Enough, already! Leave me alone!

I can’t watch the news without feeling the need to be sick to my stomach.  From our pathetic attempts to keep the world peace to the utter nonsense coming out of the mouths of our elected officials, I am often left wondering, “Who is John Galt.”  While this character from Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged may not exist in real life– the legacy of the novel is even more relevant today.  With sales of Atlas Shrugged reaching all-time-highs, I can only hope that enough people will come to their senses in time to stop Obama and the spend-drunk Congress.

I see Congress and the President falling all over themselves trying to spend money they don’t have– then using the “budget deficit” to justify TAX INCREASES.  By the way, ever notice that Congress is EXEMPT from all the laws they pass?  Funny how the lawmakers don’t want to live by the very laws they write– but that’s another issue for another time.

Today, it boils down to this.  LEAVE ME ALONE. I don’t want the “help” of Congress.  I want Congress to help assure that there is a competent Judiciary to adjudicate disputes and I want a decent President to be a statesman (no chance of either, but I can still dream/hope).  Why do these people think it’s their business to interfere in my life?  If I do not have health insurance, that’s my problem– no one else’s.  LEAVE ME ALONE.  Congress can only screw up the economy, not help it.  It comes down to this: the economy is market driven (the invisible hand, a la Adam Smith) and Congress can either let it work properly or it can try to interfere– which never works for long and said invisible hand comes to smack us all HARD for allowing Congress to be STUPID.

I have unending reverence for the accomplishments of the Founding Fathers of our county, and I have continued respect for the U.S. Constitution, but I have zero respect for pretty much ANY elected official in office at this time.  I realize that I may not know everyone, but I can say that the Republicans and the Democrats are both determined to “save the country by destroying it”, a la Lincoln (who I hate for his gross violations of the Constitution in the supposed name of saving said document).

One would assume SOMEONE has an idea what’s going on, but there are no viable third parties. Even the Libertarian Party is wrought with power-hungry morons who wouldn’t know principle-based action if it hit them on the head with a 5,000,000,000 ton brick.  I am left politically homeless, with an insatiable desire to find someone running for public office in whom I can place my trust and admiration.  I’ll keep hoping, but I’m realistic enough to not expect it any time soon.

I love the “ideal” of the United States, but am disgusted by the way that the dream has been wasted on petty, self-serving pragmatists with no morals and no principles.  The funny part though is that I trust opportunists like Hillary Clinton more than most because she is predictable and pragmatic– so at least I know how she plans to screw the country in advance.  The challenge is in dealing with the wild cards like Obama and the religious right.  They are “hell-bent” (to borrow an expression) on destroying America for the sake of their bull-hockey idea of Paradise.  Obama wants some never-never land of people who live like Kings without the necessity of work and the religious right wants a land of mindless zombies who cough up their cash to an charismatic televangelist.

Why won’t anyone accept the fact that I do not want their “help”?  I just want to work with those who agree VOLUNTARILY to do so, and to reap the rewards (or losses) for my own choices and actions.  Why is that so hard for elected officials to grasp?  LEAVE US ALONE.  WE’RE PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF RUNNING OUR OWN LIVES.

Artificial Constructs in the Economy

When I sit back and actually think about the artificial constructs in our economy, I’m not sure if the proper response is screaming or nausea.  You’re probably wondering what on earth is a “artificial construct.”  Well, to put it simply: an artificial construct is a segment of the economy which is not needed nor required in a truly free market.  In other words, an industry or segment which produces nothing of actual value– but yet is basically required by law to exist.

Allow me to start with an “easy” example…  Americans spend more than $300,000,000,000 to get their income tax returns prepared for them.  Can anyone really think that making a tax code so complex that it necessitates such expenditures just to fill in forms can be even vaguely rational?  Why not a flat tax?  No need to divert all those accounting minds away from things like discovering Enron’s malfeasance BEFORE it crashes…it’s more useful to use those minds to prepare 1040 forms….  Right?

Sticking with taxes… what about all the estate attorneys whose sole job it is to protect your wealth from inheritance taxes?  They would not be needed if we eliminate the Death Tax.  But, its not like we could use their help in things like advising prospective homeowners about the implications of 18% home loans or reviewing contracts to prevent bad corporate mergers and deals.  It’s much more useful to put brilliant legal minds to use working out creative ways to avoid paying taxes…  Right?

