Humans desire order and stability over the Death Star

 

by Craig Willms

The Force

Humans crawled out of the jungle became nomads and eventually settled down into communities. We created an ordered society. That's important. That humans crave order is obvious. Conversely we seem to crave adventure. These concepts seem diametrically opposed. Which is it? Can't it be both?

Young boys, if left to there own devices, will set out on an adventure to conquer the unknown. It seems innately built into them. As a young boy I did it too. We lived on the edge of a housing development that opened into hundreds of acres of untouched land that stretched all the way to the Mississippi river. In the summer we'd often set out to explore these mysterious fields and woodlands. It was glorious. This feeling lasted about four or five hours. One by one each of us craved the life we'd left behind, our civilization. We wanted to be back in our homes where the refrigerator was full and the couch was as welcoming as the TV in the corner. 

The draw of the adventure was strong. The longing for home and its order was just as strong. We were kids, we had no responsibility and we knew so little of the way the world worked. Clearly breaking the bonds of order was important to our individual desires, and we pursued adventure with abandon. Wherever we went we knew our home and the attendant order was going to be there for us when we returned. Anything else was unthinkable. Comfort and safety was important whether we understood it or not. We were typical humans.

Today we are civilized men and women who live in an ordered society, an imperfect society. Every society ever created by human beings is imperfect. Why is the imperfection important enough to emphasize twice? Simply, imperfection is cited as the reason Western Civilization must be destroyed. Destroyed in favor of what?

The Empire Strikes 

Well, that is the question, but it comes after the fact. That fact our country, our society is being dismantled from within needs to be acknowledged first. Half of America doesn't even see it, the other half is equally divided into their camps. One camp is heavily funded and back stopped by the major media. The other half until recently didn't even fight back. 

They first awoke after Barack Obama was elected and sought to "fundamentally" transform America. He broke the country down across racial lines and that old favorite the exploiters vs the exploited. The media carried the water for The Light Bringer and covered his head in a halo. Dissenting voices were drowned out and all but dismissed as a nutty conspiracy theories. 

Barack Obama may have been the one to ramp up the undeclared civil war, but he was not the architect of ruin. It probably goes back to the end of World War II or even before, whenever its inception the "conspiracy" is now wide and deep. In recent years, basically since the rise of Trump, the left has turned the burners up to high. We are now seeing a partial breakdown of order. There is lawlessness that is being accepted and encouraged through no bail policies. Criminals are being protected and law enforcement is now branded the enemy. This particular conspiracy is undeniable. What Obama did was to carefully staff the federal apparatus including the Dept. of Justice, the military and numerous federal agencies with like-minded sycophants. It's been called the weaponization of government. They were able to unleash it on Donald Trump starting in 2015. The rest is history.

As Obama orchestrated his leftist base it coalesced with Non-Governmental Organizations and giant 'charitable' foundations, the real playground of the billionaires. Those ties were already there but now they were codified. It was a synchronicity that steered an entire manufactured narrative that America was irredeemable just as the newly minted EU sought to destroy European culture and its history. Born out of the elite structures of the WEF and the like, none of the subversion was done out in the open. The power and weight of the this mindset was slap in the face to the ordinary native born populations. 

The NGO's with their noble missions and numerous benign sounding foundations utilize their billions aligned against America and it's founding principles. These private or government funded outfits are not required to report their finances and are not taxed on any of the money they receive. No one knows what goes on behind closed doors as the song goes. What they do, they do with impunity. It's believed that these entities underpin the whole leftist Democrat operation as well as all their European comrades. This has been known for years, everyone shrugs, or winks and nods. It goes deeper than we can possibly imagine. We know little of what actually happens with all that money at hand. What I know about it, or think I know, is cobbled together from different sources and putting two and two together. These organization's number one goal is to topple the United States. But first - Europe... 

In 2016 to everyone's surprise and especially his, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton as half of America recoiled against what Obama had done. Katy bar the door. Trump was naïve and had no idea of the width and depth of the swamp, as he liked to call it. He was in over his head. It was Russia, Russia, Russia 24/7 and then Covid-19. The tumultuous election that followed the George Floyd riots saw Trump lose to Joe Biden. His contesting the election went nowhere, every court case was immediately dismissed. In any event the lawfare against Donald Trump never stopped, it was one charge after another.

Biden from his first days in office was clearly losing his battle with dementia, but the Obama apparatchiks quietly took over his administration. In order to sow chaos the borders were thrown open and chaos ensued. This had already been done in Europe with devastating effect. Government budgets ballooned through Covid and beyond. On the ground the economy (the world economy) suffered government induced inflation. Rising interest rates used to fight inflation discouraged future homeowners, while private equity firms stepped into the housing sector to create renters instead of home owners. For the paycheck to paycheck crowd the rising cost of everything killed all their dreams. America, they were told was an unfair and racist society that the billionaires controlled, antithetical to the fact that most of the billionaires supported the Democrat's causes. 

Traditional culture was pummeled from every direction and the young here and abroad have become societally discouraged from marrying and having children. The children already born were being encouraged to deny their biology and transition their sex. Their schools and colleges became literal indoctrination centers, where the parents were unwelcome. It got to the point of parents groups being tagged domestic terrorist organizations for opposing the trans agenda being forced on their small children. Amid this chaos every change in the weather was treated as a sign of the end times. Global warming had become the Climate Crisis!! and all the energy our civilization needs is to blame. Safe energy had to come from only solar and wind - which didn't work. It was all so surreal, but treated as totally normal and oh so obvious. 

The future looked bleak for next generation. Which is what "they" wanted. America had no dream anymore if it ever did. Alas, all around civil order was starting to break down. On the streets in many cities here and in Europe are dangerous no-go zones, while across social media lawlessness and strife is being encouraged. It seems every week there is a church shooting or a school shooting, some mass casualty event. The perpetrator's are almost always potential psychiatric patients. Order and stability is waning.

A New Hope

While there have been signs in Europe that they've had enough of it, not much seems to be changing, yet. In United States however, Joe Biden may have actually saved the day for America. In retaliation of the Obama takeover of his administration, when they forced him out of the 2024 race his ego revolted and he crowned Kamala Harris his successor. She was a disaster. On the other side Donald Trump never gave up, and began to beat back the unfounded lawfare waged against him. He crushed Harris in the 2024 election. 

Armed with experience the Trump team hit the ground running in 2025. Having identified the underlying apparatus of the Democratic machine, the global socialist machine, they set about to dismantle it. The fraud, deception and embezzlement of government funded entities was thrown into the light. DOGE and federal prosecutors overturned the rocks these criminals hid under. On the international front the beneficiary's of USAID's funding were exposed. The billions in funding was immediately suspended or cancelled outright. So much of the funding fronted the intelligence community's activities in other countries that they don't know where the fraud began or ended.

This was just in the first months of the Trump's new term. Trump was the first Republican to actively fight in court the false claims made against him by the leftist media. He has won most of them. Other companies and social media entities have come forward to admit that the Biden administration and the Federal authorities pressured them into countering anything or anybody that opposed them or their agenda.

On the other front, the mass invasion of illegal immigrants, the Trump administration slammed shut the borders and began a mass deportation push. Trump is also putting so-called sanctuary cities on notice that there will be consequences for their actions related to thwarting ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and other enforcement efforts. It's no mystery who is funding the anti-ICE riots all over the country. It is the hill the Democrats and leftists are willing to die on. Why they think there is an appetite to offer illegal immigrants health care and other services they don't offer to American citizens is the real mystery. 

All these actions are stirring the hard left into hysterics, but it's falling on deaf ears. Leftists are being exposed for liars and subversives that they are. Despite his unchecked ego people can see that Trump is acting to preserve and recover what had made the United States de facto global hegemon, the leader of the free world. If you were not paying close attention, you could be moved by the fear and loathing the left has for Trump and his policies. That ended when the sniper's bullet killed Charlie Kirk in full view of his wife and children. The Democrats could not help themselves the glee they felt. The sickening display of vitriol over Charlie's message against the backdrop of his brutal death was too much for many, many on the center-left. It is now completely clear who is for freedom, order and stability.

