Pages

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

National Debt Numbers and Spending

By Libertarian Liz

Our federal government is in debt to the tune of $18 trillion and expected to rise to $21 trillion by the end of the year. I don't know if those figures include our states, counties and towns though. I suspect that is just the federal debt.

Federal pensions are 25% of the budget.

Health Care (which will only get worse) is 27% of the budget.

Military is 22% of the budget and we fund 44% of the (entire) global military operations on the planet with only 4.4% of the population to "defend".

Welfare is at 11% of the budget.

It is reported that the recent deluge of "illegal immigrants" is about 290,000 people. Given the waste at the federal government level, I don't think an increase of .091% of the population is going to break the bank. 

Our bank is already broken. 

The vicious and rude things being thrown around is really unfounded given how out of control the government is (on all levels). These "illegals" are far and away from the worst of our problems. A mere blip in the scheme of things. If the economy were on a heart monitor, that blip would be nearly undetectable, IMO.

If you want to discuss real issues, let's talk about the insanity of a government that is so far in debt that when that global financial collapse happens, we're all screwed. We are living under an unsustainable financial system. It can't last much longer and if you think the tin foil hat is on, think again. The economy is on life support. Here's a nifty little pie chart to put this in perspective:

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_budget_pie

Libertarian Liz
Check out her website at http://libertarianliz.com

Monday, July 28, 2014

Weekly Update Reading and Video List

I am going to start posting the links for the many web pages and videos I read and watch. I will also post the book titles, authors and page numbers for any "hard copies" I read. I hope this can give an insight as to what I read and where some of the ideas and issues I write about come from. I normally read the daily article from the Mises Institute as well as varying topics from other sites. I will save you from all the fluffy animal videos I tend to watch. The internet is made of Cat Videos you know. No paid promotions or self gratifying links to my own material, just everything I read throughout the week.

This is the first edition of this idea, hope you enjoy.

Reading list 7/20/2014

Five Mistakes Libertarians Should Avoid

When the U.S. Navy Shot Down a Civilian Airliner

When Only Partisan Voters Vote, Only Partisan Candidates Are Elected

Is There a Right to Immigrate?

TGIF: WAR, PEACE, AND MURRAY ROTHBARD

The Not-Just War Theory

The Practical Poverty Level

You've Got One Wish

Why Faster Is Sometimes Better, But Not Always
How much security can a dollar buy?

Discussion on Human Nature

In 1956 C.E. Harris, under Wadsworth Inc, published a book titled Applying Moral Theories
I took some notes while reading, they will be in red italicized text.

In this work Harris writes in the chapter The Ethics of Natural Law, " How do we find out what these natural inclinations are? We might first consult psychologists, sociologists, or anthropologists. Some contemporary natural-law theorists use studies from the social sciences to defend their conclusions. However, the natural-law tradition developed before the rise of the social sciences, and a more informal method of observation was used to discover the basic human inclinations. Most natural-law theorists would maintain that these observations are still valid. We can divide the values specified by natural human inclination into two basic groups: (1) biological values, which are strongly linked with our bodies and which we share with other animals, and (2) characteristically human values, which are closely connected with our more specifically human aspects. (We will not call this second group uniquely human values because some of the inclinations that point to these values, such as the tendency to live in societies, are not unique to human beings.) We can summarize the values and the- natural inclinations that point to them as follows:
 1. Biological Values

a.  Life. From the natural inclinations that we and all other animals have to preserve our own existence, we can infer that life is good, that we have an obligation to promote our own health, and that we have the right of self- defense. Negatively, this inclination implies that murder and suicide are wrong.

Who do we owe this obligation to? If our lives are our own then who should we be holden to to determine the value of our own lives? If there is no other will than our own that we must be subjected to, the obligations to promote our own life or health do not exist. If the freedom to do these things exists, obligations to others do not exist on the theory of natural biological values.


b.     Procreation. From the natural inclination that we and all animals have to engage in sexual intercourse and to rear offspring, we can infer that procreation is a value and that we have an obligation to produce and rear children. Negatively, this inclination implies that such practices as sterilization, homosexuality, and artificial contraception are wrong.

