And We Wonder

Liberal economist Robert Reich is all over the internet these days explaining that our economic problems would end if banks extended more credit to Americans of modest means.  There’s the path to prosperity - take on more debt.  

And Congress has recently moved to legalize internet gambling in order to generate government revenue.  Debt and gambling – this plan gets better.    

A liberal friend sent me a link to a piece that advocated mandatory unionization of all working Americans.  Debt, gambling, and unions – because it worked so well in Detroit.     

President Obama finally got into the debt ceiling negotiations this week, demanding $600 billion in new taxes.  Debt, gambling, unions, and taxes – that’ll put the “gee” in GDP!   

And he proposed a standard for fuel efficiency that no car can meet.  Debt, gambling, unions, taxes, and no driving – look out, China!  We’re back!  

The President also announced some convoluted public/private partnership with 11 of our largest corporations.  Here’s how it works: we give them billions to invent things we don’t want and they take it. Debt, gambling, unions, taxes, no driving, and malinvestment – heart, heart, smiley, winkey, LOL, whatever that stuff means.

What else…oh, yeah, he wants to get rid of ATMs.  Debt, gambling, unions, taxes, no driving, malinvestment, and no cash.   I’m thinking Nobel Prize #2.

Treasury Secretary Geithner said we must shrink the private sector in order to grow the public sector.  Debt, gambling, unions, taxes, no driving, malinvestment, no cash, and more government.  Take that, Arthur Laffer! 

And finally, ex-czar Van Jones is back in the news, announcing the country is not broke because you still have some money; he is forming his own Tea Party to take it from you.  So there's the whole plan – debt, gambling, unions, taxes, no driving, malinvestments, no cash, and communism. 

And we wonder why our economy is in the ditch. 

These are the same guys who tell us we need to increase the debt ceiling.  They want us to co-sign for a few trillion of new loans so can keep spending money they don’t have on things we don’t need.  And their plan to pay it back?  Debt, gambling, unions, taxes, no driving, malinvestments, no cash, and more government.   

Not only does this insanity make sense to liberal economists, but they warn that if we don’t let them borrow more money, there will be bad consequences.  Really? Worse than the collapse of the dollar and interest rates with a comma in them?  Here’s a consequence, Mr. Bernanke: everything you have tried has failed; go lay by your dish.     

Van Jones is half-right.  The nation is not broke; it is our government that is broke.  Not because we don’t give them enough money; we will give them $2.6 trillion this year.  It is because the twitterin’ wieners on Capitol Hill spend $1.4 trillion more than that.  If we gave them $10 trillion they would spend $15 trillion – and it would still be still be your fault that kids can’t read.  Because you are a greedy racist, that’s why.   

There is no reason to pass another debt ceiling authorization; we already have one.  And if the one we have doesn’t mean anything, then why bother with another one?

On second thought, Van Jones is right - the federal government is not broke, it owns almost $6 trillion of land.  Put it on E-bay, with no reserve.  Can’t bear to part with it?  My son didn’t want to sell his Mustang dragster either, but he had bills to pay. Man up, Geithner. 

If the IRS can force Green Bay Packer legend Fuzzy Thurston to sell his Super Bowl ring to pay his debts, we can sure as hell force President Obama to sell off a few million acres to cover his golfing and Michelle’s trips to Africa and the lunacy that is the Obama EPA. 

So what will you give up, Mr. President – trees or tree-huggers?  You’re pro-choice, so make one.  And leave our old Packers alone, you heartless Bear-loving Blagonad.
  

“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.  Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.    

Tawana Who?

This week’s contrived liberal yawner is the choking accusation against Wisconsin Supreme Court judge David Prosser.  Two words: Tawana Brawley.

On Sunday, the news media reported that two weeks ago Justice Prosser suddenly grabbed pro-union Justice Ann Walsh Brawley…er…Bradley by the neck and tried to choke her in the presence of four other Supreme Court judges.

My first reaction to the story was bewilderment.  Why would the liberal flash mob who filed lawsuits and complaints over the method of notice used in a legislative committee hearing hold their fire when a real live felonious assault is committed by their arch-nemesis - an old, white, conservative man?   

And then on Monday we learned that witnesses to the incident (Supreme Court judges, no less) said it was Justice Brawley…er…Bradley that charged at Prosser with fists raised, while Prosser defended himself from her attack.  The old she said/they said thing.

There are two possible explanations for why Justice Brawley…er…Bradley did not file a complaint after being choked and why no assault charges were filed by Capitol Police who investigated the incident:  a) liberals feel sorry for old white conservative men, or b) it never happened.  I’m thinking b).

