February « 2009 « Give Me Liberty

February 25, 2009

Keynes is dead. Let’s bury him already.

Filed under: Abuse of power, Auto industry, Bailouts, Big Brother, Government schools, Immigration, Passport files, Privacy, Public schools, Regulation, Rent seeking, economy, environment, facism, global warming, socialism — Tags: bailout, big government, economics, Financial Crisis, inflation, Keynes, spending, stimulus — givemeliberty @ 12:37 pm

Ironically, it was Keynes who said:

“Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.”

Little that Keynes had to say, before that or afterward, proved so true. Keynes is dead. More importantly, even when he was alive, Keynes was DEAD WRONG. No competent economist today follows Keynsian thinking. Unfortunately we still have a few living economists who are already defunct (Paul Krugman come to mind?), and politicians, the consummate “practical men,” are still in their thrall. The stubborn fact remains that we cannot spend our way to prosperity.

The fatal flaw in Keynes’ theory of government stimulus was inflation. He assumed that a little inflation was a good thing, and could stimulate growth at no cost. But the bottom line is still the same: government cannot give to one without taking from another. Inflation is a tax, economically no different than any other tax, and not a magic money tree. It is not visibly collected like other taxes, but it removes value from the currency as surely as any other tax removes value from the economy. That is what has made inflation an irresistible temptation to politicians since the invention of politics, and also what makes it so insidious. Inflation takes indiscriminately from those who have savings, and adds nothing to the total wealth of the economy. And by punishing those who save, while sometimes benefiting those who spend beyond their means, inflation discourages the very productivity which benefits everyone. Way back in 1776, Adam Smith explained that wealth is productivity, not gold, not consumption, but productivity. Yet to this day, politicians (being practical men, at least when it comes to getting reelected) promote consumption and punish productivity.

Is it any wonder that we periodically suffer financial crises arising from such misguided government intervention in the economy? Before we legislate our way into an Even Greater Depression, let’s bury Keynes once and for all.

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February 11, 2009

We Are All Socialists Now? – Count Me Out!

Filed under: Abuse of power, Bailouts, Big Brother, Freedom, Politics, Regulation, Rent seeking, economy, facism, government, socialism — Tags: big government, communism, economics, facism, Freedom, liberty, private property rights, socialism, stimulus — givemeliberty @ 8:36 pm

I could only cringe when I saw the February 16, 2009, cover of Newsweek, “We Are All Socialists Now”. Count me out. The 20th century was the Century of Socialism, and it’s high time we dispose of that horrific philosophy forever. At least 120 million innocent people died at the hands of their own socialist governments. Millions more, both military and civilian, died in two world wars and countless smaller conflicts with socialist/communist/fascist governments. While we avoided outright socialism here, socialist experiments from the New Deal to the Great Society held millions of Americans in poverty in a land of plenty and of opportunity. That centerpiece of FDR’s legacy, Socialist Insecurity, may soon bankrupt us as a nation. Socialism has proven an abject failure every where and every time it has been tried. Individual liberty and private property rights lead to peace and prosperity. Socialism leads inevitably to destitution and death. So NEVER call me a socialist. Many cling to the false promises of socialism with the best of intentions, but the proof is in and it is incontrovertible. I will fight the scourge of socialism until I draw my last breath on this earth.

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February 9, 2009

Stimulus = Health care rationing?

Filed under: Abuse of power, Big Brother, Freedom, Health care, Regulation, economy, government — Tags: big government, Health care, Medical care, Rationing, Socialized medicine, Stimulus bill — givemeliberty @ 1:10 pm

From public affairs consultant Douglas O’Brien comes this gem exposing some of the terrible ideas being rushed through in the mis-named “stimulus” package. Highly reminiscent of Hillary-care, this strikes me as yet another proposal that could never get passed if subject to normal Congressional debate on its own merit. If you think you might ever need medical care, I urge you to read the full article here.

“On page 151 of this legislative pork-fest [the 'stimulus' bill] is one of the clandestine nuggets of social policy manipulation that are peppered throughout the bill. Section 9201 of the stimulus package establishes the ‘Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research.’ This body, which would be made up of federal bureaucrats will ‘coordinate the conduct or support of comparative effectiveness and related health services research.’ Sounds benign enough, but the man behind the Coordinating Council, Health and Human Services Secretary-designate [since withdrawn] (and tax cheat) Tom Daschle, was kind enough to explain the goal of this organization. It is to cut health care costs by preventing Americans from getting treatments that the government decides don’t meet their standards for cost effectiveness. In his 2008 book on health care, he explained that such a council would, ‘lower overall spending by determining which medicines, treatments and procedures are most effective-and identifying those that do not justify their high price tags.’ Once a panel of government experts decides what is and what is not cost-effective by their definition, the government will stop paying for treatments, medicines, therapies or devices that fall into the latter category. … Mind you, they are not simply looking to exclude treatments that don’t work, but to exclude treatments that are effective, but whose cost, in their opinion, does not justify their use. You, the patient, and your physician don’t get a vote. This would make the federal government the single most important decision-maker regarding health care for every patient in America.”

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February 6, 2009

NO Stimulus

Filed under: Abuse of power, Bailouts, Big Brother, Freedom, Politics, Regulation, Rent seeking, economy, government — Tags: big government, debt, economy, government abuse, jobs, Politics, pork, Rent seeking, stimulus, waste — givemeliberty @ 2:43 pm

Writing to politicians is not how I usually spend my time, but today I wrote to both of my senators, pleading with them to vote NO on the mis-named “stimulus” bill currently under discussion. This bill is nothing more than an accumulation of some 20 years of old, bad ideas for pork barrel spending. Most of these proposals are so bad, in fact, that they were never able to slide through in some earlier pork-laden bill in Congress, which has been passing pork barrel spending at record levels for years. These proposals would never stand a chance of passing on their own merits, so they have been accumulated and dumped into this disastrous hodge-podge of bad ideas being rushed through when people are frightened enough to swallow almost anything. I know Rahm Emmanuel says “never let a crisis go to waste”, but this bill is far worse than a waste. This bill is using a crisis to do serious damage to our economy for generations to come. I have 5 granddaughters; I do not want to saddle them with this catastrophic burden. While real stimulus might be helpful, our economy would be far better off if the government did absolutely nothing, rather than pass this bill. And if you still think we need a stimulus package, please watch this video for a lighter take on the topic.

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