My favorite writer is Thomas Sowell. As I’ve said many times; he writes about complex concepts in a manor that regular people like me can understand. If I hadn’t stumbled across Thomas Sowell in 95, I wouldn’t have had the fundamental base to understand Mises, Hayek, Rothbard, etal.
His recent article titled, The Academic Curtain (read here), is just another example of his ability as a communicator and teacher.
In this article he compares the Iron Curtain surrounding the Communist bloc of nations and the “Academic Curtain” surrounding our educational system in general and college education in particular.
The Iron and the Academic Curtains isolate the people inside of them from ideas which are not in line with what the Communists or Academics want their subjects to hear. The conventional wisdom pushed by the anointed is that a centrally planned economy is superior to a free market economy and the individual is subordinate to the state.
Here are some excerpts from the article:
“Back in the days of the Cold War between the Communist bloc of nations and the Western Democracies, the Communists maintained pervasive restrictions around Eastern Europe that were aptly called an “iron Curtain,” isolating the people in its bloc from the ideas of the West and physically obstructing their escape. “
“One of the few things that could penetrate the “iron curtain” were ideas conveyed on radio waves. “the Voice of America” network broadcast to the peoples of the Soviet bloc, so that they were never completely isolated, and hearing only what the Communist dictatorships wanted them to hear.”
“Ironically, despite the victory of democracy over dictatorship that brought the Cold War to an end, within American society there has slowly but steadily developed in too many of our own colleges and universities a set of restrictions on what can be said on campus either by students or professors or by outside speakers with views that contradict the political correctness of our time.”
“There is no barbed wire around our campuses, nor armed guards keeping unwelcome ideas out. So there is no “iron curtain.” But there is a curtain, and it has its effect.”
“One effect is that many of the rising generation can go from elementary school through postgraduate education at our leading colleges and universities without ever hearing a coherent presentation of a vision of the world that is fundamentally different from that of the political left.”
“.…Despite the fervor with which demographic “diversity? is proclaimed as a prime virtue – without a speck of evidence as to its supposed benefits – diversity of ideas gets no such respect.”
“Students are unlikely to go through college without being assigned to read “The Communist Manifesto” – often in more than one course – while a classic like “The Federalist” is seldom assigned reading, even thought it is a very readable and profound explanation of the principles on which the Constitution of the United States is based, Written by three of the men who actually wrote the Constitution.”
“While there is no “iron curtain” around our campuses, there is a curtain, and its effects are dangerously close to the effects produced by the “iron curtain” around the Soviet bloc. What is lacking is anything like the Voice of America broadcasts to pierce the academic curtain.”
“In an electronic age, there are plenty of sources from which forbidden facts and suppressed views can be beamed into the many electronic devices used by college students.” There are many recorded speeches and interviews of outstanding thinkers, from the past and the present, with viewpoints different from the prevailing groupthink on campus and these can be presented directly to students with electronic devices.”
“Someone from the real world beyond the ivy-covered enclaves would have to do it. And it is not yet clear who would do it or who would finance it. Perhaps some of those donors who have kept on writing checks to their alma maters, while the latter surrendered repeatedly to ideological intolerance, might consider such a project. Campus mob could not shout down thousands of scattered iPads.”
BONUS VIDEO OF THOMAS SOWELL.
The Hoover Institute presents Thomas Sowell on Uncommon Knowledge talking about his book, Wealth Poverty and Politics, with Peter Robinson.
Theme of the book: “There is no explanation needed for poverty. The species began in poverty. So what you really need to know is what are the things that enabled some countries, some groups within countries, to become prosperous.”
Small business is the backbone of the American economy. Small business is where over 60% of new jobs come from. Small businessmen are risk takers who are willing to learn from the process of trial and error. New ideas and innovation comes from small business, not the status quo.
The status quo wants to protect their position in the market. They lobby Government to pass laws make it difficult (costly) for competitors (small business) to enter the market.
People think Government regulations like minimum wage laws and Obamacare are like throwing life savers to employees. But in reality these regulations are anvils thrown to small businesses, many of whom are treading water. If a small business goes down because of government regulation, the employees also go down.
Here is a video from Prager University titled: What’s Killing The American Dream?
It talks about how Government is making it more and more difficult for small businesses to survive.
Ronald Reagan said: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: “I’m From The Government And I’m Here To Help“. How true.
First let’s define Fascism so we can begin at the same starting point. Fascism is an economic system where the state doesn’t own the means of production, but the state makes the rules that producers and consumers have to follow. There is a bureaucratic layer between businesses and politicians which plans the economy. It is crony capitalism on steroids.
Fascism places politicians and bureaucrats as the ultimate rulers aka decision makers. The individual has no rights or liberty except what the rulers say they have. Order comes from the state, (top down) not from the individual, (spontaneous order).
I saw a great chart (below) showing America’s drift toward Fascism, in an article titled, The Road To Fascism In Just Two Charts, at bawerk.net. I have always thought economic systems fit on a line where at one end no government exists, and at the opposite end there is total government control. Where an economic system is placed on this line depends on how much government intervention exists, or put another way, how little governmental intervention exists.
WHAT IS AN ECONOMY? WHAT IS SOCIAL FREEDOM?
An economy is what results when each individual is free to decide what to produce, consume, exchange and save in a world of scarce resources which have alternative uses. Simply put, you own what you’ve produced or what you’ve received in exchange for your production. It is your property and you have a right to do with it what you wish.