Besides, I watch COPS; I know how this works.  The girl in the tank-top calls the cops when the mullet guy with no shirt pushes her to get more beer from the fridge.  The cops talk to each of them separately while they smoke, and then they slap the cuffs on mullet guy while tank-top girl screams at them to let go of her may-un.

It doesn’t matter if she changes her mind or her story; the dude is always guilty in a case like this and he clunks his head as they push him into the cruiser.  Did Prosser get his head clunked in a cruiser?  No, he did not - and that’s good enough for me.   Besides, the mullet people don’t have Supreme Court justices as witnesses, only cousins or maybe his momma if she is good bleep-out material.

But now that some “journalist” has broken the Justice Brawley…er…Bradley version of events, the Capitol Police have referred the matter to the Department of Administration, who kicked the can over to the Dane County Sheriff, who will investigate the matter and make a recommendation to the Dane County District Attorney, the guy whose lawsuit was being discussed when Wrestlemania IV supposedly broke out in chambers.  How convenient.

This will undoubtedly take union law enforcement weeks and weeks to sort out; after all, there are many evening newscasts to fill and papers to print before the recall elections, and the socialists need to get all of the free negative media coverage of their enemies as possible before then.

This shouldn’t take weeks.  My mom and dad could figure out which of us three boys was lying and which one was the instigator in minutes.  In fact, I bet every parent reading this could spend 10 minutes with Justice Prosser and 10 minutes with Justice Brawley…er…Bradley and get this caper solved with plenty of time left for a lecture to the perpetrator about lying.  Am I right, moms and dads?

I’ll tell you who is in a choke-hold; it is the people of Wisconsin who are forced to watch the hysterical over-reactions of the lefties in this state week after week.  These nimrods have lost control of their bowels ever since they lost the election in November and can’t tell the rest of us what to do anymore.

What’s next, commies?  You going to throw acid on our face and scream “if I can’t have you nobody can?”   I know what is really bothering you; Walker and his Republicans are making fixing your mess look easy.  I have to admit, I thought it would be much harder myself.  This one’s easy to fix, too: Supreme Court judges wouldn’t go around charging at each other now that their adversary might be packin’ heat under that robe.  You’re welcome.

It is, of course, possible that Justice Prosser actually choked Justice Brawley…er…Bradley.  Just as it was possible in the beginning that somebody actually hacked Weiner’s Twitter or however you say that with a straight face.  Did you believe him, even for one minute?  Me neither.

Maybe at the socialist sing-a-long down at the Capitol they should add “What A Fool Believes” to their repertoire.  Seems appropriate. 



“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.  Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.    

Family Planning

Planned Parenthood has been defunded by four states, igniting the shovel-ready protests of the abortionist lobby, which called the budget actions (yawn) a “war on women”.

Well, half-right. It’s actually just a war on women who feel entitled to a do-gooder merit badge on somebody else’s dime.  

Teri Huyck, President of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, issued a statement which said, “It is greatly disturbing to me that some politicians’ personal beliefs are trumping our shared responsibility to make sure women and men have access to reproductive health care…”  blah, blah, blah.

Just stop it.   

First of all, there is no shared responsibility to provide access to reproductive health care or any other product or service – none whatsoever. 

Secondly, the personal belief at work here is the personal belief of Ms. Hyuck that you and I are obligated to pay for someone else’s abortions.  Not.

Thirdly, it was not “some politicians”, that voted to cut funding for Planned Parenthood, it was a majority of the legislators elected by the people.  

So apparently what is “greatly disturbing” to her is that duly elected representatives “trumped” her personal belief in a budget priority decision.  How dare they.

I would suspect what is really bugging Ms. Huyck and her pals is that she knows voluntary donations will not be enough to pay her salary and provide the budget for “advocacy” that gets her name in the papers.  Without a public subsidy, her profession is unsustainable.  They must not tell them that in advocacy school.

Priorities become evident in crisis; Planned Parenthood’s response to reduced funding has been to keep its abortion clinics open and increase spending on political advocacy, while closing clinics that perform those other health services they tout when laying the guilt trip on the rest of us.  That is how much they care about cancer screening, teen counseling and low-income women. 

Conservatives want to defund Planned Parenthood because it is the nation’s largest abortion provider.  Libertarians want to defund Planned Parenthood for all the other things it does. Liberals want to increase funding for Planned Parenthood on principle – the principle that liberals are entitled to always get their way on someone else’s money.

The idea that government is obligated to provide “reproductive health care” is ludicrous – there is no right to it.  There is, however, an explicit right to bear arms – so why aren’t Ms. Hyuck and her fellow professional advocates out there marching to get me the Beretta that I deserve?  Why are there no ammo clinics?  Huh?  Huh?
   
