On November 8th, a cold day before the first frost, hereabouts, Prudence found the very last Morning Glory blossom on a set of vines that looked dead for more than a couple of weeks. While it seemed lonely, perhaps forlorn, that blossom faced the sun with purpose. It was telling its world that even when all doors seemed closed, the spark of life, matched with a strong purpose – or courage – was overcoming almost everything.
We are witnessing the dismantling of the United States as a sovereign nation. It is sad that no news organization asks questions about it. It is the only end result that makes sense of Biden’s open-border tragedy and it’s not a new idea: George W. Bush talked about creating a “North American Union” similar to the European Union, where petty local elections would mean less and less and less. The free flow of peoples is part of it. Erasing quaint ideas of nationalism and America-first, are parts of it, too. No wonder Trump was so hated by the anti-nationalists who are in charge. It’s all globalist crap, and every Democrat supports it, yet not more than two Republicans have spoken of it, much. American citizens? Why tell them anything?
The deep state has discussed the concepts of an “NAU” with both Mexico and Canada over the past 20 years and probably more. There hasn’t been any effort to speak to the United States about it. President George H. W. Bush spoke of “… a new world order…” in the early 90’s, as though the actions and policies of the United States were somehow leading to that mythical utopia. You can spot those who share that concept: they looove the United Nations. They get a thrill from hearing people from less-successful and far more oppressed nations telling the United States what to do.
Barack Obama is a true acolyte in that church. Not only did he apologize to the world for real and imagined mistakes the U. S. has made… forever, but he couches his basic hatred of his own country in terms of racism: the unassailable condemnation. There are many like him. They’ve taken to calling for U. N. oversight of OUR elections! Yet, there is almost nothing the U. N. does that improves freedom or raises standards of living – except for the standards of living for those that work for the U. N. It is an horrendously corrupt and wasteful bureaucracy, and the U. S. feels compelled to pay the lion’s share of its many budgets. Being “woke” began with the U. N. after World War II; supporting the U. N., even over support for the U. S. is one of the greatest virtue-signals possible.
To rush along the “New World Order,” leftists within our own government favor and work for acceptance of U. N. directives. The fundamental process requires giving up bits and pieces of U. S. sovereignty, which also means discarding our Constitutionally protected, God-given rights. Within every variation of justification for elevating humanity to become our own gods, there is a constant drumbeat against religion (mostly against Christianity) and no room for God, himself. Here in one of the few nations founded or premised upon religious freedom, we find numerous CHURCHES and watered-down, rainbow-flagged liturgies, that strongly support the U. N. Individuality and individual relationships with God and Christ are not preached or honored there, any longer. Marching toward the new world order is a march to the left, Godless and socialist.
“The New World Order” is not a phrase that’s tossed around of late. What is dropped often enough is the term, “The Great Reset.” Everyone in favor of the Great Reset is perfectly happy with the prospects of a new world order, make no mistake. “Great Reset” is the brain-fart of the self-exalted “World Economic Forum,” led by the chief fart, Klaus Schwab. No one elected him; he and the rest of those who are “members” of the “Forum,” are self-appointed, very wealthy individuals who have developed significant sway over actual political, elected leaders. Despite their capitalist origins, they all seem quite comfortable with a socialist, one-world future. All seem convinced that socialism has failed heretofore only because those attempting to employ it were not as smart as this current gang of utterly secular insurrectionists… insurrection being the overthrow of existing government(s).
The Great Reset received a huge boost from the COVID-19 pandemic. Incipient global rulers watched the lockdowns and mandating of experimental vaccines with satisfied glee. Millions of hitherto “sovereign” citizens were accepting extra-legal control of movement, employment, worship and assembly on the premise of stopping an infectious virus. Constitutions and other statements of rights were set aside with minimal resistance. To globalists, this behavior showed that tyrannical control is manageable. God forbid.
Still, among the dying vines of freedom, faith, private property rights and individuality, there are enough living cells to blossom forth in glory. But, can we protect freedom’s flower from the coming frost of de-population, famine and global communism, under which, according to the benevolent Klaus Schwab, we will “own nothing and be happy?”
Representatives of our own government, including the incredibly corrupt Vice-President, Joseph Robinette Biden, descendant of slave owners and top dog in a corrupt and morally twisted family, have attended and addressed the W. E. F. in its Davos meetings. Biden’s last speech there, a couple days before Trump’s inauguration, was full of internationalist palaver and platitudes of cooperation salted with anti-Russian, anti-Putin derogation. As President, however, Biden has governed this country in contravention of his utopian dreams expressed to the W. E. F. Indeed, he has governed in contravention of his sworn oath upon inauguration: his word is cheap – easily purchased. With some 150 instances of questionable financial transactions among the several Bidens and foreign countries, it may prove difficult to ascertain who owns the largest portion of good ol’ Joe’s integrity. Observations – and Biden’s own actions – would indicate that significant ownership of his integrity belongs to Communist China, and not to the citizens of the United States.
“The West” owes to itself and to all mankind a proper regulation / limitation of raw capitalism. Today’s youth are rightly fed up with the distortions caused by hyper-accumulation of wealth. Capitalism was the servant of freedom while free-enterprise was possible, encouraged and promoted by republican governments. It worked while laws and judicial impartiality provided an honest business environment, one of the best in the world. In other words, free enterprise worked when government was honest, both federal and state. A hundred aspects of Covid-19 response have shown that our governments and multiple enforcement agencies have become dishonest, with even our largest, most trusted, government-corrupted, medical delivery systems forcing forms of protocols that have increased the death toll from Covid at least 100%. The “government” provided financial incentives to hospitals to both identify and treat “Covid” patients, including specific treatments and, oddly, lacks thereof. Thousands have died because normal treatments and checkups for cancers, heart disease and many other conditions, were stopped or avoided by patients. The crimes are so huge we’ll never have all the statistics.
