Debt U.

One good thing that has come from the OWS protests is the light that has been shed upon the economics of college degrees. 

In 2009, the year before local banks were cut out of the action by Team Obamalosi in their eleventh hour amendment to the health care reform bill, outstanding student loan debt was $114 billion, a staggering figure.  It is now $392 billion, an incomprehensible one.  Those numbers come from the Federal Reserve so they must be right – they know a thing or two about staggering, incomprehensible debt.    

It didn’t even take two years for the government to turn a routine family financing decision into an unsustainable collective entitlement that has triggered riots in several American cities.  This may be a new land speed record for socialist rot.      

The first thing to know about post-secondary education is that over the past 30 years, its costs have risen at more than three times the rate of inflation.   Yes, those same academics and government employees who lecture us incessantly about greed, oppression, and profiteering in the private sector are three times as greedy and oppressing when it comes to pricing their own products. 

Recall that it is the iconic capitalist pigs at Walmart – not the University of Wisconsin - who give us rollback pricing with a smiley face.  Occupy Regent Street!  And like most other things in the real world, individual choices greatly determine how badly a student will get mauled by the debt he/she takes on to purchase a college degree.   

According the College Board, the average annual tuition paid by full-time students at four-year institutions last year was $21,198.  Average does not mean everyone; on average, humans have one breast and one testicle.  44% of students attend colleges with published tuition under $9,000 per year, and 28% attend colleges with tuition and fees higher than $36,000 per year.  By way of comparison, the average cost of tuition and fees at two-year colleges is only $2,963 - and Econ 101 is the same at any price. 

The average dorm fee for four-year institutions was $4,785 last year, and the average boarding rate (food) was $3,937.  The average full time student also spent $1,082 on transportation, $2,066 on personal expenses, $1,168 on books and supplies.  That puts the average total cost of full-time resident attendance in four-year institutions at $34,236 per year. 

The College Board advises prospective students and parents not to be overly concerned about those high published costs, however, since student loans and other forms of financial aid make college “affordable”.  Of course, “affordable” just means someone else pays, mostly that is someone is the student himself after graduation.  The average amount of aid per student last year was $12,455; about half of that is loans and the other half grants and scholarships. 

So roll up all the data together and the average college graduate will have spent $136,944 of somebody's money and owe $25,250 in student loans if they finish their degrees in eight semesters.  And what is the return on that $136,944 investment?   Just like the cost of education, the value of a degree in economic terms varies greatly.  

The website www.payscale.com  lists the median starting pay and median mid-career pay for 125 common bachelor degrees.  Petroleum engineers start at $97,000 while elementary education majors start at $29,000.  No wonder the world’s social scientists hate big oil.  

High school seniors, pay attention here - the top-paying bachelor degrees in order are: petroleum engineering, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, materials science, aerospace engineering, computer engineering, physics, applied mathematics, computer science, and nuclear engineering.  

And the worst-paying degrees in order are: child and family studies, social work, elementary education, culinary arts, special education, recreation and leisure studies, physical education, public health, theology, and art.  The various ethnic and gender studies majors are not even listed separately as there is no market for them. 

Going on to graduate school will not fix a low-paying degree choice, either.  According to Forbes Magazine, the worst master’s degrees for employment (job availability and pay) in order are: music, history, divinity, English, psychology, social work, library science, counseling, education, and chemistry. 

So if your goal is to get the best return on your investment in post-secondary education, then start out taking your math and science foundations at a two-year college and then transfer to the cheapest four-year college that offers a degree in Petroleum Engineering.  You will spend less than $30,000 for a credential that carries a $97,000 median starting pay.  Ask a business major (#58) to explain ROI to you.

But the College Board offers much different advice to prospective students:  “Your goal is to choose a college that’s a good fit for you; think about whether you like the campus culture and if there is enough academic support to help you do well in your classes.” 

Well, if “a good fit for you” is the object and you really like the campus culture at one of those $36,000 yacht club schools (who wouldn’t?) with enough tutors to help you get through your degree in child and family studies, you will spend north of $200,000 to earn a credential that pays $28,500 per year.  Should you find yourself in such a predicament, my advice is to marry a Petroleum Engineer – with the new relaxed admission standards to marriage, you no longer have to settle for one of the opposite gender.   

Some pandering Democrats trolling for votes among OWS protesters have proposed forgiving all student loan debt.  But bailing out the children of bankers in 2012 is just as wrong as bailing out their dads was in 2008.  Is it fair to ask engineers and scientists who worked their way through school to pay off the debts that the leisure studies majors racked up while protesting at the Capitol and hitting the bong?  Can we ask veterans who earned their tuition benefits the hard way to pay off the debts of those who chose not to serve?  I think not. 

Millions of people have managed their student loan debt responsibly; millions more chose vocational training and work over university studies.  Those who did should not have to pay the obligations of those who didn’t.  Living large on borrowed money is always fun; it’s paying it back that’s the bitch.  That may be the most valuable thing many graduates will take away from their college experience. 

If it makes you twenty-somethings feel any better, most of us old guys would trade places with you in a heartbeat, debt or no debt.  If you're poor, you can get richer; if you're old you just get older.     


“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.    

Tax Truth

Now that the Super Committee foolishness is behind him, President Obama can focus his full attention to the more serious business of blaming all of his failures on George W. Bush.  

Let me say at the outset that I am no fan of George W. Bush.  One of the worst things he ever did was attach his name to a sensible economic policy that worked.  Yes, worked.   I thought it might be useful to pre-empt the next year of carnival-barking with a number or two for my liberal friends who prefer their economics to be delivered to them in slogans.

Start with this one: the FY2003 budget deficit was $377 billion.  The significance of that milestone is that it is the year when the Bush tax cuts were implemented.  Four years later, in FY2007, the deficit had fallen to $161 billion.  The deficit shrunk by 57.3% in the first four years of the Bush tax cuts; you will not hear that on TV, in schools, or on the campaign trail in the next 12 months.   You’re welcome.    

And it didn’t happen because of those famous “draconian spending cuts” Senators Clinton and Schumer made a fortune complaining to their base about back then.  In fact, government spending increased over those four years by 26% - more than double the rate of inflation.  Two wars, No Child Left Behind, Katrina, the Patriot Act, and Medicare Part D will do that for you.  The deficit was reduced in spite of all that spending because tax receipts rose by 44%.  That is what reducing tax rates on producers will do for you.

In FY2003 receipts were $1,782 billion, and in FY2007 they were $2,568 billion.  Yes, MSNBC junkies, tax receipts went up when top rates went down; just like Arthur Laffer said they would.  Go ahead and hate Bush as much as you want, but don’t take it out on math.