The position to say that there is a "natural inclination to engage in sexual intercourse" is to deny the fact that some humans choose not to have children and even more that refuse to have sex, based on social or religious beliefs. Again Harris tries to objectively place value on these actions, when in life these choices would be made from a subjective value by the individuals. What Harris is trying to define is the search for personal satisfaction and pleasure, it may not have anything to do with intercourse or reproduction at all. 

Harris also tries to place an individual moral view on Homosexuality. If under his theory all humans are drawn to seek sexual pleasure he places no definition on from where this pleasure shall come from. 

His point on Sterilization needs to be taken into consideration as well. Some humans are born without the needed faculties to reproduce and other from biological or medicinal reasons are encouraged not to. But if one chooses to believe that sterilization is wrong one must continue to believe that the natural inability to conceive s inherent as well as now made possible by science.


 2. Characteristically Human Values
a.     Knowledge. From the natural tendency we have to know, including the tendency to seek knowledge of God, we can infer that knowledge is a value and that we have an obligation to pursue knowledge of the world and of God. Negatively, this inclination implies that the stifling of intellectual curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge is wrong. It also implies that a lack of religion is wrong.

Again Harris insists that there is some obligation to seek  knowledge and religion.But makes no mention of to who this obligation is to. Since the choosing of religion is made after a conscious thought of what religion is and its subjective value to the individual in their own lives, this would discredit the theory of obligatory religion. And since knowledge is obtained by experience or reactions to situations, if one man were to experience a life much different than another which would you call unknowledgable of what he has not experienced? 

b. Sociability. From the natural tendency we have to form bonds of affection and love with other human beings and to associate with others in societies, we can infer that friendship and love are good and that the state is a natural institution and therefore good. We thus have an obligation to pursue close relationships with other human beings and to submit to the legitimate authority of the state. We can also infer that war can be justified under certain conditions if it is necessary to defend the state. Negatively, this inclination implies that activities that interfere with proper human relationships, such as spreading slander and lies, are wrong. Actions that destroy the power of the state are also wrong, so natural law finds a basis for argument against revolution and treason, except when the state is radically unjust.

This case cannot be made more clear, under the theory set forth in this passage Harris has subjected every human to the will and rule of others. He has offered the natural state of liberty to the rulers and rule makers. Harris tries to make the case that everyone that is not part of "the state" is to be mastered by it. This goes against the idea of personal responsibility, sovereignty, and freedom itself. The Natural state of man does not call for a subservient class led by those who feel the need for power and control. The sociability of man is not concrete, it is not a set parameter or level, each person chooses the levels of sociability they are comfortable with, while some choose no social interaction with others and become hermits and shut ins, this natural social obligation is thrust aside by personal value of interaction with others.

In any state where a man is not allowed to leave on a voluntary basis, the state is unjust. It is tyranny of man to not allow his departure from the state and its control and influence. Harris here tries again to apply his personal view of such acts and situations, ignoring the ability and will of the individual over the mandate of the collective state.

  These natural inclinations are reflections of human nature, and the pursuit of the goods they specify is the way to individual fulfillment. Aquinas himself makes it clear that the list of values, which in most respects follows his account, is incomplete; other natural-law theorists have expanded the list to include such things as play and aesthetic experience. However the list given here has had the greatest historical influence, and we shall assume it is basically complete.

  The more important issue raised by this list is the potential for conflict between the various values. What should we do when our need to defend ourselves requires that we kill someone else?
Defense of life is a primitive drive of survivability, it would be under the natural law theory a subjective value according to the individuals value of his own life over that of another. For some this seems a ridiculous statement, Of course one would want to live, but what then do we say of those that commit suicide, they did not value the life they had and chose to end it by their own means, 

What should we do when sterilization is necessary to prevent a life-threatening pregnancy?
Who is "we"? This imaginary collective, state or society has no bearing on the choices and outcomes of the individual, at least not when one recognizes that each individual is a sovereign being and his alive in them own selves. 

What should be done when contraception seems necessary in order to limit family size so that families can properly educate the children they already have?
This again implies action or will of an outside source or governance takes precedence over the sensibilities and actions of the individual. This places the value of the education of children outside of those to whom they are in the care of or have given birth to.

