Happy Independence Day, 2009!
I want you to know how much I appreciate our American freedoms - like the one I have been exercising in this forum - outright criticism of their government and political leaders is simply not possible for BILLIONS of human beings the world over.
The politics of the Looney Left and the Whacky Right should not be, MUST NOT BE, the only game in town/nation. These 2 groups represent 15 % or so of the U.S. population, yet they have the rest of us by the g!shg@s.
AMERICAN culture and history is uniquely suited for our own brand of Libertarianism - American Libertarianism if you will - consistent with U.S. Constitutional rights and protections, and completely rejecting the idea of Government intrusion into our personal lives, a Government that maintains order and defense but does not legislate morality, a Government uniquely concerned about INDIViDUAL rights rather than special interest groups, and a society that preaches AND practices an ethic of work, frugality, self-reliance, and personal freedom and responsibility.
The alternative will be a "Tyranny of the Majority" or a "Tyranny of a Minority", but a Tyranny nonetheless.
So happy 4th of July to my American brothers and sisters, and happy freedoms to my international readers not censured and able to read this. We have crossed some strange dividing line these last few years, and have entered the land of the surreal. I think now is an excellent time to bring it on home politically and socially. To end the Tyranny of Left and Right - hypocrites, liars, and human beings all - and truly "Let Freedom Ring".
Yours for a better world,
Greg T. Jeffers
20 comments:
I feel sad for America. I grew up with Rock and Roll playing in the background, and the American icons and ideals pinned to the wall; all the more vivid because post-War Britain was a pretty grey and poor place to grow up.
For newly-minted America the idea of the American Dream was the glue that held together the different cultures and nationalities made up of immigrant Americans. It worked for a while because America was wealthy, based on cheap oil and more land than you knew what to do with. The potential was real.
But now, without cheap oil, with 50 years of debt, with degraded land and industrialised agriculture, and disparate cultures and identities and even languages, I'm not sure where you can go which is ever going to be better than now.
But Greg, it's hard to see how you can blame the left; other countries are MUCH more left wing, with more socialist policies and lower net income, but haven't been hit so hard by the Recession as you (and didn't cause it in the first place!). The problem isn't left wing spending policies (although I don't like them either); it's right-wing freedom-of-the-market, law-of-the-jungle policies that allow smart-ass individuals to con working people out of their hard-earned money and pensions. It's the gambling of traders who are no better than overpaid bookies. It's the venality of politicians in bed with industry and defence. THAT'S what is wrong with America!
But hey, let's look on the bright side; maybe Sarah Palin is the New Blood that will save you free-market libertarian Republicans!
;-)
"it's right-wing freedom-of-the-market, law-of-the-jungle policies that allow smart-ass individuals to con working people out of their hard-earned money and pensions. It's the gambling of traders who are no better than overpaid bookies. It's the venality of politicians in bed with industry and defence. THAT'S what is wrong with America!"
I could not disagree with you more. America is far more than ONE country. We are a continent, a very significant portion of the earth. Where we go, you are SURE to follow. That same is true of Europe. Where Europe goes, so goes America.
The U.S. has NEVER had much of a free market. Nor have are "hard working people" working harder than the "con men". These are nothing more than political labels designed to manipulate and motivate the base of each (well in this case the Left's) camp.
And you really think that Europe's Left is succeeding? The U.S. subsidized Europe's defense, economy, and political system. That subsidy is coming to an end, and with it Europe's Left's arrogance.
Too, America has had a vast underclass that has staunchly refused to move up and has had a tremendous drag on our economy in the cost of healthcare and prisons. You might say that America brought this on itself, and maybe you are correct. What does that have to do with where we find ourselves?
There is more to life than the economy, and what how much can get for as little effort as possible. Americans can have a much more stimulating, interesting, arousing, sensible, and satisfying lives - while at the same time lowering the FRANTIC level.
The first exercise I would implore my fellow Americans to do is this:
Turn off all media that is receiving data with political content. We have become a nation of "Crossfire" TV hosts (yes, I know the show is no more.) There is not value in this debate EXCEPT for those on the receiving end of the government's taxing powers.
The Left's entire existence relies on these tax revenues, and I am here to tell you, and proclaim to the rest of the Web, that those revenues are no longer, and will not come back. Ergo, the Left DOES NOT EXIST anymore. They only think they do.
BTW...