The fastest way to start stitching the American opportunity society back together, is to return to honesty in government – something that seems anathema to today’s politicians and to the deep state.
All we true Americans need is the single-minded purpose of a Morning Glory blossom, determined to return our glory to the world.
Whether it’s baloney or just heat, much of it is spewed about the preference for “socialism” over “capitalism” among a large fraction of young Americans. Few are responding with the right counter-arguments. The debate has typically conflated socialism, which is fundamentally a GOVERNING/control system, using economic control to control groups of people, with capitalism, which is 1) human nature; and 2) a means of wealth creation AND RETENTION that is individual. The real enemy of socialism is CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLICANISM, not capitalism, per se… socialism simply destroys capitalism. In the United States we utilize democratic selection to choose our representatives and executives, BUT WE ARE NOT A DEMOCRACY! Those who insist on referring to the United States as “our democracy” and similar phrases, are those who wish it were.
Government by “democracy” is a ticket to ride into the tunnel of tyranny – tyranny by the majority. In the new era of instant communication and widespread ignorance of history, civics and economics, tyranny sometimes takes only a few tens of minutes to destroy peoples’ lives, livelihoods and reputations. Imagine if every public policy were promulgated the same way. Temporary “majorities” could strip hated groups of rights and empower preferred majorities with privilege and wealth. Imagine what it could do to tax policies and welfare. Democracy is a scorpion in the digital bottle, requiring sophisticated and unbreakable controls in order for it to serve a free people. An educated person can appreciate the sublime protections against unbridled democracy that are built into the Constitution; he or she will also recognize the changes that must be amended to that sacred document to stop the unbridled theft of representation under which we suffer, now.
The real contenders for the future of mankind are socialism morphing into communism, and Americanism, including all that set of concepts means.
Right now we are not enjoying the miraculous advantages of individual capitalism, responsibility and morality. We are being crushed, inch by inch, by OLIGARCHY, which is a horrible, though impressive, perversion of capitalism: a concentration of financial power in the hands of a tiny, tiny number of people, to whom flow political and even intellectual power. That is, obscenely wealthy people have come to believe they are not only smart in business and finance, but, since all their minions and obsequious politicians repeatedly tell them so, that they are also WISE – a grievously dangerous belief. One need only investigate the actions and beliefs of the odd Bill Gates to see the dangers possible.
These oligarchs are not patriots – not a single one of them. Oligarchs are insatiable: there are never sufficient “markets” in which to sell, there is never enough revenue, never enough power in their hands. Their abiding fears all are based on the loss – even slightly – of any portion of any of those aspects of their existence. This forces them to purchase, as it were, unlimited political influence so as to protect their levels of accomplishment in markets, revenue, and power. Political philosophy is none of their concern. They are just as happy to deal with communist and other dictators, probably more so, than with elected, representative governments, the latter being hard to control and, occasionally, “suffering” changes of leadership.
The U. S. has acted as the “world’s policeman” since World War II. Despite forming the “United” Nations, most of the “policing” fell to the U. S. – most of the waste of treasure and sacrifice of young men and women has also been borne by us. All the while, the global leftist pressure has infected the American body politic and the institutions designed by our founders and those added by both good- and bad-intentioned politicians. Those who think we are not socialist already, are blind. Socialism is not about to sweep in and improve our system… our system is already fouled up by socialism. The likelihood is that we will become MORE of what the ‘woke’ generation rails against.
Conservatives – traditionalists – have no love for the corrupt, partially socialist mess we survive in. Our problems stem not from a lack of socialism but from a lack of Americanism. We have literally voted-in our own destruction. There is a narrow window of freedom left, but the Biden administration has chosen to accelerate the damage instead of beginning to repair freedom and individual responsibility.
If nothing else, every American patriot should stop listening to or sympathizing with the gross, broad-brush claims made by Communists in our midst (like “BLM”) or by committed “socialists.” By those irrational statements those anti-American fellow-travelers are advertising their ignorance – largely willful ignorance – of history and of the basis for the creation of our founding documents and principles. They don’t deserve our attempts to understand nor will they debate or analyze the views of any other “side.” America used to work quite well for the maximum number of people, here and across the world. However, since the “Great Society” and the Viet-Nam loss, our system has become corrupted by socialists and, with the closing of the “gold window,” by the insatiable creation of debt to buy ever more and more votes.
Monopoly Capitalism is not the model for freedom, it is the antithesis. Wise people, educated and informed, should, through their representatives in Congress, refine our institutions to break up monopolies and to prevent new ones. Unfortunately our ruling elites have shifted closer and closer to Fascism, where huge, monopolistic and global companies, no longer American companies, are “bribed” in effect, BY THE GOVERNMENT, to carry out control policies the government lacks the legal ability to effect: socialism by corporate proxy.
There has never occurred a crisis for civilization when capitalism failed to function. “Capitalism” is innate, virtually instinctive among humans, and the most powerful of motivators in societies as small as one member. An individual has the same needs for life on a personal level as a family, clan, village or nation has: clothing, food, protection and shelter. At whatever level or intensity of need, humans will attempt to obtain as much as possible of any of them at the lowest “cost” of effort possible.