Capitalism: Fix it, Make it Better or Keep Shooting Yourself in the Foot

 

by Craig Willms

Part 1

Since I became aware of how the world works to whatever degree it's possible the system, the American system, has been under attack. The constant consternation of the discontented and their antics has been on display since I could absorb the news of the day. By the time I was old enough to participate in the workings of the world I was well aware of the disenchanted. I could either join them or I could just get on with the business of carving out my own place in this life. I could be angry about everything that's wrong with the world or I could put my head down and get to work on my own life. I chose the later.

I'm not saying either course is right or wrong. We all want the world, the system, our lot to be better than it is, the question is what can we do about it? I was and still am, I suppose, absorbed in my own little world. I suspect we all are. Early on my beliefs and politics was an extension of my parent's worldview. There's nothing odd in that, most people start there. My blue-collar parents, factory workers, were both union Democrats. They had a work ethic that was beyond reproach, but they had a narrow worldview that never strayed far from the boundaries of the union or in my mother's case, beyond the Church. They never desired to tear down the world, but they knew who their allies were and who  the nefarious kleptocrats were (hint: Republicans). 

I remember my father-in-law telling the story of his awakening - his partial awakening. He was also a union Democrat and in fact was working for 'the union' as an enforcer (whatever that entails). When he saw that the union bosses were two-faced kleptocrats in their own right he was so disillusioned he quit. He never lost his faith in his us against them view of the world, but he could not be a part of such deception. He had something called personal integrity.

What my father-in-law encountered was human nature. We are ruled by our self-interest, it's an integral part of our will to survive. Yes, of course we care about our clan, our group, our causes, but we care mostly about ourselves. His union bosses cared mostly about themselves and pilfered their union members coffers to feather their own nests. They were no different than the businessman who takes his employees productivity and then mercilessly flaunts his wealth. 

By now in the early part 21st century we have plenty of evidence of what happens when humans pretend to deny human nature by forcing, at the point of a gun, a system of economics on a nation that purports to be fair and equitable. What happens? Disaster is what happens. 

There's no need to chronicle point by point these disasters. Short of Cuba and North Korea most of the communist and socialist experiments dissolve into quasi-capitalist realities. In each of these cases despite the high-minded drive to create classless equality, human nature expressed itself in thriving black markets where certain high achievers prospered. As well, the kleptocrats within the ruling class also prospered. This while the average citizen continued to be mired in poverty, disillusionment and death.

In the United States and Western Europe on average the citizenship prospered despite the unhidden inequality and unfairness. All the things that the communists declared about the capitalism was true, to a degree, however, rarely are the abundant positive attributes of the capitalistic system ever cited. Enough people, a majority, raised their lot in life to pass on a better existence to their descendants. It was not, and is not perfect, but it works for the majority. It works well, for now.

Today in the West the kleptocracy is an alliance of the ruling class and consolidated business interests taking a lion's share of the wealth. More and more people fall through the cracks, more and more people cannot afford to live well. This current generation will not pass on a better life to their kids (if they have any kids).

Free market-based capitalism does exploit people, but enough people live really well and prosper so that all in all it works. There has always been enough money in this type of system to scrape off the top to care for those struggling or those who are victims of circumstance. That's changing. Historically private and faith-based organizations cared for those living in the shadows. Today governments have absorbed this responsibility. With the gap between those who have enough, more than enough, and those who just scrape by getting wider, governments are failing to keep up. Everyone sees this, and most people see this as an intractable problem. In truth very, very poor local government policy plays the largest role in this failure. In some cities the streets are filling up with the homeless and the hopeless. The aforementioned disillusioned and discontented seeking answers keep returning to collectivism, via communism or more likely socialism despite the abhorrent track record. It makes no sense to go down that road again, it won't work - again. Maybe it's time to do something different. Maybe we should try to embrace capitalism, maybe we should fix it, make it better, make it fairer or we can just keep shooting ourselves in the foot.

Why can't the richest, most innovative, most expansible economic system be fixed?

Entrenched special interests might have something to say about that. They like things the way they are. But even they have to see the writing on the wall. The system will crumble when all that's left are a select few rich folks and the rest of us living hand to mouth.

We can all see that there are countless things wrong with American capitalism. How wonderful if we could snap our fingers and fix them all. Fairy tales are also wonderful. We need to focus on a few things that can be clearly explained and resonate with the most people. Since we are a people that need a figurehead to rally around, we need someone brave, charismatic, likable and able to reach people from all walks of life. 

                                               _________________

Part 2

In my eyes the number one issue with American capitalism is the rampant cronyism. Lawmakers have become paid operatives of business interests far and wide. This is well known and fully entrenched into the business of office holding. Many have talked about this cancer but rarely do they actually do anything to fix it. 

Why call it a cancer? Free market capitalism is potentially as clean and clear as mathematics. The inputs and outputs on one end is essentially pure math. The marketing and follow through on the other end is used to the measure success. It's all pretty straight forward. With a level playing field everyone has the same chance at succeeding. Cronyism stacks the system in favor of some and throws stumbling blocks out for the rest. Low paid politicians, and public sector leaders use their decision making powers to do the bidding of the powerful for a 'taste' of the green. There is no appetite among law makers to end the gravy train. This is a cancer in as much as any cancer eats the body from the inside out. It weakens the body politic so that insidious infections like socialism or communism can ravage it.

Most people understand the sort of deals where politicians obtain knowledge, let's say like land purchase deal where a large public infrastructure project is going to be proposed. Not only do they gain the fore knowledge and have the connections they magically get access to sweetheart loans with which to purchase said land. This is the classic grift. The senator makes a pile of money and his "associates" gain access to government largess.

You might ask why can't 'they' just change this, stop this? The structure of the power dynamic in most governmental organizations is so stacked in the leadership that any newcomer proposing sweeping changes would be ousted in the next cycle or otherwise fired. Since the pay for office holders is so low all of them soon realize they stand to lose their big pay day if they try to buck this system. Therein lies the problem. Short of doing the right thing, there is no incentive to change this. Capitalism is built on incentives. 

If then it seems impossible that this brick wall of cronyism could ever be knocked down, sadly that's probably right, it poses this challenge: how to make this esoteric, complicated and entrenched practice easy to understand and rallying call to the voters. Those who can see and understand the grift have yet to form a strategy to defeat it, again, there are no incentives to fight it. Have I mentioned that we need someone brave, charismatic, likable and able to reach people from all walks of life. 

If there was such a plan what would it be? 

First, I'd propose a non-compete clause of sorts. It wouldn't be a traditional business non-complete per se but would prevent former office holders and high officials from being hired for a period of 5 years by any company or interest-group that they had business with during their time in office. No more cushy jobs opening doors and pedaling influence. The revolving door between special interests and the government bureaucracy has got to be closed. By allowing private companies and organizations to craft legislation on behalf of narrow special interests our actual elected officials are destroying the fundamental beauty of free market capitalism. This has also got to stop.

Next, I'd strengthen whistleblowers protection. This is where the rubber hits the road. None of this grift happens in a vacuum, but lower-level staff has little protection if they were to allege wrongdoing. Most people are afraid of the powerful, imagining the trouble they could cause. This is not some kind of crazy at all. Does anyone doubt that squeakers and leakers (or their families) have died mysterious deaths? With that, standard audits of all public institutions should be automatic, and results published with fanfare. Rats do not like the spotlight. By putting the screws to obvious cronyism other misappropriations and corruption will be uncovered.

If this ever was to happen we'd have to be okay with paying office holders and high government officials a real competitive wage. Many of them come into office or an important position wanting to do good and do what's right, but are soon dazzled and or threatened into toeing the line and learning to play the game. It's nearly irresistible, it's so much money, and everyone else is doing it. Join in or wither away. As well, political campaigns are expensive, deep pockets are needed to fund them, and deep pockets want something in return. Some sort of real campaign finance reform needs to be considered, not the pretend reform they instituted decades ago. Maybe even consider publicly financed campaigns... Reasonable term limits as well. There is no reason someone should be a representative or a senator for 40+ years.

There needs to be faith in the public institutions we all pay for to be on the up and up. The grift has got to stop. The public, the rank and file public employee want to see the end of this corruption. 

