and feelings of adolescents.

When the city mob fights it is not for liberty, but for ham and cabbage. When it wins, its first act is to destroy every form of freedom that is not directed wholly to that end. And its second is to butcher all professional libertarians. If Thomas Jefferson had been living in Paris in 1793 he would have made an even narrower escape from the guillotine than Thomas Paine made.

What the common man longs for in this world, before and above all his other longings, is the simplest and most ignominious sort of peace: the peace of a trusty in a well-managed penitentiary. He is willing to sacrifice everything else to it. He puts it above his dignity and he puts it above his pride. Above all, he puts it above his liberty. The fact, perhaps, explains his veneration for policemen, in all the forms they take—his belief that there is a mysterious sanctity in law, however absurd it may be in fact.

A policeman is a charlatan who offers, in return for obedience, to protect him ( a ) from his superiors, ( b ) from his equals, and ( c ) from himself. This last service, under democracy, is commonly the most esteemed of them all. In the United States, at least theoretically, it is the only thing that keeps ice-wagon drivers, Y. M. C. A. secretaries, insurance collectors and other such human camels from smoking opium, ruining themselves in the night clubs, and going to Palm Beach with Follies girls…Here, though the common man is deceived, he starts from a sound premise: to wit, that liberty is something too hot for his hands—or, as Nietzsche put it, too cold for his spine.

Politics under democracy consists almost wholly of the discovery, chase, and scotching of bugaboos. The statesman becomes, in the last analysis, a mere witch-hunter, a glorified smeller and snooper, eternally chanting “Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum!” It has been so in the United States since the earliest days. The whole history of the country has been a history of melodramatic pursuits of horrendous monsters, most of them imaginary: the red-coats, the Hessians, the monocrats, again the red-coats, the Bank, the Catholics, Simon Legree, the Slave Power, Jeff Davis, Mormonism, Wall Street, the rum demon, John Bull, the hell hounds of plutocracy, the trusts, General Weyler, Pancho Villa, German spies, hyphenates, the Kaiser, Bolshevism. The list might be lengthened indefinitely; a complete chronicle of the Republic could be written in terms of it, and without omitting a single important episode.

It was long ago observed that the plain people, under democracy, never vote for anything, but always against something. The fact explains in large measure, the tendency of democratic states to pass over statesmen of genuine imagination and sound ability in favour of colorless mediocrities. The former are shining marks, and so it is easy for demagogues to bring them down; the latter are preferred because it is impossible to fear them.

How could I pass it up? The man actually says what he thinks, seemed to do thinking rather well, and ever forces one to examine one’s prejudices. 🙂 â—„Daveâ–º

I found another interesting resource for financial data that hasn’t been spun by the politicians. John Williams’ Shadow Government Statistics is worth a look. It is a subscription service; but there is plenty worth perusing out front. Of particular interests are the graphs which tell what the real inflation rate, money supply, unemployment percentage, etc. Then, there are the Primers on Government Economic Reports: What You’ve Suspected but Were Afraid to Ask. It is five years old, so it must be read for process not current conditions, yet even that will yield surprising data for 2004:

The current Bush administration has expanded upon the Clinton era initiatives, particularly in setting the stage for the adoption of a new and lower-inflation CPI and in further redefining the GDP and the concept of seasonal adjustment.

As a result of the systemic manipulations, if the GDP methodology of 1980 were applied to today’s data, the second quarter’s annualized inflation-adjusted GDP growth of 3.0% would be roughly three percent lower (effectively netting to zero percent or below). In like manner, current annual CPI inflation is understated by about 2.7% against the pre-Clinton CPI methodology (would be about 5.7%), and the unemployment rate is understated by about seven percent against its original design and what many people would consider to be actual unemployment (would be about 12.5%).

As to the financial results of federal operations, the application of accrual accounting and generally accepted accounting principles to federal operations shows an actual fiscal year 2003 deficit of $3.7 trillion, as reported by the U.S. Treasury, versus the reported cash-basis $374 billion.

Personally, I don’t believe a damn thing any politician or DC bureaucrat says anymore, so resources like this are valuable to anyone who desires to know what is really happening. â—„Daveâ–º

A lesson never to be forgotten?

Everybody knows you can’t spend yourself rich, anymore than you can drink yourself sober.

They used to sir. Back when common sense still counted. You may have brought the USSR to its knees, old friend; but the Marxists in academia now have our children down on theirs, worshiping the Obamessiah, and cursing you. History belongs not to those who created it; but to those who write the textbooks. Alas, your lifelong totalitarian nemesis owns that franchise, and they have not been kind to you.

