Archive for March, 2009

I was looking back through past George Will opinion pieces and came across this one.  He states a few facts that, on their own, are astonishing.  However, when you think about them in context to the stimuless plans offered by government, it makes you realize just how impressive private enterprises such as WalMart are.  And how important they are to the operation of our economy. 

Now, as you read his article, understand that he uses the term ‘liberal’ incorrectly.  He may be smart and well educated but he’s only human.  (As I will discuss in a future blog, the term has been stolen from us, the true liberals). 

For me, the astonishment comes from the two numbers he states in the article.  US productivity growth would have been 13% less in the second half of the 1990′s if it wasn’t for WalMart.  And, WalMart’s everyday low pricing has a more stimulative effect on the economy than most of the government programs currently in place. 

And they make money offering all these goodies!!!  Last time I checked, the government can’t balance its own budget, is filled with fraud, waste, and corruption.  And can only assist some by impeding on the rights of others.

Maybe a more stimulative program for the government to follow would be to lower the barriers to progress (letting WalMart provide it’s services to more people) rather than attempting to protect its legacies (i.e. the failed policies of the New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society).

Below, I have reprinted a wonderful story by Leonard E. Read. I believe this was first published in 1958 and is, surprisingly, still so relevant to today. If I were to suggest only one reading for a high school student pertaining to economics, it would be this piece. I hope all will enjoy it as much as I do…

I, Pencil:  My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read

or… The 7 Deadly Sins, all in moderation.

There are two primary materials needed for making sausage, the meat and the sausage maker. If you want to make chicken sausage, yet all that comes out of the machine is pork sausage, what do you change out? The machine? Or the meat that you stuff into the machine? Does this sound like an easy question? It is, it’s not a trick. You stop stuffing pork into the darn machine and replace it with chicken. With a little bit of luck (actually, none), you will get that heavenly morsel of meat called chicken sausage. If you’re still reading, you must be asking what the heck am I talking about. Well, please read on.

We are at a point in time when elected officials are wanting to replace the machine rather than looking at the meat that is being stuffed into it.  Politicians are on the TV, in the paper, and on the radio telling us how “the system” has failed the American public.  We have bad, nasty, greedy corporations that make seats too small on planes.  Slick, puppy-dog eyed mortgage brokers that tricked us into buying a house at the top of the market with nothing down and cash back mortgages.  And worst, that devil plastic that taunted us into buying the 52″ plasma TV for our 52 sq. ft. family room.  Curse them all!  In response, they want to “protect” us and “help” us by changing the system so that those greedy individuals that made money off of mass stupidity get what they deserve;  higher taxes (in order to redistribute wealth), new regulations, mandatory healthcare, and… hybrids.  In other words, capitalism hasn’t worked so let’s get rid of it.

What ever happened with owning one’s actions?  Why has it become wrong to say to a fat person complaining about the size of an airline seat, “you’re grossly overweight, stop eating so much”.  Or to the person that RECEIVED $10,000 when they signed a document giving them a house, “you did realize that you have to pay that back, right?”

We have become a society that has taken the seven deadly sins; Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Hubris, and turned them into rights. Some feel entitled to material possessions rather than feel ashamed for being jealous.  Some excuse criminal behaviour as genetic rather than curse criminals for exhibiting greed and wrath.  Our politicians think so little of individuals that they have the hubris to believe we are unable to choose right from wrong.

Now, before you say that I’m heartless.  That there are people who did it right and fell on hard times and all I want to do is tell them to pound sand, let me set the record straight.  THAT IS WHY WE HAVE CHARITIES.  Americans are the biggest charitable contributors in the world with over $300 Billion given in 2007.  (To put that in context, that is about the same amount spent by the government for “charitable” causes).  As a percent of GDP, we are double the UK which ranked second.  The list falls dramatically after that.  I am a big believer that having local charitable organizations that focus on stopping the downward spiral that some see is so much better than continuing down the path of giving up rights in order for the many to serve the few.  Because, we all know that, with time, the few will support the many.  I’m a relatively good person and capable (as are most) of determining where my money, time, and sympathy should be best focused.  Charity starts at home and should never end with government.  (I’m not preaching that you have to give to charities.  I’m also not telling you that you’re wrong if you choose not to, I just think less of you.  It’s your prerogative to do with your money how you see fit.  It’s my prerogative to think less of you.)  But I digress.

Capitalism is the only economic system that allows individuals to be free.  Free to succeed.  Free to fail.  Free to decide how best to help their neighbor.  It is the only system that actually thinks of individuals as capable, good natured beings and rewards efforts rather than intentions.  If there are some that have abused the system and gotten caught by it, it’s not the system’s fault, it is the individual’s.