In each of these examples, one aspect of natural law seems to conflict with another, and the question arises whether these values have a hierarchy on which a decision can be based. The answer to this question brings into focus one of the most important and controversial aspects of natural law—moral absolutism.
While I do  not agree with Mr. Harris on moral absolutism, he is correct that these examples conflict with one another in the basic sense that they exist in a subjective view. 
While Mr. Harris and many other may feel that what he has stated here and what is perceived in the world as right or wrong, there exist others who differ on these points. Whether either be wrong or right on their beliefs remains based on experiences and resolutions made of conscious control.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Robert Murphy: Contrasting Views of the Great Depression. Mises University 2014

This year (2014) Mises University has started. This is a short video featuring Economist and Author Robert Murphy. Here he is explaining the Contrasting views of the Great Depression. Going through the differing schools of economic thought and giving examples of typical or "normal"  thoughts on the cause of, effects of and the eventual relief of one of the greatest and longest lasting economic depressions The United States and parts of the World felt.






Robert Murphy is an associated scholar of the Mises Institute, where he teaches at the Mises Academy.He runs the blog Free Advice and is the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism, theStudy Guide to "Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market," the "Human Action" Study Guide,The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal, and his newest book,Lessons for the Young Economist


Thursday, July 17, 2014

Where has the humanity gone?


This past week and weekend has been hard on me. Watching the events unfold at the US-Mexico Border and the never ending war between Palestine and Israel, and watching the reaction from the public on both stories leaves me doubting there will ever be a time of peace and that the humanity of this world is gone.

The Immigration issue between the US and Mexico is nothing new. Even the brutal nature of those watching the story unfold isn't new, it is just getting to new heights. The idea that any fellow human being can be labeled as an Illegal by another, or to wish death or harm upon them is a sign that human nature is gone, human behavior is something to abhor and human action is in the least in eternal conflict with any form of peace.

Where has the humanity gone? How can people be so careless and thoughtless of another human being? How can a person cast aside a mans life as if it is worthless? Why are we as a species so brutal and barbaric to one another? Is this our nature?

No I refuse to believe it is. I believe it is a learned behavior, a picked up reaction to some situations and a general referral to a learned and reinforced response brought into our lives by years of upbringing and accepted practises by adults, monkey see monkey continues to do that drives this inhumanity.


