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David said “And, by the way, the framers of the Constitution, in their wisdom, left a number of things to be worked out. Circumstances change over time, they recognized.”
There is no future circumstance that cannot be understood in light of the eternal principles of unalienable rights and the struggle between Liberty and Tyranny.
I see no difference in outcome, except in a Republic, we vote in those who eventually become our masters. A serf has no choice but to accept his fate. Unfortunately, because of ignorance, indifference, blind faith, public education, whatever; the US electorate did not exercise vigilance and has allowed the gov’t to get away with all this. If the federal reserve were abolished, sound money re-established, pare the bureaucracy back to enumerated powers, which would dissolve the privileges and advantages that help the Oligarchy to form; then we could begin the road to recovery and prosperity. It’s not complicated, but it requires will, vision and leadership, all of which are sorely lacking. The most difficult is the will, because that entails the abolishment of every single government program that redistributes wealth. People have become like junkies, addicted to government handouts and that includes a very high % of the population. And yes, this includes every single subsidy to business, in all its forms. Now, some of the social service functions need to be handles at the state and local level; but the federal gov’t is simply not authorized by the constitution to do these things.
Lets go back to basics and not get blinded by all the secondary effects, which does not imply that they are unimportant. The first question is; do we believe in the “natural rights” of mankind as articulated in the Declaration of Independence? That we have a God given right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness (which to the founders meant the pursuit of private property). And further in that historic document, that the Purpose of government is to secure those rights. There is nothing in there about guaranteeing outcomes, taking care of the citizens personal needs, providing health care, etc, etc. Those who understand and embrace Liberty agree with these unalienable rights. The collectivist does not.
The next place to look is the constitution itself, whose purpose was to limit the power of the federal government, not the states or the people. The “chains” of the constitution were intended to “bind” the ruling class from becoming a tyranny. Artice I states that the government only has authority in those matters specifically spelled out in detail, and it is a basic principle of law that what is not included is specifically excluded. No wiggle room.
Chief Justice Marshall in McCulloch v. Maryland: ‘This government is acknowledged by all, to be one of enumerated powers. The principle, that it can exercise only the powers granted to it, would seem too apparent, to have required to be enforced by all those arguments, which its enlightened friends, while it was depending before the people, found it necessary to urge; that principle is now universally admitted.’
So, the first step is for the feds to stop doing anything that cannot be found in the text of the constitution. It is through overstepping its bounds legislatively and through the fraud of the implementation of the tax laws that the power brokers are able to manipulate the whole system to their own devices. This is not free market capitalism. This is collectivism. This is the tyranny of the state that the founders tried to protect us from when they wrote the Declaration and the Constitution.
The answer is not more government; they created this financial mess through regulation and intervention in the first place. Yes there is plenty to go around, but the answer is not for government to decide who gets what through social engineering. Go back to the first principle, I have a God given, not state given right, to seek property unencumbered. The market, if left to itself and not a tool of gov’t and their cartels, will adjust. The free market is made up of mutually beneficial transaction, freely entered into by both parties. That is the answer.
Here is a blurb about one of Ed Griffins lectures: Myth & Meaning of Monopoly Capitalism
“A refutation of the popular myth that portrays monopoly as an outgrowth of capitalism. Monopoly is not based on free-enterprise competition, but the escape from it. Monopolists like government regulation because it protects them from competition. Thus, monopoly is the product of collectivism.”
This audio is available here:
http://www.realityzone.com/capitalism.htmlHave we lost all sense of reason? Do we want or neighbor, our governor, our legislature, our president, the UN, the IMF telling us how much we get to earn and how much we get to keep? Remember when the Kings tax collector would show up and exact tribute, at what ever rate the king decided? Do we want to become serfs of the state again? Isn’t that a devolution of culture and society?
Yes, David it was that Thomas Jefferson. There was little beyond his talents in terms of understanding Liberty and all the forms of Tyranny that strive against it.