As for the private sector, I'd incentivize the idea of profit sharing or creating stakeholders out of employees. Another three-legged stool analogy coming. For a publicly traded company you have management, shareholders, and employees. Remove any one of these legs and the stool falls over. Only management and shareholders are ever considered, employees are treated as commodities, interchangeable, expendable, less human. If the employee can also benefit richly from a company's success they will work harder, work smarter and identify inefficient and wasteful practices. The idea of a yearly 'pay off' is a powerful incentive. Tax incentives would entice companies to create shareholders and stakeholders out of their employees. 

If America can begin to tamp down cronyism the rest of the world will follow. Billionaires will find ways to get what they want. Corrupting governments will be less and less fruitful if the governments resist and reject them for the good of the public at large. It's a tall order and it isn't likely to happen without a real movement. In the early 2000's the so-called Tea Party was a glimmer of hope, but it was easily defeated because there was no titular head of the movement, no one to rally around. I may have mentioned that we need someone brave, charismatic, likable and able to reach people from all walks of life. 

The drive to tear down the system, the capitalistic system is also an insidious cancer. In every instance where socialism or communism is propped up as an alternative to free market systems it's because the unfairness and inequality is completely lopsided in favor of the rich and privileged. In the countries that succeeded in tipping it over abject disaster always follows. The low-level workers and peasants suffer while the rich and privileged get richer or flee. Nothing is solved, no one is really better off. 

Free market systems became the rising tide that lifted all boats. If the public can sense that the tide is actually rising it resonates. So, when we see what has become of LA, San Francisco and Chicago and rough inner-city neighborhoods all over we get the picture that capitalism has failed. It has not. These places fell because public leaders have failed. In the case of California, the elected officials enacted laws and rules that forced companies to leave. Others gave up when the business and industries they supported left for greener pastures. The reasons these corporations left the state, shutdown or set up business in Asia are obvious, California created incentives for the capital to leave. What really mattered is what the local leaders did after that. They dropped the ball.

All of this merely scratches the surface of this complicated world. There is no perfection, everything is a series of trade-offs. There are successful economic systems and there are the disasters. Capitalism has delivered progress and wealth to more people than could have been imagined. Its imperfection is held up for all to see while all the collectivist failures, and they all fail, are swept under the rug. There's no reason that our Western culture should be teetering on the brink. With an emphasis on ending blatant cronyism and bolstering employees by giving them a fundamental stake in the enterprise we can pull it back.

Boiling Frogs

 by Craig Willms

12/28/2024

The old idiom of slowly boiling the frog in a pot is used metaphorically to describe a situation where someone gradually becomes accustomed to something negative without realizing it until it’s too late. It is oft used because it aptly illustrates something very real. The American communists of which there are still plenty is the best example I can think of. When the communists, both here and abroad, set about transforming the American system they knew a frontal attack would be met with overwhelming rejection and guaranteed violence. A slow motion plot to change the base opinions across all the institutions of power and influence was set in motion. They needed regular Americans to reject free markets and freedom on their own. In the 1960's they produced a list of steps they would use to reach their goal [see here]. It goes without saying that in the year 2024 most of them have been achieved.  Are we a communist country? No. Not yet anyway.

The die-hard collectivists are content to allow the softer socialism to do their bidding. Yet, socialism doesn't necessarily have a better reputation with a large swath of Americans than communism does. Pure socialism has failed miserably everywhere it's been tried. The so-called socialist countries of Europe that are always cited as examples are almost never purely socialist. They have a capitalistic economic base layered with a social safety net that answers to the term socialism. Most of the Scandinavian countries roundly deny the socialist label. 

The very rich and powerful members of the elite class in the West know that communism - state control and ownership of everything - would be a disaster for everyone. Yet control is what they desire, just not the for the state. They also know that capitalism is the basis for almost all actual progress and technological advancement in the world. 

Capitalism as we know it with all its shortcomings is still responsible for the most wide-ranging freedom and wealth in the modern world. For the elites and the power mad this is a problem, distributed wealth and freedom interferes with their control. They have set into motion a plan that will put an end to that without bowing to the "state". It is like a plot out of a James Bond 007 movie. Unfortunately for you and me and the rest of the world it's closer to reality than global communism ever was. 

The political system they envision, brewing for decades, fermenting all the while, will eventually replace the two main political systems that are in use around the world. These systems you and I would recognize as the push pull behind all the conflicts and power plays around the globe. Shareholder capitalism in America, the Anglosphere and Europe and state capitalism that's used in places like China, Russia and the Arab world. This new system has come to be known as stakeholder capitalism, where rich powerful elite billionaires would control our lives from their ivory towers. Think the WEF and their 2016 proclamation 'you will own nothing and be happy'.

Why now? The dominoes are all lining up: globalism, data collection, surveillance, digital currency, high-tech interconnectedness, AI and above all extreme dissatisfaction with current authorities and their demonstrable incompetence. Think the Biden Administration.

Stakeholder capitalism is an authoritarian political system that shifts ultimate authority not to the state like communism, but to a group of stakeholders. These stakeholders are very same people that meet at the WEF annual meetings, and I presume the secret meetings 'ala the Bilderbergers etc etc - what we're talking about is one world government. It puts Donald Trump's call for America First in a whole new light. 

Is it any wonder there has been such a resistance to Trump since he entered the political arena. Who really knows if he's part of it or a true patriot - God help us if he's one of them. The assassination attempt on Trump where a bullet grazed his ear was a clue that he's not one of them. From the Secret Service shitting the bed six ways from Sunday to the instant death of the would-be assassin puts the lie to a Trump staged event. Of course we will never know the whole truth...

You might wonder how these elites will accomplish this global coup de tat. They are doing it right now before our eyes - it's been going on for years. Mega multi-national corporations, also known as holding companies are buying up all their competition and streamlining operations across the board. They consolidate entire industries and concerns under their umbrella sometimes under multiple brand names. Huge hedge funds, investment conglomerates and private investment firms are buying up small companies, they will eventually gut, and also property and houses that will put on the rental market. Giant retailers like Amazon are automating operations and building a distribution centers everywhere, working their delivery staff with maniacal efficiency and low pay, turning over their workforce every 3-4 years. All so they can undercut their independent competition and kill them for good. 

These same corporations are investing billions in artificial intelligence with eyes on replacing huge swaths of the workforce for pennies on the dollar. They have technology that surpasses anything the most powerful governments have. Think Elon Musk and his Spacex and StarLink systems that are clearly heads and tails beyond what NASA and the American government can do. Musk is just one of the billionaires and he is one of the most transparent. We have no idea how deep this dichotomy goes, what we see in the movies probably fails in comparison to reality. They come at us from all directions, technology, manufacturing, distribution, retail and the media, not to mention the all-out global assault on owner operated farms and ranches for ultimate control of our food. 

Why cry for America when we can see the German example unfold in front of us. Germany is/was the heart of the European economic zone, Germany is dying. First, they removed their borders via the EU dictates and let in millions that have no desire to be Germans. Then they cut off their energy so that they cannot be a manufacturing giant anymore. Many Germans will blame the U.S. specifically, but they did it to themselves with NATO's and the EU's help. To be clear it was the cabal of billionaires and elites behind the scenes, the same ones targeting the rest of Europe and America. 

It doesn't stop with West. Russia and the Middle East are also in the cross hairs. Easy enough to blame it on the Jews but it's so much larger than that, the Jews have enough to secure their own place in the world let alone run a global cabal. No one here is blameless, except the average citizen caught up in this fray. 

The wild card is China. From my reading China has never had aspirations of global domination. I think they have enough trouble controlling their own. Their outreach to Africa, Central and South America and other places around the globe are possibly a hedge against Western aspirations. China is so deeply integrated with the U.S. economically that hurting us hurts them, but they can and will stir up trouble - they are good at it, above all they are patient. They will wait for us to destroy ourselves.