And don’t even call them the Bush Tax Cuts, as I can’t imagine that he sat down one day by himself and wrote up changes to the tax code.  He was not the only one who understands the difference between tax rates and tax revenues, and besides it is Congress, not the President, who levies taxes and controls spending.  Amazing what you can find out when you actually read the Constitution.   

Bill Clinton lowered capital gains rates (seriously, he did) and the resulting surge in tax receipts caused the balanced budget that Democrats and Newt Gingrich now take credit for.  Clinton knew what Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and John F. Kennedy did – like the people who own it, capital will move to where it is punished the least.  And capital formation is the necessary predecessor of job creation.          

And if you don’t like those stubborn facts about deficits during the Bush years, don’t get mad at me; take your grievance to Office of Management and Budget – President Obama’s OMB – who publish the numbers on actual receipts and actual outlays.  Cash flow doesn’t lie, and receipts and outlays are the bottom line of fiscal policy.      

Tax-the-rich obsessive-compulsives will still complain that tax receipts fell as a percentage of GDP from 2003 to 2007 and they will be correct.  But so what?  Would you turn down a 44% raise because mine was 60%?  The sad thing is, there are a whole lot of Americans who probably would; such is the state of the coveting class these days.      

In case you missed it, Bush has already been punished by the voters.  Too much spending, debt, and war weariness cost the Republicans both houses of Congress in 2006.  Taking office in January of 2007, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid inherited a 14,000 point Dow, a 3.5% growth rate, and unemployment at 4.4%.  They promised to do much better and they got their chance, starting with the FY2008 budget.    

But they did not even wait for the budget process to begin; they announced their economic agenda right off the bat – increase taxes on the wealthy, increase taxes on corporations, cap and trade, card check, tariff increases, more government regulation, nationalization of health care, “green” mandates, restricting energy production, and commandeering the nation’s student loan programs. 

Their war on capitalism was declared while the movers were still hauling boxes in and out of the Capitol.  Mission accomplished, to borrow a phrase.  In FY2011, after four years of Pelosi/Reid budgets, the federal government’s deficit is now $1.3 trillion - almost ten times what it was when they took over.  15 million Americans are unemployed.     

So let’s recap: Republicans controlled the House and Senate and enacted tax cuts; four years later their deficit was reduced by 57.3%.  Democrats controlled the House and Senate and declared war on capitalism; four years later their deficit was increased by 819%.  And they call George W. Bush dumb. 

To be fair to the Democrats, the financial system melted down on their watch.  And to be fair to Republicans, terrorists flew planes into buildings on theirs.  Neither party asked for the trouble that dropped in their laps; none of us ever do.  But we don’t pay our elected officials to be lucky and we don’t pay them to make excuses; we pay them to fix things.  

President Obama’s idea of fixing things is to repeatedly threaten to punish job creators by repealing the “Bush tax cuts”.  He creates investor uncertainty every time he opens his mouth and then he blames the investors for their risk-aversion.  The President himself is the risk that investors are avoiding now, and many have finally come out and said so in recent weeks.

Here is what they know that the President apparently does not: the knife cuts both ways.  If cutting the top selective tax rates increased tax revenues by 44% and reduced the deficit by 57%, then what do you think will happen when those tax rates are raised?  That’s right, revenues will plummet, the deficit – already obscene – will blow up even worse, and the economy will crater.       

The $2 trillion that has accumulated on corporate balance sheets is not being hoarded to punish the working man; it is being saved for a time where it can be responsibly invested, when returns and risk can be reasonably estimated – in other words, when Mr. Obama is gone.    

Here is the difference between political science and economics: mastery of the former will get you elected, while ignorance of the latter will get you a Presidential pension after just four years.    


“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.      

D-I-V-O-R-C-E

Crank up the Tammy Wynette, the Congressional Super Committee on deficit reduction failed.  Irreconcilable differences, I think they call it.   

Like an estranged married couple enduring court-ordered counseling because they had to, the Republicans and Democrats recited their irreconcilable differences, whined about how hard they tried to go the extra mile, and blamed each other for the breakup.  For those of you who find the language of fiscal negotiations incomprehensible, let me translate for you. 

The Democrat position:  “he is an uncaring cheapskate sonofabitch who doesn’t care about me or the kids or anything but himself and that goddamn stock portfolio.  I gave up everything for this family and now that my looks are gone he wants to cut me off?  Fat chance, a-hole.” 

The Republican position: “that frigid bitch spends all day eating bon-bons and running up the credit cards on stuff we can’t afford to impress her European friends.  I work my ass off and she spends twice whatever I make on implants and Jimmy Choos.  I’m cutting my losses.” 

It’s a little more complicated than that, but not much.  We independents are like the kids watching mommy and daddy rip each others guts out; hoping against hope that they really love us, even when we know they are fighting for custody just to get the alimony and child support.  We hate ‘em both, and would like to just move in with the neighbors next door who have a pool. 

Our Counselor-In-Chief was a no-help making this bad marriage work, as usual.  He didn’t even come to a single session, just yelled at everybody and called the whole family lazy, as if it wasn’t HIS family, but let’s not start that whole birther thing up again now that we finally got Trump off TV.  The President got his teleprompter replaced just in time to tell us it was all the Republicans fault; sort of like having Gloria Allred decide who’s telling the truth about Herman Cain.

This whole Super Committee thing was stupid from the start.  Thank God it failed; maybe now we won’t be tempted to try something so idiotic ever again.  They preened and postured and pretended and in the end, kicked the can down the road.  No surprise there; that isn’t dysfunction in Washington, it is political science.  That is how they roll, it’s what they do.

There is no Constitutional authority for such a monstrosity as a Super Committee, and let’s be honest – those were not the 12 smartest folks out of the pool of 535.  The Super Committee as more like an expanded Village People; dressed up caricatures to entertain us with some predictable shtick and a bit of narrative in between songs – I expected John Kerry to break into “In The Navy” at any moment.   

Actually, I don’t consider it a failure that they couldn’t agree on anything – not even how to end their silly charade.  Because they couldn’t get their job done, spending will supposedly get cut by $1.2 trillion; that is $1.2 trillion more than anybody else has come up with.  Failure is when these ninnies actually pass something – like Obamacare, for example; that is when the system lets us down.  Because 9 times out of 10 what they pass is unconstitutional, and the tenth time it’s bad policy. 

C’mon.  Does anyone seriously believe that any of these “automatic cuts” will ever happen?  They don’t kick in until after the next election, so a new Congress, one that is not bound by what this one pretended to do, will meet to decide which of the dozens of tunnels and ladders left for them in the debt ceiling bill to use to breach the “firewall of austerity”.

