Archive for Capitalism
Is Your Town Next?
Posted by: | CommentsPerhaps already there?? The Harrisburg story is compelling, and I personally know of at least one crony capitalist (who eschews capitalism, imagine that) who completely and totally took advantage of this binge-happy mayor, and the State of PA. The list of companies who did business with this municipality (including software giant SAP) is stunning, and the binge spending astonishing in view of the fundamental ability of the municipality to generate revenue. As Ayn Rand’s character in Atlas Shrugged asked: “what are you counting on?” Folks, this is the ugly ugly real side of social mysticism. You typically see it on local school boards (such as Hudson), but it appears all too often across municipalities and counties.
On the heels of this we see Wisconsin’s own Paul Ryan telling it like it is.. on the Federal level.
The True Argument About Capitalism
Posted by: | CommentsNothing makes me want to scream at the top of my lungs into a trash can more than listening to or reading a debate over the good and evils of capitalism. One side points to everything from the housing collapse to the BP oil spill as evidence to the failure of capitalism, which always requires more government intervention into the production and exchange of goods. The person defending capitalism mutters some babble about individualism and how businesses create jobs. But the system is not perfect, so some government oversight is needed.
This is where I want to scream. The argument is moot. Capitalism does not exist. The economies of the world range on a scale from light socialism to communism. As it has been said many times before, capitalism or free markets become extinct the moment a central bank is created. The Federal Reserve practices a price manipulation for money (interest rates) that benefits one party while having a negative impact on another. Free markets are based on the premise of mutual benefit. Price rigging of any good, including money, interferes with the necessary signals between buyers and sellers that allow them to mutually gain.
Secondly, an exchange governed by regulation under the threat of penalty for non-compliance cannot be considered free and voluntary. It is hard to think of one transaction in this country that does come under a maze of bureaucratic rule. Even the products exchanged at a garage sale or Tupperware party must at some stage be approved regulators. Children selling lemonade on the sidewalk are now under government harassment for not having a business license or health inspection.
The following article by James Miller is one of the best I have come across that succinctly describes capitalism.
Sherlock on Occupy and Capitalism
Posted by: | CommentsSome time ago I received a newsletter that stated the following as part of a defense of capitalism:
“The capitalist system is messy, imperfect, and does need constraints to enforce contracts impartially, to protect individuals, the weak from the strong and it requires the rule of law to make it work. While the rule of law is not always perfect, the rule of the central planner is subjective and is subject to more corruption. This makes it more unfair to more people.”
Clearly, the gang hanging out doing the Occupy Wall Street shuffle not only believe the above but suspect and decry far far worse of capitalism. Indeed, these folks seem to be implicitly and in most cases tacitly demanding that capitalism either be “perfect,” or utterly abandoned. This is not all too different from the sustainability crowd who argues along the same thesis, if it cannot be sustained it must be untouchable; both cases demonstrate abject moral deparvity.
I would argue, and I believe it is no small point, that the concept of “perfection” is misplaced in any discussion of the merits of capitalism. In fact, I would take it one step further to suggest that those who have an overt anti-capitalist worldview have worked very hard to implant this notion. A notion that is almost reflexively adopted by those who contend capitalism is preferable, yet begin by conceding this point of imperfection to those who have a diametric worldview. All these defenders are left with then is an argument based upon shades of gray or degrees, and not absolutes.
Why Capitalism Is Worth Defending
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“It is simply a fact that capitalism, even hampered by the state, has dragged most of the world out of the pitiful poverty that characterized all of human existence for millennia.”
I just hope that it isn’t too late.
Shelly Hanson or is that Randy Moore
Posted by: | CommentsAfter reading Randy Hanson’s bumbling opinion in the Hudson Star-Observer this week, I have to wonder whether teacher union thugs and State Senate candidate Shelly Moore ghost wrote the piece or his brain is incapable of anything other than controlling bowel movements. No proper functioning brain could produce such illogical crap.
Hanson writes about the Budget Repair Bill:
The so-called budget repair bill currently being held up in a state court because it was rammed through the Legislature under dubious circumstances would only allow teachers to negotiate their salaries. And any raises would be limited to the rate of inflation, unless voters approved a bigger increase in a referendum.
The same rules would apply to municipal, county and state employees — except for police officers and firefighters.
That isn’t how a modern free-market economy is supposed to work. It isn’t enlightened capitalism.
You are right Shelly (Randy), it does not look like the free market or enlightened capitalism (sounds like educrap speak) because it is about government. A person employed in the free market cannot force a customer to pay. As far as passing the legislation under dubious circumstances, what did the duly elected legislature run across the border to shack up with a 37 year-old divorced union thug in a skirt? Read More→
Capitalism v. Christianity
Posted by: | CommentsThe reality is clear, the delusions rampant. At the end of the day, you must pick one or the other for, as Dr. Hsieh adeptly puts it: “ultimately these two cannot be reconciled, one or the other has to go..” Unless, of course, you prefer to live as a self-deluded hypocrit.. which pretty much describes the Republican Party in its current manifestation… As well as the secular left.
