July 4, 1776 and what it means today

As our country approaches its 244th birthday I thought it would be appropriate to share with you a scene from the John Adams miniseries.    Our nation is in the midst of what we have always been in the midst of - turmoil, factions and political upheaval.  This is what makes our nation special.   People of all walks of life; of all skin colors; of all belief systems and of all political orientations get to demand that our nation live up to the promises that were supposed to be kept.   I for one am not worried that the pandemic or social  unrest will tear us apart.   People have been predicting the decline of America from the first moment the ink began to dry on the Declaration of Independence.   

We have never been perfect.  We have always been flawed.

But it is our flaws that allows us to incrementally - and sometimes suddenly - realize that all people have a God-given right to life, liberty and property.

It is when any one of us  has  a legitimate argument that our rights are being violated that we stand up and demand change.

This is how it was intended to be.

So whether you are part of the 'no mask' movement of the Trump supporters or part of the 'Black Lives Matter' movement you are living out 244 years of what America is and should always be about - dissent, discord and demands that the principles of our founding documents be adhered to.

So, happy Independence Day - whatever Independence looks like to you.

Why Democrats should fight to end Shelter-in-Place orders

In a recent Pew Research Center study it was revealed that 69% of voters that lean democrat or are democrats are also atheists. 

This means that Joe Biden and every Democratic governor in the United States should demand an immediate end to all shelter-in-place orders and a re-opening of the American economy.

Think about it.  If you are an atheist you ostensibly believe in the theory of evolution rather than creation.   If you believe in evolution you, by deductive reasoning and logic, also believe that pandemics are simply part of nature and nature's way of selecting members of various animals - in this case humans - who are most fit to survive the spread of deadly viruses, while the weakest members of the species are naturally 'selected' for their biologically natural fate.

Any follower of Darwin should be perplexed by the fact that we are expending valuable resources to protect the most vulnerable citizens of our country.  That is to say, the elderly.   Atheists should lead the charge to stop this artificial protection of senior citizens under the argument that every dollar we spend protecting a weaker member of our species, the more harm we inflict on younger, healthier member of the human race by subjecting them to greater debt and ultimately higher taxes for decades to come.

Among those 69% of Democrats who do not support creationism, they would also have to argue - lest they come off as ignorant hypocrites - that the shutdown of our economy is unfairly punishing those businesses that had been thriving by serving their customers well.  In biology, only those species that have successfully adapted and mutated as the ecosystem demands it will be selected for success and the rest of the competitors will die off.  So, if you were running a business that had figured out how to serve people faster, or better, or with some unique product or service model that was better than your next best competitor, the government is artificially killing you - and violating Darwin's theories - in two ways.

First, the government is forcing you to shut down, or reduce your service offerings.  This is like a forest ranger forcing a successful pack of wolves to hunt less or move to less productive hunting grounds.  

Second, the government is taking money away from successful members of our species and giving it to less successful businesses all in the name of 'stimulus'.  This is like the same forest ranger taking away the elk that a pack of productive wolves has killed and giving that kill to wolves that heretofore had been hunting in less productive areas, or were not hunting productively.

Now the inferior wolf pack is rewarded for being inferior while the productive pack is left to figure out how to navigate an environment where you are punished for being successful.

This leaves us with the fact that if you are a Democrat - and an atheist - you can only legitimately contend that the pandemic should be allowed to run its course - even if millions die - and that government should not artificially interfere in stopping the pandemic or prevent people from freely choosing to interact with one another.  Atheists can only argue that humans are capable of reason and logic that have evolved over thousands of years and therefore humans should be allowed to freely determine whom they interact with and in what manner.

To argue anything else - like protecting the weak and supporting your brother in his time of need - might sound a little bit like what believers in God would argue.   

A Millennial Introduction to Socialism Part II

One of the great complaints about capitalism that all supporters of Bernie Sanders cite is the incessant greed that the pursuit of profit creates in our country.   We are told - by people who most likely majored in the humanities - that we should not put profit over people and that community well-being is a more laudable goal.

Let me ask you young folks a question...

Have you enjoyed toilet paper shopping lately?  How is that going?  Are you enjoying finding empty shelves, long lines and near panic-like conditions among shoppers desperate to find cleaning supplies, meat and bread?