Production is the creation of wealth. Consumption is the destruction of wealth. Exchange is the increase of wealth as both parties place a higher value on what they received than what they’ve given up. Saving is the preference of consumption at some point in the future to consumption in the present. Savings is the basis for capital formation. Capital formation is what increases productivity. Increased productivity is the creation of larger amounts of wealth.
Each individuals decision on what and how much he will produce, consume, exchange and save according to what he subjectively values in a world of scarcity is the essence of freedom.
In order to have economic freedom you have to have social freedom and in order to have social freedom you have to have economic freedom. In other words, economic freedom and social freedom are different sides of the same coin. Individuals are free to act. Each individual is responsible for the consequences of his actions if they bring harm to others or himself.
I have a quote by F. A. Hayek at the top of my web site. It is my favorite quote because it sums up the choice individuals have faced since the beginning of time:
F. A. HAYEK: “THE COORDINATION OF MENS ACTIVITIES THROUGH CENTRAL PLANNING OR THROUGH VOLUNTARY COOPERATION ARE ROADS GOING IN VERY DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS, THE FIRST TO SERFDOM AND POVERTY THE SECOND TO FREEDOM AND PLENTY.”
Let’s take a look at the chart and see what it reveals.
Zero Government intervention into the economy starts at the bottom left of the chart and moves upward and to the right as Government intervention starts to increase. Zero Social Freedom starts at the top right of the chart and moves downward and to the left as the level of Social Freedom starts to increase.
Communism, socialism, fascism and democratic socialism are on the top right of this chart. They are economic and political systems that strangle individual liberty. Their very nature means intervention into, or control of, what is produced, consumed, exchanged and saved.
Anarcho capitalism, free market capitalism, classical liberalism and our America constitutional founding are on the lower left of the chart. They are economic and political systems that strangle Government and allow individuals the freedom to produce, consume, exchange, and save as they see fit.
What exists today is the middle ground of crony capitalism, crony socialism and other forms of government interventionism. This is the utopian middle ground that elites think mixes the best parts of both ends of the chart. They know that free market capitalism produces great amounts of wealth as seen by our standard of living. But the elites don’t like the way the wealth is “distributed” and want to use the force of government to make this distribution “fairer” according to their idea of “fair”.
The elites attempt to redistribute wealth differently than it would exist in the free market, creates incentives that ultimately decreases the wealth that is being produced. It divides us into groups that can be pitted against each other by political opportunists.
These statements by Ludwig von Mises tell us all we need to know about the above chart:
“The issue is always the same: the government or the market. There is no third solution.”
“The middle-of-the-road policy is not an economic system that can last. It is a method for the realization of socialism by installments.”
“Anti capitalistic policies sabotage the operation of the capitalist system of the market economy. The failure of interventionism does not demonstrate the necessity of adopting socialism. It merely exposes the futility of interventionism. All those evils which the self-styled “progressives” interpret as evidence of the failure off capitalism are the outcome of their allegedly beneficial interference with the market.”
CONCLUSION
We are in the chaotic middle. Our choice is to move towards freedom and free markets. It is going to take a lot of time and effort to educate enough people in order to tip the scales toward freedom. Is the cost too high? It’s your decision.
This video from Prager University titled: Every High School Principle Should Say This, would be a great start in reeducating students into understanding that they are an individual and not member of a group.
Unfortunately there are not many, if any, principles who would give a speech like this in today’s PC world. So it is up to us to spread the word.
If you are offended by this video, look in the mirror.
THE LESSON FORM THE VIDEO
Our Constitution was set up to protect Individuals from the force of government. The Constitution lists the specific powers government can exercise, but the rights of the individual are not limited to the ones listed in the Bill of Rights.
The Constitution draws a battle line between Individual sovereignty and government force. The Individual has rights, groups do not. One of the reason for the political turmoil that exists in America today is we have been duped into believing that you have rights as a member of a group and not as an individual.
Politicians have effectively split us up into various groups and made each group an enemy of the other. This allows them to act as if they are above the fray, riding in on their white horse to provide solutions to the friction that they fomented.
You have to understand your real enemy are politicians and bureaucrats using the force of government to take away your individual rights. This makes sense only if you think of yourself as an individual instead of a member of a group.
I heard Senator Schumer had said this a week ago. Since Schumer never met a tax he didn’t like, I had to go to his website (click here for press release) to get the scoop. Here is what I learned.
Senator Schumer is urging the House to pass legislation which would prevent the winnings of Olympic medalists from being taxed. Schumer, of course, was instrumental in getting this bipartisan bill passed in the Senate.
The US Olympic Committee pays medal winners $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for bronze. Since this is considered income, it is taxed accordingly. Schumer wants to exempt the value of the medals as well as the prize winnings from being taxed by the IRS.
Schumer said: “it is unfair to tax the winnings of these medalists who work hardyear-round to represent their country on the world stage and achieve victory“.
Here are a few observations.
-Bringing this bill up during the Olympics is purely political. Schumer could have pursued this legislation months or years ago if he was truly concerned about these athletes. This kind of grandstanding is why I hate politics.
-Hard work should be rewarded??? This big government central planner has never believed this. He wants to punish individuals who have succeeded in our free market system. He believes successful people cheated or gamed the system to acquire what they have produced. It is almost impossible to make a hard working person a ward of the State. As we know making individuals wards of the State is how the establishment stays in power.