Which brings up one of the key points in Dr Hsieh’s podcast. That being if you are a committed Christian your political home is not with the Republicans, but rather and clearly with the Democrats. Democrats who morally defend their collectivist actions and programs (such as, and rather profoundly, the protestors who were arguing “tax the rich”) by an appeal to their Christian ethics actually have the high ground, Republicans who argue the opposite for reasons of long range planning, free markets in education, etc., simply have no moral argument – theirs is full-on subjectivity. Unless, of course, they have a morality premised not on Christianity, but rather individual rights: rational self-interest.
Make your choice, you have no other… and your time is running out.
Dr Diana Hsieh’s Noodlecast (Episode #62: Rationally Selfish Webcast – excerpt on Capitalism v Christianity).
Must see video
Posted by: | CommentsLet’s see if you meatheads can watch and actually learn something about the revolting people you support – they are called Republicans. And if you support these intellectual misfits (again) then YOU are part of what this video is all about. The coming financial nightmare.
Let’s see ANY OF YOU can come in here and defend these meatheads, and let’s start with GW Bush. Come on, I dare you!!!
My point here is that 90% of those wearing the GOP monicre do not have the knowledge or the desire to correct the fundamental problem.. Just watch what happens in November, more Republicans will get elected and they will support and engage in the very same policies and actions as GW Bush and his gang of religious zealots. It’s not about whether one supported Bush, I readily admit I did at one time. What’s key is recognizing the fundamental philosophical flaws in the stated programs of GOP candidates, admitting they are are seriously and fundamentally flawed, and then be willing to take a new path consistent with the fundamental premise of this nation’s founding. The rational path is there for anyone willing to take it.
This video serves to validate all that some out here have argued about for several years (to those who are new, or who refuse to learn about all that has been covered out here, you need to understand there have been some GREAT lessons in Capitalism and Individual Rights spelled out here over time). Well worth the time to view..
And You Thought Michael Voris (the Vortex) was Scary?
Posted by: | CommentsWell, if Flashy thought a Catholic dictatorship was spooky (and it absolutely is) just consider Glenn Beck and his crowd of religious extremists that descended upon Washington, D.C. the other day…
This is a nightmare on the Potomac, and this is precisely what Sarah Palin and the rest of the Repulsivecans are up to. At the end of the day, they don’t give a rip nor understand what capitalism is, and what it requires. All they care about is instituting their evangelical Christian mythology upon the masses.
Beck and Palin, and so many of the rest of these so-called Tea Partiers, are repulsive throwbacks to exactly that which brought us Obama.
Capitalism is not to blame for the oil spill
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I took a moment recently to read Bob Cesca’s Huffington Post article. Cesca is no different than many who are taking the oil spill as an opportunity for context dropping smears of capitalism and capitalists; the economic system and the risk takers within that provide them the very means to spew their socialist claptrap, not to mention create the highest standard of living in the history of mankind. Such pot shots at capitalism are clearly not helping matters.
The degree of myopic, out of context, drivel spewed by Cesca seemed to know no end, as he apparently has little or no knowledge of history (one wonders if he ever heard of the Santa Barbara spill of 1969, and what ensued on the heels of reaction to it). Mr. Cesca would like us all to believe, just as the proponents of government controlled health care, that there IS a “free market”…and that this “free market” is the root cause of the current disaster (just plug in one, it doesn’t seem to matter with this crowd). The same lame argument was made regarding the supposed 40 million people without health insurance, that it was the free market supposedly failing by virtue of the fact some people chose not to purchase health insurance, or simply could not afford the premium charges (let alone purchase care out of pocket). Ergo, it must be the free market, capitalism, that is to blame for this “social injustice” simply because in the present state providers of those services and the insurance companies who pay for it make an accounting profit; as if there is something fundamentally wrong with making a living in the provisioning of health care or insurance to pay for it…
In the same convoluted and out-of-context way energy companies are now being held up as poster children for the failure of capitalism.
“Atlas Shrugged” Sets a New Record!
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Ayn Rand’s great novel, the single most important-and virtually singular-philosophical defense of capitalism sold like hot cakes in 2009 – full story here..
John Mackey – An American Hero?
Posted by: | CommentsI think so.. As much as I detest the Christian News Channel, aka FoxNews (btw, I detest CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC more) they do occasionally have some excellent guest appearances. One such appearance recently was John Mackey. Oh, the scum bags tag on this one is in reference to some of the members of the audience, and a couple of the clips of protesters, and, especially, the final segment where Stossel brings in another guy (didn’t get his name but is clearly an unapologetic socialist)..
More Stench – Need We Say More??
Posted by: | CommentsLiberty, properly understood, requires that you know its enemies and their creed (s).
President Chavez brought the house down.
When he said the process in Copenhagen was ‘not democratic, it is not inclusive, but isn’t that the reality of our world, the world is really an imperial dictatorship… Down with imperial dictatorships.’
He got a rousing round of applause.
When he said there was a ‘silent and terrible ghost in the room’ and that that ghost was called capitalism, the applause was deafening.
But then he wound up to his grand conclusion (20 minutes after his 5 minute speaking time was supposed to have ended)-after quoting everyone from Karl Marx to Jesus Christ-by stating: ‘our revolution seeks to help all people. Socialism, the other ghost that is probably wandering around this room, that’s the way to save the planet, capitalism is the road to hell….let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.’
He won a standing ovation.
h/t to Andrew Bolt