They have numbed the minds of your posterity into a nation of helpless sheeple, sir, who haven’t a clue that they are being fleeced. Indeed, they are begging to be shorn… and I don’t know whether I want to be despondent or angry about it. It looks like I am going to have to decide soon, for this trend is unsustainable. â—„Daveâ–º

Pamela Geller at the Atlas Shrugs blog has a must see clip from C-Span where Democrat Representative Paul Kanjorski discusses what started the economic crisis we have been dealing with for the past few months:

On Thursday Sept 15, 2008 at roughly 11 AM The Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw down of money market accounts in the USA to the tune of $550 Billion dollars in a matter of an hour or two. Money was being removed electronically.

The Treasury tried to help, opened their window and pumped in $150 Billion but quickly realized they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. So they decided to closed down the accounts.

Had they not closed down the accounts they estimated that by 2 PM that afternoon. Within 3 hours. $5.5 Trillion would have been withdrawn and the entire economy of the United States would have collapsed, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed.

He concluded with:

Someone threw us in the middle of the Atlantic ocean without a life raft. We are trying to determine which is the closest shore and whether there is any chance in the world to swim that far. We don’t know.

It is interesting that nobody is saying who was behind this obviously coordinated attack on our economy. Surely they must have figured it out by now. Pamela speculates that it was a political move by George Soros & Co. There are other thoughts in the comment section, which are worth perusing. The sobering thing is to realize just how vulnerable our civilization is to such an attack, and how clueless and feckless our government is to counter one. â—„Daveâ–º

I guess now that the election is over, it is OK to admit the truth:

All of this is unfolding in an economy that can no longer be understood, even in passing, as the Great Society vs. the Gipper. Whether we like it or not—or even whether many people have thought much about it or not—the numbers clearly suggest that we are headed in a more European direction. A decade ago U.S. government spending was 34.3 percent of GDP, compared with 48.2 percent in the euro zone—a roughly 14-point gap, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In 2010 U.S. spending is expected to be 39.9 percent of GDP, compared with 47.1 percent in the euro zone—a gap of less than 8 points. As entitlement spending rises over the next decade, we will become even more French.

French? Are there enough freemen left who think this is a bad thing? Read it if you think you can do so without getting ill. Once the Obamessiah signs the implementing legislation they will pass tomorrow, nothing short of a revolution will ever return our Liberty. How soon will it start? â—„Daveâ–º

In a comment on another blog, a Lefty linked to Ike’s farewell address to make the familiar point about his warning regarding the military-industrial complex. Once there, I took the time to read the whole speech. Doing so, I noticed another warning he offered, which I have never heard repeated:

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system — ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

(bold emphasis mine)

Then, stunningly, was a paragraph that every one of the 535 fools currently ensconced on capital hill should be required to write one hundred times on a blackboard, before being allowed to vote on the spending bill they are currently ramming through congress over the ever growing objection of the public:

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society’s future, we — you and I, and our government — must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

(bold emphasis mine)

The “Now Generation” blew this one big time. We have already mortgaged the future of our grandchildren, and now we are in the process of stealing from their children and grandchildren. Have we no shame? If the kids could only think for themselves well enough to realize what we have done to them, they would cut off our SSI checks tomorrow… and I wouldn’t blame them. â—„Daveâ–º

Charles Krauthammer in a piece entitled, “So Much For Hope Over Fear,” makes the case that the mortality of the Obamessiah has been exposed rather quickly:

“A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe.” — President Obama, Feb. 4.

WASHINGTON — Catastrophe, mind you. So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared “we have chosen hope over fear.” Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill.

And so much for the promise to banish the money changers and influence peddlers from the temple. An ostentatious executive order banning lobbyists was immediately followed by the nomination of at least a dozen current or former lobbyists to high position.

[…]

The Age of Obama begins with perhaps the greatest frenzy of old-politics influence peddling ever seen in Washington. By the time the stimulus bill reached the Senate, reports The Wall Street Journal, pharmaceutical and high-tech companies were lobbying furiously for a new plan to repatriate overseas profits that would yield major tax savings. California wine growers and Florida citrus producers were fighting to change a single phrase in one provision. Substituting “planted” for “ready to market” would mean a windfall garnered from a new “bonus depreciation” incentive.