– Schumer sees achievers in the same light as Obama sees them. It can be summed up in one phrase: “you didn’t build that”. Here is what Obama said: “...look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own….I’m always struck by people who think……It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something – there are a whole lot of hard working people out there. If you were successful…..if you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
-If Schumer was true to his socialist central planning roots, he would have passed legislation that redistributed the medalist winnings among the non medal winning US Olympians. “There where a whole lot of hard working non medalists out there”? Is it “fair” that these medalists, because of the genetic lottery, where blessed with more talent than the other Olympians? Is it fair that Phelps, Biles, or Ledecky dominate their competition? Not in the eyes of people who are believers in social justice.
-Normally people like Schumer would hate people who far exceed their piers. So why is it different in this case. The reason Schumer is not treating the Olympic medalists like he would treat you or me is precisely because they are the elites of their sports. Since he is a member of the Government elites, he feels a kinship with these elite athletes. The elite should not have to be encumbered by the same rules the masses have to follow.
CONCLUSION
The above thoughts are a part of Schumer’s DNA. They all play a part in the decisions he makes everyday. If he was a plumber or an electrician, his world view wouldn’t affect the rest of us. Unfortunately, since he is a US Senator, it does.
I loathe grandstanding politicians, and central planning socialist elites!
In this article from economicpolicyjournal titled, An Obamacare Designer Confesses: “How I Was Wrong About Obamacare”, we get to look into the mind of a bureaucratic central planner. Dr. Bob Kocher advised the President on Obamacare. In the article he said, “I was deeply committed to developing the best health-care reform we could to expand coverage, improve quality and bring down costs.”
Central planners think they can ignore the laws of economics by simple decree. Economic forces don’t listen to planners. These forces are consistently working trying to correct the plans of planners. How could the Dr. think you could expand coverage, improve quality and bring down costs? Increasing demand without increasing supply makes it impossible to lower costs. It’s simple economics.
THE ANSWER IS MORE CENTRAL PLANNING
Excerpt from the article: “Dr. Kocher, admits that he and the other central planners did not understand the market correctly. Despite Obamacare doing everything possible to push medical care in the direction of mega-operations, the small operators have proven to be most efficient and with the best quality service.”
So what is Dr. Kocher’s remedy to the problem? More central planning of the sector that is working. Excerpt from the article: “The man doesn’t get it. The hampered by regulation free market out did his planned medical care but instead of rejecting central planning of healthcare altogether and allow care to develop on its own on a free market, he wants to use a failed methodology, central planning, and apply it to the one sector that is succeeding because it has been free of such planning, with all sorts of new micromanaging of small providers.”
The Doctor is essentially telling his patient, the remedy for your concussion is to allow yourself to get hit in the head harder.
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST
Who would have thought that when health insurance companies started to sell a product that was not insurance they would go bust? Obamacare wasn’t meant to succeed, it was meant to fail. Politicians figured insurance companies would get blamed which would pave the way for a Government single payer healthcare system.
In this article, Aetna Latest Insurer To Question Obamacare’s Future, we see the consequences of calling something insurance when it isn’t. Aetna will show a $3oo million loss this year on its Obamacare business. Economics tells us losses are bad and profits are good. These sustained losses tell the business owner his business isn’t viable. He should cut his losses and move on to something else. Profits tell the business owner that people value his activity and it should be continued.
Health insurance companies loosing money in Obamacare means the activity should be discontinued in order to stop wasting of resources. It’s that simple.
LETS LOOK AT THE CENTRALLY PLANNED V.A. HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
Two years ago Obama got rid of General Eric Shinseky as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Bob McDonald replaced him. Problem solved, let’s move on to the next problem. Unfortunately they didn’t change the incentives the new Secretary had to make decisions under. If incentives didn’t change, the results won’t change.
Read this article titled, V.A. Spent Millions On Costly Art As Veterans Waited For Care. This headline doesn’t surprise us because we understand “incentives matter”. The underlying incentive for every government agency is to expand its power. Government agencies shouldn’t be judge by the goals they wish to achieve. They have to be judged by the results they produce.
When Senator Joni Ernst offered an amendment to the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (this makes a terrible acronym MCAVARAAA) to specifically prohibit funding for art work (click on article here), it wasn’t even taken up, let alone adopted. This went down to defeat with a Republican controlled Senate!
The V.A. is an example of government run healthcare that has been around longer than Obamacare. If our Republican politicians won’t even change the incentives for something this obvious, what makes us think they will change or repeal Obamcare if they control the House, the Senate and the Presidency?
Thomas Sowell explains political incentives when it comes to wooing black voters in this article titled “Black Votes Matter” (click here). Let’s read some excerpts from the article.
“Black votes matter to many politicians – more so than black lives. That is why such politicians must try to keep black voters fearful, angry and resentful. Racial harmony would be a political disaster for such politicians.”
“Racial polarization makes both the black population and the white population worse off, but it makes politicians who depend on black votes better off.”
“People who expected the election of President Barack Obama to lead to racial healing and a post-racial society failed to take account of the political reality that racial healing and a post-racial society would, at a minimum, reduce black voter turnout.”
“Hillary Clinton desperately needs black votes in this year’s close election. Promoting fear, anger and resentments among blacks – and , if possible, paranoia – serves her political interest. Barack Obama has mastered the art of keeping black voters aroused while keeping white voters soothed – thanks in part to the gullibility of much of the public, who mistake geniality and glib rhetoric for honesty and good will.”
“Obama has repeatedly put the weight and prestige of the presidency on the side of those who denounce the police before any facts are verified – and even after facts have come out, exposing the fraudulence of such claims as the claim that the “gentle giant’ Michael Brown said, “hands up, don’t shoot.”