Once acquired these needed things automatically become property – property on a spectrum of ownership, from the very personal, like clothing, weapons, tools, personal or family shelter. Beyond the immediately personal, family property and then clan or village property, there automatically develops properties that are belief-based, like loyalty and group-safety obligation. It is a short journey to sharing beliefs about events, conditions, weather, waters, animals and childbirth… and death, that are unexplained and ascribed to supernatural influences. These beliefs are as crucial a private property as clothing and self-defense, and as durable a cultural quality as pottery styles or graphic and oral expressions of every sort. And they will be passed on to children nearly infallibly. Behavior by either children or adults that is contrary to those shared beliefs automatically produces negative sanctions.
In groups as small as two, and certainly of 3 or 4, specialties: differences in abilities, are quickly apparent. In a group of families there will be definite skills of higher degrees of excellence in this person or that – better hunting skills, better tool-making, better making of clothing, better hut-building. Someone – an elder – will gain enough knowledge to predict outcomes, or eclipses, or the arrival of herds. His or her wisdom will be sought out for transfer to children. Specialization. Economics is part of and an outgrowth of specialization. Wise men, chiefs, healers and others will be fed in exchange for their unique services. Food is an automatic medium of exchange. Next, perhaps, are weapons and tools. The hunter who unerringly leads the hunting party to the clan’s next moose or buffalo or elk, may be “gifted” with a blanket, better shoes or more food… or a wife.
Rules, mores, or customs guide the relationships within the group. Inevitably there is a shared concept of us and them: people from outside the clan. The desire to protect the clan is just as automatic. Yet the possibility of trade with outsiders may be easily entertained because of the ease of acquisition compared to the work required to obtain the outsider’s goods on their own. The values must be set. How many of this kind of skins or tools or decorations or… whatever, are “worth” the higher quality flint arrowheads the stranger makes? Before long the first group will be trapping extra beavers just to trade for arrowheads: an economy is created.
The big impact on economics, and on the establishment of capitalism as an organizing force in society, came with the introduction of agriculture. As people settled around their fields, the importance of property changed forever. Where crops “belonged” to the village, or “city,” their grains and products were not handed out to every family for free. There were trades or barters required, leading to record-keeping, counting, weights and balances. There appeared the recorded existence of debts to be repaid in the (near) future, between families and the granary (city) and even between cities: a collective capitalism (property rights) and individual capitalism (private property rights.) Automatically new specialties arose: law-enforcement within the city, and border-enforcement against all outside the city – soldiers and general conscription when fields and water sources were threatened.
Treaties were needed: rules to reduce threats from “others,” and to define ownership of certain lands and resources. There always existed nomadic peoples who refined forms of movable dwellings, like those of indigenous peoples in North America. Conflicting interaction between “property-rights” people and nomadic tribes inevitably result in destruction of nomadic uses of lands desired by those who employ fences, borders and ownership-based economic structures. Native Americans had no concept of fences and property lines, and this difference affected why they never developed cities, industries and massive growth. Today, the simplicity of indigenous people’s way of life is attractive to those who wish to tear down our current, sloppy, polluting and more or less capitalist, civilization.
Capitalism and all of its moving parts: private property, profit, risk, debt/investment, accumulation of wealth and inheritance and the freedom to fail and learn, is the prime driver of the global economy and amazing invention and innovation that supports more than 7 Billion humans. But it does all of this at great cost, not least of which is the expansion of the number of possible “sins” and multiplication of the number of temptations (frauds, scams, legal deceptions, global banking). On the other hand, and comprising the basic defense of capitalism as an organizing principle, capitalist economics and politics have spurred the greatest wealth and health in history. More people are well-fed and comforted in hundreds of ways, educated and made relatively “free” thanks to capitalism than under any of the more or less tyrannical systems employed, ever.
Capitalist politics depend on democracy and, judged by the success of the United States, upon republicanism: the democratic election of ostensibly more capable, perhaps wiser, representatives. Evidently, as well, Constitutional republicanism is crucial to the explosive growth of wealth and a “middle class” of upwardly mobile individuals and families who could, realistically, work their way higher up the economic ladder. It is worth analysis and reformation, both political and economic, to return the U. S. system to its successful ways. This means reformation of economic institutions, and of political institutions, both of which, today, conspire to concentrate power – and share it – to the detriment of freedom, upward mobility and essential Constitutionalism.
The strongest voices raised against “America,” are firmly on the left, socialist and worse. Their prescription is virtual destruction of “capitalism” and honest conservatives / constitutionalists must recognize their logic in the presence of an extremely unbalanced, oligarchy of global bankers who largely have brought the financial system to a point of dictating to even the United States, what its future will be: indebtedness to that cabal, and therefore limited as to the extent of our independent action internationally.
Capitalism requires limits and institutions that prevent its (people’s) essential tendencies toward 1) monopoly and, 2) political / governmental advantage. We can see the damages that concentrations of wealth will cause, not least of which is empowering socialism and anti-constitutionalism. But it also creates severe stratification in a society formed without “castes” or “classes.” Perhaps worst of all, super wealth transcends nationhood; when profits can be earned around the globe, the need to adhere to a single country’s norms and laws, tends to evaporate. Most particularly, the impact of market presence in the nations of our rivals / enemies, sees corporations or syndicates of corporations, bending to not offend those who mean the U. S. the most harm.