Gambling traders? Military intelligence? Jumbo Shrimp?
No traders making a market in commodities, food, etc... means nothing on the shelves.
I would argue that we should remove ALL regulation - that the average Joe would be far better off.
Let me give you an example:
America decided that drugs were bad for its citizens. So we made them illegal and authorized our "Authorities" to use force on people to stop them from doing what they wanted to do. "We" (not me) thought that it drugs were worse than having 2 million people in prison (crime school), and the manufactured high market price of drugs and the violence that ensued.
Any thinking man can see where that got us. Had we had not criminalized drugs we would have had addicts, and death, and crime - but I would BET BIG MONEY that the it would have been far less than the addicts, and death, and crime we got with "REGULATION".
I can do this same trick with Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac, Social Security, Medicare, Food Stamps, etc...
Government is NOT the answer for anything beyond basic law and order, and basic defense.
Tax revenues are simply not going to be there to support Europe's or America's society dependent (with the exception of Oil rich Norway) in the style they have become accustomed to.
The cost of our regulatory agencies far outstripped what intelligent, self regulating people would have lost to fraud and corruption.
Its like getting cured of cancer by a treatment that kills you 3 years before the cancer would have - but at least you are cancer free while you lie in your casket.
Hmmmm, I seem to have pushed a few buttons there! ;-)
I'll just pick up on one or two points:
"No traders making a market in commodities, food, etc... means nothing on the shelves".
That needs unpicking. If by traders you mean people who buy goods and trade them to other people and places, and take a reasonable profit for their efforts, skill and acumen, I agree that this is the basis of markets and a Good Thing. If you mean speculators who use other people's money to gamble on whether the price will go up or down, then we don't need them because all they are doing is making those goods more expensive for everyone else. It is useless to society.
The more people who make a living between the man who makes something and the woman who buys it, the more fragile that society is to financial collapse. Especially if the man doing the making is Chinese!
Also I agree that welfare policies should be paid for after the profits are made and distributed. But it is your free market that has made your healthcare almost 3 times the cost per capita of ours, and twice as expensive as France (which is officially the best in the world), and it is the free market which means an American doctor is paid 3 times what a Swedish doctor is paid.
Sometimes the market fails. It fails with public 'goods' like health and education, it fails with climate and fishing and other 'commons', and it fails when greed is the primary motivation at any level.
That it also fails to motivate the poorly-served underclasses is no surprise at all.
You are being ridiculous again, and on this fine Federal holiday that I have off! :) There is no other real political world beyond Democrat and Republican that we have not explored. Every single issue has been mulled over and taken up as a cause (high tax = Demos, low tax = Repubs, etc.) Do you really think that 300 million Americans have not already be "surveyed" about their political leanings and they are just being ignored?? The government is doing EXACTLY what the population wants ... lots of spending on popular programs, and for the rich to pay the majority of the taxes. Is their some middle ground we are missing? Is there something in between being pro- or anti-abortion that we are missing? Of course not. You give the monkeys the dynamite and they will blow themselves up, just like when Greenspan (a Republican) made credit too cheap for too long, giving the monkeys (the people) the dynamite (the cheap credit). The superminorities (the Libertarians, the Theocrats, etc.) will never have a majority because most Americans think they are nuts. The middle is too wimpy to admit they are Repubs or Demos -- they just don't want to be associated with their party at present (why a lot of Republicans voted for Obama). There is nothing wrong with America that a little collective common sense wouldn't cure. And that is an individual effort -- by myself included.
Donal:
The U.S. does not have any thing like a free market for healthcare - if we did, we would NOT have the issues we do - nor do we have a free market in education.
Free markets are the worst way to run a society, except for everything else - to paraphrase Churchill. If people negotiated prices for health services and budgeted accordingly deflation would hit Healthcare in the U.S. with a vengeance.
In every instance of government "interference" - "regulation" as you call it - the interference had far worse unintended consequences than anyone in government or the media seemed to consider.
According to Heritage, the 2 most economic free countries are Singapore and Hong Kong. Both are not democracies. Number 3 is Australia, and several of my friends are Australia and they tax and regulate everything for their welfare state. For instance, movies have 2 prices, one for the employed, and a lower one for the unemployed, obviously a sneaky tax making the employed pay for the unemployed. I have another friend from Singapore, his tax rate -less than 10%.