Better yet, try this minor change to her statement: “It is greatly disturbing to me that some politicians’ personal beliefs are trumping our shared responsibility to make sure women and men have access to Tim Nerenz’ new book, Capitalista!

What’s that you say?  People have to buy it themselves? The state won’t give them one on demand?  Damn you, Scott Walker and your War on Reading! I am greatly, greatly, greatly disturbed!  Where’s my drum?  Recall them all! 

This whole “it takes a village” crap of the shared-responsibility left is asinine. Look where it got Africa, where the saying originated.  The continent with the most natural resources on the planet is also the poorest, the sickest, the most corrupt, the most violent, and the least free.  That’s what you get when the individual is surrendered to the collective.
  
For the first 50 years of its existence, Planned Parenthood somehow managed without public funding.  It was not until 1970 that Richard Nixon opened the door for them to get their snouts in the public trough - as if we needed one more reason to dislike the guy.

And no surprise, government intervention into the family planning business has been an unmitigated disaster.  Teen pregnancy rates have shot through the roof, illegitimacy is the norm, STDs are rampant, and tens of millions of lives have been aborted.  The institution of marriage has been weakened, and all manner of social pathologies have been the result.   If that’s what planning does, give me chaos.    

Before there was government, there was scorn.  Avoiding shame was how families were planned, along with those old-fashioned notions of love and commitment and sacrifice.

It worked a lot better and it was free.  The consequences of sex were the responsibility of the two participants; not a village, and not a line item in a state budget.  It was shameful to get knocked up, or to do the knocking, or to contract a disease, or have to endure the smirks at a shotgun wedding.

Boys had bad ideas and girls had the final say; a sneak preview of the realities of married life.  For most teenagers, it was our introduction to personal responsibility on a major scale – the first decision with a consequence mom and dad could not fix; our first life-changer. 

For thousands of years, billions of people have figured out the dynamics of love, sex, child-rearing, families, and health without the need for professional advocates funded by government.  We amateurs have done much better at it with the help of our families, churches, friends, and neighborhoods, frankly.

Getting government out of the family planning business is a good thing.  That’s one down and about a thousand other industries to go.  Let the whining begin.


“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.  Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.    

Class Warfare

While the civil war between taxpayers and taxeaters rages on across the nation, the battle here in Wisconsin has devolved from class warfare to a war on class.           

Even the Democrat State Senators who went AWOL (the opening salvo in the war on class) have had it with the juvenile antics of their fellow unionists and entitlement cranks.  It’s pretty bad when you annoy folks who think running away is the grown-up thing to do.  

Last week a couple of moonbats bike-locked their heads to the railing in the Senate chamber and tried to shout down the pledge of allegiance.  The week before, a group dressed as Zombies inserted themselves into a ceremony honoring Special Olympians.  Classy.

The head of the state’s firefighters’ union held a press conference after the state Supreme Court upheld the legality of the Budget Repair Bill to drop an F-bomb or two and warn us taxpayers to get our “knuckles ready” for a fight.  That same day, a State Senator’s office was stink-bombed.  Very classy.

Wisconsin’s Democrat Secretary of State is delaying the publishing of the budget bill to allow local unions to sign contract extensions before it goes into effect, forcing more job cuts than necessary and pinning the cuts on Governor Walker.  And gay activists, apparently worried that they were not being obnoxious enough in the Segway era, have now taken to throwing glitter on those who disagree with them.  So classy.

A tent city called “Walkerville” has popped up on the Capitol square, and a journalist filming the activities there was accosted by a guy in a pink dress.  And what would a week of protests in Madison be without another round of death threats and profanities emailed to legislators who voted for a balanced budget.  How classy.

This one’s nice: a teacher made her children draw pictures of Governor Walker as the devil.  And over the weekend, veterans returning from the war had their homecoming marred by Walker protestors who could not stop the pity party for even one hour out of respect for those who have given up months and even years of their lives to protect our freedoms.  How very classy.

Disrupting blood drives, elementary school classrooms, Special Olympic ceremonies, veterans’ homecomings, and legislative proceedings is not what democracy looks like; it is what pathetic losers look like.  Your mommies must be so proud.

Look, Democrats, I know how much it hurts to lose elections - I’m a Libertarian, remember?  But get over it, like we do. You are losing votes in the next one with each air horn blast and profanity-laced drool.  And you are making the whole state look bad by disrupting events that have nothing to do with you and your pay.

Besides, I can’t imagine that you have persuaded a single person to come around to your way of thinking by your obnoxious and offensive behavior.  Maybe Governor Walker is the jerk you say he is, but not if we are grading on a curve – you guys got the whole d-bag honor roll sowed up.