After Obama’s miraculous 2008 presidential campaign, it was clear that at some point the magical mystery tour would have to end. The nation would rub its eyes and begin to emerge from its reverie. The hallucinatory Obama would give way to the mere mortal. The great ethical transformations promised would be seen as a fairy tale that all presidents tell — and that this president told better than anyone.

I thought the awakening would take six months. It took two and a half weeks.

Agreed. The trouble is that it is too late now. Once he signs this abominable socialism implementation bill, the die is cast and it will be all downhill from here. It is good to see the Republicans actually opposing it; but once passed, they might as well fold their tent and go home, because it is game over for politics. It will soon be time for pitch forks, torches, and nooses; not ballots. â—„Daveâ–º

When Drudge this morning had the headline, “SALON.COM EDITOR RIPS: The new Great Communicator …isn’t,” I couldn’t resist reading it. It was a frightening trip into an alternative universe. Hard as it is to comprehend, one comes away with the unmistakable impression that this ditzy socialist actually believes the nonsense she is spouting:

Democrats know the Republicans are wrong. Little children know they’re wrong. Cats and dogs know they’re wrong. But somehow this week, unbelievably, Obama and the Democrats seem to be losing the spin war. There are the worrying poll numbers. And there is the Washington Post report that Senate Democrats don’t have the votes to pass a stimulus bill yet, at least not with the 60 votes that would rule out a filibuster. In this economic crisis, with 2.6 million jobs lost last year and thousands more lost in every news cycle, what does it take to create the urgency and responsibility to get this done?

I’d like everyone in charge of selling the stimulus to take a deep breath, and then, in an extended sound bite, articulate the long view (I know, I ask a lot). Along with Reich, Jeff Madrick goes into all the larger issues in greater detail in his excellent book “The Case for Big Government,” and winds up in the same place (even though, remarkably, the book was written before the current economic collapse and attendant debate over what the stimulus should do). I hope Obama and his team are reading Madrick and Reich. Because they’re really just talking common sense: Public spending priorities need to catch up to 21st-century economic life. The long and lamentable Republican revolution of 1980 through 2008 aimed, and partly succeeded, in sending us back to the 19th century — and we are all suffering for it. We will continue to suffer unless Democrats grab the political momentum voters gave them in November.

Of course, the 19th century wasn’t all bad, but in our current political environment, we’ve forgotten what was good: Eventually government (thanks to political, religious and labor agitation) came to see its role as providing K-12 education, building roads, canals, bridges and railroads (after private sector efforts faltered), and the slow budding of certain health and safety regulations. In the 20th century, that public mandate expanded into Social Security, Medicaid, unemployment insurance and other safety net programs, thanks to the New Deal and the Great Society. Today, profound economic change likewise requires new government initiatives, but they are many years overdue, for a lot of depressing political and economic reasons. The years since the early 1970s have been hard for middle- and low-income workers. Real wages became stagnant — the average weekly earnings of non-supervisory workers actually fell between 1973 and 2005. The late ’60s and early ’70s also marked the exodus of manufacturing jobs in the central cities, which William Julius Wilson and others persuasively argue played a huge role in creating the so-called underclass in many once-vital African-American neighborhoods.

Madrick lays out a few new-economy political priorities; you may have more, add them in comments:

Why, when post-secondary education is essential in this economy, are most families on their own when it comes to paying for college? Secondary education is awesome, isn’t it? Can you imagine this country without it? But isn’t it time to think beyond that? Why isn’t K-16 or so an American entitlement?

She was just getting wound up. If you need a window into what the progressives have done to the minds of our youth, just read this remarkable screed for a stunning example of a completely brainwashed mind that is utterly beyond reason. It is breathtaking. â—„Daveâ–º

That sounds like an oxymoron to me. As a thinker, I try not to spend too much time feeling and libertarians are supposed to be cold and heartless; but Professor John Hasnas of Georgetown U. has penned a remarkable commentary on “What It Feels Like To Be A Libertarian.”:

…I’ll tell you. It feels bad. Being a libertarian means living with a level of frustration that is nearly beyond human endurance. It means being subject to unending scorn and derision despite being inevitably proven correct by events.
[…]
Libertarians spend their lives accurately predicting the future effects of government policy. Their predictions are accurate because they are derived from Hayek’s insights into the limitations of human knowledge, from the recognition that the people who comprise the government respond to incentives just like anyone else and are not magically transformed to selfless agents of the good merely by accepting government employment, from the awareness that for government to provide a benefit to some, it must first take it from others, and from the knowledge that politicians cannot repeal the laws of economics. For the same reason, their predictions are usually negative and utterly inconsistent with the utopian wishful-thinking that lies at the heart of virtually all contemporary political advocacy. And because no one likes to hear that he cannot have his cake and eat it too or be told that his good intentions cannot be translated into reality either by waving a magic wand or by passing legislation, these predictions are greeted not merely with disbelief, but with derision.