Scott, I couldn’t agree with you more. What most people don’t know is that the financial system in the US ceased to be ruled by free market forces in 1913, when the Federal Reserve came into power, which is simply a cartel with the full force of US law supporting it through the legal tender laws; which, as you know Scott, forces the people to accept the fiat money of the cartel. Some call it the Mandrake Mechanism, whereby the politicians need money for wars, stimulus packages, S&L bailouts, so they write a “check” to the Federal Reserve and presto, a trillion dollars springs into existence out of thin air, which gets “deposited” into commercial banks, who then through fractional reserve practices, in turn create more “money “ out of thin air. The general practice is that the banks can create $90,000,000 in new loans for every $10,000,000 they have on deposit (which are just digits in a computer program). I read part of a Supreme Court decision which stated that “the US banking system is an instrumentality of the Federal Government…”
Roosevelt wreaked even more havoc on the system with all of his new deal collectivist programs and Nixon sealed the deal by finally giving the cartel what it had been attempting for decades, by taking us permanently off the gold standard. As long as we have fiat money, backed by legal tender laws, with the cartel of collectivist bankers and politicians in bed together, with the taxpayer on the hook to bail out their mistakes, the whole system is hopeless. That is one of the main reasons I am leaving America, and taking a defensive position with my assets. America has become a system of economic fascism, which is one form of socialism. Here is a great article which explains this better:
The whole history of the Federal Reserve and the collectivist forces that created it can be read in “The Creature From Jekyll Island” by G Edward Griffin and can be purchased at:
http://www.realityzone.com/creature.htmlThere is a good interview with Ed that recently appeared in The Daily Bell and can be read here:
http://www.thedailybell.com/bellPage.asp?nid=332“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few”.
Wendell PhillipsThe American dream is antithetical to the collectivist model, so your denunciation of it simply shows your bias and ignorance of the founding principles of America. Yes, people can be “cows” and that is what all collectivist governments rely on to keep themselves in power. I wish you would address the historical record of brutal repression and exploitation by the worlds collectivist regimes, and the fact that the ruling elite lives at a different standard that the lowly proletariat.
And don’t get me started on the hoax of man made global warming. Lets not forget that it was only 25-30 years ago that the “scientific community” was warning of a coming ice age. And you had crackpots like Paul Ehrlick (sp?) predicting the end of the world because of overpopulation. If you study the world wide “consensus”, you will see the obvious power play by the collectivist world governments to use this manufactured crisis to go after the producing economies and “tax” their wealth and redistribute it as they see fit. Standard operating procedure for the Marxist ideal of take from the rich and give to the poor, and enslave the poor in the process.
I suspect that there is no resolution with you over these fundamental issues. You are committed to the collectivist world view and I am committed to free markets and personal responsibility. I am engaging in this discussion, not to convince you, but to possibly counter the blatant biases you display in your arguments. for example, the free market system is not designed to create “fair” outcomes, it is designed for those who wish to work and create products of value, and be able to exchange those products for something else of value. The collectivist model is based on the confiscation of the assets of the producer (capitalist) class and distribute it to those who are not productive or marginally productive. In the moral order that I subscribe to, this is known as theft.
Who decides what is “fair”. In all of the examples we see in history; communist Russia and her subjugated nation states, China etc, etc, there is a ruling elite who makes these decisions. Without exception, in all of these countries, the ruling elite exists at a higher standard of living, with exclusive privileges unattainable by the unwashed masses. Ones ability to succeed is based on who you know, and who can open doors for you. In the capitalist system, anyone with the will, desire, vision, work ethic can rise from humble beginnings and become successful, and yes, become fabulously wealthy.
Costa Rica will not be corrupt because evil corporations seek to bribe and manipulate, but because all human beings have weaknesses and vulnerabilities which can be used to advantage by businesses, special interest groups, political forces seeking advantage. It is so shallow to attempt to characterize the goals and intentions of capitalists as being unsavory; while the good intentions of the collectivist are always benign and altruistic. Give me a break.
Sprite, it is not true that the Federal Reserve is something that Libertarians or conservatives would support. The Fed is an abomination and anathema to free market principles. The key word here being “free”. You are certainly correct in your assessment that there is a battle between free market capitalism vs collectivism, and in the US, the Obama administration is veering hard left into Marxist territory at a frightening rate. Even Putin of Russia suggested that it would be a mistake for the US to go the socialist route, and that the US should learn from Russia’s mistakes. Central planning/command and control economies never produce the abundance that occurred in America. Yes, Costa Rica is a socialist country, so I will have to adjust to that as best I can; but it isn’t suffering from the lust for power that characterizes the US federal gov’t, so I look forward to being in a place where I believe I can live a quiet life without looking over my shoulder to see if big brother is lurking.