When the Republicans cratered on Constitutional Carry, did you see us gunners out spray-painting the entrance at Bed, Bath, and Beyond?  No, you did not.  Because we are responsible adults, that’s why.  All it takes is to listen to that little voice in the back of your head that says, “don’t be a ‘hole”.  

By all means, protest and rally to your hearts content – it’s still a free country, despite your best efforts to turn it into a socialist adult day care.  Fill up Camp Randall, blow your horns, and beat your drums until your fingers bleed.

But let the people who live and work around the Square have some peace, for God’s sake.  You have been disturbing it for months now, and they have done nothing to deserve you.  And leave our returning veterans and their families alone; you do not deserve them. 

And speaking of the working class, I hope you tentwads don’t have the misguided notion that all your no-class antics are helping working people. Any business thinking of moving to Wisconsin or expanding here gets a daily reminder on YouTube of the lunacy that lurks just one election away from running the state again. 

And if you don’t think that businesspeople take things like that into account when deciding where to invest and create jobs, then you are too dumb to be carrying something as dangerous as a bike lock.

In fact, I think the legislature should pass a law that requires a permit and training to carry a bike lock, since more people locked their own heads to railings last week than shot themselves accidently with open carry.  Guns are much safer.

Give it up, already.  Walker won, Prosser won, the recount is over, the courts ruled, the budget passed, and the recalls aren’t going to mean squat.  It’s over. 

Rest up for Right To Work, because that’s the big enchilada – it will determine the economic trajectory of this state for the next 50 years.  And when the time comes, let’s fight that fight with some class.  Our kids are watching.    


“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.  Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.

Un-American

Many Americans have forgotten who we are, and many more were never properly taught. This nation was founded with liberty as its first principle; it is liberty that made us exceptional, and exceptionalism that made us great.  Simple formula, really.

Citizens of the United States are independent and separate from our government.  Our government exists only to protect our rights; rights that are endowed to us by our Creator.  This is the distinctive American understanding of the relationships between our God, His people, and their government. 

We are a nation of limited, defined government powers, distributed across several authorities and jurisdictions to preserve the sovereignty of the individual.  We are nation of law, not of laws, where the Constitution prevails over the ambitions of partisans.  We are a Constitutional republic, not a democracy.

We trust our prosperity to free market capitalism, the only economic system that respects the principle of self-ownership.  We own our individual economic capacity, and we are free to trade or retain our labor and our property as we see fit.  We are not victims of economic exchange; we are empowered actors who secure our own prosperity through innovation, industriousness, and trade. 

Free to choose; that is the American idea condensed to its essence.  Equal at the starting line; free to determine our finish line for ourselves. All of our freedoms are freedom from government.  The Bill of Rights does not list grants from government; it is a recounting of specific prohibitions and limits put upon government as a condition of its employment.

If there were no government whatsoever we would be free to speak, associate, worship, bear arms, publish, secure our homes, defend our honor, and reserve testimony.  Creating a government to protect those rights does not diminish them.  The mansion owner does not turn the deed over when he hires the lawn boy. 

Individual rights, self-ownership, free trade, private property, and limited government are the original American ideals we revere.  Their opposite numbers are by definition un-American - group rights, collective claims, trade-by-permission, public property, and unlimited government.   They may be what we have become, but they are not who we are.  I pray.

Those are the un-American ideals that guide the liberal/progressive movement; a movement which has dominated our politics and government for a century now.  Creeping socialism is not progress; it has brought our nation to the brink of ruin.

It is un-American to require citizens to purchase their rights from government.  It is un-American to force individuals to join unions.  It is un-American to dictate wages, prices, working conditions, and benefits.  It is un-American to legislate from the bench.  It is un-American to rule by decree using executive orders to circumvent the legislative process.  Forced equality of outcome is a fundamentally un-American goal.

It is un-American to grant special government privileges to one group at the expense of others.  It is un-American to subsidize industries, corporations, and technologies.  It is un-American to tax some citizens and not others.  It is un-American to invade other nations without a declaration of war.  It is un-American to take from those who earned and give to those who did not.  Redistribution of wealth is the primary objective of socialism; it is a particularly un-American goal.

The Democratic Party has sold out entirely; the Republicans only somewhat less so.  Socialist government is like a grizzly bear mauling and devouring everything it encounters. Democrats want to rile it up and point it towards their successful neighbors, while Republicans think they can potty train it to keep its crap out of their family rooms. Libertarians want to kill it, or at least send it back to Canada. 

Restoring American to greatness will happen in spite of, not because of, the establishment political parties.  There are only two paths forward: more liberty or more government. One leads to prosperity, the other, Greece.  One guides the tea party movement, the other, the public sector union protests.