What can be done? I don't know - I'm just reading the room here. Awareness is one thing. Knowing who or what is on your side is trickier. From my vantage the Democrats and "Wall Street" here in America and Labour and the Monarchy in the UK are not on our side. Global government is something they seem to desire. Beyond that I don't have enough insight into this cabal - I'm a nobody. I hope Trump is what he appears to be, but who can tell, he seems to love himself and his persona above all - then comes America. I would say try not to feed the beast. Personally I start with Amazon. They are always my last resort, if I can't get what I need from someone else then Amazon. You have to decide for yourself. I try not to economically support Google, Walmart, Target, Budweiser and the other giants, but sometimes we have no choice. Do your best and be aware of who you give your money to. 

p.s.     I know the irony of picking on Google while this website is hosted by them... Have a chuckle! I have no desire to move it. I don't see any money changing hands with Google that I know of. But I did succeed at not using Amazon once during this Christmas season!

The Harvest of Liberalism:Part 2

According to the author and thinker George Gilder knowledge is wealth. What does that mean? It means that someone like me who has the knowledge to architect computer networks has literal wealth at my keyboard worn fingertips. I turn my knowledge into monetary gain by building networks for those who need them. Simple as that.

So, when I have a toothache I seek the person who has the knowledge to extract it (safely) and he or she trades that knowledge for some of my wealth. Econ 101.

Gilder, a capitalism proponent, dismisses the well worn notion that capitalism is an economic system based on incentives and greed. It's not to say these are not part of capitalism, they are, but not unique to capitalism in any way. The communist system had its incentives - in some cases they were do what your told or die. Now that's an incentive. The farmer in the communist collective greedily took the best crops for his family and sold what he could on the black market before the "party" came and took the product of his labor for the greater good. The socialist citizen gladly "sells" his services or expertise off book to avoid paying exorbitant taxes - this is also incentive (and greed) at work.

The heart of capitalism is creativity, competition and the arc of the learning curve. The entrepreneur with the better mouse trap goes through the learning curve process as he perfects the manufacturing of  his product, slowly bringing the unit costs down as his knowledge increases. The material costs, marketing costs and transportation costs are mostly fixed and out of his control, but the knowledge of how to create efficiencies and streamline processes is the difference that gives the him the edge over his competition, therefore turning his knowledge into wealth.

It's a beautiful thing.

For Gilder the true essence of capitalism is surprise. Again, what does that mean? Take the Internet itself. What started as a method for the Defense Department to share knowledge (there's that word again) electronically across the vast expanse of the nation has evolved into the surprising economic engine of the 21st century. In my industry the Internet was at first dismissed and then viewed with suspicion before it was completely embraced as an integral part of the business. A surprising outcome to say the least. Look at the Apple iPod and how this marvel of engineering has transformed music delivery - clearly surprising the entire entertainment industry. We could go on by citing Netflix and Facebook and Amazon.com each through the process of creativity and the arc of the learning curve have transformed entire economies and cultures. These are all fantastic, surprising things, mind blowing really. These things and countless other surprises of the twentieth century were brought forth on a capitalist foundation, not a state controlled economy.

So why would we want to tear this down and install liberalism's system of choice, socialism? I have my theories and all of them boil down to one word - control. The intellectual class with its entitled desire to wield power wants to control everything, including your life and mine. Couldn't the same thing be said of the capitalist oligarchs? Talk about controlling society... I venture to say that the oligarchs are where they are precisely because of the unintended consequences of socialist controlling intervention. They are the byproduct of a kept ruling class.

Control is the goal of liberalism. Platitudes like fairness, equality of outcomes, and my favorite, tolerance are their buzz words, the salve soothing the aggrieved be they real or not. Leftist politicians who spew this rhetoric while guaranteeing economic growth by installing artificial controls via regulations, tax codes, bailouts and stimulus deliver just the opposite. This approach may work for a while, but it is unsustainable without the spontaneous surprise of creativity.

It should come as no surprise then knowing all this that the socialist based countries in Europe and Eurasia are dying. They have lost faith in the future - they have lost faith period. So many have stopped having children, the ultimate expression of hope for the future, that entire ethnic identities risk disappearing by the turn of the next century. They only grow in population and economically by importing millions of young immigrants. Further, by culturally turning being female into a slightly softer version of being male they have effectively killed the family. A man without family reverts to being a brutish thug or a lazy lout and a woman is forced to turn to the government to support her and any children she does have.

Try to deny this happening right here in our own country.

The collapse of the family is a result both continuing socialist welfare policies and and the globalization of the labor force. The two are linked. The social welfare state costs a lot of money. It keeps taxes high which in turn forces wages up. Couple this with failing schools and drive for companies to move low skilled high wage jobs to cheaper labor pools and you see the collapsing of the middle class and with it the destruction of the family.

The liberal stands on his soapbox promoting the very policies that lead to this dire situation, to the point that we have an entrenched and growing welfare state to take care of the women and children and a police state to take care of the young men. The society now exalts independent, self-sufficient women and jails its unwanted, useless men. Unfortunately it will take decades to unwind this. This is the harvest of liberalism.

In America we still see twinkles of creativity and economic growth. We still see new families, new houses and all the economic activity that surrounds a growing family. We still see new companies being born through the haze, but they struggle and often fail needlessly. Everything is being choked. The confluence of a maze of the regulatory rules of government encroachment along with the cronyism of the big business/government cabal is robbing the young of their futures and killing creativity. The cost of participation is becoming prohibitive so that many refuse to even try.

The sad thing is that it doesn't have to be this way. Creativity, knowledge and wealth creation is the American way. The powers that be in government, the environmental crowd, foreign interests and big business refuse to unshackle the dynamo that is America.



Ugh

Darlings of Devolution and Destruction

Our Political and Corporate "leaders" have Driven Us to the Brink of Destruction

As a person who tends to list center-right politically it has been a frustrating and depressing century. There was a short time early on, after the attacks of 9/11, that it seemed that America as a nation, as a people, was going to pull together. It didn't last. The leftists who pollute the discourse in every conceivable walk of life saw to that. Perhaps the saddest, most frustrating aspect of the unraveling of a great nation is the sheer apathy of the people. Who can blame them?

As it turns out it really doesn't matter who or what you support politically any more (I think it used to, many years ago) simply because while our so-called leaders may not be cut from the same cloth they all end up dyed same the color, the color of money. Regardless of their party affiliation, regardless of how much they pledge to fight for you, regardless of how much they say they love their country, or of how sincere and pure they are during the acceptance speech on the eve of their first election they really only care about themselves - eventually.

We accept less of corporations and business, and we should, because they have not pledged to serve us the way politicians have. It's the people we've elected and involuntarily forfeit our tax dollars to that sell us down the river for their own personal gain - and it happens at all levels of government. Oh yeah there may be outliers, men like Obama, Reagan and the few dedicated public servants - even people like Ron Paul who actually believe in something. These men are either demonized, laughed at or in Obama's case, worshiped. And, amazingly, we the people take it, or rather just shrug it off. If anyone objects and starts a real grassroots movement, say like the Tea Party bent on opposing exactly the kind of policies that make $300 elected suits millionaires after two terms, the boot-licking lapdogs in the media will beat them down with charges of racism or any other negative narrative that will stick. Is it any wonder there is mass apathy?

Unless the people who believe themselves to be good liberals are purposely deluding themselves, then they cannot honestly say things are going well for the United States. They can't continue to blame George W Bush or the the feckless Republican party since the Democrats have held congressional power since 2006 and the presidency since 2008 - it will soon be 2014. Even the life long liberals have to see we are running off the rails. I'm not deluded enough to think they will ever change, but something has to.

To be perfectly fair apathy is a coping mechanism for most people. This is a complicated world made all the more complicated by liberal sensibilities turned in law and policy that runs counter to human nature and legendary conservative belligerence. These policies destroy lives - the lives of an entire race of people in 40 short years. The African American population has been devastated by the welfare state and corporate, government and union action that deprives black men the jobs needed to raise families. While some continue to pour on the soul-killing compassion the others look the other way and pretend it doesn't exist. The black man has been replaced by a government check and food stamps, leaving young boys to grow up without fathers. What happens to them when they become men? Prison - or death.

Yet every four years it is these same people who support the purveyors of the very poverty they can't escape. The Democrats skillfully poison any notion that there could possibly be a better way. Dopey ass Republicans can't get out of there own way and articulate a return to sanity - if they even care. Now the country is at a tipping point where half the population does nothing but collect a subsistence check from one government agency or another. Seriously how can anyone say this is good?