We all know this:  Mommy and Daddy are never going to work it out. They both want to be married to somebody else – anybody else.  Us kids have fended for ourselves long enough that frankly we don’t care if we never see either one of them again.  I don’t want to go to the circus anymore on Dad’s weekend and Mom’s home cooking tastes a lot like last week’s KFC microwaved.  Don’t bother. 

But here is a practical solution to the budget stalemate, if anyone cares anymore.  Start with this: we have been taxed enough, and you don’t get anymore taxes from the people who already pay them.  Argue over how to spend it; that is the role of Congress in our system.  If you want to spend more, then get the money from well-head taxes on new oil production and pipeline fees on the one they want to bring down from Canada.

You want to spend more?  Fine – then give us cheap gas.  You don’t want us to have cheap gas and energy independence?  Fine – then cut spending and go sequester yourself.  Let us know what you decide.  


“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.      

Land of Opportunity

This is a story about two nations with two very different ideas about equality.  One nation is named Opportunity, and the other is called Outcome. 

When they run a 100-yard dash in Opportunity, everyone starts at the same time and place and runs the same distance – they call that equality in the land of Opportunity. No two people finish exactly the same because some people run faster than others; that’s how God made them. 

When they run the 100-yard dash in Outcome, however, everyone finishes exactly the same.  The only way to do this is to make the rules unequal, to let some people run a shorter distance and add burdens onto others to slow them down.  Each runs according to his ability and starts according to his need – that’s what they call equality in the land of Outcome. 

In Opportunity, the winner of each 100-yard dash gets $100.  Everyone else gets a dollar for each yard they have completed when the race is won. Some get $99, some get $80, and some only get $50.  The slower runners who want to earn more train harder, run faster, and earn more.  The faster runners who don’t want to lose income also train harder, run faster, and earn more. So in the land of Opportunity, everyone runs faster and faster, earning more and more.   

Some of the slowest runners in Opportunity decide they can’t make very much money running, but think they could win the $200 singing contest.  And some of the bad singers see that they can make a lot more money running than singing.   So people find the work that is best suited for them, train hard, and compete against each other for rewards.  Before long, Opportunity is a nation of very fast runners and exquisite singers and they are all earning more and more for their efforts. 

In Outcome, however, everyone gets a sticker and a hug for trying, and keeping track of time is discouraged as it is believed to damage self-esteem.  The fast runners see that they don’t earn any more for all that hard work they put into to training, so they stop working so hard.  The slow runners don’t want to run faster because then they would be forced to run longer or start later.  In Outcome, everyone runs slower and slower.

The people of Outcome think it isn’t fair that the singers make more than the runners, so everyone gets the same income whether they sing or run, and whether they do either one well or poorly.  Nobody in Outcome trains to get better at anything, and no one bothers to learn a new skill.  Outcome quickly becomes a nation of slow runners and bad singers; they believe they are entitled to run or entitled to sing, no matter how badly they do it. 

Meanwhile back in Opportunity, the fast races and beautiful singing make the contests very popular; people are willing to pay more to watch excellence, so the rewards paid to runners and singers increase. The runners and singers of Opportunity get rich, and everyone else works hard to afford the expensive tickets; there is abundance from all that hard work that everyone does in Opportunity.  

In Outcome, however, no one is willing to pay their own money to watch slow running and bad singing.  The only way for runners and singers to earn more money is to demand it from the government.  The government in Outcome taxes everyone else to give money to the people who now feel entitled to high pay and lavish benefits for running slowly and singing poorly.  Anyone who questions those high taxes is called greedy.   

The fastest runners and best singers in Outcome begin to leave; they come to Opportunity where they are free to run or sing or do anything else they please.  In Opportunity, they make more money and they keep more of what they make - no one covets the earnings of another.  They are happy; that is the gift of liberty. 

The leaders of Outcome assure their people that everything is fine; to prove it, they have their central banker print a bunch of fiat money so it looks to their grumbling singers and runners as if they are making more money, too.  The whole world rejects Outcome’s paper money as reserve currency and starts to buy gold instead. 

The people of Outcome are angry that they are slow runners and bad singers with worthless currency.  Their leaders blame Opportunity for all of their problems. 

And then one day, there is an international competition; the slow runners and bad singers of Outcome must race the swift runners and face the glorious singers of Opportunity.  Opportunity demolishes Outcome and wins all the prize money.  It is clear to everyone in the world that the quality of Opportunity beats the quality of Outcome. 

Everyone, that is, except the dull and unthinking people of Outcome.  They were brainwashed in their government schools to believe Outcome is better than Opportunity, so they assume that Opportunity must have cheated in order to have won so much prize money.  Some of them occupy spaces and poop on things.  The President of Outcome cheers them on when he is not golfing or fundraising.     

The slow runners and bad singers of Outcome send their union muscle and government agents to Opportunity to take away Opportunity’s winnings by force.  The fast runners and exquisite singers of Opportunity are not intimidated; they smile and calmly pull back their jackets to show their concealed-carry weapons.  Outcome’s thugs go lay by their dish, and the patriots of Opportunity live happily ever after. 

Here is the moral of the story: don’t mess with patriots in the land of Opportunity; we run faster, we sing better, and we are packing.  

The End.


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.    

Downward Wisconsin

We used to make things here in Wisconsin.

We made machine tools in Milwaukee, cars in Kenosha and ships in Sheboygan.  We mined iron in the north and lead in the south.  We made cheese, we made brats, we made beer, and we even made napkins to clean up what we spilled.  And we made money.

The original war on poverty was a private, mercenary affair.  Men like Harnischfeger, Allis, Chalmers, Kohler, Kearney, Trecker, Modine, Case, Mead, Falk, Allen, Bradley, Cutler, Hammer, Harley, Davidson, Pabst, and Miller lifted millions up from subsistence living to middle class comfort.  They did it - not “Fighting Bob” La Follette or any of the politicians who came along later to take the credit and rake a piece of the action through the steepest progressive scheme in the nation.   

Those old geezers with the beards cured poverty by putting people to work. Generations of Wisconsinites learned trades and mastered them in the factories, breweries, mills, foundries, and shipyards those capitalists built with their hands.  Thousands of small businesses supplied these industrial giants, and tens of thousands of proprietors and professionals provided all of the services that all those other families needed to live well.  The wealth got spread around plenty.    

The profits generated by our great industrialists funded charities, the arts, education, libraries, museums, parks, and community development associations.  Taxes on their profits, property, and payrolls built our schools, roads, bridges, and the safety net that Wisconsin’s progressives are still taking credit for, as if the money came from their council meetings.  The offering plates in churches of every denomination were filled with money left over from company paychecks that were made possible because a few bold young men risked it all and got rich.  Don’t thank God for them; thank them that you learned about God.