It is human nature to want to shoot the messenger bearing unwelcome tidings. And so, for the sin of continually pointing out that the emperor has no clothes, libertarians are attacked as heartless bastards devoid of compassion for the less fortunate, despicable flacks for the rich or for business interests, unthinking dogmatists who place blind faith in the free market, or, at best, members of the lunatic fringe…

Does that “feel” familiar, or what? The piece is short and worth the read just to get to the final prophetic paragraph. â—„Daveâ–º

Human Events has a profound article entitled the “John Galt Effect.” The thesis is that although the thinkers and doers on whose shoulders our technological civilization stands seldom actually quit, today they are watching our march toward tyranny with trepidation. Instead of focusing their efforts on their work, which benefits us all, they are distracted by thoughts of survival for their loved ones:

What is the cost of the distraction of our real leaders — of the men of the mind — of the John Galts among us? I estimate that it is greater than the trillions of dollars being lost on government printing presses. Call this Y2009K — and this time it is very real.

That is a profound observation, and almost impossible to quantify; but intuitively we know it rings true. I had not thought of the notion of a lot of little shrugs being perhaps more devastating than a few big ones.

Of one thing we can be certain. When the essentials of our civilization begin to seriously falter and this causes real harm, those who would be our masters and their fellow travelers in the media, academia, business, and politics will cast blame upon some of these men of the mind — and drag them before us for punishment. Our John Galts know this, too, and it is a further distraction for them.

Some of these people are leading great enterprises. Others are in the basements of our power plants and other heavy industries. Some are closeted away in universities quietly at work on the next generations of possible advances in science and engineering. They are easily recognized — by their genius and by the love of their work that permeates their whole beings.

One way to recognize them is that they constantly talk about their work to anyone who will listen.

Now they are distracted.

What are they talking about today?

Indeed. When one hears the Usurper in Chief himself pronounce that the recovery will take years and that now is not the time to make profits, the message to the achievers is that now is not the time to dream, invent, innovate, advance, excel, or even try to achieve – now is the time to hunker down and weather the storm. All a serious thinker, who can see the big picture and notice how ugly it really is, can rationally do is hope for an early and spectacular failure of the Progressive agenda; to hasten the time when capitalism returns.

Socialist government can make temporary work; but it cannot create real jobs. That requires a capitalist with a mind tuned to a frequency utterly beyond the range of a socialist. One cannot compel such a mind to produce; one can only provide an environment conducive to its best efforts, and then get the hell out of the way and let it improve the lot of mankind. â—„Daveâ–º

Glenn Beck’s new TV show on Fox News is already the third most watched cable news program, even though it is not in prime time. Here is an example of why:

What would happen of all Americans saw this dramatic presentation and understood the implications? â—„Daveâ–º

Many of you probably already know about “The Liberty Radio Network.” It is new to me:

Introducing the Liberty Radio Network!
In its current form, the Liberty Radio Network (LRN) is streaming the best liberty-oriented content on the internet, 24/7. You will hear the latest episodes of the shows listed below, as well as live content originating from our studios in Keene, New Hampshire.

Live streaming and tons of podcasts by libertarian oriented hosts. If you are weary of the Left/Right oriented talk radio fare, there is probably something here for you, and it is all free without even so much as a sign-up required. Check it out. â—„Daveâ–º

I have stumbled across an interesting source of financial charts. They have worked out a way to reconstruct M3, which the Fed quit reporting about the time they started inflating the money supply like crazy. It appears to be updated weekly. There are all manner of charts worth perusing there and many of them look like Al Gore’s hockey stick; but my favorite is:

It represents all the currency the FED has “printed” lately (although much of it is digital instead of paper). If one looks closely, there was about a trillion dollars in circulation in early 2008 and they doubled it by mid-summer. Then they had doubled it again in September and added another trillion by Christmas. So,there are nearly five times as many dollars in circulation today as there was a year ago. Our politicos are about to add another trillion in their stimulus package, and I fear no end is in sight. It is only a matter of time until all those dollars start looking for a shrinking supply of goods, and prices join the hockey stick trend. Gold is still cheap, folks. â—„Daveâ–º

I encountered a really profound and thought provoking comment on the Secular Right blog today. In a thread entitled, “Obama’s Science,” Heather Mac Donald said:

Obama says he will “restore science to its rightful place.” All very nice and anti-oogedy-boogedy. I’ll believe Obama’s self-congratulatory rhetoric, however, when he stands up to the radical green lobby and considers the case for nuclear energy, a power source conspicuously absent from his inaugural list of PC alternative fuels.