Nearly every large city and state that has been completely controlled by liberals and liberal policies for decades is bankrupt and in tatters physically and spiritually. Yeah they'll argue that capitalism and big business left them abandoned and the liberals are compassionately picking up the pieces - but wasn't it also big taxes, onerous regulation and inflexible unions that set the stage? Yes, probably both. The liberal answer then is to double-down until the economy is choked off completely -
and continue writing hot checks. Republicans don't even bother themselves to offer an alternative in these locales. Yet the elected officials and their benefactors in corporate world responsible for driving the economy into the ground do pretty well.

The corporations, particularly the largest ones could really care less about the U.S. They prove it everyday. Now that they've moved a huge share of manufacturing jobs overseas they are petitioning congress to hurry to enact aggressive immigration laws. This is a double slap in the face for native born American's in the wake of mass layoffs. They want H1B visas for the skilled workers because they can pay immigrants less than skilled Americans. They want cheap Mexican labor for unskilled work, leaving the rest of the working class high and dry. It's both Democrats and Republicans that support this kick in the head. Their arguments - their lies - that it's all in our best interest fall on deaf ears when we can see the evidence before our eyes. Twenty-five million people already here can't find decent work. The labor participation rate is reaching 40 - 50 year lows. In some counties in the south 1 in 4 collects a disability check, no doubt many of them fraudulent because they can't find any work. This while Wall Street racks up new highs month over month. And the 7 counties in Virgina and Maryland that surround Washington DC are the richest in the country.

It seems the game is rigged. The corporate/government cabal wring everything they can out of the American people. We are reaching a tipping point. The progressives or liberals if you will, have helped usher in better days a hundred years ago with their fair labor laws. Unfortunately it is genetically impossible for them to leave well enough alone. The continue to tear down the very fabric of the free market capitalist system, the foundation of America's success. Those who caucus with Republicans, the champions of free market capitalism, unfortunately are surrounded by imbeciles or flim flam men like congressional leader Eric Cantor. Who in the hell would follow that guy? If Cantor and dullards like John McCain are the alternative to liberals (who at least act like they care) it's no wonder there is such voter apathy.

There is a nascent, unorganized reactionary movement of highly intelligent people who understand things can't continue this way for America and frankly for the rest of the world either. Using the Internet as a platform they easily identify the culprits, their tactics and their motivations (power and money, of course), but they've yet to offer much in the way of solutions. It's early for the reactionaries - but it's late for the rest of us. Is societal collapse and anarchy close at hand? I don't know. I think there is still time.



I could be thinking wrong...



Ugh

The Opportunity Society

When George W. Bush was pushing something he called the Ownership Society during his Presidency he was on going the right direction, unfortunately he was just on the wrong track. There is a path to the American Dream - getting a piece of the rock, owning a home or property - and it's the same path that always existed. Sadly our society has lost it's way.

Buying a home and affording it are two different things. Since the late 90's millions have skipped the race and went straight to the finish line. We can go into the forces both in the home loan industry and in government policy that led to it but suffice it to say it was a disaster for (all) home owners, the economy and society itself.

What society (government especially) should do is foster opportunity and ownership will surely follow. It's opportunity that will create real hope and change not government handouts. I'm afraid that Obama and his ideology is the absolute death knell to opportunity. Obama is selling government dependency. This extends not just to the under privileged but corporate world as well. It's wrong, it's self destructive and most of all it's unsustainable.

The President and his ilk are trying to indict capitalism as the scapegoat when it is government policies that drown real hope and opportunity. The President goes around to institutes of higher education and tells students that the government is here to help. When in actuality it's the government that saddling most of them with unfathomable debt because with all this handy "government money" a college education has become outrageously expensive. Their only hope to paying back is through the power of capitalism itself.

Enter libertarian and capitalist Wayne Allen Root and his message of opportunity for students at Havard and you hear a hopeful story. Simply, it's capitalism that creates true hope and real opportunity.

FTA
Capitalism created desktop computers, the Internet, smartphones, iTunes, iPads, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, texting, and DirecTV and much, much more.

The things that shape our world were not created in Cuba, the Soviet Union, or the old People’s Republic of China. And they weren’t created by government either. They were created by entrepreneurs hoping to change the world, and get rich doing it! 

President Obama and others who appear to detest capitalism don’t have those stories. They have never created anything with their own smarts, work ethic, creativity, while risking their own money. 

They’ve never created jobs, donated millions to charity, or dramatically changed lives with their innovations, products, or payrolls. 

All the Obamas and other capitalist naysayers of the world know about is taking tax dollars from the job creators and financial risk-takers, and redistributing it as bribes to their voters.

Obama’s failed policies have proven he has the same level of knowledge about economics, capitalism, and entrepreneurship as I have of ballet – which is zero. 

We can all see plain and simply what Obama's and the hard left's policies will bring us. Greece, Spain and Italy. These are dying societies, unsustainable and bloated government welfare states. It was not capitalism that did this to Europe. It was strict government control of economies and society under the ruse of cradle to grave welfare. Well now there's nothing left to pay for these promises. Many of those who had vision and dreams and goals of creating something out of nothing left those countries over the last 50 years and came to the real land of opportunity - the U.S.A. We have a regime in Washington that wants to turn America into the next Greece.

It's all rather sickening for a "community organizer" to point to those who have worked hard, excelled and raised themselves and others out of poverty and blame them for the plight of the so-called under privileged. If he had true compassion for them he would extol them to embrace the opportunity to stay in school, to get a job and avoid pregnancy until the first two goals are met, then he would have done so much more than any government handout ever could. This is the way out of poverty, not government largess.



CW

Occupy This

I think it's interesting that the kids occupying Wall Street for 4 weeks now still don't know what they want. Mostly what I am hearing is that rich people suck. I'm sure some of them do, but I think some poor people probably suck too.

There, now that we've gotten that out of the way, we can delve into the true meaning of this protest. Just as with the Tea Party it's frustration over this country's failures that is driving this. While there is plenty of blame to go around I think the protesters are "occupying" the wrong city. Washington DC is where they need to be.

Simply put it's not capitalism or the so-called rich that have failed us. It is forced socialist policies designed to fail that make everything and everyone they touch fizzle a little bit more with each new layer of government bureaucracy. Am I being facetious when I declare that forced socialist policies are supposed to fail? Not really.

I used to think and still do in some instances that the do-gooders have the best of intentions, but it is the unintended consequences (of human nature) that ruin everything they foist upon us. After reading Bruce Carlton's post: Good intentions? Not so, I have to conclude that the good intentions motivation I have bestowed on extreme leftist (PC) policies are just the opposite.

At least capitalism in it's pure form is honest. Socialism, leftism or PCism - whatever you want to call it is a liar's game. If you believe the lies that America's financial problems are the result of greedy capitalists then no doubt you will side with the Occupiers and demand "someone" gives you what you want for free. The ones who believe the liars are ignorant or deceived or are lying to themselves. A child knows that someone else will always have more than they do, but only a child is allowed to deceive themselves into believing that the unfairness of it all should be rectified with more unfairness.

I have always marveled at the notion that a rich man's inheritors should be forced give a huge percentage of their gains to the government out of some sense of fairness. What fairness is it that the government deserves or has any right to that money? I don't care if it is more money than any one person could ever use - it is theirs. It is more obscene in my eyes that the government can by the use of force take a man's inheritence than it is for a man to have more money than he could ever use. To what end? So that the government can spend it better?

The list of government programs and agencies that have been wildly successful and worked as intended (without costing society in other ways) is very, very short.

The failure of America's financial system, fiscal system, educational system and moral system can be laid at the feet of the men and women in Washington DC not New York City's Wall Street. DC acts Wall Street reacts. This not defending Wall Street, this placing the fault where it belongs.

The totality of "good" government failures (with all the good intentions, or lies if you will) is long. From the mortgage/subprime meltdown and it's inception in government policies to the coming demise of the venerable postal system. Government makes the rules, the rules are fixed so that some succeed and the rest...