Their wealth pales in comparison to the wealth they created for millions and millions of other Wisconsin families.  Those with an appreciation for the immeasurable contributions of Wisconsin’s industrial icons of 1910 will find the list of Wisconsin’s top ten employers of 2010 appalling:  

Walmart, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Milwaukee Public Schools, U.S. Postal Service, Wisconsin Department of Corrections, Menards, Marshfield Clinic, Aurora Health Care, City of Milwaukee, and Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs. 

This is what a century of progressivism will get you.  Wisconsin is the birthplace of the progressive movement, the home of the Socialist Party, the first state to allow public sector unions, the cradle of environmental activism, a liberal fortress walled off against common sense for decades.  Their motto, Forward Wisconsin, should be changed to Downward Wisconsin if truth in advertising applies to slogans.

There is no shortage of activists, advocates, and agitators in this State.  If government were the answer to our problems, we would have no problems.  The very same people – or people just like them – who picketed, struck, sued, taxed, and regulated our great companies out of this state are now complaining about the unemployment and poverty that they have brought upon themselves.  They got rid of those old rich white guys and replaced them with…nothing.

Wisconsin ranks 47th in the rate of new business formation.  We are one of the worst states for native college graduate exodus; our brightest and most ambitions graduates leave to seek their fortunes elsewhere.  Why shouldn’t they?  Our tax rates are among the worst in the nation and our business climate, perpetually in the bottom of the rankings, has only recently moved up thanks to a Governor who now faces a recall for his trouble. 

In 1970, the new environmental movement joined unions and socialists in a coordinated effort to demonize industry.  When I was in college, the ranting against “polluting profiteers” was like white noise – always there.  They won, and here is the price of their victory: in 1970, manufacturers paid 18.2% of Wisconsin’s property taxes – the major source of school funding - and in 2010 those who remained paid 3.7%. 

So who is it that caused the funding crisis in our schools and the skyrocketing tax rates on our homes?  It is the same ignoramuses who are sitting on bridges, pooping on things, and passing around recall petitions.  The unemployed 26-year old in the hemp hat looking for sympathy might look instead for some inspiration from Jerome I. Case, who started his agricultural equipment business at the age of 21, miraculously without an iPhone 4s. 

Mr. Case got rich by asking people what they want and making it for them.  He did not get rich by telling people what he wanted and waiting for them to do something about it.  If you want to declare war on your own poverty, memorize that.     

In the last decade alone we have lost 150,000 manufacturing jobs in this state – over 25%.  And it’s not just jobs that have been lost; the companies that provided them are gone.  Those jobs are not coming back, no matter how long we extend unemployment benefits pretending they are.  The 450,000 people who still work in manufacturing in Wisconsin are damn good it at, but we are now outnumbered by people who work for government.  A significant number of the latter are tasked with taxing, regulating, and generally harassing the former.  While it is true that many manufacturers chased low-wage opportunities on their own, many more were driven out of the state by the increasing cost of doing business here.

It is a myth that unions improve wages.  If you consider only the 1,000 jobs in a closed shop, you might think an average union wage is, say, $30/hr.  But if you add in the zero wages of the 10,000 jobs lost in companies chased out by union harassment, the average of all 11,000 union workers is reduced to $2.72/hr.  Do you know the average wage of union iron miners in this state?  Zero.  And the left is fighting hard to keep it that way in Northern Wisconsin - looking out for the working man, they call it.    

It is also a myth that free trade causes job losses.  Over the past three years, U.S. manufacturers sold $70 billion more goods to our Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners than we bought from them.  Conversely, we suffered a $1.3 trillion trade deficit with countries where no FTA’s exist.  I doubt that kids are going to learn that in our government-union monopoly schools – it doesn’t fit the narrative.

No one wants to see another person suffer in poverty, and liberty is the best economic policy there is.  The great industrialists of Wisconsin took less than a generation to lift millions up to a life of dignity, pride, prosperity and good will.  When enterprise was free and government was limited, we all prospered. 

Those great men of industry were not anointed at birth to be rich; they rose from nothing to great wealth through their own hard work and the value they added to their employees and their customers through choice, competition, and voluntary exchange.  That is the only sure path to real prosperity; the debt economy is a temporary illusion. 

Look again at the list of our famous industrialists and the list of our current employers.  Who would you wish your child or grandchild to grow up to be?  Who do you think will do more good on this earth – Jerome I Case and his tractors, or the Coordinator of Supplier Diversity at MPS. 

If you chose MPS, then apply now – that job is open, and it pays up to $72,000 plus benefits and early retirement.  Go in peace and save the world.  Me, I'm going with the tractor guy.   


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.    

Bring It

They are at it again in Wisconsin.  The perpetual hissy fit that is the Union Democrat Party in this state has launched its campaign to recall Governor Scott Walker.  The rallying cry of Walker's Republican supporters is "I stand with Scott Walker". 

Well, not me. I don’t stand with Scott Walker.

Nope.  I stand for the right to work.  I stand against compulsory unionization.  I stand for the right of every employee to join a union, and for the equal right of every employee to work free of union impairment.  I stand for the right of every union to collect its own dues directly from its members.  I stand for the right of every business owner to deal directly with his/her employees or to work through an intermediary as he or she sees fit.  I stand for the right of any business to refrain from political activity altogether without being targeted for boycotts by extortionists. 

I don't stand with Scott Walker.  Scott Walker stands with me.

I stand for fiscal responsibility.  I stand for balancing the state budget.  I stand for making government services both accessible and affordable.  I stand for repaying our old debts and not taking on any new ones.  I stand against raiding trust funds set up for one purpose to pay for another.  I stand against increasing taxes on the overtaxed to fund lavish new benefits for the over-lavished. 

I don't stand with Scott Walker.  Scott Walker stands with me.

I stand for choice and competition that will improve the quality and reduce the cost of our schools.  I stand for letting local school boards, teachers, parents, and taxpayers decide how best to educate their kids.  I stand for rewarding the great teachers and I stand against letting the bad ones waste one more hour of our children’s precious learning time.  I stand against spineless administrators, conniving pension-grubbers, placeholders counting down their days to retirement and serial indoctrinators who see 4th graders as political props. 

I don't stand with Scott Walker.  Scott Walker stands with me.

I stand for representative Democracy where a majority of citizens elect a government which serves its full term and then stands for re-election.  I wish they would vote for Libertarians but I accept it when they don’t.  I stand against voter fraud.  I stand against rigged elections.  I stand against one political party spending millions of taxpayer dollars to overturn an election they lost fair and square. 

I don't stand with Scott Walker.  Scott Walker stands with me.