We will not fix the problem of too much government by choosing a new management team every four years.  We must hire a demolition crew to dismantle the apparatus of the state and pare the beast back to its only purpose – to protect our rights and our property.  That is the job the 2012 Presidential hopefuls should be applying for.

The way forward is to go back - back to the founding principles that made America great in the first place.  America will be great again as soon as we quit being un-American.  Let’s start now.


“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.  Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.
 

Living Wage

Here is the truth we all hate: we get paid what we are worth.  Plus or minus a temporary distortion that will be restored to equilibrium by the market in due time, of course. 

And everyone earns a living wage, too – just not equal to the living we would like to do.  We all would like to get paid a lot more for doing what we like, but the value of what we do is only determined by what someone else is willing to freely pay for it.  Riding around on a Segway and yelling is just not worth very much, no matter how good you get at it. 

Those who advocate for a government-mandated living wage should instead focus on increasing the worth of those whose labor is not worth very much.  A law cannot turn $5 worth of labor into $10 worth of labor, it can only make $5 worth of labor cost $10.   That’s why the jobs aren’t coming back. 

Whenever we read about some CEO or Wall Street trader making tens of millions of dollars, we compare it to our income and think it is grossly unfair that anyone should make that much.  Instead, we should ask ourselves what those guys and gals do that is worth $20 million more than the law requires someone to pay them. 

Can you manage a multi-billion hedge fund that will beat market returns?   I can’t.  Do you even know how derivatives work?  I don’t.  Can you run a profitable multi-national corporation with tens of thousands of employees?  Not me.  What did you do last year that you should have been paid millions for?  Perform delicate surgeries?  Arrange a merger?  Host a hit TV show?  Invent a new drug?  Build a killer app?  Cure a disease?  Run a casino?  Win the Super Bowl?   Me neither.

If you make $20/hour, it is because the value of what you produce in that hour of work is $21 or greater.  If the value of what you produce is only $10, then guess what – you aren’t going to make $20.  And certainly not $20 million, regardless of what Oprah makes, and regardless of what her opinion of a living wage is.

The notion that every job should pay a living wage is one of those emotionally satisfying ideas that make no rational sense. Whose lifestyle are we entitled to – Lindsay Lohan’s or some monk who eats pond grass?  And what does what we would like to spend have to do with what our work is worth, anyway?  

If two people both make the same widgets at the same rate, should the one with 6 kids and a bad nicotine habit get paid four times as much as the single person with frugal tastes?   What does the chain smoking family man do that is worth four times more?  And who will pay four times as much for his widgets?   Not me.   

Get ready, Wisconsin, because the news media loves to sensationalize boring government budget issues with the heartbreaking stories of people at the margins who will be shattered by any proposed reductions in the size of government. It started already: “How can I live on $15,000?” pleads the tearful mother who is paid only minimum wage.     

We are supposed to be moved to give her another $5,000 or $10,000 or whatever the magic number liberals have attached to the term “living wage”.  We are called greedy and uncaring if we even question the premise that it is our duty to subsidize her family.  Tell me, what is so caring about people who earn six figures demanding those who earn seven subsidize those who earn five?  Generosity is when you give your own money; looting is when you give someone else’s.    

They ignore the reality that the $5,000 or $10,000 must be taken away from working people with families of their own who are struggling just as hard to live on their wages.  No one writes their story; there are no zombies publicizing their cause, no drummers banging out their grievance, no chanting and rallies and boycotts on their behalf.     

“How will I live?” is the wrong question for that mother to ask, and we are the wrong ones to be questioned.  The right question, the one she needs to ask herself, is, “why is my labor still only worth $15,000 after 20 years of working?”  Hoping to be paid more, expecting to be paid more, even demanding to be paid more will not make that mother worth more.

She needs to acquire skills and develop competencies that will pay her three or four times what she is worth now.  She will not acquire those skills from food stamps, rent subsidies, Badger Care, the EIC, or voting for either Democrats or Republicans.

She must improve her skills herself; it is her responsibility to be worth more and hers alone.  It is kindness to tell her so in plain language; it is unkindness to continue the deception and call it progressive. 

Only when she is worth more will she earn more. She must take courses, seek training, earn certificates and credentials, practice, and gain experience. And she must develop judgment, technical competence, trade mastery, interpersonal skills.  She must not wait to be promoted; she must make herself promotable.  And it will be very hard - no one is carried out of poverty; we all crawled. 

In the process of increasing her worth, she will do something more important; she will liberate herself.  She will declare her independence from government.  She will own herself and she will have something of great value to pass on to her children – pride. 

Statists will tell her she can’t make it on her own, and they will smugly convince themselves they are right.  But they will not convince those of us who have done it, because we know better.  And they are no friends of the working poor, who will achieve no more than they believe. 