So tell me how (real) capitalism has destroyed our country?



CW

Occupy Wall Street and Me

My natural inclination would be to scoff at the "kids" putting on this Occupy Wall Street event. In general the proclamations I've been hearing from the participants leads one to believe they aren't really serious. It sounds like "we want everything, for free of course". Of the list of actions they are demanding almost none of them are reasonable or even realistic, but if I really listen what I hear is extreme frustration. Back in 2009 I myself participated in a rally where the overarching feeling was extreme frustration. It was the initial Tea Party rally in my area.

Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party are two sides of the same coin.

The Occupiers are upset about Wall Street bailouts, so is the Tea Party. The Occupiers oppose bailouts because Wall Street is "the rich" and the rich are the reason they are poor. The Tea Party opposed the bailouts because it's bad policy (so they say) and because it was done with deficit spending. The Occupiers are upset about corporate lobbyists because corporations are rich and the rich are the reason they are poor. The Tea Party opposes corporate lobbyists because they steer public policy so that it enhances their bottom line instead of ensuring that policy is good for the public.

The Occupiers sees corporate America as the enemy, the Tea Party sees an out of control government as the enemy. In some ways they are both right. The truth is the mega-government and mega-corporations are in bed together. It's a symbiosis that ensures riches for the prime movers in both entities. The worker and middle management in both government and corporate America are fungible and ultimately anonymous.

There is a divergence depending on on which side of the coin lands face up. While the Occupiers believe the government should give them the basic necessities of life just because they are breathing - not realistic or reasonable. They see rich corporations walking off with millions and billions while human services worthy or not are getting cut. Whereas the Tea Party sees government, particularly the Federal government as out of control as it exercises extra-constitutional power and enriching the elites inside corporations and by symbiosis the elites inside government as they move from one to other.

The rules are made by the government - and the rules are rigged. This is the source of the frustration for both.

Wouldn't be interesting if they somehow came together? Nah.




CW

We have choices to make

Prerequisite: please read Victor Davis Hanson's Ok, Let's Decline

There are people, Americans, who suffer a deep sense of self loathing. They have convinced themselves that America has no redeeming values. Granted these may be the same people who hate their nuclear families and the local pro football team too. Let's set them aside. There are others who plod along blindly, taking life as it comes, too lazy or preoccupied to be concerned with esoteric existentialism as it relates to the country as a whole. There's not much anyone can do to get these people engaged. Then there's the rest of us with some measure of love of country and pride in being Americans, not necessarily deluded into believing as a nation we've never done anything wrong, but recognizing there is something special here in the land of the free and the home of the brave. We are the ones who are sickened by what is becoming of our country.

In 2010 a large segment of these people woke up from their powerlessness and formed a movement that became known as the Tea Party in direct reaction to the overreach by Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats. The landslide election threw the Democrats out of power in the House of Representatives and transformed many statehouses across country. Since then the major media has done a nice job painting the Tea Party as racists and crazy right-wing extremists (which they are not). Worried for all the blood, sweat and tears they've expended on the magisterium of Barack Obama the media has pulled out all stops in marginalizing anyone opposing the "One".

Why not examine the real reason Barack Obama is opposed by so many? In my eyes he is purposefully leading the decline of the United States as a world power in his every presidential act. People see it, people sense it and people feel it. Barack Obama has chosen to lead the decline of America. It was his choice, our choice will come when he asks for our support on election day in November 2012. Personally I'd would vote for the dog catcher before I will vote that man.

We have choices to make... As Mr. Hanson points out in his article, nations decide to ascend or decline. England is just such an example. Before WWII Great Britain was a world superpower, partnering with the U.S. and the Soviets to defeat the Axis Powers. Since 1945 - as VDH explains:

By September 1945, England had far more of its industrial base intact than had Germany or Japan, and had suffered far fewer losses, both material and human, since 1939 than either of the defeated Axis powers whose entire national ideologies had been rendered bankrupt and their people reduced to global pariahs. Why, then, did a country that produced the sort of four-engine bombers en masse that its wartime adversaries could not, or a Spitfire fighter better than any produced by Japan or Germany until the advent of the jet, end up decades later with unsold Jaguars while Mercedes and Lexus swept world markets?

Britain choose to create a welfare state, and that's what they've got. Currently Barack Obama is choosing to put the United States on the same path. We are becoming a welfare state where everyone (especially the crony capitalists) are on the dole. We are a country with so much potential, but Barack Obama and people of his ideological ilk are choosing decline over prosperity. His goal is wealth redistribution rather than wealth creation. He cannot or will not see that one leads to the other and not the other way around.

Again VDH:

Our poor suffer far more from obesity than malnutrition; diabetes and clogged arteries, not scurvy and rickets, are the plagues of the underclass. Is driving a Kia that much less comfortable than a Mercedes, is hot water in Trump Towers hotter than a mile from my house in federally subsidized apartments? Does a middle seat on a 737 mean you are tortured and exploited while the “rich” zoom by in a Gulfstream? My local Wal-Mart parking lot yesterday in Selma — poorest section of one of the poorest counties in the most bankrupt state in America — had 3 BMWs, 3 Mercedes, 1 Jaguar, 2 Metros, 16 Camrys, 13 Accords, 21 newer double-cab pickups, and lots of late-model Civics, Nissans, and Kias among 82 cars. I counted them for this article; my statistically “poor” town did not look like Dickensian London. Wealth has been distributed to millions in a way once thought impossible. When did driving a Civic make you poor because someone else was driving a BMW, or why was living in a downtown Fresno condo unfair if someone else had one about the same size and with the same accoutrements in Santa Monica with a view of the ocean?

I could go on, so why does Mr. Obama see us in decline? Is it a wish rather than a descriptive assessment?

Yes, yes it is, Mr. Hanson. I actually do believe that the President of the United States hates his country to some degree. Probably not a good thing...

In November of 2012 choose wisely. President Obama has made his case for decline. I don't like the looks of it.




CW

Where does ultra liberal domination lead?

... to California.

I have lamented before on this blog over the mess the state of California finds itself in. How the Golden State, the place that once upon a time epitomized everything that was great about America has literally become the place that showcases everything that's wrong. It's not much of mystery, really. California has been dominated by ultra liberals for decades. Even when they've had semi-conservative governors the lunacy of the liberals running the state house in Sacramento has ruled the day.

People - I should say, people with money and business have been moving out of California in droves. Soon there will no one left to pay the high taxes. Sure you could write off California as a loss cause, but it doesn't take long to realize that as severe as California is it's not alone. Everywhere liberal government dominates we see similar fiscal and societal carnage. (everywhere except where I live, but I'll get to that later). Take Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey and even New York for example. Each of these states is virtually broke. Each one of them is hemorrhaging jobs. Each has failing school systems and crumbling infrastructure. They have all been dominated by liberal legislatures, with liberals running their cities and their school systems. Sure occasionally a Republican is elected mayor or governor but they are never strong enough to stem the tide of decay and collapse brought on by endlessly smothering liberalism.

Liberalism may have moved in with the departure of heavy manufacturing as a "humanitarian movement", but the billions of dollars spent and decades of liberal policy domination has seen so little in the way of actual progress, rather we've seen only a growing dependence on government programs and so-called entitlements.

The fact that school systems all over this country are dominated by liberalism should be enough to drive home the fact that it's a failed philosophy, but it never seems to stick. The problem is always that we just haven't spent enough on "the children". Our students finish so low by international standards that it's embarrassing.

Recently John Fund had an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal (April 22 2011 pg A11) that highlighted a trip taken by several California state house representatives and Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom to Texas. It was a fact finding mission to see why so many California businesses were moving to Texas. While Newsom didn't see the exodus as a partisan issue clearly the California public unions did. The unions threatened several Democrats who planned to attend who then abruptly canceled the trip.

To add insult to injury after their meetings with Texas governor Rick Perry they learned another California business, Fujistu Frontenach was picking up stakes and moving to Texas. It was the 70th business to leave California this year. Why so many departures? Again, not much of a mystery. High taxes, onerous business and environmental regulation. It could also be said that Sacramento doesn't really care. While their state is tens of billions in debt and business and wealthy people are fleeing their state like rats from a sinking ship they are busy passing bills that mandate that school children will be taught the history of gays and disabled persons.