Well, my friends, welcome to what the world looks like in Venezuela every day.   Take a look at this video.  It will take only 3 minutes and 43 seconds away from your Instagram posting and will help you see what the world would look like if we adopted socialism on a macroeconomic scale.

Shortages happen from time to time in a market economy.  The shortages we are seeing at this time stem from historic increases in the demand for everything we think we will need to get through this pandemic.   As demand increases, suppliers scramble to increase production in order to profit from this unique opportunity.  We have seen countless stories of companies shifting away from beer production, for example, in order to produce hand sanitizer.  Car makers are shifting into the production of medical equipment and so on.

The driving motivation behind this shift is not the common good, but rather the uncommon profit opportunity.

In socialism, businesses would be prevented from capitalizing on this shift in demand.   Prices would be controlled by government, inventories would be rationed - by the government - and the incentive to increase production would be eliminated - leading to permanent shortages.

This is what life is like every day in Venezuela.   The government there has waged war on entrepreneurship for over two decades and thus the incentives to produce toilet paper - and everything else - has been wiped out.  People in this once prosperous nation now line up every day to try to find things that will help them survive.

In America, because of capitalism, we know that eventually the flow of goods will return to its normal level.  None of us go to bed at night wondering if there will ever be meat at the store again.

If left to the devices of people like Bernie Sanders - and his young followers who have not taken an economics class, nor have ever lived in Venezuela - we would face shortages of everything, every day.

Dear Millennials, THIS is what Socialism looks like!

One of the greatest unintended consequences of the government's reaction to Covid-19 is the first-hand, once-in-a-lifetime lesson in what socialism really looks like.  So to all of you folks out there who are somewhere between 18 and 35 please read this carefully.  It could save your life.

I know many of you have been super-excited for quite some time with the Presidential candidacy of Bernie Sanders.   Some of you have acknowledged that Bernie is now finished but has laid important groundwork for youger socialists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who can pick up his mantle and carry it forward in your quest to finally have Democratic-Socialism arrive in the United States.

It is somewhat understandable - for two reasons - that you would want this.  First, if you are 35 years old it means you were in kindergarten when the Soviet Union fell apart.  It means you have never lived one day in a nation that was pitted against a nation that was threatening to export human misery on a mass scale to the rest of the world - or bomb us into oblivion as a second-best choice.

You did not get to live in a world where 40% of the population lived under communism or socialism.  You have never even lived in a world where Scandinavia, long held out as the dream of you young socialists, actually practiced socialism.  See https://www.heritage.org/index/

So, having no frame of reference other than modern-day Venezuela, for what socialism looks like, you are largely ignorant of what it would look like to live through it.  Of course my students from Venezuela do not need to read any more of this post because they have lived through socialism and are well versed in the deprivation it creates.   That is one reason why they are my favorite students.  They live for liberty and value it more than my American students do.

A second reason why young Americans want socialism is because this has been a lousy century for you.  When you were babies your government turned on its own people in the wake of September 11th on a scale that would make George Orwell shudder.   From the Patriot Act to domestic surveillance to a nation that makes us cow-tow at airports, you have lived in a nation that has largely traded in its liberty for security.

Then, when you were a little older, you got to see the second worst recession in our nation's history and the mass-hijacking of your futures when the Federal Reserve Bank and the federal government combined to bail out large banks and corporations that would make Robin Hood cheer.   It is no wonder you want Grandpa Bernie to give you free health care, free tuition and free child care.  You have grown up watching government give away your future earnings in the form of artificially pumped up money supplies and plunder in favor of the well connected.  Now you want your share.

Finally, we now see your government destroying liberty in the name of health care security by locking us down and telling us we cannot go places they do not approve of and that we have to be in our homes at 11PM.  In exchange for that, Congress is going to steal another $2 trillion from your future (did you think the stimulus was free money?) and destroy your jobs and income in the present.

Socialism is an economic system that violates the rights of the individual in order to serve the desires of the state.  Socialism means the nationalization or overt control over key industries.  Socialism means a huge expansion of the size of government on the backs of future taxpayers.  Socialism means lots of rules and regulations in order to make us all safe.

As you prepare to be locked in your homes by our new quasi police-state think about this...

Which seems better - the freedom and chance for prosperity you had a few weeks ago, or the security and reliance on the state that you are getting now?

Remember, be careful what you wish for....

A Libertarian Guide to Social Distancing

I hate to admit this but all this social distancing stuff is coming pretty easy for me.   As a Libertarian (since around 4 seconds after George H.W. Bush became president) I have long valued being, well, alone.