I stand against death threats.  I stand against tormenting the families of public officials at their private residences.  I stand against the profanity, vulgarity, and brutishness of the weak-minded who can only find courage in the anonymity of the mob or an alias on Facebook.  I stand against the seizure of our public places, the occupation of our streets.  I stand against those whose twisted moral compass equates breaking a monopoly with killing millions of Jews. 

I don't stand with Scott Walker.  Scott Walker stands with me.

I stand for the right to bear arms.  I stand for the right to defend myself, my family, and my property.  I stand against those who would leave me defenseless simply because they do not value their own life enough to defend it.  I stand for Senator Pam Galloway, who stood up for me and my right to carry. 

I don't stand with Scott Walker.  Scott Walker stands with me.

I stand for jobs.  I stand for job-creators.  I stand for free markets, lower taxes, and sensible regulation.  I stand for a business climate that attracts employers, not one that drives them away.  I stand for private property rights for every citizen.  I stand for developing our natural resources, for encouraging entrepreneurs, for rewarding hard work and for celebrating those who succeed in global competition.

I don't stand with Scott Walker.  Scott Walker stands with me.

I stand for less government and more liberty.  I stand with the overwhelming majority of Wisconsinites who had the opportunity to vote for Democrats in 2010 and chose not to. I stand against shipping in busloads of paid operatives from out of state to nullify that choice.  I stand against those who believe pro-choice means the right to inflict yours by force.      

I don't stand with Scott Walker.  Scott Walker stands with me.

I am a Libertarian, not a Republican.  I don't let the Koch brothers or Fox News or Rush Limbaugh or Vicki McKenna tell me what to think.  I am a grown man, a self-sovereign with my own conscience and beliefs.  Those beliefs do not include overturning election results because my side didn’t win.  We have learned that the effort to recall Governor Scott Walker was initiated before he even took office; this has nothing to do with policy and everything to do with privilege. 

The Democrat Party in the state of Wisconsin believes they have a Divine right to rule; perhaps it explains why so many are hostile to real Divinity.  It is inconceivable to them that the citizens of this state would have decided to give the Republicans an opportunity to fix what the Democrats could not or would not. It is humiliating to them that their coarse and unrefined rivals achieved in just a few months what they could not do in a decade.  Their panic is understandable, but that does not make it actionable for the rest of us.

I can't say whether or not I would vote to re-elect Scott Walker.  If he is to win over libertarians, he has a lot of ground to cover between now and the next election for Governor, which is not until 2014.  This recall process is not an election; it is a subversion of an election, and I will not vote to subvert elections.  The reasons for or against this recall are irrelevant; every assassin has reasons.  This is a contract hit; the motivation is money, and it is the taxpayer who will pay the contract.      

So no, my dear Democrat friends, I will not be signing your recall petitions.  When you come to my door I will not be ungracious; I will not be unkind.   I will not tell you “I stand with Scott Walker” and slam the door in your face.  I will tell you instead that I stand for Liberty, and then I will ask you why you will not stand with me.  It is a reasonable question, and I expect you to answer it.  It is the least you can do if you want me to help you turn the whole state upside down to rehash your grievance over again for the umpteenth time.

And don’t send the junior varsity, either. I don’t speak drum, I don’t cuss in mixed company, I am not going to learn those twinkly-thing hand signals, and “shame-shame-shame” just reminds me of a lame disco tune.  When I point to New Berlin on a map, if that poor rent-a-mob kid in a Bucky tee-shirt with the tags still hanging on it says it like they do in Germany, I’m going to boot his bony ass all the way back to Ohio.  Figuratively speaking, of course.   

I’m ready.  Bring 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.    

Thank You, Veterans

Tomorrow is Veterans’ Day, and I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of all of my Moment Of Clarity readers to thank our nation’s veterans and their families for your service.  

Those of us who have not worn the uniform will never fully comprehend the range of emotions that you veterans will feel tomorrow on the day that the whole nation pauses to honor you.  We can only pray that your pride will match our gratitude.  

You are our sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, family members, school mates, friends and neighbors, employers and employees.  You may sit next to us in church or attend a different church, you may belong to our clubs or belong to clubs we would not choose to be associated with, you may share our political party affiliation or a wear a different button, you may stand with us at Tea Party rallies or attend OWS protests instead, you may cheer for the Packers or perhaps the Bears.  We will even forgive you for that - but only tomorrow.  

Most of you chose to give up your liberty to serve your country; you volunteered to join the military.  You sacrificed years of your lives, time with your loved ones, your own safety, and in many cases your health, so that we could live free.  You answered the call; you did not leave it to someone else to defend the freedoms that we all hold dear.  No one hates war as much as a war-fighter, yet many of you volunteered to return to combat on multiple tours. 

I have no idea how many Americans will read this post, or how many of you are veterans.  But I know that every single one of the former wants to say this to every single one of the latter:   

Thank you.  Thank you for your service.

We remember with respect the soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen who were denied by death the opportunity to return to civilian life, as well as those who returned broken, either in body, mind or spirit.  The honor of military service does not end with discharge and neither do our obligations to veterans and their families. 

And what too many veterans need now from us is a job.  I urge my fellow employers to seek out veterans, as well as current members of Guards and Reserves, for openings we have in our companies.  It is not charity; these are men and women of character and commitment with a demonstrated ability to work and lead in teams to achieve goals.  You want these folks on your side. 

They have given it all up for us, and now it is our turn to repay the favor.  On this Veterans Day, I would like every Chief Executive to walk down to his/her HR department and ask them what they have done this past year to hire veterans.  And if they give you that 2nd Lieutenant salute, then go all CEO on them – you will feel good about it, trust me.  And you will upgrade the talent in your organization.

“Thank you” is nice, and we should all say that to every veteran we meet tomorrow; but what many would rather hear is “you’re hired.”  Let’s see if we can do both.  Happy Veterans Day to all my veteran friends – you are too many to list, but you know who you are, and you know how we all feel about you.  God Bless You.    


“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.      

Lay By Your Dish

We went past the straw breaking the camel’s back some time ago; we are now spearing its humps while it writhes on the ground in pain.

Of course I am referring to the Obama administration’s decision this week to tax Christmas trees.  This, apparently, is what he meant by going around Congress to get things done for the American people.  Because taxing Christmas was what we were all clamoring for him to get done.  Riiiight.

And I still can’t figure out which is dumber – taxing Christmas or trying to balance the budget 15 cents at a time.  What kind of fool adds a three-nickel tax?  All that does is make the guy in the tree booth take his glove off to count 85 cents change that I will drop in the snow.  Besides, at 15 cents a pop, you would have to clear-cut Canada just to pay for the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonuses we paid last week.