My heart breaks for California, I've loved every minute I've spent there. It's hard to say if they will ever wake up. We thought maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger was going to be a turning point, but he was a bigger disappointment than Governor Ventura was.

That brings me to my home state of Minnesota. This state has also been dominated by liberalism my whole life. And yes, the fiscal health and the good standing of Minnesota's famous quality of life is in some question, however it is not a failure waiting happen. Things are relatively good here. How can that be if liberal domination leads to collapse and decay? Minnesotans by and large are very conservative people. We are very hard working and have had held together a decent education system (until recently) for decades. These people vote liberal but live very conservatively. To be sure the state is closer to 50/50 than 60/40 in favor of Democrats, but liberalism is what's taken for granted around the water cooler and church halls. People here may say anything goes, praise diversity and declare tolerance from the rooftops, but just not for them. It's an odd thing, but that's the way it is here. That's why liberalism hasn't quite destroyed our great state - yet.



CW

Austerity is a bad idea

Be very wary of snake oil salesman dressed as politicians who are promising a return to deficit reduction and balanced budgets. This election cycle it is the Republicans crying about government deficits and national debt. If you think things are bad now just wait until the government starts to tighten its belt. Don't think the Democrats are any better - in fact they're much worse because they will claim that in order for the government to return to fiscal discipline taxes will have to go up. Of course they will claim only the filthy rich will be affected by their tax hikes. Don't believe it. The Republicans will promise to cut taxes, and they might actually deliver but they will also be glad to turn the economy over to the same businesses (the giant Wall Street banks and the Fed) that have caused so much misery.

Right now government spending is all we have. Until legitimate businesses stop being freaked out by Barack Obama (and rightly so), jobs will not be coming back. Only when average folks are back to work and feeling good about the future will lending return and new money enter our cash starved economy. The uncertainty borne of the Obama/Pelosi regime has caused business to literally sit on more than a trillion dollars rather than invest, expand and hire workers. Obviously when people are working and spending and businesses are selling and expanding then government (all governments) will experience increasing revenues. At the risk of sounding like Paul Krugman, honestly, until these things happen only government spending can tide us over.

As much as I admire the sentiment of the Tea Party movement they are wrong if they think this is a good time for the government to slam the wallet shut. The idea that the national debt is a burden on future generations is based on the false premise that the national debt must some day be paid off by the private sector. In reality, the government will pay itself to redeem its debt securities as they mature, using funds obtained by selling new securities to the public. The fact that no one – apparently the politicians included – understands how this works is not surprising. The truth makes for dull rhetoric and boring TV. For all intents and purposes this "rolling over" of the national debt can be continued indefinitely.

WE ARE DOOMED...

So are we doomed to be crushed by government debt now and for the foreseeable future? Yes and no. No for reasons stated above. Yes, if we continue to allow the banks and the Federal Reserve to have exclusive control of the money supply. We’ll end up pouring billions down the debt rat hole serving no one but the big money bankers. It is the government that grants the power to commercial banks to "create" all the money circulating in the economy by issuing loans. Why then does government borrow money from these same banks only to owe them massive amounts of interest? It really makes no sense. Think about it for a minute...

Honestly it shouldn't take but two seconds to realize that it's completely insane. Yet that's exactly what's going on. Instead of having the government (remember, we are the government) in control of the money supply we allow it to enrich a handful of multi-billionaires in D.C., New York, London and Switzerland. So we all get mad at Wall Street and we should, but they can only do what the law allows. It's the government that sets the rules and they have set them to favor the Wall Street money changers and not the citizens.

Today each time a bank makes a loan it actually creates new money out of thin air. The more the banks lend the stronger the economy, but as soon as they stop lending the economy is starved of new money and it literally grinds to a halt. Every economic bubble that bursts puts caution into the banking system, loans stop, new money stops and another possible recession looms. It makes the economy entirely unstable. It's crazy, frankly it's absurd.

Simply put, this process – the creation of "new money" by commercial banks - is the actual cause of this and every financial crisis' over the past 100 years. Each time we endure a financial crisis without a fundamental policy shift we are only assured of a worse one next time.

WHAT TO DO?

In simple terms we have to take back our economy from these erratic cycles, end the concept of too big to fail and force the banks to make their money fostering wealth creation instead of playing us all for suckers and serfs. Only the government has the power to do it. Neither Republicans nor Democrats have the will or the backbone to accept their responsibility. Instead we hear rumblings of austerity. That will make today's economy look like a boom town...

I've seen a few different plans describe that it might be as simple as preventing banks from having the sole power of creating the nation’s money supply by making minor changes to the rules governing bank accounts. It would restore the right to the Treasury - an agency of the government - to create the nation’s money instead of a privately-owned central bank. This would cause the newly created debt-free money to reduce our tax burden, free up private capital for economic expansion and fund the public services we already pay for but don't get because of the billions going to the giant banks in the form of interest payments.

The risk is of course that politicians being political and having control over the Treasury will pervert the process and throw the economy into a tailspin. That's different from what we have now exactly how? Politicians we can vote out of office - Wall Street bankers we can't.

The way it is now we have the entire global economy constrained by a handful of greedy pigs who win whether the economy prospers or not. We worry about radical Islam and Shariah law threatening the Western world (which I'll admit scares me too) but we are experiencing something far worse by our own hand. The potential for the betterment of all humanity is circling the drain because we have no leaders who have the will to stand up to the big time money changers. Oh, and don't fool yourself into believing that the the financial reform bill making its way through Congress is anything more than window dressing that will probably hurt the average Joe and the smaller banks even more.

REALITY CHECK

All of this is not to say that the way government spends money today or that the slippery path to socialism is good or desirable. I don't favor out of control spending by anyone - especially the government. At the heart of the problem is the way the government is funded. It is currently held hostage by the way the monetary system it set up. Eventually, left unadjusted, all of our tax money will go to paying debt. This is good for whom exactly???

So when the campaigners come a knockin' this fall ask them what they plan to do to bring stability to our economy and foster job creation. If they start talking about deficit reduction and fiscal discipline look at them with a wary eye. It's just not as easy as that. Money needs to spent for wealth and prosperity to return and if you and I can't and if businesses can't then the government has to. Austerity is a bad idea, a very bad idea.



CW

Overwhelmed

There are times when I delve into my favorite blogs and websites - as well as the blogs and sites that feature views antithetical to my own - I soon get overwhelmed. Information overload quickly turns my brain to mush. There is just so much one mind can take. In this modern age the sheer volume of interesting and revelatory information available with the simple click of a mouse is really mind-blowing. It seems the only thing that can talk me down is to do some blogging myself. This of course only adds to the din (assuming of course that someone - anyone - even bothers to read this tripe).

All systems have a tipping point, the human mind is no different. When a system gets overwhelmed it locks up, shuts down or crashes. A computer needs to be rebooted, a climate system lashes out with violent storms before the calm returns, the mind goes catatonic, eventually falling into a deep sleep. The end result is always a "reset".

Reset is a term we've heard repeatedly from the current regime in Washington DC. The Obama Administration and their chief allies in Congress have been going around hitting the reset button on everything. Some might think it's incompetence, others think it's simply a differentiator from the previous administration's work, and still others think it "is" the plan, the only plan.

Me, well, I think it is the plan, but I don't think it started with Obama. The long term dreams of the narrative known as American socialism is more than a century old now. The Cloward–Piven strategy and Saul Alinsy's "Rules for Radicals" pre-date Barack Obama by a long shot. But Obama is the one the faithful have been waiting for to stand in the spotlight and deliver, while the behind-the-scenes guy, Mr. George Soros, puts together the funds in his role as executive producer. The production is a Nobel Peace Prize Award winning show called "Overwhelmed: The Resetting of America".

In short the plot is the deliberate overwhelming of the system to bring about collapse, where the antagonist then hits the reset button to re-program the American government into the most radical socialist form imaginable.

Author and thinker David Horowitz describes Cloward-Piven strategy as:
The strategy of forcing political change through orchestrated crisis. The "Cloward-Piven Strategy" seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.