Is it possible to restore a sense of nationalism for industries key to the defense and independence of the United States? What would such a policy look like? What could possibly be the enforcing agency? Can current political hatreds and ignorance permit the formation of a national-interest industrial policy that serves the country, rather than one that serves a party?
When the two – or three – political “sides” in the U. S. don’t agree on what the national interest is, or even if there IS a national interest, it appears that a national industrial policy is rather remote. Yet it must manifest if the United States is to control its own destiny. What forces must come together to make this happen… and within two years?
A “fusion” government. A… what the Hell? Never happen.
It has to. Until Bush beat Gore, technically, the two-party system functioned as a modified “fusion” government system. Overall, both parties were mainly interested in doing what was best for the country and managed to cooperate on major issues and trends. Sloppy, corrupt and self-serving, and able to cooperate as much as we did thanks only to the unlimited creation of stultifying debt, both parties managed to avoid the corrosive hatreds of the past twenty years. How we’ve operated since, say, the Kennedy administration, is NOT the model to strive for, now.
Thirty Congresses and eleven Presidents have brought America to the edge of insolvency and at risk of subservience to China and others. The abrupt re-set due to coronavirus is an opportunity and a test. For the faithful, a test like this is not an accident, it is a loud vibrant message from God that we are far along a wrong path. But, those certain that they do not believe can get the message, too. The United States cannot continue to waste its wonderful gifts bestowed at our founding and many times since. Here are a few changes that must manifest if we are to maintain our independence:
New leadership. Without trying to parse all the forces that pushed on the psyche’s of numerous political leaders, we – and they – must recognize that the Democrat party has shifted distinctly leftward… and that leftist policies – virtual socialism – are incompatible with Constitutional republicanism. Some leaders are so committed to this relatively new political stance that they must be replaced by younger, more pragmatic and, dare it be suggested, more conservative leaders.
The same is true for Republicans. Republicans have been pulled leftward by the most crass and aggrandizing consideration: re-election. Appealing to the (leftist) attractiveness of “free” advantages for voters, Republicans learned to win re-election along the same paths as more left-leaning Democrats. Those who have built political careers (another problem) by hewing closer to Democrat principles, should be retired so that conservative principles can again define Republicans.
The ability of a “party” to be defined by, and to defend, an articulable philosophy of government, of legal code, of education and of help for the poor, is fundamental for representatives of that party to deserve enough votes to gain governing authority under the Constitution. Subsequently, the two parties should be able to agree on the principles of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution. These essentials seem simple to some of us, but are not agreed-to by about half of the voting public. It is time for both parties to lead America onto a stronger, Constitutionally purer path.
Destruction of debt. None of our agreed Constitutional principles will protect us if we sacrifice the independence of the United States, and nothing risks that independence more, or more directly, than our ballooning debt, owed in large fraction to non-Americans, including other countries. An industrial policy that both parties can agree to is part and parcel of controlling our national debt burden and the ultimate value of our currency and labors.
Total annual expenditures must reverse direction. Contrary to the unsustainable trends of the past half-century, the federal “budget-in-name-only” must shrink by fully 25% – a prospect surely deemed impractical, if not impossible, by most in both parties, Republicans included. While Republicans have always preached “smaller” government, since Johnson’s “Great Society,” indeed, since F.D.R.’s “New Deal,” the ostensible conservatives have succumbed to the enrichening advantages of staying in office, and have diverted their efforts to re-election rather than statesmanship. For many now in office their personal advantages of office are shameful and distinctly off the mark.
Electoral honesty. Democrats have raised the art of pandering to ephemeral, personal issue-driven groups to an art-form, even as they have learned – codified – numerous ways to expand “voter participation” so as to steal elections. Vote-harvesting, early voting, same-day registration, automatic registration when interacting with state governments for unrelated matters, non-verification of citizenship status during such interactions, “Rank” voting and organized surrogate voting, and other schemes honest people can’t imagine, all contribute to the erosion of democracy. Matched with these illicit garnerings of “votes,” is the opening of borders to waves of illegal entrants who, it is hoped by their advocates, will vote for Democrats and some misguided municipalities are granting illegal entrants voting privileges in “local” elections – a virtually unmanageable distinction. To form a more unified national political structure, these tactics must be renounced and abandoned. One voter – one vote… per citizen.
Republicans are no purer when opportunities are present to take advantage of election management dominance. For shame. Both parties must commit to, and back legislation that strengthens enforcement of election laws, including “clean” voting rolls.
Deconstruction of the labyrinthine administrative “state.” Both parties have colluded to slough off responsibility for the laws that are passed, by installing more and more agencies, offices, titles and programs among the 15 executive departments. Within virtually all of them are powers to regulate citizen behaviors, each with the force of law despite no specific authorization from Congress. This threatens personal freedom. Both parties should be able to agree on the restoration and future preservation of freedom.
What there is no agreement on is what constitutes that freedom. To socialists, freedom means freedom from personal responsibility… in the dozens of forms that can take. To originalists freedom means freedom to make as much of one’s abilities and situation as can legally be done and according to individual initiative and enterprise. To make the opportunity to succeed manifest for the largest number of citizens and legal residents, government must be a trusted partner in life, and not an opponent. Repeatedly, this immense gulf separates the parties to the degree that cooperation appears unreachable. There must arrive a more cooperative, constitutional understanding of individual sovereignty and responsibility.
The re-establishment of honest budgeting. Both parties must agree to annually cleanse the federal complex of agencies and programs, of wasteful overlap of purposes and missions and personnel. The budget line-items for each should be justified or eliminated at least bi-annually.