The timing of this new tax is impeccable; millions of still-unemployed Americans must be thrilled to know there will be even less money for their children’s toys this Christmas so that the Agriculture Department won’t have to postpone their bonuses, raises, and staff additions.  I’m sure we will all start with government when we list the things we are grateful for this Thanksgiving. 

It’s all part of the President’s own 9-9-9-15 plan: 9 percent unemployment, 9 trillion in new debt, 9 wars all at once, and a 15 cent tax on joy just to show Boehner who gets tops.

This decision to tax a religious symbol raises the obvious economic policy and Constitutional law question: what the front door is wrong with these people?  No seriously…where do they get off putting the government bite on our Christmas?  If Christmas is so bad it has to be taxed, then why are they all going to take the day off to celebrate it?  

Here is what I want from government this Christmas: plow the snow, arrest a criminal, and go lay by your dish.  Just leave us alone; read the Constitution and see if you can find anything in there that authorizes you to do even half the stupid things you do to us.  And then read the Bill of Rights again – pretend it applies to you.   

The unsolvable problem with too-big government is that there aren’t enough smart people to run it, and taxing Christmas trees just proves the point.

You can’t fix people who think it is a brilliant idea to tax Christmas trees.  You can’t protect us from these cretins by holding their budget increases to half the rate of inflation over the next decade; you have to abolish the Department that employs them.  If the GOP candidates ever decide to start talking about real issues again, why don’t they all list the departments and agencies they would abolish if we give them the job?  If they can’t come up with one, let them pay our Christmas tree tax out of their own pocket and then ask them again.

Abolishing most of the federal government would be a mercy killing.  Whatever bunch of nut-balls sat in a conference room and decided to serve the American people by taxing our Christmas needs to be set free from the shackles of government service, along with the whole bureaucracy that approved it.  Remember, this is the best idea they came up with that day; it could have been a lot worse if tree-tax genius would have been off on a sick day looking at condominium foreclosures with her friend from HUD.    

And of all the things to punish; Christmas brings out the very best in people.  Charities, professional organizations, businesses, unions, the military, churches, schools – we cheerfully give billions to help those less fortunate than us.  We buy toys for kids, and necessities for families, and feed the hungry and shelter the homeless and reconcile family differences, our churches are packed.

There is no law that compels us to give.  There is no regulation that mandates generosity.  We do not need to apply for a permit and attend a class.  There is no fee, or license required.  There is not a Democrat Christmas and a Republican Christmas.  No one is forced to celebrate Christmas, and no one is punished if they choose not to.  The smiles at Christmas are what the safety net looks like when government is not involved; that is what every day would look like if we made government go lay by its dish.

But government won’t go lay by its dish.  It won’t leave us alone for a minute.  God forbid we would just do things for each other by ourselves and feel good about it.  It must have driven them crazy to know that we would spend an hour with our families picking out a tree and not obsessing about their politics; they had to find one more way to inject their craving for drama into our private time.

And for what?  We could bring a lot more revenue into the federal government if Buffet and Gates just paid those higher tax rates they said they ought to be paying. Well go ahead, boys.  Hear that bell ringing in front of the K-mart?  Pretend it is the Agriculture Department, stuff a billion into the IRS kettle and get them off our backs. 

They taxed Christmas trees.  You can’t even say that without getting angry, whether you are Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Independent, or just a person with a shred of decency left in you. It doesn't even matter that the President put this loopy idea on hold when we hurled our collective outrage right back in his face.  They tried.  That is the salient point. 


“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.       

Ambassadors

The sun has not yet risen here in Acapulco, but in a few hours hundreds of U.S. Ambassadors will try to secure trade agreements with thousands of Mexico’s most skilled negotiators.

No, it is not another round of NAFTA; I am here for the 29th International Mining Convention, an industry trade show which is held every other year.  And our U.S. ambassadors are not pin-striped suits from the State Department; we are the businessmen and businesswomen who travel the world every day selling American goods and services, creating jobs and prosperity back home and improving living standards in the developing world.

Every day all over the world, deals valued into the hundreds of millions get done without the participation of government.  I didn’t bring anyone from the Commerce Department with me to Mexico, and the Mexican mining executives who we will meet with at the convention do not have their government officials tagging along, either.  Those guys are having a nice Waldorf salad together in Mexico City, telling each other how important out two nations are to each other for the kazillionth time.  

Here in Acapulco, we will be discussing the projects that miners are developing; the equipment they will need; the mix of technical features, price, and service that adds the most value to their operations.  NAFTA won’t come up; frankly, none of us have read it.  The deals will be done on the basis of best value and company reputation, not government policy.  We don’t talk about trade; we trade.  The whole world is competing for the same orders; it is a buyers’ market.

Over dinner, we will discuss culture, sports, world affairs, economics, and politics – both ours and theirs.   We will talk about family and faith, values and beliefs, our philosophies about managing a company, leading a community, developing the next generation of business leaders.  They will laugh at my Spanish, but the attempt will be appreciated.

We will find we have more things in common than things that separate us.  And I will be reminded that Mexican people love America and Americans for the products we make, for what we stand for, for the things we have accomplished, for our commitment to liberty.  It is only the actions of our government and our central bank that anger them.  It is the same all over the world. 

Ron Paul is ridiculed by the press for proposing a defensive military posture, as if military bases and embassies are the only means of interaction between Americans and people of other nations.  Big-government spokesmodels like Meet The Press’ David Gregory express genuine bewilderment at the idea that less government would mean more engagement.  To the business person, Paul’s suggestion is self-evident.  Government does not facilitate commerce; it impedes it.  

When American businesspeople trade abroad, we are the face of the nation; I have been in many places where I am the only American they will ever meet in person.  The world has an insatiable appetite for all things American; we are a topic of endless fascination and our founding principles are genuinely admired wherever they are understood.  Most of us are happy to help them understand, and we take our responsibilities to represent our nation seriously.

Businesspeople, students, missionaries, public health workers, tourists, educators, engineers, researchers, airline crews, technicians, interpreters, and athletes – American interests are advanced every single day by interesting Americans.  Here in Acapulco, the only American government presence is the guns we sold to the narcos in Operation Fast and Furious, but that is a rant for another day. 

Many misperceptions of Americans and American ideals are spread by our enemies to foment hatred.  And by enemies I also mean American leftists and unionists whose only export is anti-capitalist rhetoric which paints all economic development as exploitation and assigns all under-developed peoples to perpetual victimhood.

The most effective antidote for this poison is for standard-issue Americans to interact with the people of other countries; this is the real importance of free trade.  The miners of Mexico don’t buy into the exploitation myth.  Sure they are poor compared to the owners of the mines which employ them; there is no disputing that.  But they are rich beyond their wildest imaginations compared to how they lived before the capitalists came in to develop the mines – Americans, Canadians, Chileans, Australians, South Africans.