The Republican party has the elephant for a mascot.  The Democrats have a Jackass (insert joke here).  The Libertarians have a porcupine!  Think about it.  The porcupine is a solitary animal who just wants to be left alone to look for food and other porcupines.   Voluntary association is the hallmark of a good porcupine.   If you bother one you get a face full of quills.

For around 50 years I have been the human equivalent of a porcupine.  The one friend I have who lives near me (my Texas and Tennessee friends do visit much...) also happens to be my wife.  I do not own a cell phone because I find human contact overrated.  I therefore have no social media presence.  This blog does not count because I post what I think and do not really care what people think about what I think.  I don't ask for, or expect, "likes" because I do not care what you like.  I like what I like and then, if I feel like it, share it with other people.

I have been this way forever.   When I was in Eugene Field Elementary school in Hugo, Oklahoma, I used to run a way every year during the school picnic to play in the woods with whatever kid I could convince to break out with me.  The moment the teacher had us stand in a socialistic line to march to the park I was plotting my escape.  Right after lunch I would bolt with my willing partners and not come back until it was time for all the sheep to march back to school.

In the first grade, on my very first report card, my teacher wrote, "Jack is progressing well but refuses to comply with society's standards of behavior."  Damn right. Society is not my boss.  I, as a six-year old, felt that I was my boss until I got home and my parents let me know that I needed to comply with some rules - or get a belt across the behind for refusing.

With this Coronavirus I find that my life has not changed much.  I still have one friend who I hang out with regularly.   I am now at home, with my wife and dog Jake and I am fine.   I have been re-watching Stranger Things, working out, folding socks for the first time since Obama was president, cooking a little more often and doing projects that need to be done.  I miss talking to my students but they are fine.   I miss sports on television but not enough to stress over it.   Since I have never texted anyone, I do not miss that.  Since I am not on Instagram I do not miss that.  

I would recommend to anyone reading this to consider the possibility that most human interaction is not necessary and in fact, is actually pretty annoying.   Do you miss the way people drive on the roads?  Do you miss people blathering on their phones in restaurants and movies?  Probably not.   

I think the world would be a better place if we could just learn to enjoy our time away from each other.  Maybe we would be a little nicer, a little more tolerant and actually engage in meaningful conversation once we are allowed to hang out again.

Until then, enjoy the solitude.  After all, unless you hate yourself you will enjoy your company.

How Irrationality Might Lead to another Great Depression

As all of you can plainly see this virus is radically reshaping our economy right now.  I wanted to share with you an article I wrote (published in today's Orlando Sentinel) that will help you have better insight into what at least one economist is thinking.     If you are willing, sharing your insights into what you have experienced so far might be useful and therapeutic.

Here is the article..

_________

How Irrationality might lead to another Depression

As the United States, and the world, reacts to the spread of the Covid-19 virus I find myself wondering how many Americans are still alive who witnessed the economic calamity that began in October 1929.   They would come in handy right now as economic advisers to a nation that is about to panic its way into a possible second Great Depression.

It is staggering to fathom how economically myopic and reactionary our “leaders” are being at this critical time in our nation’s economic history.

Everywhere we look we are being told to go home, stay home, don’t go out; don’t interact with one another and more.  It is as if the politicians have been bestowed with some special powers to engage in policy making decisions that will somehow magically defy the laws of supply and demand.

Let’s look at it.

In an economy of more than 330 million consumers who purchase more than $20 trillion in goods and services annually, how do we continue to fuel the demand side of the economy if we are told we should not buy tickets to sporting events, hotel rooms, theme parks, restaurants and more?  If we only go out to buy toilet paper and medical masks, where do the millions of workers who depend on our purchases earn enough money to avoid being sent to the unemployment lines?

Our labor force and suppliers are also being bombarded by the doomsday scenarios outlined by those we put into office to make good decisions.

Sending labor suppliers home disrupts the entire supply chain of goods and services that prevent massive shortages, business closings and collapsing infrastructure.   The more people who are withdrawn from the labor force the greater the threat of stagflation – a combination of high unemployment and inflation – that last reared its head in the 1970’s and early 80’s.

Of course we are all being told that these decisions, while painful for a while, will be far better than leaving us alone to make our own choices of buying, selling and working.  The experts are saying that unless our lives are interrupted for an indeterminate period of time we will suffer even greater losses in the long run.