Monday, July 14, 2014

How the Drug War Drives Child Migrants to the US Border - Mark Thornton

How the Drug War Drives Child Migrants to the US Border - Mark Thornton

Most attentive parents today rarely allow their children to go unsupervised, particularly in public. It starts with the wireless baby monitor for the crib and ends with the ever-present cell phone at college graduation.
This is what makes reports from the US-Mexican border so perplexing to most Americans. It is hard to believe that parents would send their children, even young children, to travel many hundreds of miles, up to 1,600 miles without guardianship, or under the control of “mules” who guide the children with the hope of a safe voyage to the United States.
The journey is both harsh and dangerous. The northern regions of Central America (i.e., Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador) and Mexico are some of the most dangerous areas of the world. The climate can be harsh, roads and travel conditions are mostly poor, and the children are subjected to robbers, kidnappers, rapists, government police and soldiers, drug cartel members, and bandits of all sorts.
As unbelievable as it seems, Central American parents are sending their children, or more often asking their children to join with them in the United States, in large numbers. In many cases the children flee on their own accord without any guardian.
A decade ago US Border Patrol agents apprehended only several hundred unaccompanied children per year. Over the last nine months they have caught nearly 50,000. Official estimates project the capture rate to reach 10,000 per month by this fall. Those numbers actually hide the enormity of the problem because historically the problem was largely restricted to Mexican children who could be immediately returned to Mexico. During the last couple of years, the majority of growth has come from children from Central American countries and these must be processed and turned over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (part of HHS).
One suggested reason for the explosion of child immigrants from Central America is the perception and rumors that children from Central America who cross the border will receive a “proviso” which might suggest a permit to stay in the US legally. However, it seems that the proviso is really just a notice to appear in immigration court for deportation proceedings. Whether this gives the children more time in the US, or whether it increases the probability of them being allowed to stay in the US for humanitarian reasons is unclear. In one report, only 1 of 404 children specifically mentioned the possibility of benefiting from US immigration reform.[1]
Even if the proviso rumor was having an impact, it does not explain why the children and their parents would risk such a dangerous journey in the first place.
The Role of the Drug War
The underlying cause for this mass dangerous migration is the US’s war on drugs. Central American countries have become the conduit by which illegal drugs move from South America across the US border. Unlike conventional media sources, who will sometimes vaguely mention violence and instability in Central America as a cause, The Economist[2] quite correctly found the source of the problem in America’s war on drugs:
Demand for cocaine in the United States (which, unlike that in Europe, is fed through Central America), combined with the ultimately futile war on drugs, has led to the upsurge in violence. It is American consumers who are financing the drug gangs and, to a large extent, American gun merchants who are arming them. So failing American policies help beget failed states in the neighbourhood.
The result has been that the drug cartels have a great deal of control over much of northern Central America. The cartels control the governments, judges, police forces, and even some prisons and some of the military through a combination of bribery, threats, and outright force.
As a consequence of this control drug gangs and cartels can operate in the open or they can operate deep within the jungle beyond the reach of the law. In turn, the drug cartels can act above the law and as a result they have created a culture of violence, building on the civil wars of previous decades.
The countries in the northern Central American region, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, have the highest murder rate of any region in the world. The region’s murder rate is 7.5 times the murder rate of the North American region.
Globally, the top murder rate in any given year since the 1990s has been Honduras or El Salvador. In 2012, nearly 1 out of every 1,000 citizens in Honduras was murdered. In addition to murder, there are high rates of other types of violence, crime, and intimidation. A very large percentage of the entire Salvadoran-born population has migrated, mostly to the United States.
In addition to violence, the war on drugs has been a disruptive force for the Central American economies. After reading about the region, is anyone likely to make travel plans to go there, or to consider opening a business there? Obviously, the war on drugs has been highly disruptive for job creation, commerce, and international investment outside the drug cartels themselves. Therefore it would be more correct to say that it is not so much the attraction of opportunities in the US, but the lack of and reduction in opportunities in Central America that are spurring emigration, and that this is directly linked to the war on drugs.
When you try to make sense of parents sending their children on such a dangerous undertaking, just remember it is just another despicable result of the war on drugs with few solutions.
The Economist recommends the repeal of the war on drugs and the legalization of drugs globally as the solution. Its second best solution is for the United States to finance an effort to rebuild the institutions (i.e., police, courts, prisons, etc.) and infrastructure (i.e., military, transportation, and education systems) in the countries of Central America:
Such schemes will not, however, solve the fundamental problem: that as long as drugs that people want to consume are prohibited, and therefore provided by criminals, driving the trade out of one bloodstained area will only push it into some other godforsaken place. But unless and until drugs are legalised, that is the best Central America can hope to do.
In other words, ending the war on drugs is the only solution.
Notes

[2] “The drug war hits Central America: Organised crime is moving south from Mexico into a bunch of small countries far too weak to deal with it,” The Economist, April 14, 2011.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

What do you call a man fighting for his home?

A person who fights against an invading force in their home country is called what?
A. Hero
B. Patriot
C. Terrorist
D. It depends on what the US Government calls them

As you answer this question take a minute to think about what is asked here.
If a person, any person, from anywhere in the world, from any religion, from any creed or color, any nationality, backed by any government or a free person fights against any invading force in their home country what do you call them?

It gets a bit more complicated when you stop to think of how what people think and how people act are two entirely opposite things, polar opposites in fact. 

In one breath I bet most would say this person would be a hero or a patriot, but think about it another way. What do you call those Afghanistanis and Iraqis fighting for their home? What do you call the Syrians and Saudis, the Pakistanis and Yemenis that are taking up arms against the invading American Government's military? 

Are they still considered Heroes and Patriots?  

Or did they Magically become Terrorists, Radicals, Murderers? Did the American Government labeling them terrorists change what they were fighting for or against? Did the final root situation change? Or was it all the mindset and perception of the individual being manipulated by an outside entity?

A member of a military, any military is no more a hero or patriot for attacking someone else's home than the other for protecting his home. The Invading force is no less a terrorist than the other for doing what he does.
This is a test of the idea of Nationalism. A test of mindful hypocrisy. A test to the idea of what is called "American Exceptionalism"

Did your answer stay the same from beginning to end?