Think that airplanes are the best way to travel around the country?  Worried about carbon emissions?  Worried about travel safety?  Well, thanks to the Federally funded airport system, most people fly in airplanes…  But who cares that a train can move 1 Ton over 420 miles on a single gallon of diesel fuel (the average car can move 1 ton about 35 miles on a gallon of gas).  Of course, trains can’t be forced to knock down skyscrapers nor do they make appealing terrorist targets–not to even mention the whole thing about how the train simply stops if the engine goes wonky.  But, no one cares about that….  Right?

Then, what about the Federally funded highway system…  shall we even discuss the fuel required to move millions of tractor-trailers around the country since a single train can carry the load of hundreds and hundreds of trucks with a single engine? But, Washington knows that we’d prefer to have our roads full of trucks…. Right?

The list goes on and on, but I’ll stop here for now…  my point is this:  When Congress spends money, it creates artificial constructs in the economy which would not naturally exist–thus de-balancing the system.  Why is it so hard for people to understand that Congress and the President can do NOTHING to help the economy– they can only choose to get in the way or stay out of the way.  And the whole getting in the way thing hasn’t exactly been a success– just take a look at all the mortgages going bad because the CRE (community reinvestment act) encouraged/forced mortgage lenders to make bad loans all in the name of “equal access”.  Well, boys, the piper has come and its time to pay the bill!  What else could that money have been used for….?

“Just a few controls, to protect us!” they whine…

It is amazing to me to listen to people talk about how “just a few controls” are necessary and good.  Controls on what?  They say, “Well, you know those _______! They’d rip off the whole country if we let them!”  This is evidence of a complete lack of understanding of a variety of economic principles, not the least of which is “Supply and Demand.”

To think that a company can charge anything it wishes is ludicrous! How much would you pay for something you want? Only as much as you think it’s worth, right?  If Wal-Mart raised the price of a VCR to $900, would you buy one?  Heck no!  And if any company was stupid enough to charge above-market prices, a competitor will come who will charge a more reasonable price and the price will drop.

But, back to the cries for “good regulation”…

“There can be no compromise between freedom and government controls; to accept “just a few controls” is to surrender the principle of inalienable individual rights and to substitute for it the principle of the government’s unlimited, arbitrary power, thus delivering oneself into gradual enslavement. As an example of this process, observe the present domestic policy of the United States.”   –Ayn Rand

The sad part is that people actually believe the government is capable of regulating the markets.  Wake up, folks!  Only the market is capable of regulating the market!

“There is no way to legislate competition; there are no standards by which one could define who should compete with whom, how many competitors should exist in any given field, what should be their relative strength or their so-called “relevant markets,” what prices they should charge, what methods of competition are “fair” or “unfair.” None of these can be answered, because these precisely are the questions that can be answered only by the mechanism of a free market.” –Ayn Rand

“The concept of free competition enforced by law is a grotesque contradiction in terms. It means: forcing people to be free at the point of a gun. It means: protecting people’s freedom by the arbitrary rule of unanswerable bureaucratic edicts.” –Ayn Rand

Obama’s Pledge to Stop AIG Bonuses is Bonechillling

The headline in my local paper today declared that President Obama has pledged to stop the payment of bonuses to current and former AIG employees. As I sat looking at the headline, I was temporarily paralyzed with fear as to the implications…

“What’s the problem with stopping the bonuses, we gave them that bailout money!” is the cry we hear in the media.

The problem is that President Obama is pledging to VIOLATE A LEGITIMATE CONTRACT– contracts enforceable by Law.  See, the ironic part is that had the U.S. Government “bailed out AIG”, then AIG would have gone into bankruptcy protection (as it rightly should) and the bonus contracts would have been nullified as a primary obligation of the company.  BUT, since President Obama and the Demospenders said “But AIG is essential to preventing bank failures!”, here we are…  AIG is solvent (sort of) and so it is still obligated to pay the bonuses.

How would you feel if your employer owed you a bonus for work you did and then decided it was not good PR to pay you your bonus?  You’d go to Court and sue your employer, I’m quite sure.  You would never say, “Oh, well, it’s for the public good that I do not get my bonus, so that’s ok!”

Let me make my point crystal clear:

If President Obama and the Congress succeed in overturning LEGITIMATE CONTRACTS, then they have placed a massive nail of precedent in the coffin of the free market.

Our ENTIRE ECONOMY is dependent upon contracts being enforceable.  You want to see credit get tight, see what happens if contracts can be voided by Congress and the President just because they are not popular…

It’s simple: The U.S. Government invested in AIG and it has to be responsible for the legitimate obligations of AIG to the extent of their “investment” — just like any other investor.  They don’t get to change the rules just to suit their investment– at the expense of AIG’s employees.