“When a career race hustler like Al Sharpton, with a history of hoaxes, is a regular visitor and advisor to the White House, that is a reality that whites and blacks alike ignore at their peril.”
“Hillary Clinton plays the same political game of posing as a defender of blacks from enemies threatening them on all sides, as she tries to win an election that would amount to a third term of the Obama administration’s policies – most of which have left blacks worse off than before Obama took office.”
“The Ancient phrase, “By their fruits ye shall know them” has been replaced by the current notion that by their rhetoric you should judge them – and vote for them.”
“One of the key questions this election year is whether black lives matter more than black votes that can be won by racial charades that undermine and endanger those lives. The answer to that question will affect all Americans, because racial turmoil is to no one’s interest, except some politicians and race hustlers.”
Walter E. Williams: What Can Discrimination Explain?
In this related article, What Can Discrimination Explain? (click here), Walter E. Williams looks at racial discrimination to see how much blame it has for the plight of blacks. Here are some excerpts from the article:
“Racial discrimination is seen as the cause of many problems of black Americans. No one argues that racial discrimination does not exist or does not have effects. The relevant question, as far as policy and resource allocation are concerned, is: How much of what we see is caused by current racial discrimination?”
“Some argue that it is the “legacy of slavery” and societal racism that now explain the social pathology in many black neighborhoods…..When I was a youngster, during the 1940’s illegitimacy was around 15 percent. In the same period, about 80 percent of black children were born inside marriage……Today only a little over 30 percent of black children are raised in two-parent households. The importance of these and other statistics showing greater stability and less pathology among blacks in earlier periods is that they put a lie to today’s excuses. Namely, at a time when blacks were closer to slavery, faced far more discrimination, faced more poverty and had fewer opportunities, there was not the kind of social pathology and weak family structure we see today.”
“Intellectuals and political hustlers who blame the plight of so many blacks on poverty, racial discrimination and the “legacy of slavery” are complicit in the sodio-economic and moral decay. But one can earn money, prestige and power in the vistimhood game. As Booker T. Washington long ago observed, “there is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs – partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.”
We’ve all seen Las Vegas style magic shows live or on television. Most of us understand that the person performing the magic is attempting to trick us into believing that what we are seeing is real. Some people actually believe that what they are seeing is real and not an illusion. Fortunately most of us know that what we are seeing is a trick.
Politics is a magic show. Politicians are performers who are constantly perfecting their craft of verbal sleight of hand. The Republican and Democrat conventions are elaborate Las Vegas type magic shows. Politicians are attempting to use the magic of politics to hide the simple truth that Government is force. Some of us know that what they are seeing is an illusion. Unfortunately most people believe that what they are seeing is real.
GOVERNMENT IS FORCE
George Washington –“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force, like fire it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master.”
Let’s show you the reality of Government that politicians try to hide through political magic. These videos are from the Institute For Justice. They show the force of Government, that politicians and bureaucrats can bring to bear against individual citizens.
IRS Threatens Prison For Depositing Cash In Wrong Amounts.
4th and 5th Amendment Violation
Police Take $53k Using Civil Asset Forfeiture Laws.
4th and 5th Amendment Violation
City Zones Popular Mechanic Shop Our Of Business. (Backdoor Eminent Domain)
4th Amendment Violation
Politicians Sue Mom Into Silence Over Newspaper Ads.
1st Amendment Violation.
CONCLUSION
These are not isolated incidents. Things like this are happening all over the country and at every level of government. This is the reality of what government is all about. Politicians use political magic to get control of the levers of power. Neither party wants to shrink the power of government because they know that at some point they will be the ones in charge. The message coming out of the Republican and Democrat conventions is that the size and scope of government will increase. Very few politicians want government power to shrink.
People have to understand that politics is a magic show put on for the purpose of tricking you into believing that what you are hearing is real. If we continue to be fooled by the illusion of politics, government will continue to intervene in every aspect of your life.
What is meant by “the rule of law”? For the answer I’ll refer to the book “The Quest For Cosmic Justice” by Thomas Sowell. In the last chapter titled “The Quiet Repeal of the American Revolution”, Dr. Sowell says:
“All societies proclaim duties and prohibitions which they are prepared to enforce, but not all societies have the rule of law. Neither the individual tyranny of a despot nor the collective tyranny of a totalitarian political party under communism of fascism represents the rule of law, even though there may be many individual laws under both forms of government. The rule of law -“a government of laws and not of men” – implies rules known in advance, applied generally, and constraining the rulers as well as the ruled. Freedom implies exemptions from the power of the rulers and a corresponding limitation on the scope of all laws, even those of democratically elected governments. ….Democracy implies majority sanction as the basis for laws, but democracy by itself implies nothing about either freedom or the rule of law.”
Volumes have been written about the subject Dr. Sowell sums up in this short paragraph. His ability to explain complex concepts with clarity and conciseness, allow us to spend less time and mental effort to gain understanding. We are going to focus on the part about the rules “constraining the rulers as well as the ruled” as we look at Hillary Clinton’s e-mail transgressions.
DOES IT MATTER IF POLITICIANS BREAK THE LAW?
I’ve talked to many true believing Democrats who are not interested in looking at the facts of the case. They say it’s just a Republican witch hunt (right-wing conspiracy). When I tell them that the FBI and the Justice Department are being run by their Democratic President, they don’t even pause to “think” about that fact. At that point I have some fun by saying I agree with the “witch” part in their assessment.