Beyond congressional oversight of each component of the total budget, an agreement is needed to cut federal spending by every Congress for five Congresses (10 years) until total outlays are equal to inflows during the period of the previous budget cycle. Can that much discipline be found among current and future members? And, in current and future presidents? A president can begin the process with a half-hour address to the nation. Bring back “Ross Perot’s charts” and ask the questions needed and issue the challenge. Let those who are opposed to balancing the budget make their case. There isn’t one. On this challenge the construction of a fusion government can – and must – move forward.
Ultimately, Americans and their representatives will agree on the unifying principle that fuels the exceptional American, Constitutional experiment: Our success as a free people and nation is measured not by how large our governments are, but by how small.
Prudence has successfully resisted the temptation to counter the many ignorant statements uttered by the impressively ignorant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of late an elected representative in the U. S. House of Representatives. She has a college degree… in economics.
One recent evening she purported to explain – obviously only
to those more ignorant than herself – what “capitalism” is. In the process she confused it with “free-market
economy,” and then jumped to explaining how one might have a “mixed” economy
where the “state” doesn’t own the means of production but “workers’
cooperatives” do. Neither the origins of
the means of production that workers’ cooperatives will “own,” nor the means of
managing their cooperative labor, were revealed during her explanation.
To the likes of Ms. Cortez the Marxist concept of capitalism
is not a solution to the human condition, but the cause of suffering and
injustice. Unfortunately, modern
capitalists are proving many of Marx’s theories. Thanks to the vapid connivance of ostensibly
democratically elected governments (crony-capitalism), international banks
virtually direct public policy and national economic decision-making. Most “workers” – wage-earners, are relatively
comfortable and not about to revolt against anonymous masters, but not
all. The obscene concentrations of
economic and productive power run the risk of collapsing the edifices of international
capitalism. There’s plenty for social
justice warriors to despise.
On the other hand… socialism cannot destroy debt – only productive
surplus does and can do that. It is not
possible, at least human nature will not allow, a financially complex society
to grow without practical amounts of debt.
Not to be pejorative, “debt” is merely paying for a product or “good”
over time. No, that sounds too
simple. “Debt” is only true and
practical when a financing agent has judged a borrower likely to pay back the
loaned cash with interest, oftentimes with the financier holding a chattel
interest in the good for which it has loaned the purchase price, because of two
factors: 1) The financed “good,” or product or house or car or medical
procedure has sufficient desirability, utility or comfort value for the
borrower as to make its value or worth obvious (and its potential loss
undesirable enough) and valued by the borrower; and 2) The borrower or
beneficiary of the good’s utility or comfort is, by test of available income
over time, able to make periodic payments on a timely, contracted (promised)
basis.
In the ideal case, then, debt is simply a tool that is “rented,”
as it were, the value of which is clear enough to cause timely,
interest-bearing, repayment. The manufacturer
of the good (debt properly employed should always, as in every single time, be
employed to facilitate the transfer of a “hard, or manufactured, good” and not
a temporary expense) obtains immediate payment, enabling additional future
manufacture, while the customer of the good obtains the use and facility of the
good immediately upon need when it may be too costly to afford a single cash
exchange for it.
Much is misunderstood about “productive surplus.” It’s “margin,” which is to say, revenue that
exceeds the cost of manufacture. “Oh,
well, that’s profit for a capitalist,”
some will say, “and you shouldn’t “overcharge” poorer customers or else you
should share it with your exploited workers.”
But margin isn’t simply “profit,” and the “exploited” workers are paid
according to their productive capacity and value to the production of the goods
the manufacturer makes and sells. Margin
provides “working capital;” what does it actually do?
Working capital means cash in the bank, and it serves to
improve efficiency within the manufacturer’s operations by enabling investment
in better manufacturing equipment, often by being committed to pay off
equipment acquisition debt, which shifts that portion of margin to
cost-of-goods but which can reduce the costs elsewhere with more productive
equipment (which is also a good result for the people who make that new
equipment). Working capital enables the
company to train its workers to higher skill levels and greater productivity,
yielding higher pay. It also enables the
company to hire more employees as production increases and, let’s hope, quality
and sales also increase.
Productive surplus destroys debt; it’s the only engine that
can. In the presence of productive
surplus, debt is a useful and valuable tool for growth and for improving
overall living standards. But what
happens to “profits?”
Profits belong to shareholders, who are, in fact, the owners
of the company. Socialists feel as
though no one person or small group should “own” a means of production, but
that it should automatically “belong to” or be controlled by, the workers, to
whom all the profits should be distributed.
History, the bane of socialists’ existence, teaches that humans are good
at some things, bad at others, and one of those “others” is collective
decision-making or, the corollary, collective self-leadership, an oxymoron that
socialists insist on believing in. Let’s
start at the beginning.
A person has an idea for a widget/product/thingy that other
people will want to have because it makes, ummm… it makes baking cakes, breads
and muffins easier and more efficient with fewer bad results. The person has no factory but he (let’s say
it’s a he) learned in trade school (paid for from taxes that derive from
profits) how to work with metal as well as how to apply himself to a problem
and how to concentrate and to research the things he doesn’t know. First he figures that being able to have a
baking oven that has even, steady heat would lead to uniformly baked goods, so
he tries various kinds of pipes and shapes and pressures to provide even gas
flames that won’t make hot spots within the oven. Aha!