Congress and the President cannot have their cake and eat it, too.  Either they bail out AIG and pay the bonuses, or they let AIG go bankrupt to avoid it (and deal with the consequences either way).

When will people realize that the Government should never, ever tinker in the economy?  The free market is self-regulating, but of course “reality” is not always politically correct.

Seriously, Let’s Apologize for our President to Great Britain!

British PM Gordon Brown & US President Obama

WE THE PEOPLE, of the United States of America, value and hold dear our friendship and cooperation with The United Kingdom, our CLOSEST ALLY in the world.

We recognize that the British people are rightly upset with the behavior of our President Obama during the recent official state visit of Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

This is NOT about policy likes and dislikes, it is not about whether we like our President or not, it is about acting AS the People of the United States–to make it very clear that we value our Friendship with the United Kingdom. It is about trying to make amends for this massive misstep of our President.

Here is what happened (in summary):

In an official state visit by the British Prime Minister, President Obama held NO press conference, had NO British flags, gave the Prime Minister a basket of DVDs (which he can’t play on a European DVD player), President Obama’s wife gave Mrs. Brown a Marine One helicopter model kit, and then…

President Obama–as an ultimate slap in the British face–told Gordon Brown that he is RETURNING the bust of Winston Churchill presented to us by Her Majesty’s government as a show of solidarity after 9/11 (it has been decorating the Oval Office ever since).

I call upon the American people to write to Her Majesty’s government and apologize for the behavior of President Obama. We Americans are not a rude people by nature and it is up to us to make our friendship with the people of Great Britain clear.

Here’s the address to the British Embassy:

The Right Honorable Gordon Brown
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
c/o The British Embassy
3100 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008

Enough is enough

I do not understand it… for years and years and years, we see the thugs in Beijing killing political dissidents, jailing people who think for themselves and generally thumbing their nose at any semblance of human rights– and we do nothing about it.  I, for one, am perfectly willing to stop buying cheap, defective PRC-manufactured crap.

The PRC (People’s Republic of China) is nothing but a thug-run dictatorship.  I don’t want to hear about the supposed “dictatorship of the proletariate” and I don’t want to hear about supposed “egalitarianism” because neither is desirable nor moral.  Thugs deserve a proper end–one at the point of a gun or a hangman’s noose.  That’s exactly what the teapot dictators in Beijing are.

I’m ashamed of my government’s willful lack of spine when dealing with the PRC.  Then again, I’m TOTALLY in favor of severing all ties with Beijing and moving the American embassy to the REAL China…  The Republic of China is the legitimate government of the Chinese people.

I’m horrified that when I tell people that their green tea was picked using slave labor, they just blank out and do not seem to care.  We, as Americans, are proud of our support of equal rights before the law and of freedom– and we’ve spend trillions of dollars trying to help other peoples gain or maintain freedom– yet we turn a blind eye to the attoricities of the PRC thugs in Beijing.

Recent news stories are fillied with how the PRC thugs are delaying meeting with France and whomever else dares to meet with the Tibetan spiritual leader.  What is wrong with these supposed leaders of the PRC?  Or, more importantly, what is wrong with OUR leaders for putting up with such childish antics???

I remember as we all watched the video of a student being run over by a tank in Tianamin Square– and we did nothing substantive.

Now, a scientist from Taiwan working in Beijing has been EXECUTED for “spying” for Taiwan.  Nevermind the silliness of a charge that a Chinese person is spying for China….  The world’s leaders issue “statements of condemnation” with NO teeth.  Um, hello????  The thugs of Beijing murder someone and no one does anything…

I know, I know… the typical line about “soverignty”…  Last time I checked, criminals and thugs are not allowed to murder wontonly.  The alleged government in Beijing does NOT represent the people’s interests.  They represent only their own dictatorial goals and lie about the purpose of doing so.  Let me make this very clear:

MURDERING PEOPLE WHO DISAGREE WITH YOU JUST FOR DISAGREEING DOES NOT MAKE FOR A LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT.

If a dissident’s message is so powerful that it is in danger of causing a revolution, then either the people who claim power need to defeat the dissent through REASON and LOGIC or they need to reevaluate their positions.  After all, a dissident with an impotent set of ideas is powerless to get ahead.

I’m all for the rights of national self-defense, but I’m not for quieting opposition through state-sanctioned murder.