Although the facts we present will fall on many deaf ears, these aren’t the people we are trying to reach. We are trying to talk to people who are willing to listen to the facts and then decide what to think. We call them ‘the people on the margin’.
If you look at the Hillary email scandal through the lens of the R and D political paradigm, the facts don’t matter. If you look at Hillary’s email scandal through the lens of the rule of law, there is no doubt that the case should have been taken up for prosecution. Would a jury have convicted her? That would be a roll of the dice since it would be tried politically. Lets take a look at some facts.
“ (f) Whoever, being entrusted with of having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, codebook, signal book, sketch, photo, graph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information relating to the national defense, (1) THROUGH GROSS NEGLIGENCE permits the same to be removed from its property place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or (2) having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.”
The highlighted area – GROSS NEGLIGENCE – is the standard that has to be met. Section (f) says nothing about intent. The definition of Gross Negligence is – extreme carelessness that shows wilful or reckless disregard for the consequences to the safety or property of another. Section (f) says nothing about intent. The definition of Intent is – the will or purpose which one does an act. Now lets look at what the FBI director said.
STATEMENT BY FBI DIRECTOR COMEY
On July 5th FBI Director James Comey made his statement on the FBI’s investigation into Hillary’s use of a private e-mail system (read the full text here).
He started by stating the purpose of the investigation:
“Our investigation looked at whether there is evidence classified information was improperly stored or transmitted on that personal system, in violation of a federal statute making it a felony to mishandle classified information either intentionally or in a grossly negligent way, or a second statute making it a misdemeanor to knowingly remove classified information from appropriate systems or storage facilities.”
He said that it is a felony to, either ‘intentionally” OR in a “grossly negligent” way, mishandle classified information on a personal system.
He then went on to lay out the evidence they found which showed the mishandling of classified information on her personal system. You can read it by clicking on the link to Comey’s statement above.
Then he uses verbal sleight of hand to try to change the law to mean the standard for prosecution is intent and not gross negligence. Here is what he said:
“Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information”.
By starting with the word although, “Although we did not find clear evidence that …. intended to violate laws….”, he makes you think that intent is the standard that has to be met. He then finishes off the although by saying “there is evidence that they were extremely careless in ….”. By using the phrase “extremely careless” he erases “gross negligence” (the standard for this law) from your mind. This is the verbal equivalent of making a coin disappear in front of your eyes. Politicians and bureaucrats make a living performing this kind of verbal magic. But by definition extremely careless is gross negligence (look at the definition above). That’s all you need to know.
This next statement tells you all you need to know about our ruling aristocracy being more equal than the serfs.
“To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now”
Why did they go through this exercise if they were not deciding whether there should be consequences for illegal actions? He is essentially saying that even though Hillary got away with illegal activity, don’t you try doing the same thing because you will face the legal consequences that she escaped.
COMEY ANSWERS QUESTIONS
Congressman Trey Gowdy asked Comey questions about the FBI investigation. Here is the short video. It is very good. It sums up what we talked about. Even Director Comey agrees with Gowdy.
THE RULE OF LAW
Does it matter to you that the laws don’t apply to the ruling aristocracy? If “your guy” breaks the law can you rationalize it because he is on your team? What are the results of continual law breaking by our government betters?
When we see government officials at every level getting away with breaking the law, they can’t help but think the legal system is set up for the politically connected and it pisses us off. As I have said before, there will be a push back by the benighted masses.
What we are witnessing in our country right now is the break down of the rule of law, or the erosion of a civil society. This didn’t start last week. What happened last week with Hillary, the cops shooting citizens in Minnesota & Louisiana, and the cops getting shot in Dallas was built on a foundation of decades of onerous rules imposed by our ruling elite and law breaking by the ruling elite with no consequences.
Most of us want to be left alone. We don’t need all this government intervention in our lives. Our ruling elite shouldn’t make many rules that go beyond dealing with a person physically harming another or stealing their property. I think we can all agree that our government bureaucrats have driven far past that exit. There are so many rules and regulations on the books I bet you have probably broken a law today without even knowing it. You will get dinged for breaking laws you didn’t even know existed, while Hillary was let off for breaking laws that she absolutely did know existed.
The next time you get pulled over for a traffic violation try saying this and let me know how it turns out: “Officer, Hillary Clinton didn’t intend to break the law and neither did I. There is no clear evidence that I intended to violate the law, and although I was extremely careless, no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case to court.”
If I was the cop I would say, sir you’re right. Here’s your license, have a good day.
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s immortalized The Minutemen who made a stand against British Tyranny at Lexington and Concord in his “Concord Hymn”. Here is the first verse:
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
and fired the shot heard round the world.
Could Brexit be a seminal moment moving forward in the history of liberty? We won’t know until the future unfolds. All we know right now is the UK decided they didn’t want to be ruled by a bunch of unelected bureaucrats who usurped British sovereignty when they went beyond the EU’s original mandate.
The UK was fortunate that they were able to throw off the tyranny of the EU through the political process. They didn’t have to fire a shot. Colonial America had to physically fight to free themselves from British tyranny. The cost of “dissolving the political bands which have connected one with another” is exponentially higher if, in order for you to part ways, you have to fight as opposed to just agreeing to separate. Thank goodness the EU didn’t hadn’t become a military power or maybe this would have turned out differently.
It’s always beneficial for individuals when layers of bureaucratic regulations can be gotten rid of. This allows decisions to be made at the level closest to the individual, which means they have a better chance of working and a better chance of getting changed when they don’t.