He gets it and finds a way to generate even heat, cobbles together a
metal stove and burns his first cake to a crisp, as the whole oven became a hot-spot. Hmmmnn.
Our inventor/entrepreneur realizes he must regulate the heat
to achieve one temperature and hold it there within very narrow limits… The process goes on for weeks and months,
absorbing every spare hour and weekend until he has a metal box of a specific
shape with special gas burners, elaborate temperature sensors and controls,
insulation and directions for installation, use and cleaning. But he has just the one. If he sells it for more than it costs to make
he’ll have a brief profit but it takes so long for him to make just one that he’ll
go hungry before he can get the next pulse of “profits” from selling the second
one, assuming that he quits his 9 to 5 job and works on the oven business full
time.
He has some savings that he has been slowly accumulating to
provide for his family if something happened to him, and he’s been careful to leave
them intact. His idea is good and he’s
proven that it’s the best oven design potentially on the market. How to get it there? He needs capital, of which he has only a
little. He and his wife decide to take
the risk, pledging their savings and their house(!) to secure a loan that will
allow for several key things needed for producing 10 ovens per week, and
selling them, at a margin that will allow for repaying the loan with interest
(which employs people at the bank), insuring against the risks and liabilities
manufacturers face, making payroll (and benefits!) for the 5 people they must
hire to make and market the ovens (including payroll for himself, the
owner/inventor, and to invest in an inventory of parts and gizmos needed to
assemble ovens such that orders for ovens can be filled promptly. And, oh, yes, they have to lease some
suitable – or nearly suitable – space for manufacturing and testing, on which
there is a large deposit. Everything is
at stake.
With much struggle and worried nights things get done. The first 10 ovens are produced, tested and
packaged for shipping. The sales “department”
of one former kitchenware sales rep, has secured an order for 4 of them, one of
which is to a small mom-and-pop bakery not far away. The owner/inventor goes to their small shop,
attached to their house, to oversee installation by the plumber/gas-fitter, and
personally teaches the operation to the new owners, who took a risk of buying
an expensive new oven based on its description and manufacturer’s test
results. They agree to let the
inventor/capitalist advertise their success with it – for a fee. It performs as advertised and they start to do
more business thanks to the creative new pastries their new oven bakes to
perfection (damn those wood-fired stone ovens).
Well, the advertising kicks in and the sales department
manages to sell the rest of the first ten and the next ten and things start
humming at the “Great Perfection Oven Company.”
Soon, a major catalog sales company makes an offer to carry the oven at
a discount to them which, if they can prepay for a certain number and sell at
least 10 a month, the harried owner/inventor agrees to provide, even though he’ll
make less margin per oven. The advantage
is that with that new revenue he can afford two more production employees and
more leased space and increased advertising.
And on it goes…
Within a couple of years he and his wife celebrate the
pay-off of the first loan that had put their house and savings at risk. The business has grown to employ 40 employees
and a large commercial bakery has approached them with a request for a
production-size version of the “Perfection Oven” with its now-patented gas
burners (patenting cost over $30,000) and the inventor/owner commences to
design just such an oven which will require more manufacturing equipment and
changes to one of their production lines… and so on.
Ms. Ocasio-Socialist, do you think he doesn’t “own” this
business? He and his wife are the only
share-holders. Do you know what else “margin”
dollars must do? They have to provide
long-term benefits like pension contributions to trusted, valued employees: the
ones who help the company succeed and be profitable. They have to create a reserve fund in case
other threats to the company materialize, cutting into profits, challenging its
patents, creating knock-offs and look-alike ovens that sap Perfection Oven
sales and margins, as well as changes in tax laws or state-mandated benefits,
paid leave laws and new health-care coverages… not to mention changes in OSHA
and EPA regulations that could hamper production or require costly new changes
to production facilities, unionization, higher fuel costs for delivery of both
raw materials and finished goods (ovens).
Lots of future risks that must be insured against, sometimes with simple
cash reserves. THEN there are profits.
Ms. Cortez, do you, with your costly economics degree, understand
any of this?
Every one of us is a “capitalist.” This, in the sense that we all strive to obtain as much safety, comfort, material goods and security for old age, as we possibly can for the least amount of effort necessary. It doesn’t matter for whom we vote. Many of us simply want to be free TO acquire what we need; others wish to be free OF the need to acquire. In both philosophies we are attempting to gain with minimum effort.
But that’s not the whole story, is it?
Every person is motivated to act differently. We all have our own “profits” that cause us to expend MORE than minimal effort necessary to take care of ourselves and our family. Some are motivated to gain as much as possible in terms of material goods and “wealth.” Some want to be charitable and will work more than necessary so as to give to others. Some are motivated by artistic expression, drama, music or writing. Some by the gaining of power over others, one way or the other. Many profits.
The invention of money both simplified and complicated capitalism. For some, in twisted ways, the accumulation of money, itself, became their “profit.” Such people are able to “buy” the necessities for which others strive, but they are also consumed by numbers and the quantities of money they represent. They have different fears and joys than “regular” people. Unfortunately, they come to realize that they can also “buy” power – influencing government-types to protect their accumulated wealth.
Government types come from those for whom “profit” means power over others, over “public policy” and over taxation and, unfortunately, over “public” budgeting. Tapping into the “profits” of others, familial, financial and charitable, provides the most ways to acquire at minimal effort for those so motivated. They concentrate in governments. Almost inevitably and partly because much of their effort is arcane, they come to believe in their own mental superiority over “regular” people whose concerns are familial, local and unobtrusive.