Let me know on Twitter @PatriotPapers







On Immigration: Legal and Illegal

Immigration seems to be the brightest blip on the map right now, and it seems it is the most popular topic among people. Immigration by itself doesn't seem to be the real issue, at the heart of it is the economics of Immigration. That is what needs to be addressed. Together and separately, the economics aspect, at least for some, can resolve these issues in a mutually beneficial way. This is not to say that other aspects of the issue are not important, the supposed health risks for example cannot be simply eradicated by economics, but addressing the issue at the root helps us to get past the emotional reactions and allows us to clearly define and resolve the issue completely.

Immigration is nothing new. The moving of people from one place to another for various reasons has been a mainstay of human life since the beginning. A chance to increase the quality of life or to advance knowledge or social rank have been the previous reasons for migration of people from homelands. For centuries this was the way cities and towns, and eventually states and countries grew. From the dust of the immigrant workers, nations grew to their current levels. But now it seems, this belief has been replaced with fear, misunderstanding, ignorance, nationalism and hate. Could the solutions to what some call a crisis be found in economics?

While the media portray a rising tide in illegal immigration, statistics shows another story.

According to statistics from Pew Hispanic Research and the Department of Homeland Security the estimates of Unauthorized or "Illegal" immigrants has remained roughly unchanged from the past year but has seen a relative decline since the recession began in 2008. Looking over the graphs provided on that page we can also see that the rise in Immigration happened between 2002 and 2007, adding almost 4 million more immigrants between those years. Fig 1.




While the current fuss is being made during the Obama Presidential administration the real blame should go to the prior administration. Under President George W. Bush an average of 4 million immigrants found their way to the US. But where was the outrage then?

There wasn't one. Why? The economy seemed stronger under Bush due in part due to the Housing Market Bubble that eventually, in late 2007, burst. This false prosperity brought in a higher demand and a need for more workers. Immigrants filled the void of low-skilled workers as native born citizens took over higher skilled positions. In 2007 unauthorized immigrants made up a total of 5.5% of the labor force in the US. And very few minded having these immigrants come here at the time, because a financial strain was not being put onto American workers, and jobs were plentiful and expanding. These points will not be made in the current discussion on Immigration.

The additional production gave way for American and Legal immigrants to take up higher skilled jobs while "illegals" took in the lower skilled jobs. Immigrants play a large part in the unskilled and low skilled workforce, in part to the barrier in language and education or experience. These "illegals" will take lower paying jobs due to these shortcomings, where citizens and legal immigrants will tend to be drawn to higher skilled jobs with higher pay ranges.

After the "They Took Our Jobs" line the next line will be "They took our Government Handouts"

Another issue in the immigration debate is that "illegal" immigrants use government programs more than they put into them through taxation, since most believe illegals are not taxed this would make sense. Next we can look at the claim that illegal immigrants do not pay taxes. This claim has been around for years, I even at one time believed it. First the point should be noted that ALL Federal, State, and Local "Welfare Programs" are funded by taxation, it is a redistribution of wealth.

Are they really costing more than they put in?

According to Shikha Dalmia in her 2006 article at Reason Foundation more than 8 million of the then 11 million immigrants actually paid into social security, medicaid and other taxes. But how is that you say...


In 1996 a welfare reform bill was passed. In this bill were "restrictions on benefits for noncitizens accounted for 44% of this total, and food stamp revisions for 43%. The 105th Congress rescinded and modified some 1996 budget cuts, restoring SSI, Medicaid and food stamp benefits to many aliens at an estimated 5-year cost of $12.3 billion. Further, Congress in 1997 created Welfare-to-Work (WtW) grants ($2.7 billion in estimated outlays for 2 years) to help states move severely disadvantaged TANF recipients into jobs, and it boosted funding for food stamp employment and training."

Another thing that happened is a bill that allowed the IRS to issue identification numbers for those illegal aliens that did not have social security numbers. This reform does two things, it allows those aliens to pay into the system to be in accordance to what citizens do in a hope it is seen as favorable if and when they file for legal statuses. Number two, it adds those tax monies into a system that because they do not have an official Social Security number, they cannot benefit from. This adds millions of dollars into the federal coffers. Damlia writing, "Last year, the revenues from these fake numbers — that the Social Security administration stashes in the "earnings suspense file" — added up to 10 percent of the Social Security surplus. The file is growing, on average, by more than $50 billion a year.