Having someone working in ones mouth with tools and solutions is a very intimate and at times uncomfortable experience. The key for me is the gentleness and attention to my needs. I don’t know that a DDS couldn’t do as well because I have never had my dentist perform this function, unless it was when I was a child and I don’t remember. I have my teeth cleaned twice a year here in the states by a fabulous hygenist and will have to sort it out once I move, which will be by June of this year. I know that I don’t get all the gunk out myself and would look be interested in such a service.
Here are some lyrics from Glenn Fry’s “Smugglers Blues”, a song that hits close to home on the effect of loose monetary policy via fiat money:
“There’s lots of shady characters, lots of dirty deals, in case somebody squeals. Its the lure of easy money, its got a very strong appeal. Perhaps you’d understand it better standin’ in my shoes, its the ultimate enticement, its the smugglers blues…”Yes, the lure of easy money. It keeps the big government “Statists” in power and the people enslaved by their own bad choices. From the consumers point of view, it is a matter of balance. The balance being between savings & production on one side with consumption on the other. The US citizens now have a negative savings rate, and in effect so does the government. It is sheer folly to hear Repubs & Dems both talking about spending our way out of this mess. The “stimulus” plan will not work because it goes against all of the tenets of how free markets work. All you have to do is study Roosevelt’s response to the economy he inherited. There were 3 New Deals that he tried and they all failed. A great book on the subject is “The Roosevelt Myth” by Flynn and a great book on how the economy works and why government spending to revive the economy will not work is “Economics in One Lesson” by Hazlitt. Both can be found on the http://www.mises.org website. A great source of wisdom from the Austrian school of economics point of view.
Lets clarify the heart of the problem with the US economy right now. What we are seeing is the result of fiat money. A currency not backed by an asset such as gold will always be manipulated by the Central Bank (Federal Reserve) and the dirty little secret of politicians of both parties using the printing presses of the Fed to finance wars, stimulus packages, whatever, by inflating the currency. The worst excesses of this fraud are the “bubbles” tech, real estate, etc, which are caused by the Fed putting $ into the economy at too cheap a rate and creating, what the Austrian school of economics calls, “malinvestment”. These are not the actions of a free market/capitalist approach. These are the actions of the collusion between Big Government and the banking industry, also known as a cartel, the consequences of which are there for all to see. Unless of course one is looking at this tragedy with their own agenda to promote. Sprite comes to mind. The sub-prime real estate market was created by the government. For a quick refresher for anyone not knowledgeable about this: Carter signed off on the “Community Redevelopment Act” and Clinton put it into overdrive. Since the financial markets in the US are, through regulation, an arm of the gov’t, they basically told the mortgage industry to either relax the standards for making loans or the full force of the gov’t was going to come down on them. Sounds like the mafia doesn’t it? Barack Obama was one of the attorneys who successfully sued, I believe Citibank, to force them to continue making these loans. So lets reconsider all the attacks on capitalism and the free market,and consider the real source of the problem, fiat money, greedy politicians and their enablers in the banking industry.
Thank you, I went to the New Dawn site. It looks like a place I will be visiting soon after we arrive. Their design service will be a great help, along with their books and seeds.
Thanks for the feedback. Are you using a greenhouse to protect your crops, or just some sort of clear roof? Also, i am growing almonds to attract the Macaws.
To quote “the great communicator” Ronald Regan, approx, “Government is not the solution to the problem, government is the problem.” It is mind numbingly simplistic to blame laissez fare capitalism for what ales the world. The essence of a free market economy is the individual purchases of everyone in the economy without constraint. Either we each get to choose what we want or the government chooses for us. And what makes anyone think the bureaucrats are any wiser than the rest of us? Just more elite types who think they know better and want to dictate what should happen. They are simply flawed humans, just like the rest of us, but with a lot more power.
Dear Sprite and any other collectivists who are living in a dream world: sprite wrote: “I don’t know of any evidence that large population alone would nullify the successful administration of socialistic principles.” It’s not the size that matters, so much as the underlying principles. The collectivist/communist/socialist model has a very visible track record of failure and destruction. These styles of government have, in the last hundred years or so, killed approximately 50-60 million of their own people, not including those of their neighbors killed in wars of aggression. If you are right that a “stake through the heart of the religion of free market economies” has occurred, then we are all doomed. However, the recent events in the US are not the result of free market economics, quite the opposite, they are the direct result of the manipulation of the market by the government and those interests who have successfully manipulated the political system. We have not had a free market in the financial arena since at least 1913.