Might does not make right…  REASON makes right.  And yes, that even means that a more free government has the moral right to depose a less-free government for the purpose of making its peoples more free.

I do not accept that ANY people ANYWHERE have the “right” to deprive people of their natural rights– no matter how many their number, nor how supposedly strong their case.  Natural rights exist– it is only a question of whether a government recognizes them or not.

The Four Natural Rights are:

1.  The Right of Life — No one may murder you.

2.  The Right of Liberty — You may do anything you like so long as you do not violate the rights of another.

3.  The Right of Property — You keep anything you earn/buy unless you VOLUNTARILY trade/deal/sell/buy with others.

4.  The Right of the Pursuit of Happiness — You have the right to pursue whatever makes you happy, so long as you do not violate the rights of others.

Back to the China issue…

So here we are…  the most free country in the history of the world, yet we buy tens of billions of dollars of goods from one of the least free thug-states in the world.

END IT NOW.  DEPOSE THE BEIJING THUGS– BY FORCE IF NECESSARY.

China was once a great nation.  Now it is a blemish on the history of a great people.  China will never take its rightful place among the nations of the world so long as they are communist and non-free.

Pessimists and Optimists in Business

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. “

–Winston Churchill

Which way do you approach your business or career?  Are you always telling people why something cannot be done?  Why every idea is “impossible because…”?  Ideas are only impossible if they violate the laws of physics– otherwise its only a question of the challenge level of the idea.

What most people mean when they shoot down an idea is either: a) they do not feel like making the effort, or b) they are too cynical to be of any productive use. 

Most often in my work as a business consultant, I hear, “but I can’t afford to do that!” and my reply is almost always, “you can’t afford not to!”  Then there’s this deer-in-the-headlights look on my client’s face…  If something needs to be done and you want to do it– find a way!  One of the qualities that separates entrepreneurs from general businessmen is the ability to “find a way” to solve challenges and maximize positive results. 

So which is it for you….  glass half empty or glass half full? 

Buy a House: Get a Green Card

Here’s a solution to the housing market that both parties can live with!  I heard this idea at a speech last night put on by the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights…

BUY A HOUSE: GET A GREEN CARD

Wow!  So simple!  Something for both parties!

Democrats should love it because it allows more immigration and Republicans will love it because the resulting flood of immigrants will be over-documented since mortgage firms require even more documentation than the INS…  The surplus inventory of homes would be bought up by people with money or access to credit–which would re-inflate home prices and drive market growth.

I actually really like this idea as a way to help allow more access to America by foreigners wanting to move here– but it does it in a way which bypasses the typical complaints about “poor foreigners coming to the US to mooch off the welfare state”.  (I’ll avoid the obvious opportunity for me to rail against the welfare state for now…)

Seriously folks!  Let’s look into this…  call your elected officials in Congress!  Let’s create a whole new visa for people looking to immigrate to the US… I’m totally comfortable with anyone who can buy a home being granted a Green Card in return (so long as they’re not a criminal by U.S. standards, of course).

The Road to Fascism

October 16, 2008

Washington, D.C.–The government has announced that it plans to use $250 billion to buy ownership stakes in various U.S. financial institutions. According to the New York Times, nine major U.S. banks have already been forced into the program. “The chief executives of the nine largest banks in the United States . . . were each handed a one-page document that said they agreed to sell shares to the government, then Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said they must sign it before they left. . . . ‘It was a take it or take it offer,’ said one person who was briefed on the meeting, speaking on condition of anonymity because the discussions were private. ‘Everyone knew there was only one answer’”–even though at least one institution, the relatively healthy Wells Fargo, wanted to say no.

According to Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, “In herding banking executives into a room and making them an offer they couldn’t refuse, the Paulson regime took its latest and most disturbing step yet on the path to state control of the economy.

“If fascism means coercive state control over nominally private property, then there is no more chilling sign of creeping fascism in America than government’s encroachment on the lifeblood of the U.S. economy–its financial institutions. While the government assures us it will be a ‘passive investor,’ merely funneling cash into the banking system rather than dictating how banks function, this is a lie. Not only does the money come with strings attached–such as restrictions on executive compensation, dividend payments, and the types of investments banks can make–but politicians are already promising a web of further controls. As John McCain recently noted, ‘We will not merely inject billions of dollars into companies and walk away hoping for the best. We will require that those companies be reformed and restructured until they are sound assets again, and can be sold at no loss–or perhaps even a profit–to the taxpayers of America.’