Her statement is pointing to the 2005 numbers. 

This data points to the fact that overall immigrants are not a drain on any programs but actually contribute. Add to this that even illegal immigrants pay sales taxes, adding millions more to their local community coffers. Roads, Schools and other services in and around their homes are partially contributed to through this tax. More info on taxes paid by illegal immigrants click here.

So how can we solve the Issue through Economics?

Can we simply abolish the Welfare State?

In order to tackle this we have to look at the statistics of those receiving this assistance and address it properly. Many have been saying for decades that the welfare state needs to be completely dissolved and regulations restricting voluntary aid programs given their chance to return. Prior to the 1930's the welfare state did not exist, it was before this that private organizations were the main source for any form of welfare or aid. Donations given by Individuals and Businesses alike kept Americans fed and housed on a larger scale than today. So where did this go? After government aid programs began the amount of funds used in voluntary donations were extracted by taxation and those who gave some were able to give less. This caused the great plethora of charities, to be replaced by bureaus and departments, each getting larger and larger, taking more and more to run their offices, less and less aid actually made it to those that needed it.

Where does that lead us to today?

Spending on largest Welfare Programs
Federal Spending 2003-2013*[33]

Federal
Programs
Spending
2003*
Spending
2013*
Medicaid Grants to States$201,389$266,565
Food Stamps (SNAP)61,71782,603
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)40,02755,123
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)38,31550,544
Housing assistance37,20549,739
Child Nutrition Program (CHIP)13,55820,842
Support Payments to States, TANF28,98020,842
Feeding Programs (WIC & CSFP)5,6956,671
Low Income Home Energy Assistance2,5423,704
Notes:
* Spending in millions of dollars
Would abolishing the Welfare State actually have any effect on the economic issue of Immigration? It could, in a way, rid the system of an incentive to the minority that use the system without contributing. Taking away that incentive could cause many to rethink the opportunity costs of coming in illegally.

Benjamin W. Powell writes "Before, immigrants assimilated into a culture of hard work and self-reliance. Those who failed here often had to go home. Few go home today because of failure today. Instead, they are taught to assimilate into a system of government reliance where failure and laziness are not punished. The post-1965 immigration wave is the first that has come once we had a welfare state in place. Unfortunately, that welfare state not only makes them less productive, it also teaches them to undermine our old culture that made America successful."

Since there would be no guaranteed way for them to live off of the state, many may just decide to go the legal route or choose another place to move to.

Getting the Government out of businesses and allowing the markets to work properly could be the greatest and most needed change in policies. Deregulation, Getting rid of barriers to work, Abolishing minimum wage laws, stop with the corporate welfare programs, price controls, sending false signals and creating bubbles and busts in markets would easily give everyone, Immigrant or Natural Citizen, a better chance at building wealth and prosperity. Add along with this the ability for all people to keep 100% of their earned wages and abolish taxation, all taxation. Leading us into a voluntary state, a way for the preferences, wants and needs of everyone to be met by competitive businesses and entrepreneurs.

Speaking of legal immigration, one way to reduce the amount of illegal migrations is to make the legalization process easier to navigate and less costly. Those persons not willing to wait months on end and pay in thousands of dollars usually opt for the illegal route knowing the risk of deportation is lower than shelling out money and time. Reducing the time it takes to get through the legalization system and the amount of money put into legalization could drastically reduce the amount of people who enter illegally. 




The real issue of the Illegal Immigration debate isn't at all about the moving of people into a certain geographical area, but rather the implications and effects those people have in current models of operation. Looking at the issue form a reasonable economic standpoint can lead to real sustainable answer rather than the tug of war political party lines being offered now. Turning America into a thriving economy can give incentive to those wishing to better themselves, their families and their new homes as well.


Here is another post I wrote dealing with Borders and US Marine Tahmoorsi being held in a Mexican Jail.