Perpetual dependence on the state is not living, and no dependent wage is a living wage.  The only way to be independent is to earn more, the only way to earn more is to be worth more, and being worth more is our own responsibility. 



“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.  Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.

Poster Kids

The confrontation between Wisconsin taxpayers and their public sector unions has been focused on what we pay them.  But yesterday, the Department of Education (President Obama’s, not President Bush’s) turned our attention to the more important question of what we are getting for our money, when it sanctioned the Madison School District for inadequate quality.     

Yes, the People’s Republic of Madison - crème de la crème of liberal progressivism, the state-workers’ paradise, greener than thou, smarter than thou, more just than thou, holier than…oh, wait, that would be a religious reference and probably against a city ordinance…gun free, smoke free, bike-ridin’, drum-beating, sandal-wearing, tent-camping Madison, where 2+2=tax the rich.  

It turns out that Madison teachers and administrators – the ones who took off work on fraudulent doctors excuses to protest the budget reform bill that saved thousands of their jobs - can’t teach very well, either. They are very well paid, enjoy a stacked school board, and work under extended contracts that preserved their sacred WEAC monopoly benefits; they are the poster kids for the status quo.  

Poster kids, indeed.  Madison is one of only six districts in the state of Wisconsin that could not meet the minimum national (that would include Mississippi) standards for tested student proficiency.  That is six out of the state’s 420 school districts – only 1.4% that couldn’t cut it.  You take the numerator and divide it by the denominator, and...oh, never mind. 

Predictably, Madison school officials and leaders in the capital’s educational community blamed the test, apparently oblivious to the embarrassing fact that over 98% of school districts in the state managed to achieve the national (that would include Texas) standard that Madison could not.       

No, the problem is not with the tests or with the kids.  The problem is with the people running the schools and the classrooms in the 1.4% of districts that are inferior (big word, lots of syllables, means not as good) to the districts who have focused on their own kids instead of obsessing over some other school’s mascot.      

We teach our young business leaders that losers will reveal themselves in the language they use.  The radars should go off when you hear the “three F’s”: it’s not Fair, it’s not my Fault, and it’s not mine to Fix.  

In the Wisconsin State Journal article on the sanctions today, Adam Gamoran, Director of Wisconsin Center for Educational Research, said that standardized testing “made no sense” (it’s not fair); superintendent Dan Nerad said the district is following the plan approved by state Department of Public Instruction (it’s not my fault); and State Superintendent has asked for Congress to change the testing law (it’s not mine to fix).

Danger, Danger!  Warning, Will Robinson!  Hand sign to forehead, loser alert.       

This year’s national (that would include Alabama) standard was only 80.5% proficiency for reading, and 68.5% in math.   Do you know what the proficiency requirement is for entry-level work in our factories?  100%.  Many, if not most, employers administer the same or even tougher basic testing for applicants, and there are no stickers, stars, or do-overs when a job is on the line.

Why?  Because we cannot take on the safety risk of hiring someone who can’t read a warning label, and we can’t afford the scrap costs from employee who can’t measure or calculate or know when a computer result is in error.  What value can someone offer in exchange for a wage if they cannot even fill out their timecard correctly?   We are not the remedial class for schools who won’t educate their kids.   

I intentionally said “won’t”, because it is a choice.  Three school districts in this state – Madison, Milwaukee, and Racine - make up the bulk of the 228 individual schools which failed to meet the national (that would include Arkansas) standards.  There are 2,072 other schools that met those national (that would include North Carolina) standards.  They did their job, so no one can say it can’t be done.  

Those Madison kids who can’t read or cipher will not work in high paying jobs; they will be looking up at the person who operates the cash register, if they work at all.  Our middle class is not shrinking because a few people make too much; it is shrinking because less and less people coming out of school and into the workforce are able to acquire the skills that are worth middle class wages.

Mr. Gamoran tells us that the 2014 goal of 100% proficiency in math and reading is “unrealistic”.   I agree with him to a point; under the current system of union-run government monopoly schools led by people who believe they cannot win, that assessment is 100% (that means 100 out of 100, Madison school system graduates) accurate.  

But then we part company.  Every single child is teachable, and every single one deserves to be proficient in reading and math. That is why we need to bust the union-government monopoly on education and provide every Wisconsin parent with real school choice. 

Choice and competition will increase the quality of education and lower its cost.  We can’t afford to throw another generation away to indulge the fantasies of the ideologues that have been running our public schools into the ground for decades. 

There is no shortage of sanctimonious world-savers posing and preening and lecturing us about civic morality in our state capital; my advice to them is to turn down the volume and narrow the scope – see if you can save Leopold Elementary School first and then work your way up to the whole world.     