On the oogedy-boogedy front, Texas is once again debating the teaching of evolution.

This drew a surprising number of comments, including debate over AGW, along with the predictable gnashing of teeth over the Darwin vs. Creation/ID school subjects. Then,  commenter Daniel Dare (from Europe, I think) made the following mind opener at comment #44:

I don’t think American people understand the problem.

Even now USA can’t educate all the scientists and engineers it needs. I get the impression that every second scientist is foreign-born. High-IQ Americans choose law, they choose business. Science has low-status in your country. You culture despises nerds. You revere singers and actors and sport’s stars, supermodels, business people. Above all, so many of your religious leaders bad-mouth science at every opportunity.

Confucianism/Taoism is different. The scholar is revered. They are the saints, the immortals, the Xiān (hsien). Marxism has added to this, not reduced it. A Marxist state is a technocracy. Engineers dominate the government. Not lawyers like America.

You only get away with this because of low taxes, which allows higher elite income, and the fact that you are still a leader in many fields. And because your main competitors are Westerners with similar values to you.

Wait till you are number two in everything. And your taxes rise to pay for trillion dollar deficits. After President Obama, you will have a welfare state like Europe. Maybe like Sweden LOL. After inflation hits in a year or two, everyone will be in higher tax-scales. You think you can double base-money and not get high inflation? President Obama and Speaker Pelosi will have no difficulty funding their schemes. High inflation and progressive income-tax will solve the problem.

A decade or two from now, people will go to Beijing. USA will be the ones with the brain-drain. Even the few scientists you manage to train will go to Beijing.

That’s what it’s like for developing countries now. All their elite dream of going to America.

Wow! How could one argue with his logic? To me, this is just one more (as if I needed another) reason to despair for the future of this once great country. It is like a perfect storm is lining up to flatten us very soon, and most will not see it coming. â—„Daveâ–º

Troy has an interesting piece entitled, “I’m Sorry, So Sorry…,” in which he revisits the idea of breaking America into separate autonomous regions. Only, now he is suggesting it be done by consensus with those advocating different social systems free to choose to live where their preference prevails:

My solution? Let every group have what it wants by dividing the country into several autonomous regions, each free to choose the type of governmental/economic/social system it prefers. For sure, this would cause some dislocations since many would find themselves in a region that does not conform to their preferences. No problem. Leave them free to either:

• Willingly abide by the decisions of the majority in that region, or,
• Remove themselves to a different region, more suited to their tastes.

After all, we are a very mobile people.

Such freedom of choice and movement should remain open to any and all for a predetermined period after the division. However, after this period of choice has expired, each region should then be free to establish its own processes and rules for immigration. I suggest this last restriction in the absolute belief that those who choose poorly would soon want to flee to the protection of others who chose more wisely.

Sorry but when one chooses a system, one must choose ALL of that system. After all, would not any and every system be great if we could only choose its best attributes and be immune to its failings?

Is this not a form of the very thinking that has gotten the USA to the state of collapse?

This sounds great to me; but I see a few hidden flaws. Let’s say we break it into three pieces:

1. A socialist system, where the Politically Correct activists regulate moral behavior.
2. A corporatist system, where the Piously Correct activists regulate moral behavior.
3. A laissez faire capitalist system, where individual moral behavior is unregulated.

It would seem to me that few businesses that actually produced wealth would wish to stay in the socialist paradise (1), and would move to (3) where I would be. This would devastate the welfare state, for lack of a source of funds to redistribute to all the lazy whiners demanding their benefits. This might cause them to wish to invade (3) to re-enslave some producers.

Then, both (1) and (2) would require heavy enforcement mechanisms to force their citizens to “do the right thing.” This would drive all the dopers and criminals into (3) where they wouldn’t have enforcers breathing down their necks every moment of the day. This would force the cooperative citizens of (3) to hire more cops than they would otherwise need, and penal facilities that they probably had not planned for.

I am willing to kick the idea around; but it seems fraught with a lot of unintended consequences, and I suspect it would evolve into civil war eventually anyway. â—„Daveâ–º