Yellow Dog [Part 11]

Donn,
Sure, if your basic premise were true and it isn’t... because GW and the Conservatives have been running this mess for 6 of the last 7 years...THAT’S everything: the judiciary, the Senate, the House and the executive branch. I find it amazing that there are people out there that STILL blame the Dems when they haven’t even been able to hold a meeting in the last 6 years. No, this mess belongs TO the conservatives. Are you familiar with the Conservative philosophy of "Starve The Beast"? Basically, it says, spend, spend, and spend until you bankrupt the nation and THEN you can eliminate ALL the social programs and worker protections with the phrase "sorry, there’s just no more money." I believe that the Conservatives are trying to turn the USA into a nation of the super wealthy and of a worker class...a small middle class, or managerial class, and a warrior class. That’s it, no more. So, for them, you’re either super rich, a soldier, a manager or a worker. They want to eliminate the "nouveau rich" with a Wall Street crash and eliminate all movement between the classes. Take a look around you, THAT’S what’s happening now.

Marx



Marx,

It has become quite clear to me now that you did in fact drink the Cool Aide!

First, I am not a Republican. I'm not a conservative. I am a capitalist. But, what does any of this have to do with my philosophical classroom scenario? Is what I describe true or not?

There are no pros to discuss with regards to socialism and/or communism. Once justice is sacrificed, nothing good can come of it. Sure it might seem good to you or me, low-paid teachers, but it’s not good. There is a much better solution, and it’s completely just to all. It’s called laissez-faire capitalism. It works like your classroom...students who work hard and produce something of value reap the benefits of their efforts. Students who don’t...fail. [We’re not talking about mentally disabled people here, Marx, less than 1% of the population; we’re talking about that 30% who choose to drop out, have multiple babies before graduation, party and sleep, who demand you pay their medical bills.]

Capitalism did not cause the current crisis or any economic crisis in our country’s history. Every crisis has been caused by government intervention in the economy of one kind or another. Government intervention actually prolongs the periodic slowdowns all economic systems must endure.

Laissez-faire capitalism has not existed in this country since the Lincoln administration’s transcontinental railroad...It has been nearly totally dead since the Sherman and Clayton Anti-trust laws of the 1890s, when the politicians invented the “monopoly myth,” and used the myth to create fear and hatred for the producers. Men like JD Rockefeller [and one hundred years later, Bill Gates]—self-made men, who were better than the competition, who grew their own personal wealth and the wealth of the world of people who benefited from their efforts—were demonized by the socialist press, the rent-seeking competition they buried, and politicians in Washington, both Dems and Reps, who saw an opportunity to grow their own personal wealth [doing favors for their friends] and power [clubbing the great entrepreneurs to death]. While JD Rockefeller controlled Standard Oil the price of kerosene dropped from .65/per gal to .18/per gal. [Once the government had taken over Standard and busted it up into Chevron, Mobil, Exxon, etc. a federal petroleum regulating agency [I can’t remember the name of the agency] created the petroleum CARTEL we call “Big Oil” today. Once the agency went to work, the price of gas in this country doubled over night.] Consumers benefited from Rockefeller’s efficiency. The politicians came in and busted up his company and argued they were doing it for the good of the consumers! A tremendous lie, you still believe.

A more recent example: Bill Gates’ success wasn’t hurting consumers. He put wonderful new tools on the desk of tens of millions for pennies...he made Google, Ebay, Yahoo! etc., etc., possible for a one-time fee, the cost of his software. We could never pay Gates what he’s worth. But Netscape complained to Utah Republican Orin Hatch... Waa! We can’t compete, they cried. Hit him over head, they demanded...Bill Clinton saw an opportunity to make people like you happy, and spent the later half of the 90s clubbing a great company to death. Software prices went up dramatically as Gates spent hundreds of millions trying to save his company from unscrupulous politicians working their brutal magic for their rent-seeking cronies at Netscape and others who could not compete in the free market with Microsoft.

Government has only one tool, Marcus, FORCE. Whenever it is used, what you are witnessing is not capitalism. Government has no role to play in a capitalist economy, except to prosecute fraud and mediate contractual disputes between private parties. In fact, government is the only entity capable of creating and sustaining a monopoly. The Post Office, for example, was a monopoly for the first two hundred years of US history. When the rules were changed to permit competition a billion dollar private company was created, Brown; then another billion dollar industry, Fed Ex; still another, DSL. Millions of real jobs created. [A real job is one that grows the economy. Jobs like ours, paid by tax dollars, don’t grow the economy.] In a free market, in any sector, profit invites competition. If government stays out of the way, monopolies, like McDonalds in the late 40’s, don’t last long. If there’s money to be made, competitors emerge and create Burger King, Wendys, Checkers, Jack-in-the-box, etc. We now have fast food in abundance and prices have grown slower than inflation in the fast food industry. My father’s 1990 car phone cost him thousands. My cell phone [a much better phone] was free. My father’s 1980 beta VCR cost him thousands. I think I paid $30 bucks for my last VCR...$50 for my last DVD player. The reason? Government didn’t mess with the electronics industry, for whatever reason. True capitalism resulted in abundance, lower and lower prices, countless producers, and wonderful innovation. THIS SCENARIO WOULD BE TRUE IN EVERY ASPECT OF THE HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY AS WELL IF GOVERNMENT WOULD STAY OUT OF THE WAY.

In a capitalist economy businesses succeed and businesses fail. There are no government bailouts. Businesses regulate themselves because there are real consequences for failure. A businessman who was responsible for the distribution of contaminated baby milk, for example, would never work again. His reputation would forever be ruined. In a capitalist system your product and your word are sacred: failure in either realm and you’re finished.

FDR would have served the country well had he encouraged the private sector to invent the 401k, or the 403b, or any private IRA you like. My grand parents would have left me millions had they been investing in a retire account that grew with the country’s economy...compounding interest can be your friend, Marcus. The pittance you MIGHT draw from the SSA is a pathetic government program that does not grow wealth at all. It maintains the status quo, i.e. an inch above poverty.

Finally, the weak are never left to die, particularly if their weakness is something beyond their control...mental retardation or a debilitating illness in mid-life after years of productive work. Americans are the most charitable people on Earth. Social Darwinism is a most cynical myth: It charges that men climb the ladder of success only by kicking the other guy in the face, that somebody’s always getting screwed when men live by trade, that people will never choose to help one another. You agree with this leftist, middle school lesson, and then compound the failure of its conclusion by arguing that benevolent, all powerful government will do better. Sure...it’s easy to be charitable with somebody else’s money! Rockefeller passed on more than 90% of his fortune, not to his kids, but to several endowments: Medical research and education. Bill Gates has used his money to save millions of lives in Africa and countless state-side educational programs. If the government got out of the charity business, subsidizing poor people and broken companies, tax-payers would get to keep 2 TRILLION of their dollars a year—that’s right, Marx, entitlements consume half of our government’s budget annually. Private charity would increase tenfold. We could pay back China in six months. We could pay off the entire national debt in five years if we nixed just two programs: Social Security and Medicare. You want to grow these disastrous programs. Half the country agrees with you. If you win, we all fail.

Donn