It seems that even though democracies tend to be more free, it is ironic that only dictatorships have the possibility of our dreams of economic libertarianism.
China has a cash only health care system. I remember reading in the (Chinese)paper about a burned toddler, refused treatment by 3 hospitals because the parents did not have $2,000. The toddler died. I don't think America, today, could handle the sight of the dead and dying on hospital lawns. How about all the foreign media showing the dead,"America has plenty of money for bombing foreigners, and bailing out Wall Street, but look how America treats its poor."
Good Blog, by the way.
Greg while I agree with all your points Donal does have a point. We have offshored all of our better paying low skill jobs in the name of sheer greed and the portion of the population that needs them are not going away. On top of that we have countless open borders proposals to flood that segment and further drive down wages.
Greg; free markets are a theory, already blatantly discredited by the boom-and-bust reality, in which 'market signals' regulate trade.
I'll point out just two of the problems, and they're big ones:
"Market signals" means accurate and complete information. It ignores market externalities like pollution, mining of the environment, commonly-held goods like sound land, health of the population, war and defence, etc, etc, etc.... Without that complete information and the inclusion of the true costs of ALL externalities, business is left with just greed as its primary motivation and is bound to be exploitative and destructive, and rightly seen as such by many people.
The first thing you learn in business or marketing college is how to distort those "marketing signals" to twist the market in your favour, e.g. advertising, monopoly, anti-competitive practices, market domination, and preferential regulatory environments.
It is not by accident that America is FAMOUS for many of the above market-distorionary methods! Or that many Americans feel shafted by such a system, which has patantly failed them as citizens, in favour of Big Business. Madoff and Enron weren't aberrations; they were the expression of ultimate success of the American system of free enterprise based on greed.
Business should be about making better products, and a reasonable profit is the enabler that allows that business to continue to make good products. The aim should be the benefit to society, not shafting society for the benefit of the shareholder. America has it wrong.
One last point. You and I are the fortunate, blessed with a good-enough education, intelligence, confidence, health, etc. We are therefore at the top of our tree and it is easy for us to navigate The System to our advantage and benefit. But society should be judged by how it treats the LEAST amongst us, not how it treats the most fortunate.
DaShui:
I see America as very close to being a free, and free market, society. Just a few steps, and away we go:
Abolish the Federal Reserve.
Decriminalize drugs and prostitution.
Decommission most of the Federal Government Departments created since WWII (Bye Bye Dept. of Energy, Commerce, DEA, etc...)
Shrink the U.S. military budget by 50%.
Make ALL healthcare private and self pay. Stand back and watch healthcare costs CRASH.
Reorganize the U.S. Court system to move cases through the courts MUCH faster.
Limit prison sentences on property crimes NO MATTER HOW LARGE OR INFAMOUS to no more than 10 years, and no more than 5 years for say less than $100 million. 5 years makes the same point as 20 years.
Increase spending on education BUT NOT AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL (spending money on Shakespearian scholars is not the government's business). Spend more for practical and technical training - general home maintenance and repair, home food production and preservation, etc...
Would some people be harmed? Of course. If we did a cost/benefit analysis (something government NEVER does) this would be a no brainer.
Donal:
It seems to me that yours is an entirely European perspective, and I am talking about American Libertarianism. We just don't seem to share the same vision.
BTW, and I want to say this gently and respectfully, but it appears to me that you have been greatly influenced by media reports. The Media is always somebody's dog - attack dog, hunting dog, lap dog... but a dog nonetheless - and the media does not accurately capture anything, particularly in America where the Media is sooooo obviously slanted and biased. Since American media dovetails so nicely with European political thought at the moment I would think it would be tempting to believe what you read. Not that it really matters to someone living in Europe, but I would not accept the American media's version of events.
Greg; yes I have an European perspective. Europeans lent money to support the US and the $ and have lost fortunes in Americas scam banking and mortgage system. Europe pays the cost of climate change and pollution. Europe pays in lives and money to support Americans in Iraq and Afganistan. These are all 'externalities' to US internal and external policies, which are paid for by the RotW.
Having said that, I'd agree with almost all you say to DaShui about decriminalising prostitution etc. But some things are the remit of government; education, basic banking, healthcare, railways, water supply, possibly electricity infrastructure; the things people HAVE to have. They may be state owned, or state regulated, but the free markets do NOT work for basic societies' needs.