I hope the British realize that just because they got rid of the EU central planners doesn’t mean they got rid of the central planning socialists in their Parliament. If the people want more individual liberty they will have to vote in members of Parliament who will stand for individual freedom and vote out members who have supported government solutions to economic problems. This will be difficult because voting to cut the size and scope of Government means many people will have to vote against their own self-interest. For inspiration, the British people need look no farther than Nigil Farage (click here) and Daniel Hannan (click here). These two men were British representatives in the European Parliament. There support for leaving the EU guaranteed they would lose their job. They voted against their own self-interest which is rare among “public servants”.
If the British Parliament and the Bank of England try to centrally plan the British economy through regulation, taxes and money printing, than all the people have done is exchange one set of central planners, who are far away, for a set of central planners who are local. I hope the people who voted to leave understand that if they don’t remain vigilant, their local central planners will see this as an opportunity to grab more power. All but a few politicians and bureaucrats are sucked into the gravitational black hole of Government power. It is hard to resist. No one with this kind of power should be trusted.
How will this end? No one knows. Let’s hope other countries fire political shots, against central planners, that will be heard round the world.
NIGIL FARAGE RUBS SOME SALT IN BREXIT WOUND
Some good articles about Great Britain leaving the EU.
BROVO BREXIT! by David Stockman, at davidstockmanscontracorner.com. Excerpts from the article:
“The central bankers and their compatriots at the EU, IMF, White House/Treasury, OECD, G-7 and the rest of the Bubble Finance apparatus have well and truly over-played their hand. They have created a tissue of financial lies; an affront to the very laws of markets, sound money and capitalist prosperity.”
“…Brexit is a contagious political disease. In response to today’s history-shaking event, determined campaigns for Frexit, Spexit, NExit, Grexit, Italxit, Hingexit and more centrifugal political emissions will next follow.”
“Smaller government – at least in geography – is being given another chance. and that’s a very good thing because more localized democracy everywhere and always is inimical to the rule of centralized financial elites.”
WHAT NOW, BRITAIN?, by Matthew McCaffrey, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article:
“Britain’s historic decision to leave the European Union represents a blow to political centralization. However, it’s also a sobering reminder that the work of advancing peace and economic freedom is never done. Britain may be extricating itself from EU political control, but if its goal is genuine progress and prosperity, it will need to do much more than simply sever its ties with Brussels.”
“Without winning the battle of ideas, the gains from leaving the EU will amount to very little. In this battle, Brexit is not so much a victory as an opportunity…….Brexit offers a chance to once again spread those long-neglected ideals of peace and free trade from which all human progress derives.”
“What an amazing vote. The people of the United Kingdom defied the supposed experts, rejected a fear-based campaign by advocates of the status quo, and declared their independence from the European Union.” Here are some takeaways, thoughts and interesting developments (click on article).”
"THE COORDINATION OF MENS ACTIVITIES THROUGH CENTRAL PLANNING OR THROUGH VOLUNTARY COOPERATION ARE ROADS GOING IN VERY DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS, THE FIRST TO SERFDOM AND POVERTY THE SECOND TO FREEDOM AND PLENTY."
"THERE IS NO SUBTLER, NO SURER MEANS OF OVERTURNING THE EXISTING BASIS OF SOCIETY THAN TO DEBAUCH THE CURRENCY. THE PROCESS ENGAGES ALL THE HIDDEN FORCES OF ECONOMIC LAW ON THE SIDE OF DESTRUCTION, AND DOES IT IN A MANNER WHICH NOT ONE MAN IN A MILLION IS ABLE TO DIAGNOSE."
Most Recent Quote
F.A. Hayek - "Since the value of freedom rests on the opportunity it provides for unforseen and unpredictable actions, we will rarely know what we lose through a particular restriction of freedom."
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Matthew McCaffrey - "Building a freer society means winning the battle of ideas, not the empty contests put on by the central Government every four years. Freedom is never obtained by endorsing the least offensive applicant for the position of chief villain."
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Ludwig von Mises - "The middle system of property that is hampered, guided, and regulated by government is in itself contradictory and illogical. Any attempt to introduce it in earnest must lead to a crisis from which either Socialism or Capitalism alone can emerge."
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F. A. Hayek - "While it may not be difficult to destroy the spontaneous formations which are the indispensable bases of a free civilization. It may be beyond our power deliberately to reconstruct such a civilization once these foundations are destroyed."
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Murray Rothbard - "The market promotes and rewards the skills of production and voluntary cooperation. The Government enterprise promotes the skills of mass coercion and bureaucratic submission...and those who get to the top will be those with the most skill in that particular task."
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John Adams - "Government is instituted for the common good: for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people. And not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men..."
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Milton Friedman - "Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself."
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Chris Rossini - "The state is a monster that destroys. Those who gain control of the levers, choose the targets."
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Murray Rothbard -"It is no crime to be ignorant of economics...but it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance."
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Murray Rothbard -"Democracy can be only a possible route toward a free society rather than an attribute of it. In a purely free society there would be nothing for democratic electors to vote about."
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Robert Bradley Jr. - "When Government tries to pick winners and losers, it typically picks losers. Why? Because the Free market consumers pick winners to leave the losers for Government."
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Benito Mussolini - "Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."
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Ludwig von Mises - "Men must choose between the market economy and socialism....some agency must determine what should be produced. If it is not the consumer by means of demand and supply on the market, it must be the Government by compulsion."
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F. A. Hayek - "The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know, about what they imagine they can design."
