Your Vote and Other People's Money

This election season reminds me of the Margaret Thatcher quote: "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

Our society has a systematic problem. No amount of governmental tweaking can solve the problem of running out of other people's money. Period.

The only systematic solution is for society to be organized strictly on the basis of individual property rights, i.e., Thou shalt not steal. In such a society, the only money you eventually run out of is your own. And if you fail to produce enough and save enough so you don't run out of your own money when your life depends on it, well tough bananas. What kind of message would this send to future child-producers?

So the real question with regard to these United States in the here and now is: Will American voters suddenly decide to jump off their socialist merry-go-round and vote for absolute individual property rights?

No way in hell. Not this election season. It's going to take a catastrophic collapse of our socialist society to get the attention of the American voter. Hopefully, those who survive the collapse will learn the right lesson.

Voting

Americans voting for the President of the United States are like inmates voting for the Warden of a prison. We get all worked up over hollow promises the candidates make. We cast our vote in an election run by the system. And, after all is said and done, we're still confined in a cell serving life without parole.

What It Will Take To Save This Nation

Will the resurrection of Federalism save this nation? Nope. I think the Great American Experiment proves one thing: it's impossible to design a principled method of government for a citizenry which is, by and large, without principles.

The other day I was watching a religious broadcast on TV. A group of pious ministers was discussing the Christian lifestyle. As an aside, one minister commented that he was able to survive for a time in NYC because he knew how to obtain "free" food by jamming a hat pin into a food vending machine enabling him to take the food without paying for it. A fellow minister in the group laughed and said he wished he had learned that trick when he was a poor student struggling to get through college.

 

If clergymen can't comprehend the inherent evil of theft, why should a politician?

 

Ben Franklin said: "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."

 

Were The Founders truly virtuous people? I don't know. I do know that precious few Americans today understand the principle of private property and even fewer practice the virtue of honesty. Our culture has rationalized and legitimized theft by accepting and institutionalizing the practice of robbing Peter to pay Paul -- a practice politicians adore and Americans voted to create. The devolution in this nation from federalism to nationalism only made this evil system more efficient.

Why Cooperative Societies Crack Up

 “…unchecked greed is bad. It becomes exploitive, even murderous.”

Words of wisdom from the proprietor of one of my favorite websites.

So true. But the operative word in this quote is not "greed." The operative word is "unchecked."

Does raw "greed" mechanically turn every bank employee into an embezzler? No. Thousands of bank employees have an opportunity to steal, but few do. Why? Their personal virtue checks the temptation.

Hell, we all are tempted by greed at one time or another, but we all have the power to resist the temptation. Whether we use that power or cross the line and succumb to temptation is what separates honest citizens from criminals. Personal, private virtue is the source of that power.

A free, productive, cooperative society cannot long exist without private morality and private virtue. Our founders knew this and expressed the principle clearly.

Our founders were worldly-wise as well. They knew that some citizens among us are weak-willed and/or without private virtue. So, in order to protect and preserve our cooperative society, they created laws against theft and murder, and a public authority to enforce those laws.

From the standpoint of society it does not matter what motivates the thief or the murderer. What matters is whether or not our public authority does it's job with integrity and honor. A corrupt public authority is one that allows those who break the law to get away with their crimes or even to profit from them and get off scot-free.

Today the executives of Big Pharma might be characterized as excessively greedy, as they conspire with our public authority to mandate vaccinations for all citizens so that both profit immensely. But greed is not the villain here. The villain is our corrupt public authority.

This is why cooperative societies crack up. Citizens with private virtue recognize the behavior of criminals and the corruption of the public authority that enables such criminal behavior and even becomes a partner in that behavior. Eventually -- and perhaps understandably -- these virtuous citizens become righteously enraged. They decide to bypass the corrupt public authority. They take the law into their own hands and dispense vigilante justice.

Our cooperative society in America is now at the edge. Don't be surprised if it cracks up in a sea of bloodshed.

Act Accordingly

As this Covid-19 saga has progressed over the last 18 months, I've heard people speculate on "Why?" Why the lies? Why the censorship? Why the ban on effective treatments? Why the insane push for vaccines?

 

The ONLY correct answer is: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

 

We've been voting more and more power to the federal government since this nation was founded. We fought a Civil War to preserve and endlessly expand that power. And now the federal bureaucrats and politicians who have that power are treating us like serfs, calling us "useless" eaters, vowing to destroy the governors of states that refuse to obey their edicts.

 

The ONLY way to get out from under the federal government's thumb is to defund and defang the federal government at every opportunity possible.

 

Make no exceptions. Give them no quarter. Say "NO" and mean it.

 

Above all don't be conned. When someone from the federal government promises he is there to help you, don't EVER buy into his lie, no matter what your personal benefit might be.

 

Private property and individual liberty are our absolute right and our salvation. Anyone -- and I mean anyone -- who opposes this truth is your deadly enemy.

 

Act accordingly.

The New Normal

 

Father,
I abandon myself into your hands;
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.

Let only your will be done in me,
and in all your creatures –
I wish no more than this, O Lord.

Into your hands I commend my soul:
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father.

Charles de Foucauld

Take The Pledge

 

I pledge allegiance to the President of the United States of America, and to the Administration for which he stands, one Family under The Big Guy, indispensable, with equality and social justice for all.