One Liner

Altruism belongs in church, not the ballot box.

The Government Needs Major Surgery

See http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=3521&type=0 . This report by the CBO in 2002 shows the growth of the federal government and its expenses as a percent of GDP. Near the beginning of the 20^th century the federal government was about three percent of GDP in 1925. Today it is about 20 percent and is projected to be about 40 percent of GDP by 2075. This raises a couple of questions: (1) What happened to cause this drastic lurch in size? (2) What could be done to halt the growth of the federal government and reverse this troublesome trend?

What happened is easy enough to understand. The liberals-progressives-socialists took sway around the beginning of the 20^th century. Democrats and Republicans alike abused the constitution’s limitations of the federal government. One of the earliest abusers was Teddy Roosevelt who vowed to take all of the power he could.

What can be done follows – bring the federal government into agreement with the constitution. Article I, Section 8 lists the 18 or so general responsibilities of the federal government such as minting the coinage. Note that nowhere does the constitution mention education, yet there is a whole cabinet level department of education, so abolish it. A similar abolishment is called for such departments as agriculture; eliminate it along with the subsidies it passes out. Really, paying a farmer to not grow cranberries in Nebraska is too much!

On the Casey Anthony Verdict

There have been many pundits on TV and radio lamenting the Casey Anthony verdict, saying she was guilty of murder, even though the jury found otherwise. What the folks overlook (at the potential peril of our society itself) is Blackstone's ratio -- "better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer."

The "Wrong" Ideal

It seems that politicians as well as the news readers and commentators have the wrong idea of a preferred political environment. They continually speak of bringing democracy to this country or that and our government seems to want to commit the troops to bring this about (as long as the politicians don’t have to face the enemy personally, it’s okay).

Bring democracy to this country or that country at great expense of blood and treasure seems to be the cause of the day. But is it worth it? Is democracy always a good thing? Recall that Adolf Hitler was democratically elected before you attempt to answer the last question. Democracy can have bad, and even tragic, results.

Instead the better political ideal would be (lassiez-faire) capitalism. Something the progressives are progressing away from.

Our Imprecise Use of the Language

The television commercial for a company selling gold begins with a young woman saying: "I am a small business owner." What did she say? Is she a small person who owns a business? I think it would have left no room for ambiguity if she had said: "I own a small business."

Similarly I remember years ago when I worked in an office in Chicago and OSHA had just gotten its feet under it when they declared that any four drawer file cabinet that was not securely fastened to the wall should have a sign posted on it that read "OPEN ONE DRAWER AT A TIME." I did precisely as instructed and when I got the fourth drawer open, the damn cabinet fell over on me!

Then I went on an extended trip to England where they also had a bureaucracy that purported to do the thinking for everyone. There the sign was less ambiguous that said: "PLEASE HAVE NO MORE THAN ONE DRAWER OPEN AT A TIME."

This is NOT a failure of capitalism

Some contend that the economic malaise we are experiencing is a failure of capitalism. How can that be so when we do not have true laissez-faire capitalism in this nation? What we have is closer to European style socialism with touches of communism and fascism. The essence of capitalism is the individual being responsible for himself.

Just to name a few violations of capitalism:

1. Social Security
2. Minimum wage or any other price control such as rent control
3. Government welfare programs such as AFDC or its successors

With governmental welfare programs a dependency on others is encouraged and we experience a mentality of entitlement by the recipients. The result is a poorer society overall.

WHAT I’VE LEARNED FROM TWO BOOKS I’VE RECENTLY READ

The two books are:
• The 5000 Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen
• Democracy–the God that Failed by Hans Hermann Hoppe
These books explain our Constitution and often cite the founders of this nation. From their explanations one can only conclude that that the laissez-faire capitalism that the founders had in mind has been entirely ignored by the presidents and congresses practically since the ink was barely dry on that old parchment-paper on which the constitution was written. Instead of capitalism we’ve gone ever more into socialism, even socialism with touches of Communism and Fascism.

With capitalism society as a whole prospers and grows, while with socialism society as a whole withers and collapses. Look at the utter failure of the former USSR and the withering state of Cuba. From Skousen we find that ten or more great societies have collapsed because the citizens have expected their government ever more and more (socialism). Even on this continent in the early seventeenth century socialism failed when it was tried in Jamestown, Virginia where no private property was allowed. It was so bad that Captain John Smith wrote: “In Virginia, a plaine Souldier that can use a Pick-axe and spade is better five Knights.”

If we do not return to laissez-faire, our fate will surely be that of Cuba, the former USSR, or the former East Germany and I do not recall any attempts of people attempting to escape into these areas, but rather many occurences of people attempting to escape from them.

Read the US Constitution and tell me wher is the authority to operate a public utility such as the TVA, or where is the authority of the Federal government to be involved in any way in education, just to name two abuses.