You can’t buy a bag of beans with the gold that is in the ground.  Perhaps if our eco-terrorists had to live on $2 a day for a while, they would show a little more appreciation for the people who dig it up and make it unnecessary for them to do so.

Libertarians are often called isolationist because we would reduce the American government’s footprint around the world - closing military bases, reducing embassy and consulate staff, and eliminating foreign aid programs that enrich corrupt foreign leaders with money we must borrow from the Chinese.

Reducing our government’s footprint does not mean reducing America’s engagement with the world.  On the contrary, our commitment to free trade, tax and regulatory relief, and trans-border mobility would unleash tens of thousands more of our best ambassadors into the every nook and cranny of the world, spreading the message of liberty, democracy, and capitalism.  Of course, some will do lots of other less noble things, too, but go to either Party’s convention and tell me that businesspeople have the exclusive franchise on debauchery.

A maintenance superintendent at a mine in Zacetecas State will never meet the U.S. Government’s ambassador to Mexico, but he will meet with an American ambassador in an hour or so - me.  It will be my pleasure to represent my country and hopefully bag some orders to keep our American factories humming.    



“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.     

Block Buster

The moment I saw it, I knew Mark Block should not have smoked in that ad. 

When you engage in cloud-seeding, you can’t complain about the deluge that follows.  Not only did Block smoke on camera - worse than a snuff film these days - but the ad was not run on paid media.  The latter, of course, is the real crime that has brought about the flash-mob hit on Herman Cain. 

In the world of political punditry, Herman Cain is doing everything wrong and it is working.  He is the most dangerous man in America.  If this guy can win the nomination without spending hundreds of millions of establishment money and employing thousands of politicos, then the jig is up, and the whole electioneering industry is doomed.  They can’t have that, so they have to take him down - now.    

One week into the corporate media beat down and we still don’t even know what he is accused of: apparently someone told someone else about a rumor he heard from another guy about something that Herman might or might not have done or said or gestured that someone might or might not have misunderstood or might or might not have taken offense to at some time in the last century.  There’s your blockbuster, pun intended.

Unless you are clairvoyant, the 90 articles Politico has already devoted to this mirage add nothing to the description I just provided.  All we know for sure is that Gloria Alred has not yet magically appeared like David Copperfield behind a battery of microphones in Atlanta; if there was really anything to this, she would have pulled a hamstring running for the cameras.       

People who wouldn’t be caught dead parking the Mercedes among the F-150’s and walking their facelift into a Waffle House might reach for the pepper spray if someone calls them “honey”, but most of us human beings actually like it.  South of the NASCAR line, it is just a word they attach to sentences without thinking – like “eh” for Canadians or “recall” for Wisconsin Democrats.

But this isn’t about sexual harassment and everyone knows it; this is about money.  And money does not care about truth, or justice, or fairness, or morality.  Who is behind the hatchet job on Cain – Perry? Paul? Romney? Rove? Obama?  Soros?  DNC?  RNC?  trial lawyers?  unions?  The answer is…yes.  Charges of skirt chasing aren’t going to work on Ron Paul, so who knows what they will come up with if he puts 10 points on the pack.

The electioneering industry used to be the ultimate cyclical sector – every two years a minor bump, every four years a boom, and scratching for survival in between.  So the smart guys who run corporate media and the major party apparatus figured out how to make that cycle continuous and billions have been pouring into the political sector ever since.  Call it the election bubble. There is a ready stockpile of fundraisers and candidate marketers available, and they pick their candidates like waterfront hookers choose steamships – whoever is in port and has cash. 

The action has been non-stop since 2007.  That nomination process started a year earlier than normal – most of us were sick of it already before the first primary vote was cast in Iowa.  The inauguration trash was not even picked up when they swung right into the selling of Stimulus, then almost a year of health care and the rise of the Tea Party, which bled right into the historic 2010 mid-term House flip.

In Wisconsin the hits just kept right on coming: a winter of protests over budget reforms, then judicial elections, recounts, senate recalls, and now the Walker recall petition drive which will take us right into the 2012 primary season.  It is as likely to end as Cher’s goodbye tour.

A lot of people profit handsomely from elections - campaign staff, consultants, PR firms, law firms, security, private investigators, travel agencies, advertising agencies, pollsters, media outlets, pundits, event organizers, hotels, food service, paid “volunteers”, fundraisers, money managers, bloggers, social media managers, the guys who paint the busses, film crews, the list goes on and on. 

So whoever had the idea to turn governing from a non-profit public service gig into one continuous for-profit election cycle must be the most popular guy or gal in the business - full employment and big fat checks for campaign ramrods and their menagerie of hangers-on.  Palin figured out which side of the bread was buttered with c-notes.  Life is good.    

And then along comes this guy Cain.  No prior office.  No staff.  No money.  No plan recognizable to those who sell them off the shelf.  He talks without a teleprompter; speaks without a script.  He answers different questions with different answers, he wears a hat. His man Block smokes.  And people love him.  Ruh-roh.

We libertarians oppose any initiation of force or fraud.  Either Herman Cain sexually harassed someone (force) or he has been falsely accused (fraud).  Americans are fed up with hypocritical moralists running for office and telling us how to live our lives; and we are also fed up with the politics of personal destruction.  So there is no middle ground here, someone is going to win and someone is going to lose.  

The keepers of the conventional wisdom did not see 2010 coming; and still don’t get it.  This isn’t politics as usual; we don’t keep score of cheap debating points and gotcha moments.  We want someone who can lead us out of our malaise.   Someone is lying and someone is telling the truth; whoever is telling the truth has just won the White House this week.        

We have devolved into a society where taking offense is an occupation, where feeling uncomfortable entitles us to compensatory damages.  You want to see what real sexual harassment looks like?  Go to Sturgis.  You want to see how real women put an ape in his place without a lawyer?  Go to Sturgis.  You want to turn this whole country into Eggshell Nation because a few delicate flowers didn’t get enough attention from their daddy?  Go to hell.   

If a guy makes a rude suggestion in a restaurant, the woman should slap his face.  That’s how we handled it before we handed the country over to the lawyers, parasites, and bedwetters.  Her honor is vindicated and the cad’s low character is exposed to the public and it takes a second for justice to be served. 

$45,000 and a sealed agreement accomplish neither, and predation leaves a cloud over an innocent man for life.  This is not progress.

“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.       

Who Owns You?

 [Tim has another book in the works - here is an excerpt from the draft] 

 

 

...We have known the answer to the problems that face our nation for over 200 years; the maintenance manual for happiness and prosperity is so thin I carry one in my jacket pocket most of the time – it is the Constitution.