I can't help but compare the value for money and quality of services in France, England and the US. The US comes out worse of all; most expensive, least fair and least cost effective, and it is the nearest to free market. You can't pretend that isn't the case - go with the evidence, not the theory!
Donal:
I think it is fair to say that "natural monopolies" exist - electricity, water, highways...
I think it is also fair to say that nations, including the U.S. and the U.K., have done some incredibly evil things, some incredibly good things, and lot's and lot's of silly, waste of time, do nothing but steal from the people in order to reward TPTB supporters.
I think that America is at a unique time in its history - a time that will see great changes within the political structure of nation - and I think that Liberalism is DEAD and I believe that Conservatism, as defined by the Southern Republicans that have come to dominate the Republican party is DEAD.
I believe that REALLY right wingers and Libertarians will fill the vacuum.
Lastly, what's done is done. Does that mean we should not go on from here? Does Europe really want Russia or China to dominate? Does Europe think that if/when the U.S. loses its ability to fund Europe's/South Koreas/Japan's, etc... security that the world will just join hands and sing songs around the proverbial campfire?
The U.S. can devolve into something really, really unpleasant or we can begin once again to recognize the document that organized our nation, and to recognize that the rights of the individual supercede's the "right's" of society.
What you seem to be proposing is having some government agency make decisions for people rather than people making decisions for themselves. You can't have it both ways. Either people are responsible for themselves, or the government is. If it is the government, then you ceding power over your sovereign person to some bureaucrat or government agency.
If that is your belief system, so be it. But I would oppose that in every circumstance. I reject that as a reasonable and ethical function of government.
Prostitution is decriminalized in Nevada if some one wants it they can go their or go to jail same goes for the whores.
“Make ALL healthcare private and self pay. Stand back and watch healthcare costs CRASH”- along with life expectancy.
“Limit prison sentences on property crimes NO MATTER HOW LARGE OR INFAMOUS to no more than 10 years, and no more than 5 years for say less than $100 million. 5 years makes the same point as 20 years.” You would be utterly amazed how many people would think one million for five years was a good deal.
“Increase spending on education BUT NOT AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL (spending money on Shakespearian scholars is not the government's business). Spend more for practical and technical training - general home maintenance and repair, home food production and preservation, etc...” – Our local schools generally get 10K per student or roughly a quarter million per classroom per year, they are squandering what they have on administration why pray tell should we give them more? A better system would to totally privatize it with vouchers. The problem with universities is not the Shakespearian scholar, which is where that belongs; the problem is they are teaching a whole plethora of things that should be studied at vo-tech along with oughtright bads. Most of what you see around us was built by the GI generation, and they primarily studied letters at university to learn how to think. It worked, and as soon as they started stepping down ignorant boomer technicians promptly wrecked it.
The major problem I see is a tolerance for predators. When it is someone mugging folks they usually go straight to prison as they should yet when it is someone stealing with a pen, well that is different. The Wealth of Nations has a prequel it rests on The Theory Moral Sentiments, with out the latter free enterprise is not possible. While I see massive Westphalian level changes, I do not share your optimism; the trends are all going the wrong way.
Greg,
No time to read this thread about Libertarianism and 3rd parties yet, but just wanted to say, Happy 4th!
If you lived close by, I'd love to visit your farm... well, maybe someday...
Be well.
I will say, we need 3rd parties.
The 2 party system is an abject failure. The Founders warned us about "factions." Boy, were they right.
Although I agree with you about the sad state of our binary political system, you are wrong laying the blame of America's fiscal ruin solely at the feet of Democrats.
A quick review of the actual results from the historical tables reveals that the largest spenders have been: Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 42. Star Wars anyone? Republicans have been notorious deficit spenders while at the same time cutting taxes. Republican fiscal policy makes even less sense than the Democrats.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals/
I have taken this apart in great detail... and it is true that 25% of the budget is defense spending, and much of it a waster...
the remainder are social programs that have run amok.
In the end, the issues WILL be solved by forces beyond our control - I had hoped for a different outcome but that is not to be. LEft and and Right will get replaced with Libertarians AND Fascists as they will be all we can afford (gross oversimplification, but you get my drift), IMHO.
The adjustment is going to be interesting.
everyone wants to go to heaven, but NOBODY wants to die... that is a mutally exclusive event...
All healthcare is SELF PAY, we just don't know it - the problem in America is that while that is true no one treats it that way... with a very predictable outcome
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