More reading on this issue.
http://www.cato.org/policy-report/septemberoctober-2013/tear-down-wall-immigration-versus-welfare


http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/immigration-friend-or-foe

http://www.fee.org/files/docLib/547_24.pdf


Follow me on Twitter @PatriotPapers
Find me on Liberty.Me @BeardedLibertyGuy
And remember to like the FaceBook page HERE





Tuesday, July 8, 2014

What is the answer to Detroit?


I was watching a show Forgotten Planet and one particular episode caught my attention. It was an episode on Detroit, its heyday and its demise. For a long time Detroit was seen as the industrial mecca in the US, turning out automobiles, steel works, mining operations and one of the country's best school systems. But all of this was to come to an end in the wake of economic policies and disastrous government programs. Detroit now sits in ruin. So what would it take to return this city to the forefront of production and the ability for its citizens to prosper? Is the answer to just get government out of the way?

In an article written in 2013 Patrick Barron makes his case for a "Free Detroit".  His idea is to rid the city of all regulations and all taxation. Barron asks, "What if Detroit became a free city in which government provided for public safety, honest courts, protection of property rights, and little else? Might not unabated free enterprise take hold as it always has in America?" adding next, "All that Detroit really needs is economic freedom and secure property rights. Give Detroit its freedom from all manner of government, including the federal government. Declare Detroit a free city. (You can rest assured, Detroit, that America will come to your rescue if those bloodthirsty Canadians attack!) In other words, no one would pay any federal taxes whatsoever or be subject to any federal regulations whatsoever. Wouldn’t it be nice not to pay federal taxes, not even Social Security and Medicare taxes? Do the same with Michigan taxes. No taxes BUT also no federal or state aid either."

How can they have it both ways? You cannot allow zero taxation and have a funded government, even miniscule government compared to the current model.

The rest of the article reads pretty much how one can envision any free marketer article going. Cooperative experiences between citizens without the need for bureaucratic red tape, restrictions licenses, regulations and of course the end to the state sponsored welfare state.

All of these things are in line with the thinking of most Laissez Faire proponents, and of course with most who are familiar with the great Henry Hazlitt and Ludwig von Mises.

What Detroit has become is, in large part, due to the enormity of its city government, the State Government and helped along by the Federal Government. Programs that were meant to help the poor or working poor were in fact reducing them down to a life of dependency, and of course when the government finally runs out of other people money to give away, catastrophe ensues. The lesson to be learned from its fall is that there is such a thing as too much government.

But what is the answer to get it going again?

As Mr. Barron states it may lie in doing the complete opposite of the cause.

In response to Barron's writings on Detroit Chief Investment Officer of Universa Investments LP Mark Spitznagle writes, "Detroit can correct its past public-sector ineptitude and abuses by unleashing the private sector’s vast potential, rooted in the metropolitan region’s vibrant entrepreneurial and manufacturing culture, skilled workforce, and a robust technology base nurtured by world-class institutions like the University of Michigan. The city’s position on an important border crossing and access to an enormous fresh-water supply from the Great Lakes, not to mention the business community’s unrelenting support, enhance its prospects further."

Echoing the late Murray Rothbard, such a collapse “is the ‘recovery’ process, and far from being an evil scourge, is the necessary and beneficial return, says Spitznagle.

I think Detroit can be the greatest study of if and how free market and Austrian economic principles and policies can work. Whether it succeeds or fails will be the greatest milestone in the sake of accepted economic means to ends.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Independence Day has become In Dependence Day



Another favorite Nationalist holiday is here. Independence Day or the day America officially broke away from the hold of England and its King. This day is one of the most celebrated inaccuracies in American History. To be sure, this day will continue as long as the lie of American Government remains in the place of power over people, and so long as people allow Government the power over them. Those that formed this new form of sluttish slavery in disguise of freedom, and those that seek to reinstate the old ways of republics and democracies have no more authority to write, sign, and decide the futures of people other than themselves.


The present state of affairs is not much different than it was in 1776, and as the Declaration of Independence was drafted and approved by those wishing to form a new government, a new form of subservience, it is now that we, in our time, must thrust the chains of servitude from our backs and necks, we must secede from the tyranny of Government. Though much smaller and contained to what we are under now, the King of England and his henchmen reminded the citizens of the 13 original colonies of their servitude to the crown and its dictates, decrees, laws and taxation. And today the American King is in the despotic attitude of the Kings before him.
  