The Cloward-Piven approach called for swamping the welfare rolls with new applicants - more than the system could bear. The resulting economic collapse would theoretically lead to political turmoil and ultimately socialism. It has become a blueprint for some of the Left's most destructive campaigns of the last four decades. Worse still it's likely to haunt America for years to come with George Soros' Shadow Party having now adopted the strategy, honing it into a far more efficient machine than any of its Sixties-era promoters could have ever dreamed. This method is deftly employed by leftist radicals to create and manage crisis'. This strategy explains Rahm Emanuel's ominous statement, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."

Obama himself adheres to the Saul Alinksy Rules for Radicals method of politics, which teaches the dark art of destroying political adversaries. He is very good at it, especially with an adoring media at his side. But it may not be enough to simply destroy a mangy dog known as the Republicans. Curiously, in a country as dynamic as ours the wheels of change still turn slowly. With elections coming around every two years an impatient electorate demands results. While Wall Street high finance and seedy mortgage lenders scream capitalist pig to the middle class like nothing else, almost nothing Obama has done has helped to lift Americans from the politically caused crisis' of the credit collapse and the housing value collapse. It's possible that the steps the administration has taken were never intended to do anything but accelerate our economic deterioration in anticipation of the saving grace of Barack Obama riding in on his high horse named Socialism to save the day.

Counting on the economic ignorance of a large block of Americans and a willing media to sell his "change" message Obama did not count on much push back. But a funny thing happened on the way to world-wide socialism...

1. He never saw the Tea Party coming 2. He didn't anticipate the meltdown of European socialism (so soon) 3. He underestimated the true appetite for his type of "change". He still has a strong hand to play by virtue of him not being George W. Bush and the fact that the Presidency is a powerful position. Still, unless things drastically improve between now and November his power will be diminished when his Congressional advantage is reduced and the media dogs start to turn on him in a substantive way.


CW

Europe May be Dying, but not Socialism

I keep hearing that the Euro, the currency of a dozen or more European countries is living on borrowed time. Many analysts are intimating that the European Union itself could collapse. They claim the message is clear: the welfare state is unsustainable. Well no kidding. You know it, I know it and the American people know it. But don't think that means they don't want a welfare state right here.

The demise of the European cradle to grave welfare system doesn't mean that socialism is wrong according to a huge number of everyday Americans. Burned by the excesses of a few poorly regulated mega corporations and their own out of control medical costs many Americans are convinced that a not-for-profit government controlled world is not only fair it's righteous.

I started off talking about Europe, but I'm afraid Europe is a lost cause. They may indeed welcome the end of the Euro and even the disintegration of the European Union, but not the welfare state, don't even think of taking away their "free" government benefits.

America still has a chance. We need leaders who will drag us away from government domination of the economy and allow the entrepreneurial, profit making spirit to whisk us away from bailouts and dependency. We have seen the inevitable result of the socialist model again and again - why are we running head long into the same fire? There's no sane reason to follow Europe to hell...



CW

Spike Strips

Caution: what follows is a rambling but not necessarily incoherent thought stream.

Have you heard? All our assumptions about capitalism and free market economies - - basically the Milton Friedman "Chicago" school of economics has been discredited. For decades we had been duped into believing that Reagan style economics, owing much of its basic tenants to Friedman's philosophies was a panacea, the end all, the be all for the American economy. Main Stream News Flash!!! Reaganomics is dead, a complete failure of massive proportions.

Yet we had nearly thirty years of economic growth that not only saw the real wealth in the U.S. increase exponentially, but also heretofore unseen wealth burgeoning in Asia as well as a massive reduction in poverty worldwide.

Don't kid yourselves we still live very rich lives in America, at least for now. Even with millions of jobs transferred to China and millions more taken by illegal aliens the middle class in the U.S. still lives quite well. Seems impossible, even implausible since we are constantly told the American dream is dead and life here is inherently unfair.

Have no fear our rescuers are here now.

These are the people who threw the spike strips into the middle of the road and then pointed to capitalism's flat tires as evidence that free market paradigm is going nowhere fast. They are selling a government solution to everything - that solution has a name... Fairness.

Fairness runs on square wheels. Now that may not be efficient but four equal sides is the definition of fair!

These are the people who want to limit the salaries of corporate executives but wouldn't think of imposing these same limits on movies stars or athletes whose salaries are, let's face it, obscene. For one the multi-million dollar athlete is making 100's of times what the towel boy is making - is that fair? The pampered and spoiled movie actor makes 100's of times what the lowly best boy makes. Fair? I think not.

Athletes play games and actors are playing make believe. These folks without a doubt generate a lot of ancillary economic activity as do many, many corporate executives. So why is the corporate executive singled out? Is it because some industries and institutions get bailed out with public money? But athletes don't? C'mon every city bends over backward to build infrastructure and stadiums for sports stars.

Fairness is a lousy justifier. It's a lousy motivator too, but it sounds good and people buy into it. That is until the wheels come off. The point is until real free market principles are honored again and real oversight and (reasonable) regulation is imposed we are in for a very rough road. The road we are on now will never get us to this mythical town called Fairness. Besides there's nothing to do in Fairness, it's boring.

Reality is a better place... Let's go there!



CW

Remaking America?

With Red Ink...


A sustainable, upwardly mobile middle class is what we have come to expect in this country. Now for the first time in my nearly fifty years I wonder if I was just dreaming all this time or if reality has just up and died.

Stories of Obama's grand plans to remake America blanket the media as we pass the 100 day mark of his tenure. I tend to agree that the debt based growth model we have been embarked on is essentially unsustainable. Consumption for consumption's sake seems perverted. Consumption based on the notion that we are building something better is noble and just.

The way it stands now we consumers borrow the money to buy products made in foreign lands by foreign labor so that our government can sell interest bearing bonds to foreign governments to fund social service programs to care for those without meaningful work. It leaves the consumer with a pile of personal debt and the government with mountains of red ink all the while tax and regulatory policies are literally pushing American businesses to move their operations overseas. It's insane.

Nothing I've seen from the Obama White House and the Democratically controlled Congress is giving me any hope they have any idea what to do to "fundamentally" change America for the better.

The laws on the books that have encouraged American companies to set up operations overseas were written for a different time and for a different set of conditions. In the 1960's when America was embroiled in an ideological global war with the Soviets it was right to spread American business to the four corners of the earth. It was the smart thing to do. Times have changed but the outdated laws remain. So America's working class suffers...

One can't really blame business - it is not about loyalty to a nation or the homeland it's about loyalty to shareholders and profits. It would be a bad business decision to ignore the way the laws and regulations are set up on the basis national loyalty alone. Corporate taxes (the 2nd highest tax rates in the world), regulations and outdated labor costs make it difficult for American business to compete with foreign based companies for the American consumer dollar. Greener pastures are sought. In many cases American based multinational corporations have relied on growing consumerism outside the U.S. for growth - and it has worked - for a while. As we have seen with this recession that foreign factories and importer/exporters still need the American consumer.

The President believes Americans need to consume less and produce more. Maybe so. Unless he plans on crafting tax law to favor job creation for the scrambling middle class the produce more part isn't going to happen. By default there will be less consumption if no one has a job. Instead of business and job friendly action I see a move toward higher taxes on wealth creators and their dividends and a wealth transfer towards those who produce nothing. Just wait until all the new regulations designed to combat a phantom foe called global warming degrade our ability to power our factories and our cities. Frankly, none of his plans make any sense.

We see stories of towns where the steel mill is closed down throwing thousands out of work while the steel to make a pipeline running through the same town is shipped in from India. Damn all the details - it just seems wrong. We have a vulnerable electrical grid that relies on massive and old generators - a breakdown or a terrorist attack could put thousands in the dark. No, not for just a few nights, but rather for months. Why? Because they're not made in this country any more. This storyline is repeated over and over in every state in the union. Why? Our tax and regulatory laws work against the interests of our own working class. Change that Mr. Obama - that's change we can believe in.

If the President wants to "remake" America and help the disenfranchised he might start by encouraging businesses to open back up on America's main streets instead of tossing billions (trillions) of dollars of debt atop Red Ink Mountain.


CW