Meanwhile, capitalism, which in the U. S., OUGHT TO MEAN the right to own private property, and by extension, the right to own the fruits of one’s labors, carries on, inherent in every person. It is human nature.
Some aspects of human nature can, if unchecked by society and hence by government, cause damage and destruction to that society. Many control-worthy human aspects are checked by “agreement.” That is, members of society “agree” that murder, rape, theft, fraud and other forms of false witness, greed, sloth and envy, are to be controlled through various codified sanctions. Lately the list has grown to include littering of various degrees, like pollution, and, in an extraordinary reversal, discrimination against sexual oddities, a change that has led to “intolerance” becoming a worse social transgression than some actual crimes. Western societies must now “tolerate,” if not celebrate, anti-capitalist “lifestyles” that include essentially welfare careers. These things actually threaten the social order and every other right protected by the Constitution, our fundamental social agreement.
A tremendous strength in American capitalism has been the high integrity of our contracts, both with one another and with our governments. This phenomenon makes modern trade possible as well as the millions of debt contracts that describe modern economics. But today, we ignorantly embrace a new form of socialism based on twisted concepts of “social justice,” which intends, fundamentally, to cause guilt-ridden government types to alter the underlying concepts of private property, and to discard natural human capitalism. This need not be an inevitable slide toward the only economic future possible.
It is a slide the basis of which is ignorance, willful and otherwise. It is a slide that attempts, as all socialist plans inevitably do, to replace human nature with a government-directed one. While there may exist the technical possibility of directing every person’s life and economic decisions, governance based thereon cannot prevail. It devolves into tyranny or revolution, perhaps to a new tyranny or, once in a great, great while, into a new form of governance based on self-discipline and personal sovereignty, one in which the governed grant their governors limited powers, and where the tyranny of the majority is carefully sanctioned and where tyranny of the minority is unheard of.
Inherent in a government based on individual freedom and personal responsibility are the concepts of private property and ownership of the fruits of one’s labor: essential free-enterprise.
Capitalism gets fully mucked up when it is politicized, which is to say when limited governments attempt to create economic “fairness.” It seems that no “free” economic and democratic system can refrain from favoring certain industries in return for maintaining power for those who are already “in” government. Much of the favoring is done to “make things fair” or to “level the playing field,” but almost without exception, the net effects are to limit competition for those industries and to limit competition for those in power. These are tendencies that a wise and educated citizenry would create institutions in society and government to carefully limit, if not make impossible. In our growing ignorance we are failing at this essential part of citizenship.
A great strength of capitalism is that it doesn’t reward failure… it replaces it with something that can succeed, success measured in profitability and ability to destroy debt. In this is a lesson for all with eyes to see and ears to hear. Among our people, however, those who get the message are now considered hateful while those who refuse to see or hear are empowered, or re-elected. Ours is fast becoming a system hobbled by the removal of the pillars of individual freedom and personal responsibility. We are rewarding failure.
Immediately this statement will be attacked with charges of cruelty, but this stems from ignorance, which is to say, it’s a charge leveled by those who, for whatever personal profit, IGNORE the distinction between those who are capable and willfully refusing to take responsibility for themselves, and those who are incapable and needful of charity and public support.
The greatest value of capitalist profitability is the creation of surplus – productive surplus – of which a portion may be used to care for those who cannot care for themselves. The greatest flaw in capitalism’s opponents is their creation of and acceptance of a thousand reasons why individuals may be grouped among those who cannot care for themselves. They unfortunately become codified and form a malevolent inhibitor of success. And here we are.
President Barack Obama holds a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Jan. 31, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)It’s not easy… changing the course of the ship of state, that is. Building a Great Pyramid, that’s easy. Transitioning from communism to capitalism – not so much. Worse, every move a newly elected president must make is nit-picked, criticized, undermined, called fascist and/or racist by the dominant media.
The real threat of the incoming Trump administration is that the new president may keep even some of his campaign promises. How dare he?
Those of us who were willing to overlook Trump’s several lacks of finesse and glibness, thought we could discern his visceral messages that mattered, “MTM’s.” One MTM is stopping illegal immigration. Viscerally, Americans recognize that inviting millions of very different people into our midst – people with different cultures, beliefs and languages who neither wish to adopt our culture and language nor are forced to for personal or economic survival, MAKES NO SENSE. What folly such a policy would be. What a treason it would represent.
We are transitioning from an administration whose intention it was to change, literally, the color of America. Mr. Obama is governed by a number of hatreds, among which are hatred of colonialism, hatred of white “supremacy” and hatred of capitalism. One might also discern a hatred of the Constitution in there, somewhere. What an odd person for Americans to elect.
Mr. Trump has been sounding like he may not be as concerned about the illegal entrants already here as are we who voted for his promised change. Let’s monitor what happens to the border control he also promised, very carefully. No matter how “big” we think we are in the U. S., having escaped full-scale attacks or invasion – so far – our culture is under assault, largely from confused domestic enemies who find it satisfying to hate America’s imperfections while celebrating the imperfections of others. It’s perverse. For too long we have relinquished power, including power over education, to those who hate the premises of America. Importing people of vastly different ethics – particularly Muslims – whose belief structures are antithetical to our constitution, is pretty stupid policy.