Libertarians believe that the enumerated powers delegated to government in Article I, Section 8 represent the proper role of government.  We believe the Bill of Rights properly delineates the State from the People and sets the correct boundaries for the limits of State power against its citizens.  Liberty is good foreign policy; Liberty is good domestic policy; Liberty is good economic policy.

The less your government takes from you, the more of yourself you own.  Self-ownership is the path to economic recovery, a path that requires the obstacle of government to be removed, not improved.

And self-ownership is also the path to pride and self-respect.  No one wants to grow up to be a ward of the state.  No one aspires to be dependent upon someone else for sustenance.  Dependency must be learned; the spirit must be broken before subservience can be achieved.  Is that really our dream for 21st century America – a nation of broken spirits dependent on government for sustenance?  I think not.  I pray not.

Perhaps you do not believe in this principle of self-ownership; perhaps you are skeptical of an idea that runs counter to the preaching of the socialist progressives over the past century.  Perhaps this is not what you have been taught in your government-union school.  What, then, is your alternative?

If you do not fully own yourself, than who owns you?  Society?  And who is that but your neighbors?  Why do they own you?  In the economy of two, the rest of society is me.  What is the basis of my claim on you, and why is mine superior to your own?   Which will be the more peaceful coexistence between you and me – voluntary exchange, or surrender by force?

The operational theory of the progressive welfare state is that my need represents a superior claim against your property.  The socialists’ purpose for government is to re-allocate wealth that a handful of people determine to be surplus.  They claim authority over everyone's property to achieve their notion of justice – a notion that forced upon both the self-owner and the recipient of the taken property.  Your obligation as a citizen is to surrender yourself to them for the good of society – good as they define it.

This is also the operational theory of piracy.

The underlying moral premise of the socialist – my need trumps your right of self-possession - is no different than that of the pirate, the looter, the rapist, the con-man, the gold-digger, the extortionist, or the thief.  The socialist wraps the taking in high-minded words of compassion; so does the pimp.  The socialist excuses his brutality on the basis of superior moral intentions; so does every fallen evangelist. 

Who owns you?  That is the first question to be answered.  It is the only tough one; the rest are easy.  

Who is selfish - the person who asserts his right to self-ownership or the person who demands the taking of that which he has not earned?

Who is compassionate – the person who gives his own money quietly to the charity of his choosing, or the person who loudly redistributes the money of others? 

Who is just – the person who respects the rights of others equally or the person who forces his beliefs onto others and takes it upon himself to allocate rights and privileges? 

Who is moral – the person who takes instruction from God, or the person who imposes his personal beliefs on others through the force of legislation?

Personal liberty and economic liberty are two sides of the same coin.  It is impossible to keep heads when you throw tails away.  All the money in the world is useless if you are not free to spend it as you see fit; and freedom to choose how to spend is useless if your earnings have been confiscated...

What's In A Name?

Whoever named it MF Global Holdings sure had some foresight.  Today’s business headline:  Securities firm fails by loaning money to people who can’t pay it back.  By-line: Duh.
 

Only this time, the deadbeats are the governments of Europe.  And the CEO of MF Global is a government guy too - Jon Corzine, Democrat ex-governor of New Jersey, ex-Senator, and former head of Goldman Sachs, AAA farm club for U.S. Treasury Secretaries.  That bankrupt MF was one of just 22 institutions offered direct trading privileges with the Federal Reserve, our shadow government.  

So with the bankruptcy of MF Global, can we now please stop pretending more government is the answer?   Oh by the way, $700 million is missing from that lousy MF, and that MF CEO Corzine will receive a $12 million bonus as his lovely partying gift for running his giant MF right into the ground.  So can we also stop pretending Democrats aren’t greedy, too?   

This spectacular Wall Street crash-and-burn comes after the implementation of Dodd-Frank, mind you.  Corzine is the guy the unions supported, mind you.  Corzine is the guy who said we should be happy to pay more taxes, mind you. 

Mr. More Government bet the ranch on government and sunk a $40 billion firm that had survived in the private equities markets for over a century.  It is the eighth largest bankruptcy in history.  He took down all the stockholders and a bunch of pension funds with him – funds invested in government bonds to avoid the risk of the stock market. 

Now what? 

Our President told us he fixed the problems of Wall Street – all that unregulated greed and betting of house money on leveraged deals…gone with the stroke of a pen, remember?  And the leaders of the EU were high-fiving last week when they fixed the sovereign debt problems on the continent by another stroke of a pen, remember?  Their stupid deal – default on 50% of the Greek debt held by private institutions – didn’t even last a week.  MF Global is just the first casualty.  

Betting on government is a bad wager. 

Solyndra, Evergreen Solar, Beacon Power, and now MF Global – the list of firms whose business models rely on either government subsidy or simply government competence grows by the month.  If the smartest of the Keynesians – Bernanke, Geithner, Summers, Romer, Corzine – can’t make that dog hunt, it is time to quit hoping something might change.

The United States debt just went over 100% of GDP a few days ago, and the media is consumed with whether or not Herman Cain made a gesture 15 years ago.  Romney actually touched Perry – that must count as sodomy.  There isn’t much to cover anyway; no politician in either party that has a plan to pay it off.  Gary Johnson is the closest thing; he promises to balance the budget, which would merely freeze the debt where it is. 

We can’t just hold down government spending and grow the economy; it is too late for that.  We need to cut government spending and cut it dramatically.  Those same Keynesians who don’t know how to fix the economy today will warn us that cutting government spending will hurt the economy tomorrow.  Yeah, whatever.   

I received a research report from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University last week that recounted the 75% cut in spending that occurred in the United States after WWII.  The economy boomed.  In the 1990’s, New Zealand faced up to its debt crisis by cutting government by 75% also – and the economy boomed.  Canada has cut its national debt in half in recent years – and has shot up to #1 on the Forbes list of best countries in which to do business. 

Do we see a pattern here?  Cut government spending and reduce debt and the economy booms.  Let’s try that again…cut government spending and reduce debt and the economy booms.  Krugman, are you listening?  Reich?  How about Cain, Romney, Perry, Gingrich, Bachman, Huntsman, Santorum?  I know Ron Paul gets it.

The argument for free enterprise is won at “free”.  The un-free kind has shown itself to be unsustainable even with massive infusions of capital borrowed from future generations.  If anyone could thrive in the debt economy, it would be MF Global, wedged between the “free” money of the Fed and the “guaranteed” returns of sovereign debt.  It could not make it even sitting in the catbird seat. 

Nothing is free.  Nothing is guaranteed.   Let’s all quit pretending.


“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.