The many counts against the King set forth in the Declaration of Independence in 1776 can be seen today, not just in the sitting president but in all aspects of American Politics. The same acts that led to the separation of ties between England and the Colonies are in full view and full practice as it was then. Trade restrictions, overreach and subverting laws, holding large militaries and protecting them from prosecution of actions deemed criminal to the citizen populace.

To set ourselves differently from our predecessors we do not enact to bring new government from the old, we do not hold that any government would in fact be a good or moral government; we do not believe that a small government would remain small and their powers concentrated. From the past we work for the future; that future is freedom and no amount of government can give you or even allow you unconstrained and absolute freedom. 


Americans are dependent on their belief in government. They are unable to see the ways which every action of government can be accomplished in peaceful and voluntary ways. They are dependent on a system of theft and redistribution. They are dependent on a system of forced security and compulsory welfare. They are dependent on the destruction of foreign lands and the brutality and empire spreading. They are dependent on regulations and restrictions, licencing and fees. They are dependent on drugs while criminalizing the very nature that they come from. They are dependent on the new form of government they have allowed to run rampant over them. They are dependent on Corporatism and blame the effects on Capitalism. They are dependent on the altar of Government, sacrifices to Government, and unrelenting subservience to Government. 

You are NOT free.
They are slaves to their own Ignorance, their own Apathy, and their own Complacency. They are subjects to their own Confliction in Ideology; a slave to their own Indifference, Statism, Nationalism, and Sensationalism.
They are more interested in the latest Celebrity Wedding, or Sports Star Baby, Dancing with the Stars, and Tabloid gossip. They let the media dictate what they think; the church what they believe; the corporations what they buy and what they eat.
Allowing their own self to be bound to the edicts of central planners and a superiority complex has shackled them in chains far greater than they realize. They have locked the chains on every generation to come after them and have denounced their right to prosperity and the exercise of their natural rights.


You are a slave to the belief that you are free.

“When in the course of Human events, it becomes necessary for one person to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which Laws of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation”


Your Declaration of True Independence is yet to be written.


Follow me on Twitter @PatriotPapers
Find me at Liberty.me @BeardedLibertyGuy

“The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” by Frederick Douglas

July 5, 1852
Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too Ñ great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory….
…Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?
Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a nation’s sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation’s jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the “lame man leap as an hart.”
But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common.ÑThe rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrevocable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!
“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.”
Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, “may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!” To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave’s point of view. Standing there identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America.is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery Ñ the great sin and shame of America! “I will not equivocate; I will not excuse”; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.
But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, “It is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, an denounce less; would you persuade more, and rebuke less; your cause would be much more likely to succeed.” But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!
For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian’s God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!
Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? How should I look to-day, in the presence of Amercans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.
What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their mastcrs? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.
What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for such argument is passed.
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.
Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival….
…Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. “The arm of the Lord is not shortened,” and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from “the Declaration of Independence,” the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated. — Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are distinctly heard on the other.
The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. The fiat of the Almighty, “Let there be Light,” has not yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen in contrast with nature. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. ‘Ethiopia, shall, stretch. out her hand unto Ood.” In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it:
God speed the year of jubilee
The wide world o’er!
When from their galling chains set free,
Th’ oppress’d shall vilely bend the knee,
And wear the yoke of tyranny
Like brutes no more.
That year will come, and freedom’s reign,
To man his plundered rights again
Restore.
God speed the day when human blood
Shall cease to flow!
In every clime be understood,
The claims of human brotherhood,
And each return for evil, good,
Not blow for blow;
That day will come all feuds to end,
And change into a faithful friend
Each foe.
God speed the hour, the glorious hour,
When none on earth
Shall exercise a lordly power,
Nor in a tyrant’s presence cower;
But to all manhood’s stature tower,
By equal birth!
That hour will come, to each, to all,
And from his Prison-house, to thrall
Go forth.
Until that year, day, hour, arrive,
With head, and heart, and hand I’ll strive,
To break the rod, and rend the gyve,
The spoiler of his prey deprive –
So witness Heaven!
And never from my chosen post,
Whate’er the peril or the cost,
Be driven.