It Really IS That Simple

Our country has problems. It has issues. The unemployment is high, the national debt is high, the deficit is high, tensions are high, disenchantment with our politicians is high. All these things are higher than the average concertgoer at a Phish concert. Higher than Roger McGuinn in the 1960s. So what IS the problem? The problem is fornication!!!! AHHH!!! Not THAT type of fornication. We are figuratively screwing ourselves and who knows how many down the road. How did things ever get to this point?

Things got to this point by two ideologies competing for the hearts and minds of the American citizen. Things got to this point by the American citizen deciding NOT to decide on one or the other ideology for the country. The American citizen decided that he or she would like a bit from this ideology and a bit from that. Daniel San......One side of road ok, Other side of road ok, walk in middle and splat!!!!! So what ARE these two competing ideologies, and what HAVE we done with them?

These are economic ideologies. They are Socialism and Capitalism. These two ideologies cannot coexist. Only the bastardized forms of each may coexist and only then at the point of the government gun. I am going to briefly define each ideology.

Capitalism is natures economic ideology. Capitalism is darwinism. Capitalism rests on the premise that each person enters into the best deal each can form with the other on a voluntary basis to mutual benefit. In Capitalism, one with the greatest ability derives greatest benefit.

Socialism is the brother's keeper ideology. Socialism rests on the premise that we all must contribute to all of society equally IN PROPORTION TO OUR INDIVIDUAL ABILITIES. Yet we will benefit equally IN PROPORTION TO OUR INDIVIDUAL NEEDS. 

How many of you voluntarily do things that benefit you in no way whatsoever? Do not say charity work or donations to charity. Do you not derive pleasure or personal satisfaction of some sort from such work or donations? Why do you pay your taxes?? See even THAT has self interest to it on several levels. Perhaps you pay taxes merely because you must. Your benefit is staying out of jail....your liberty. Perhaps you pay taxes because you want a strong defense. Your benefit is knowing that military is out there protecting you. There is NOTHING....NOTHING that cannot be called selfish in one way or another. Selfishness is not necessarily an evil, although it most certainly can be.

Do you see a problem with socialism yet? True socialism is impossible to man. The very existence of socialism relies on the existence of capitalism, while capitalism does not need socialism at all.  Since true socialism is impossible to man, since there are always capitalistic motives somewhere, I will not spend more time on true socialism and paradise on earth (According to Marx), but I will talk more of bastardization.

The evil in the bastardized socialism and capitalism that exists in this country is that of coercion. Remember I told you of the person that pays his taxes merely to maintain his liberty? THAT is the evil of this bastardized system. A just system never compels that choice. A just system taxes only the ends of labor never the labor itself. The money you make is not the ends of your labor. The money you make is your labor which is your time which IS your LIFE. If the government mandated that you must work 8 hours of a 40 hour work week for it....doing whatever it wanted of you, would you be okay with that? You may be paving a road, fighting a war, cleaning toilet stalls. If you were NOT okay with that, the government takes your property. Your property is ALSO your life. The government may also put you in jail. The denial of your liberty is ALSO your life. 

On the other hand, what if no tax is collected until you buy something? At that point, you make a voluntary choice to pay a tax. I do not wish to get into details, but food should be tax exempt. Even at this point, taxes should be minimal. The only legitimate aim of government is a banding together of resources to provide that which secures the liberty of the individual. Anything else is a perversion of government. 

So we need a military sufficient to the means of repelling an invasion and sufficient to the means of turning any aggressor's country into Hell on Earth. We need a police force to discourage the violation of individual liberty by other individuals. We need a court to set punishment upon those that willfully violate the individual liberty of others. We need a court to arbitrate breaches of contract.

Under such a system, the tax burden would be so light as to be a feather compared to todays anvil. There is a downside to this system. This downside is what the Socialist exploits. The downside is the requirement of the individual to be responsible for him or her self and his or her children and property. 

See there is another part of human nature that requires the existence of government. That part of human nature is also known in fluid dynamics, physics, electricity. It is called the Path Of Least Resistance. Inanimate objects will always 'choose' the path of least resistance. Water will flow to the lowest point in the easiest way it can. A boulder will roll down the hill on the path of least resistance. Electricity always seeks ground on a path of least resistance. A Human will seek to satisfy his needs and desires in a way that will cost him the least effort. This is no problem when a Human is alone. In a population, a stronger human might take from the weaker because that is easier than producing for himself. Now, not all humans will make such a choice, but many will.

As a society, we LIKE the protection provided for the common good. Well we should...it is a good thing. What advocates of socialism use is our appreciation for that common protection. Advocates of socialism ask us, "If the common protection of individual liberty is good, Is not common guarantee of quality of life even better?" Should we not all have equal access and entitlement to such things as a Retirement program, Healthcare, jobs, education, housing, food. Should it not be the government's role to make certain that we all have these things? 

The failure in the logic above is that individual liberty is not something that must be given by government. It is government's job to prevent individual liberty from being negatively impacted. All these other things are products of individual labor. For government to give any one of these other things, means that in some way, these things must be taken from someone else. That taking is itself a negation of individual liberty. Therefore government becomes at odds with it's putative purpose and becomes an instrument of plunder.

I do argue that the most minimal of safety nets must exist in order that those who for whatever reason cannot sustain themselves and their children do not simply die. I maintain that those who can be productive in some way, must be in exchange for their parasitic existence upon the back of society. 

If you get more from government than you pay in, you ARE a parasite. The awful thing is that many of us have become parasites and do not even realize it. The awful thing is there are those out there with the cleanest of motives, the purest of hearts, that do not realize all the implications of that which they advocate.

Those with these pure motives believe that they are advocating charity. Unfortunately for us all, they are not advocating charity. If I hold a gun in your face and tell you to either give $20 to a charity or I am going to kill you, that is not charity. YOU will make a capitalistic decision. You will give the $20, or you will fight me..determined not to dilute your individual liberty in taking the path of least resistance. I , on the other hand, am negatively affecting your liberty. I am forcing you to endanger yourself to fight me, depriving you of your property, or depriving you of your life. Does any of this sound like charity?? This is 'charity' from government. If on the other hand, you simply write a check to a charity for $20 because you want to, THAT is charity.

So what is the knife's edge of individual liberty that keeps us from simply eliminating all this socialist bastardization of capitalism? It is called personal responsibility.

You have to pay attention to your agreements with other entities. One of the reasons for Labor Unions was to fight a system where ignorant people agreed to work for a company owned by a man, live in a house owned or financed by the same man, and buy food from the same man. That ignorant person, by agreeing to such a thing, sold himself into slavery. His only options are to agree to any demands from the man or walk away from the man's job, house, and food. In such a poor agreement there are no safety standards nor is there any bargaining. How can there be. Now for the man to take advantage of such ignorance is morally reprehensible, but still the fault lies with the ignorant one for accepting such a 'bargain.' 

Would you agree that such a confluence of controlling factors over one's life is a bad thing? If you DO agree that it IS a bad thing, why do you advocate that government have the same power?

Most of this has to be eliminated for us to be free individuals. SO... Make the choice. Make it in a constitutional amendment. If it passes that muster, then we cease to exist as a free society, but at least the slavery was done properly. If it does not pass muster, then we roll this crap back....all the way.




- Posted using The dark side of the shwartz.