Another big MTM is about re-energizing the American manufacturing and jobs engine. Can a president actually do this? Maybe. Like most of Washington – a construct of creative bullshit – (sorry, sort-of) “managing” the economy is mostly wishes and hope. Tax cuts can surely help as lower taxes will, for a while, encourage the PRIVATE economy to make good domestic decisions and investments. Production, productivity and employment should improve. But Trump’s choices for Treasury and Chairman of The Council of Economic Advisors (White House) are from Goldman Sachs, a mendacious Wall Street behemoth, and this exposes a serious flaw in Trump’s economic courage.
Between the Federal Reserve (neither federal nor a reserve) and the Wall Street financial manipulators like Goldman Sachs, the United States has been led into astronomical debt. Trump, and all of us, need to recognize that just as every dollar of taxes is a loss of citizens’ freedom, every dollar of federal debt is a loss of national sovereignty… and loss of flexibility to manage our own domestic, foreign and military affairs. What’s a president – or a people – to do when they are stuck in a box of perpetual servility to banks?
One of the changes, perhaps the most significant of changes, that Americans tried to bring about in November, 2016, is the upside-down relationship between our supposedly sovereign nation and these blood-sucking banks. For shame. Trump has already proven to be deaf to our outcry and he’s not even in office yet. Usually newly elected presidents don’t start giving us the finger until around April first. So, many people’s concerns about Trump’s impact on – or proximity to – conservatism have some validity. We’ll see.
Finally, naming Rex Tillerson to head the State Department. Feelings are mixed, obviously, but there are positives. On the face of it there is an element of putting oligarchs in public charge of “the world.” Trump’s a business mogul and must believe that only business moguls are smart enough to manage big systems like the U. S. government. For everyone who has gained the impression that businessmen are inherently dishonest – as popular media consistently portray – giving one political power is the worst possible outcome. “They’re all crooks!”
Even worse, Tillerson is in the OIL business, helping to scourge the earth while stealing money from everyone. Woe is us. Some perspective is required.
Exxon-Mobil is certainly huge, deals in global commodities and must negotiate with virtually every country in order to maintain stable supplies and stable markets. Well, it’s time Americans admit – or recognize – that most of what foreign policy comprises is maintaining and defending global commerce, free access to the seas and stable markets and prices. It is rarely a pretty business, but undeniably vital.
And, it’s not simply oil. Oil is the current (for a hundred years) leading commodity against which almost every other commodity (corn, wheat, soybeans, beef, pork, gold, uranium and… on and on) is valued. The U. S. dollar is how oil is valued and oil is how the dollar is propped up in the face of unbelievable debt. There may be more sense behind having this particular mogul in charge at State than first appears. Exxon-Mobil is pretty-well run, after all.
There doesn’t appear anywhere in history to be an instance of “collectivization” that was not / is not done for the purpose of centralizing power. It is always sold to the downtrodden as the way to take power away from evil masters. “Rise up for Freedom!”
It’s always “freedom” from tyranny. Recognize and celebrate your membership in thus and such “group” (collective)… identify your brethren and sistren. Once part of the group you will have the power that used to be wielded against you by the King / Czar / Lord / Boss / Unfairness / System / Establishment / Church / God. All that’s needed, today, is a compliant, sans-perspective media and groups can be created and joined in no-time; there’s even a name for it; flash-mob.
The media consists of a half-dozen instant messaging sites that reward speed and not intelligence. Suddenly some affront becomes a cause and the next morning, “real” media starts politicizing it, asking first this supposed “leader,” then that one, how he or she feels about this brewing controversy. Few if any of these professionals has the wisdom or spine to question the entire premise or point out the idiocy of the idea, the anger or the demands. Nor will they find it in college or among the power elite.
Very, very few “millennials” grasp economics, although they are certain they grasp “unfairness” and “social justice.” To most – and shame on you teachers – there is only evil in capitalism and aught but light in socialism. Shame, shame, shame on you, educators, but, then, you know no more than your students, do you?
Everything teachers, administrators, teachers’ unions, janitors, municipal governments, D.P.W.’s, police and fire departments (might as well throw in nurses, doctors, hospitals, clinics, ambulance companies, and the contractors who maintain them all) enjoy in resources, facilities and payrolls, comes from (block your eyes, ears and mouth) capitalism. And, when I say “capitalism,” I mean free-enterprise, independent business and enterprise. Unfortunately, “capitalism” is all mucked up (primarily due to socialism and dirty politics) in the U. S. and around the world.
However, capitalism, private property and profits comprise the only system ever devised that can lift literally everyone out of poverty. There are no laws than can make capitalism work – it is innate in humans. There is great need for laws that allow capitalism to work, because humans are innately selfish and even greedy… some even lust for power and control over the lives of others.
The highest expression of law that allows capitalism, freedom and charity to co-exist is the U. S. Constitution – thanks in no small part to our extraordinary religious freedoms. Constructed by the great minds of the late 1700’s, its principles are truer – and better stated following needed refinements – today than when written. Somehow (shame on you, educators) we have lately decided that since Thomas Jefferson or James Madison may have picked their nose in public, the workings of their brains and hearts count for nothing.
We govern… no, that’s no longer true. We ARE governed, now, under a nearly complete perversion of the Constitution (shame on you educators and politicians) where government types create new rights to fit social whims, often in answer to newly articulated “un-fairnesses” that take root in minds that have little or no training in the realities of life.
The younger generations believe that the “government,” or, at least, the president, can make a law preventing difficulties and uncomfortability. Given that “the government” has been willing to borrow without restriction or logic to attempt to do just that, great hatred emerges for anyone who says we must be responsible, even if that responsibility is merely personal. Is this our future?