And while you are at it, take some time to watch the pictures and video clips of today’s union protests in Madison.  Watch them over and over and over.  Those folks dressed up as zombies and disrupting a Special Olympics ceremony to stick it to…who even knows who you losers are trying to stick it to anymore…those are the minds you have molded; they are your work product; that is your team.   

They busted on the Special Olympics.  You must be so proud to know that you were able to take children entrusted into your care and use your positions of authority to turn them into soul-less human garbage.  Two words: Own It.    

“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.  Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment and watch for the upcoming release of his new book, “Capitalista!”    

Education Reform

The ultimate libertarian solution to the education crisis is to abolish government-run schools altogether; in the meantime, we can improve public schools, and it is not as difficult as the entrenched education bureaucracy has made it out to be.   

First, abolish the federal Department of Education and the state Departments of Public Instruction.  Next, cut funding from the current roughly $11,000 per student we pay now down in Wisconsin to $8,000.  You’re welcome, taxpayers.    

Divide that sum equally between the teachers and the principal.  With a nominal class size of 30 students, a teacher’s baseline salary would be $120,000.  You’re welcome, teachers.    

Then multiply the teacher’s base salary by the rate of student proficiency he/she produces as measured by standard testing.  We’re not talking straight A’s here, just proficiency.  You’re welcome, suddenly proficient students.

A teacher that produces 100% proficiency would earn $120,000; a teacher that achieves only 40% proficiency would earn only $48,000.  Both would be compensated fairly. You’re welcome, good teachers; talk to the hand, bad teachers.

Here’s the tricky part: the balance of their unpaid baseline is rebated to the parents…of the kids who were proficient.  Call it No Parent Left Behind: either take responsibility for your kids’ education or pay more.  You’re welcome, responsible parents.   

And to you irresponsible parents: you have been dragging the rest of us down for too long.  Shut up, man up, and get your kids educated.  Do your job.       

Did I mention teachers must pay their own retirement savings and health care costs?  A married couple of great teachers would earn $240k; they can afford it. If they can handle a class size of 35 they could bring home $272k.  Teachers will be drumming for the Bush tax cuts to be permanent.   

And don’t tell me a good teacher can’t make 35 kids proficient.  Mrs. Lindroth did it in Ironwood with a bunch of un-medicated, demonic 6^th graders in 1966.  Back then, she did it without teachers’ aides or social workers or iPads.  She taught and we learned; that was the division of labor.      

But what about the teachers’ unions?  What about the conventions?  What about the masters’ degrees?  Knock yourself out, teachers; you can spend their own money on anything you think will improve your skills. Who better to judge the return on investment than the teacher making the investment?   

The other $4,000 goes to the principal to run the school.  A school with 300 kids will get a baseline budget of $1,200,000 to pay administrators, maintenance, and facility expenses – capital budgets will be handled separately via bond resolutions.  The principal gets a salary of $120k plus half of whatever he/she saves from the budget baseline.  You’re welcome, principals. 

Just like the teachers, principals’ baseline salary is reduced according to the aggregate proficiency of the school.  That’s what prevents greedy and stupid cost gutting; overhead will not be cut if it legitimately improves proficiency.  You’re welcome again, proficient students.

So there you have it, teachers - compete for your salary like the rest of us.  Your income will be based on your ability to get those kids to perform, just like ours is when they come to work in our factories and firms after you are done with them. 

I think most of you are great teachers and would quickly max out if we got the government and your unions off your back and out of your classroom.  That is, if you are reading this you are great; the slackers are off sulking and whining about how bad they got it under Walker. 

Screw ‘em; the slackers have run the show for long enough.  They will quit after the first year their pay is cut, and then we will be done with them for good.  You’re welcome, everyone.   

That will make room for someone with talent and passion that actually wants to teach.  Oh, yeah, and make $120k with summers off.  Teaching will attract the best and brightest again.  Competition will bring out the best in everyone; it always does.      

While monetary incentives may seem crass and unseemly to education elitists, they work.  That is the only reason we use them to drive improvements in business performance.  And to be blunt, good intentions haven’t done squat for public education; a half century of steady decline in world rankings tells us so.

 

Great teachers deserve great compensation, and so do great administrators.  And we all deserve great schools; especially our children, whose success in life will be no greater than the proficiencies and values we have equipped them with.  How do you improve educational proficiency?  Pay for it.  And don’t pay for anything else.   

Does anyone think a better plan will come from the protest tents surrounding our state capitol this summer?  From the federal Department of Education?  From the Department of Public Instruction?  From the Governor’s office?  From the Legislature?   From WEAC?  From any school board or superintendent in the State? 

Me neither.  That is why ultimately, we need to get the government out of the education business altogether and let choice and competition work the magic.  In the meantime, let’s pay for proficiency and not lose another generation to ignorance.