Exactly how do we know this?  What if this virus goes on into the fall?   How many months can our economy survive shattered by the possibility of accelerated cases around the globe?   What if in the meantime we see unemployment surge to levels higher than at any time since the 1930s?  What if the gross domestic product dives by double-digits?

Do we really believe that Americans are ready for an economic downturn that no one under 100 years old has ever endured?   Can we really expect deprivation on a scale that eliminates virtually all luxury spending and sends millions into poverty?

It is important to note that there is virtually nothing in the way of monetary and fiscal policy that our government could use to fight another Depression.

Interest rates are already historically low and, as we saw in the 1930’s, if people are scared to borrow, nothing the Federal Reserve Bank does can compel us to incur more debt.

Taxes are also low by historical standards.   Donald Trump’s recent cut in personal and corporate income taxes generated very small gains in revenue – an indication that more tax cuts would not create greater economic growth.

The federal deficit – fueled by profligate spending by both parties – is also near record levels so even more spending is not likely to create more jobs.

I am afraid that economic historians will someday look back at 2020 as the year our hyper-reactive society allowed elected officials to shut down the largest economy in the world and ended up destroying more lives from the ensuing economic meltdown than the virus would have.

Capitalism is all we need to fight Climate Change

What follows is my Op-Ed in the August 22, 2018 Orlando Sentinel

 

This week the Trump administration announced plans to roll back regulations on coal-fired power plants, effectively abandoning the Obama-era attempts to do away with coal as a primary resource for power generation.

 

Critics of Trump’s policies on energy often point out that since he took office, there has been a push to deregulate sectors of the economy that deal with the burning of fossil fuels, and thus, exacerbate the problem of climate change. If Trump’s policies are left unchallenged, we are told, we risk thrusting the United States back into the unenviable position of being the world leader in the destructive creation of pollution that will condemn posterity to deal with the ravages of permanent climate change.

The response by the vast majority of Americans to this dire prediction is a collective yawn rooted in a self-interested perspective on energy usage. That is because no matter how much moral suasion is used to get us to care about some kid who will be around 200 years from now, we really care more about our wallets and personal convenience 200 seconds from now.

Think about it. Every time we hear the phrase, “if we all work together…..” do we end up working together?

 

Not really.

 

We are told to drive cars that are low-emission and environmentally friendly. We ask, “How much will that car cost?” We are told to drive the speed limit to conserve energy, but we are late for work or enjoy speeding.

We nod in agreement that climate change is a terrible thing, then engage in classic free-riding behavior that starts with the premise that while our neighbors fight climate change, we will do what is best for our immediate economic concerns. Our neighbors think the same thing, and we all roll past each other in gas-guzzling SUVs while forgetting to turn off the air-conditioning at home.

 

The good news is that we don’t really have to work together to accomplish victory over rising global temperatures. That is because profit-driven companies are doing all the work for us.

 

Consider this.

 

Because of rapid advances in technology — driven only by the desire to make more money — we have seen drastic reductions in the price of power created by wind and solar. Natural gas is now cheaper than coal. Therefore, no matter what the president will claim on Twitter, market forces and the drive for greater market share has already led to the expansion of non-coal power and less carbon dioxide emission.

 

The same is true in innumerable industries. Household appliances use less energy than ever before. Not because Whirlpool wants to save polar bears from shrinking ice, but because Whirlpool wants to cash in on our desire to save money first and then save polar bears as a bonus.

 

Food is now produced with far less energy than decades ago. Cars continue to roll off the assembly line that generate a fraction of the toxic emissions that we saw in the 1970s.

From phosphate-free detergent to the growth in products produced with recycled materials, we have seen an explosion in environmentally friendly goods and services that all come from the fruits of capitalism, rather than some government program or legislative mandate.

 

In fact, where we see the government involved in the protection of the environment is where many disasters occur. From the Flint, Mich., water supply to poorly managed government forests that burn in California to accidents that lead to toxic spills, government’s record in protecting the planet is not impressive.

 

By comparison, the pursuit of money has led to impressive results.

 

Therefore, even though most of us only care about our immediate needs and our limited financial resources, we can go to sleep knowing that the same system that guarantees the production of food, medicine, housing and everything else we might want or need can be trusted to produce products that will slow climate change over time.