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Detlev Schlichter - "Any intervention in the market (by the state) must direct resources away from how private owners would have employed them and toward how state officials and their economic advisers would like to see them employed."
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Henry Hazlitt - "The question is not whether we wish to see everybody as well off as possible....the real question concerns the proper means of achieving it. And in trying to answer this we must never lose sight of a few elementary truisms. We cannot distribute more wealth than is created. We cannot in the long run pay labor as a whole more than it produces."
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Murray Rothbard - "Whether or not man lives at the level of poverty or abundance depends upon the success that he and his ancestors have had in grappling with nature and in transforming naturally given resources into capital goods and consumers goods.... Free markets tend to lead to abundance for all of its participants.... violent intervention in the market and a hegemonic society tend to lead to general poverty."
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Ludwig von Mises - "Inflation and credit expansion are the means to obfuscate the fact that there prevails a nature-given scarcity of the material things on which the satisfaction of human wants depends. The main concern of capitalists private enterprise it to remove this scarcity as much as possible and to provide a continuously improving standard of living for an increasing population.....but however remarkable these improvements may be, there will always be a strict limit to the amount that can be consumed without reducing the capital available for the continuation and, even more, the expansion of production."
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Ludwig von Mises - " It is impossible to grasp the meaning of the idea of sound money if one does not realize that it was devised as an instrument for the protection of civil liberties against despotic inroads on the part of Governments. Ideologically, it belongs in the same class with political constitutions and bills of rights."
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Murray Rothbard - "To reduce the working population while the consuming population remains undiminished is to lower the standard of living."
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Murray Rothbard - "Increasing the money supply confers no social benefit. It relieves no economic scarcity. It simply benefits some at the expense of others."
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Ludwig von Mises - "Political ideas that have dominated the public mind for decades cannot be refuted through rational arguments, they must run their course in life and cannot collapse otherwise than in great catastrophe."
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Milton Friedman - "A society that puts equality- in the sense of equality of outcome- ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests."
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F. A. Hayek - "It has already been suggested that it is not necessary, for the working of this free market capitalist system, that anybody should understand it. But people are not likely to let it work if they do not understand it."
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C. S. Lewis - "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; But those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
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Ludwig von Mises - "For the naive mind there is something miraculous in the issuance of fiat money. A magic word spoken by the Government creates out of nothing a thing which can be exchanged against any merchandize a man would like to get."
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Ludwig von Mises - "Many think that governments are free to achieve all they aim at without being restrained by an inexorable regularity in the sequence of economic phenomena....they maintain that the state is God."
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George Gilder - "Under capitalism, economic power flows not to the intellectual, who manipulates ideas and basks in their light, but to men who gives himself to his ideas and tests them with his own wealth and work."
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Thomas Sowell - "Perhaps the greatest achievement of market economies is in economizing on the amount of knowledge needed to produce a given economic result. That is also their greatest political vulnerability."
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Ludwig von Mises - "Anti capitalistic policies sabotage the operation of the capitalist system of the market economy. The failure of interventionism does not demonstrate the necessity of adopting socialism. It merely exposes the futility of interventionism. All those evils which the self-styled "progressives" interpret as evidence of the failure off capitalism are the outcome of their allegedly beneficial interference with the market."
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F.A. Hayek - "The battle for freedom must be won over and over again, the socialists of all parties must be persuaded or defeated if they and we are to remain free men."
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F. A. Hayek - "Planning, or central direction of economic activity, presupposes the existence of common ideals and common values; and the degree to which planning can be carried is limited to the extent to which agreement on such a common scale of values can be obtained or enforced."
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Thomas Sowell - "In political competition accurate knowledge has no decisive competitive advantage, because what is being sold is not an end result but a plausible belief about a complex process"
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Thomas Sowell - " Taxing away what other people have earned, in order to finance one's own moral adventures via social programs, is often depicted as a humanitarian endeavor, while allowing others the same freedom and dignity as oneself, so that they can make their own choices with their own earnings is considered pandering to greed. Greed for power is no less dangerous than greed for money, and has historically shed far more blood in the process."
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Peter Earle - "In a world of infinate desires and limited means, choices must be made; a study of history and economics reveals that, while markets make no promises, they never lie. The only choice is whether distribution, or redistribution as the case may be, is to be accomplished by the organic, apportioning hand of the price system, or by the corrupt, spoilative claw of states."
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Thomas Jefferson - "....To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with public debt....we must make our choice between economy and liberty or confusion and servitude....if we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and comforts, in our labor and in our amusements.... if we can prevent the Government from wasting the labor of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy."
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F. A. Hayek - "The democratic statesman who sets out to plan economic life will soon be confronted with the alternative of either assuming dictatorial powers or abandoning his plans."
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Jean Baptiste Say - "...The encouragement of mere consumption is no benefit to commerce, for the difficulty lies in supplying the means, not in stimulating the desire of consumption; and we have seen that production alone, furnishes those means. Thus, it is the aim of Good Government to stimulate production, of bad Government to encourage consumption."
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Ludwig von Mises - "The middle-of-the-road policy is not an economic system that can last. It is a method for the realization of socialism by installments."
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Thomas Sowell - "What is politically defined as economic planning is the forcible superseding of other people's plans by Government officials."
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Thomas Sowell - "The market is simply the freedom to choose among many existing or still to be created possibilities. The Government establishes an army or a post office as the answer to a given problem.... The diversity of personal tastes insures that no given institution will become the answer to a human problem in the market."