      

“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.  Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.

Unstimulated

When he took the job in 2009, President Obama told us the cure for our economic problems was more government; he and his economic team spent over a trillion dollars of borrowed money on a series of bills to stimulate the economy.   

They told us their plan would kick start GDP growth, keep unemployment below 8%, stave off bankruptcy for GM and Chrysler, prop up home prices, stem the tide of rising foreclosures, and boost incomes.

They told us we would be all stimulated by June of 2011, remember?  Well, it’s now June of 2011; the trillion is gone, and we are still waiting to be stimulated. 

Incomes have declined, foreclosures have increased, home prices continue to fall, GM and Chrysler both went bankrupt anyway, the number of people on food stamps has doubled, and unemployment is somewhere between 9-17% depending on whether you count all the people out of work or only those collecting unemployment benefits.  Yes, the stock market has recovered, and why not; operating in other countries is quite profitable.

And economic growth, the very thing that all that stimulus spending was supposed to stimulate, has remained below 3%, the tread-water mark.  That is, if you believe the government’s numbers, which I no longer do. 

Just how bad do you have to suck to get less then 3% GDP growth out of a trillion dollar stimulus?  1 trillion is 7.6% of 13 trillion, the approximate size of the U.S. economy as the President took office. 

We could have grown the economy by 7.6% if we had simply given $1 trillion in cash to monkeys and pointed them towards the banana bin at the Pick N Save.  But we did not wisely give cash to monkeys; we foolishly gave appropriations to politicians. 

Guided by government economists and social scientists, they figured out how to fritter away that 7.6% monkey-dunk into a lousy 2.5% belly-flop. Those 5 evaporated GDP points translate into millions of jobs uncreated, billions in home equity lost, and many more billions lost to the inflation of our currency - inevitable when you shove trillions of new dollars into the system with no noticeable change in output.  

We made our debt problem a trillion dollars worse and we will never recover the two years we wasted proving – yet again - that Keynesian economic theories do not work.  And still they teach that crap on campus as if it was Biblical truth.      

The only two things President Obama did that might actually stimulate the economy was send Larry Summers back to Harvard and Christina Romer back to Berkley.  Now if we could just send Timothy Geithner back to the IMF…

The problem with the U.S. economy is simple: too much jockey and not enough horse.  Our government is too big; it does too much, spends too much, and borrows too much.  Doing more, spending more, and borrowing more makes things worse, not better.  

For the first 130 years of American History, all government combined – local, state, and federal - consumed less than 9% of GDP; and we prospered like no nation before or since.  That is what happens when you leave over 90% of what is earned in the hands of those who earned it.  Write that down, Mr. President.   

Today, our government consumes over 60% of GDP when mandated private spending is included.  In thoroughbred terms, our government jockey now weighs a crushing 800 lbs., eating all the oats and drinking all the water while whipping the ribs of our starving private sector that can barely move under all that weight.  And we wonder why China is about to go zipping right on by. 

The socialists’ argument for more government rests on the bizarre assumption that people working for government make better economic decisions than people working for themselves.  They are wrong; here is the correct order: 1) people spending their own money, 2) monkeys, and 3) government.

The government’s quota system does not reserve jobs for angels and geniuses.  As a general rule, government makes hideous decisions with our money.  It props up companies that fail; it pays people not to work; it subsidizes products people do not want; it promotes unions, it loans money to people who can’t pay it back; it pays people to write rules so stupid it must pay other people to grant waivers; it borrows money from one country to give to another; it sues itself; it gives money to people with Ph.D.s to study really complicated and mysterious things like why kindergartners won’t sit still. 

Because they are five years old; where is my $650,000?   

Truth is, there is very little the government can do to stimulate the economy, but there is a lot it could not do that would work wonders. Not tax so much, not spend so much, not borrow so much, not regulate so much, not mandate so much, not promote unions so much, not jack up energy costs so much, not devalue the currency so much, not join in international treaties so much, not try to pick winners and losers so much, and not reward donors and appease lobbyists so much.

And not blame us for their mistakes so much.  Just leave us alone – that would be the best stimulus of all.

Cato Institute estimates that it would cost only $450 billion for the federal government to perform the enumerated powers authorized to it by the Constitution.  That other $3.1 trillion it will spend this year could be returned to those who earned it or pay down our debt if we had a Congress who took its oath seriously.  

Noted Keynesian economist and Obama cheerleader Paul Krugman says the President’s plan failed to improve the economy because $1 trillion of stimulus wasn’t enough.  I agree with him completely; $3.1 trillion would be much better. 

Constitutional government – there’s your stimulus.           

“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.  Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.