“The Paulson shakedown is the latest in a rapid-fire series of government bailouts and interventions over the last several months. Our leaders claim that this virtual takeover of markets is economically necessary. But it was government control of financial markets that spawned the financial meltdown in the first place: an inflationary boom brought on by the Fed’s easy-money policies, a campaign to promote home ownership that encouraged risky loans, regulations that pushed banks to become dangerously over-leveraged, etc., etc. The response to the crisis should be to restore freedom and to disentangle government from the economy. Instead, the same mentality and the same central planners that created the financial crisis are being given far wider reign to manipulate and distort markets. We must tell our government to reverse this fascist course–now.

### ### ###

Yaron Brook is executive director of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights. He is a regular contributor to Forbes.com and a contributing editor of The Objective Standard. His articles have been featured in major newspapers such as USA Today, the Houston Chronicle, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Providence Journal and the Orange County Register. Dr. Brook is often interviewed on radio and is a frequent guest on a variety of national TV shows, having appeared on the new Fox Business Network, FOX News Channel, CNN, CNBC, and C-SPAN. Dr. Brook, a former finance professor, lectures on Objectivism, capitalism, business and foreign policy at college campuses, community groups and corporations across America and throughout the world.

To interview Dr. Brook or book him for your show, please contact Larry Benson:
949-222-6550, ext. 213
media@aynrandcenter.org

For more information on Objectivism’s unique point of view, go to ARC’s Web site. The Ayn Rand Center is a division of the Ayn Rand Institute and promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.”

Copyright © 2008 Ayn Rand® Center for Individual Rights. All rights reserved.

Ayn Rand Saw This Coming

Ayn Rand Saw This Coming
October 9, 2008

Washington, D.C.– “Despite overwhelming evidence that government policies caused the current financial crisis, Congress is blaming businessmen,” said Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights. “What’s worse, the capitalists who have been shackled with unprecedented regulatory burdens are unable to defend themselves morally. Though the events are different, this pattern of abuse and submission is straight out of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.

“The cycle starts with government intervening into the economy and imposing regulations and controls on business. This distorts the free market, leading to economic dislocations. When the problems caused by these distortions inevitably follow, everyone blames the free market and its greedy capitalists. The proposed solution? More government controls. Over the years, conservative critics of creeping government have repeatedly exposed this illogic but have always been helpless to explain why the cycle keeps repeating, decade after decade.

“The pattern keeps recurring because businessmen are willing to take the blame. From capitalism’s inception, its defenders have been morally disarmed by the widespread view that self-interest is morally suspect, and disinterested service to others is a moral ideal. So each new spate of controls has been grudgingly accepted as a fair price to pay for society’s toleration of the selfish pursuit of profit.

“Atlas Shrugged depicted a society in economic collapse due to this recurring cycle, and today’s parallels are obvious. Government manipulation of money, credit, and lending standards over several decades caused the mess we’re in. Now, the offered solution is more of the poison that sickened the economy–more bailouts, more cheap money, more government-guaranteed loans, and above all, more regulations.

“This chronic cycle will not end until businessmen accept that their production of profit is neither immoral nor amoral–it is the capstone of moral virtue. Once they shrug off the role of scapegoat, businessmen can demand with moral certitude that government punish fraud and enforce contracts but refrain from interfering with voluntary trades among consenting adults.

“When America’s markets are finally free of all coercion–in other words, when laissez-faire is achieved–financial crises such as the one we’re experiencing will never happen again.”

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Yaron Brook is executive director of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights. He is a regular contributor to Forbes.com and a contributing editor of The Objective Standard. His articles have been featured in major newspapers such as USA Today, the Houston Chronicle, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Providence Journal and the Orange County Register. Dr. Brook is often interviewed on radio and is a frequent guest on a variety of national TV shows, having appeared in the new Fox Business Network, FOX News Channel (The O’Reilly Factor, Your World with Neil Cavuto, At Large with Geraldo Rivera), CNN (Talkback Live and the Glenn Beck Program), CNBC (Closing Bell and On the Money), and C-SPAN. Dr. Brook, a former finance professor, lectures on Objectivism, capitalism, business and foreign policy at college campuses, community groups and corporations across America and throughout the world.

To interview Dr. Brook or book him for your show, please contact Larry Benson:
949-222-6550, ext. 213
media@aynrandcenter.org

For more information on Objectivism’s unique point of view, go to ARC’s Web site. The Ayn Rand Center is a division of the Ayn Rand Institute and promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.”

Copyright © 2008 Ayn Rand® Center for Individual Rights. All rights reserved.