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Thomas Sowell - "Just as a poetic discussion of the weather is not meteorology, so an issuance of moral pronouncements or political creeds about the economy is not economics."
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Paul Craig Roberts - "We should all be thankful to the Soviets, because they have proved conclusively that socialism doesn't work. No one can say they didn't have enough power or enough bureaucracy or enough planners or they didn't go far enough."
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Alexis de Tocqueville - "Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man, socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality, but notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude."
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George Gilder - "The Real Issue is between the rule of law and the rule of leveler egalitarianism, between creative excellence and covetous "fairness", between admiration of achievement versus envy and resentment of it'.
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Thomas Jefferson - "The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite."
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Judge Leonard Hand - "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; if it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it."
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Ludwig von Mises - "Modern civilization is a product of the philosophy of laissez faire, it cannot be preserved under the ideology of Government omnipotence."
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Ludwig von Mises - "The issue is always the same: the government or the market. There is no third solution."
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H.L. Menken - "Government is a broker in pillage, and every election is an advance auction on the sale of stolen goods"
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F.A. Hayek - "Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one's Government is not necessarily to secure freedom."
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Detlev Schlichter - "Economics is the science of how we use social institutions such as private property and voluntary exchange on free markets to make the best use of scarce resources. The printing press tries to do away with scarcity."
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Thomas Sowell - "The God like approach to social policy ignores the diversity of values and the cost of agreement among human beings."
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Henry Hazlitt - "Whenever men are allowed liberty, and freedom of choice, they will make mistakes. Liberty is not a guarantee of omniscience. But neither are the mistakes of free men a valid excuse to take away their liberty, and impose Government controls in its stead, on the ground that all wisdom and disinterestedness resides in the people who are going to do the controlling."
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Thomas Sowell - "Nothing is easier than to confuse broader powers with deeper insight. But almost by definition, those with the broadest powers are the most remote from the specific knowledge needed for either deciding, or for knowing, the actual consequences of their decisions."
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Ludwig von Mises - "Credit expansion is the Government's foremost tool in their struggle against the market economy. In their hands it is the magic wand designed to conjure away the scarcity of capital goods, to lower the rate of interest or to abolish it altogether to finance lavish Government spending."
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Ludwig von Mises - "Economic history is a long record of Government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for the laws of economics."
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Chaderov - "Since the State thrives on what it expropriates, the general decline in production that it induces by it's avarice foretells its own doom. Its source of income dries up. Thus in pulling society down it pulls itself down."
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Thomas Sowell - "If an informed citizenry is the foundation of democratic Government, than an uninformed citizenry is a danger."
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Thomas Sowell - "The free market works best when there is a level playing field but politicians win more votes by tilting the playing field to favor particular groups."
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Thomas Sowell - "However dramatic or attractive a particular vision may be, ultimately everyone must live in the world of reality. To the extent that reality has been filtered to fit a vision, this filtered information is a misleading guide to making decisions in an unforgiving reality, to which we must all adjust because it is not going to adjust to us."
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Thomas Sowell - "Envy was once considered to be one of the seven deadly sins before it became one of the most admired virtues under its new name "Social Justice"."
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Murray Rothbard - "Bureaucracy incompetent enough to plan a stationary system, is vastly more incompetent at planning a progressing one."
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Ludwig von Mises - "Freedom is incompatible with equality of wealth and income. Men are born unequal and it is precisely their inequality that generates social cooperation and civilization."
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Murray Rothbard - "Government subsidy systems promote inefficiency in production and efficiency in coercion and subservience, while penalizing efficiency in production and inefficiency in predation (plundering)."
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Francisco Capella - "The right of property is a negative right of noninterference. Humans do not have natural positive rights that imply that others must do something for them, and there is no natural duties towards others (present and future). Positive rights and duties arise by means of contracts."
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Victor Davis Hanson - "Social justice sees the Government's proper moral obligation not as ensuring equality out of the starting gate, but as guaranteeing that we will all reach the finish line at the same exact moment."
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F.A. Hayek - "A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a Government with totalitarian powers."
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Thomas Sowell - "People who are very aware that they have more knowledge than the average person are often very unaware that they do not have one tenth of the knowledge of all of the average persons put together. In this situation, for the intelligentsia to impose their notions on ordinary people is essentially to impose ignorance on knowledge."
"Credentialed ignorance is still ignorance."
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Thomas Sowell - "People have to be aware of the dangers in letting economic decisions be made through political processes."
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Winston Churchill - "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."
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George Gilder - "Socialist and totalitarian Governments are doomed to support the past, because creativity is unpredictable, it is also uncontrollable. If the politicians want to have central planning and command, they can not have dynamism and life. A managed economy is almost by definition a barren one.
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George Gilder - "The ambitious agenda of contemporary liberalism simply ensures that Government will do nothing well, except to expand itself as an obstacle of growth and innovation. Government best supports the future by refraining as much as possible from trying unduly to shape it."
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Francisco Capella - "Markets are never perfect because human beings are limited in their abilities; proposing state fixes to alleged problems that individuals cannot solve freely seems to forget that the state is also made up of humans; and perhaps not the best ones. ( Bureaucrats are not disinterested angels, and the worst might get to the top.)"
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George Washington - "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force, like fire it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master."
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Thomas Jefferson -- "I think we have more machinery of Government than is necessary, to many parasites living on the labor of the industrious."
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Thomas Jefferson -- "I sincerely believe with you that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, it's but swindling futurity on a large scale."
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Thomas Jefferson -- "The two enemies of the people are criminals and Government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first."
AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT 