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Category Archives: Common Sense

Socialism Score Card

08 Sunday Jul 2018

Posted by Mark in Common Sense, Nation

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Socialism with all of its egalitarian promises is perennially appealing.  But it is a lie that needs to be exposed for the disaster that it is.

Ludwig von Mises put it this way: “To abolish private property in the means of production, to make the means of production the property of the community, that is the whole aim of Socialism.”

In order to abolish private property it has to be confiscated by the government and only then can it become the property of the community. At this point redistribution of wealth takes place – usually to those at the top.  Indeed, this is what the Socialists are always trying to accomplish.

Once the market system has been broken it is left to planners in the government to decide how much of which items that need to be produced.  Of course, this does not and cannot work.  Consider someone trying to plan how many bagels of which type to produce and distribute to every bagel store in New York City every day that customers want.

Inevitably, the leader decides that their people, their community members, are responsible for this failure of the economy. If only they worked harder, contributed more or were not enemies of the state, then the system would run smoothly.  The people will need to be shown that they must sacrifice for the state.  They must be shot, jailed, starved, put in labor camps or suffer in any number of inhuman ways.  And they did:

  • Mao – 40 million killed
  • Stalin- 20 million killed
  • Hitler – 12 million killed
  • Pol Pot – 2 million killed

The Stalin estimate maybe low, (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, thinks 60 million is closer) but even at the 20 million number that is 1,820 people a day or 12,740 a week killed, every week for 30 years. His own people.

Socialism will always lead to results like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ten Pillars for SJWs

13 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by Mark in Common Sense, Nation

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I recently came across an article discussing “Ten Pillars of Economic Wisdom.”  This was put together by a depression era group (now disbanded as far as I can tell) called the American Economic Foundation.   You can read the full article here, but I wanted to summarize the ten points and then look into each of them in more detail as time permits.

The purpose of this exercise, is to provide a tool kit, or at least a framework, with which to think about the issues as we begin to confront and combat our local SJWs and to help us filter out the nonsense that we are subjected to on a daily basis by those on the left.

A basic grounding in Economics along with the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the structure of the Constitution as written will provide the foundation needed to turn back the leftist dogma as it comes up.

So to begin (my comments in parenthesis like this one):

  1. Nothing in our material world can come from nowhere or go nowhere, nor can it be free: everything in our economic life has a source, a destination, and a cost that must be paid. (Short version – no such thing as a free lunch.)
  2. Government is never a source of goods. Everything produced is produced by the people, and everything that government gives to the people, it must first take from the people. (Think Compulsion and Coercion.)
  3. The only valuable money that government has to spend is that money taxed or borrowed out of the people’s earnings. When government decides to spend more than it has thus received, that extra unearned money is created out of thin air, through the banks, and, when spent, takes on value only by reducing the value of all money, savings, and insurance. (Think Debt, Deficit and Inflation.)
  4. In our modern exchange economy, all payroll and employment come from customers, and the only worthwhile job security is customer security; if there are no customers, there can be no payroll and no jobs. (Government cannot provide job security in a market economy.  And by market economy I mean Capitalism.)
  5. Customer security can be achieved by the worker only when he cooperates with management in doing the things that win and hold customers. Job security, therefore, is a partnership problem that can be solved only in a spirit of understanding and cooperation. (Partners not adversaries.)
  6. Because wages are the principal cost of everything, widespread wage increases, without corresponding increase in production, simply increase the cost of everybody’s living. (Damn those minimum wage increase zealots.)
  7. The greatest good for the greatest number means, in its material sense, the greatest goods for the greatest number which, in turn, means the greatest productivity per worker. (Capitalism. Capitalism is the way this works.)
  8. All productivity is based on three factors: 1) natural resources (NR), whose form, place and condition are changed by the expenditure of 2) human energy (HE) (both muscular and mental), with the aid of 3) tools (T). (Labor and Capital but not the fallacious Marxist use of the ideas.)
  9. Tools are the only one of these three factors that man can increase without limit, and tools come into being in a free society only when there is a reward for the temporary self-denial that people must practice in order to channel part of their earnings away from purchases that produce immediate comfort and pleasure, and into new tools of production. Proper payment for the use of tools is essential to their creation. (Technology is important and better tools make better products and requires Capital accumulation.)
  10. The productivity of the tools–that is, the efficiency of the human energy applied in connection with their use–has always been highest in a competitive society in which the economic decisions are made by millions of progress-seeking individuals, rather than in a state-planned society in which those decisions are made by a handful of all-powerful people, regardless of how well-meaning, unselfish, sincere and intelligent those people may be. (Regardless of how well-meaning, central planning does not work.)

Maine Question 3 – Citizen’s Initiative – Background Checks

22 Thursday Sep 2016

Posted by Mark in Common Sense, Maine

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According to the Maine Bureau of Corporations, Elections & Commissions: “Referendum Elections are held to provide Maine’s citizens an opportunity to vote on…Direct Initiatives of Legislation (i.e. Citizen Initiatives)…”.

So why is a mechanism designed to provide Maine citizens a way to influence directly laws in their state again being used by an outside group to impose a national agenda?

It has only been two years since the Humane Society of the United States, based in Washington D.C., pushed an initiative in our state in effort to advance their own agenda. That divisive issue cost Maine citizens a lot of time, money and effort to retain control over our wildlife management.

Once again Mainers are being forced to defend themselves from an outside group that wants to push its misguided gun control agenda on us though our Citizens initiative process.

Question 3 seeks to eliminate gun transfers between unlicensed persons by imposing background checks and criminal penalties. If your friend wanted to borrow your shotgun to go hunting you would both have to go to a dealer, submit to a background check and pay a fee. When the gun is returned, back you both go, pay another fee and submit to a check to get your own gun back. The same background check you needed to buy the gun in the first place.

These transaction costs in both time and money are a restriction on your property and your liberty.

Do background checks work? No. Nationwide, of the 2.4 million people who were initially denied from buying a gun, 96% were falsely blocked. In 2010, 76,000 denials led to 49 prosecutions. Do you think criminals buy guns that require background check?

What we really need is a way to stop out-of-state groups from using our Maine process to promote their agendas.

 

Fundamentals of Liberty – Declaration of Independence

12 Monday Jan 2015

Posted by Mark in Common Sense

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“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Do you believe that? Are we created with “unalienable Rights”?  Do each of us have a right to Liberty?

Or how about this one:

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,-”

Do you believe that? Are Governments instituted among us to secure these rights? Does government get their power from the governed, i.e. us?

We need to be clear on these points because they are building blocks for everything else that follows in our world view.  When you look at the actions that are being taken by our government, actions directed at us, the governed, you really need to understand your relationship to those sections of the Declaration.

What are our rights?  What is the government for?  How does it get its power?

Angus King – Amendment XVII Poster Child

07 Sunday Dec 2014

Posted by Mark in Common Sense

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Angus King, Senator from Maine, demonstrates why he could be the poster child for a repeal of the seventeenth amendment to the Constitution.  He acts in his own interests and not for the people he is supposed to represent.

Amendment XVII was ratified on April 8, 1913 and this amendment changed the way Senators are selected.  Instead of being chosen by the state legislatures as described in Article I Section 3 of the Constitution, they are now directly elected by voters of each state.

This change switches accountability from locally elected State legislatures and places it directly with voters.  Without accountability to the State for an agenda, the senator is free to pursue their own, not the least of which is getting re-elected every six years.

Mr. King touts his independent status, his bipartisan approach and his ability to get things done for Maine.  But a recap of this behavior in the latest Gubernatorial race begs the question of his party affiliation.

Mr. King, apparently not happy with Maine’s sitting Republican governor, endorsed Eliot Cutler, the Independent candidate on August 18th.  According to the Bangor Daily News, Mr. King said the people of Maine should ask:‘Who will make the best governor, who has the ideas, who has the best thinking?’ — Eliot wins. That’s why I believe he’s going to. That’s the calculation.”

But by October, it was looking like Mr. Cutler could not garner enough support to win so King made another calculation. On the 29th, six days before the election, he pulled his support from Cutler and switched to the Democratic candidate.   He assured us in the Portland Press Herald that: “But, like Eliot, I too am a realist. After many months considering the issues and getting to know the candidates, it is clear that the voters of Maine are not prepared to elect Eliot in 2014,” and  “The good news is that we still have a chance to elect a governor who will represent the majority of Maine people: my friend and colleague, Mike Michaud.”

Despite King’s efforts to support anyone but the Republican, Governor LePage was re-elected.  In addition, the Republicans also won the state Senate.  This however did not seem to influence King and he was not done.

The day after the election he made an announcement that despite the Republicans winning the Senate (in Washington)  he will continue to caucus with Democrats. But don’t misunderstand him, when it comes to the Senate “Nothing can or will happen without bipartisan support.”

Mr King is not really interested in bipartisan support.  We now have a Republican controlled Senate along with our state legislature.  If this Senator was accountable to his state lawmakers he would have to represent us and not be so quick to make another calculation.

Instead, he is a Democrat masquerading as an Independent whose calculations are designed to further his own interests and career.  He is why we should consider repealing the seventeenth amendment.

What’s wrong with the Constitution?

28 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by Mark in Common Sense

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The short answer is nothing.  The document is the framework of our government. Powers among the three branches are clearly enumerated.  Article II – Section 1 prescribes the oath of the office for the President of the United States as follows:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

So how then can President Obama, who took that oath twice, completely ignore it?  As late as October 2013 he acknowledged that as President he has no power to act on his own to create law, that he can only enforce the law.

Yet last Thursday that is exactly what he did when he announced his executive order on illegal immigration (or was that “Undocumented” immigration).

Article II gives the President no right to create laws, he must enforce the law as enacted by Congress as described in Article I.  His action last week was a creation of law and as such was a direct violation of the Constitution.

What is wrong with the Constitution? Nothing.

The real question is: What is wrong with this President?

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