… And A Congress With Common Sense

The US unemployment rate is at 9.2 percent. It appears to have plateaued at the nine to ten percent level. And there is a reason for that.

With some sixteen months before US citizens go to the polls to choose a new President and a slew of Congresspersons and Senators, American employers have decided the smart thing to do is hunker down and pray for a change in the leadership of the United States.

Business is not in business as a favor to anybody. Business is in business to make a profit … to make money for the owners and/or stockholders.

Corporations are not existent to do the bidding of the government, but to do as their stockholders direct and their consumers demand. Government only impedes, gets in the way, of a corporation’s ability to grow and thrive and … HIRE PEOPLE to create the goods and services that corporation provides.

When the government hangs its yoke over the neck of business, business fights back. One way they do that is by assuming a static position. They simply freeze in their tracks. That is what is happening in America today.

Oh, business is still running, still producing goods and services, but with fewer employees and less, or no, expansion. Everything is put on hold until the business climate improves. That is where business is today in America.

The Obama administration is unfriendly to business … period! It is the worst I have seen in my lifetime … and I date back to the Franklin D. Roosevelt administrations. And they publicly state that they intend to get even tougher.

The US is lucky that more of our leading industries have not left the country, already. If, however, the Obama Administration is not sent packing in November of 2012, I expect the US will see a huge exodus of businesses, moving to countries which offer more favorable business climates than the US for their companies.

Look around. America used to be a manufacturing powerhouse. We made everything — and we made it better here than anywhere else on the planet. Even our automobiles were the best in the world, as hard as that is to believe today. High unemployment was anything over oh, say, two percent!

What happened?

Labor unions and democrats happened! Their lust for power and money eviscerated, gutted, the great industrial machine that was America. Now it is all but non-existent. Today, America is basically a service industry country not a manufacturing/industrial country. I lived through it, I saw it happening, and I experienced it.

Not all the blame falls to the democrats. The republicans did not do their part to, at least, hobble the democrat socialist machine over the past decades. And they are not doing what we voters sent them to Washington to do today, either. Many will be sent packing in November of 2012.

As I write, the GOP is in a great struggle with the Democrats over whether to raise the US debt limit. In my opinion, the GOP will, in the end, fold like a cheap suit, and the debt limit will be raised AND new taxes will be levied against the very people in the US who provide jobs for Americans. These are the same businesses that are treading water today.

Add to all of this the costs and limitations added to business by ObamaCare and anyone with common sense can see that the smart move for business is to hunker down, secure their money here, or off shore, and wait until the American electorate wakes up and shakes of the chains of our current socialist regime. Or, they simply shut down operations and more their entire business to another country.

America is hurtling toward third-world status today. Stopping the plunge will be painful. The question for me is: Do modern Americans have the guts their forefathers had? Do we have the stubborn tenacity they had to say “ENOUGH” and take our country back? Frankly, I am doubtful, extremely doubtful.

You want a job? Then help employers rid themselves of the impediment that is the Obama administration.

For you who still think the government creates jobs … you are dead wrong. The government doesn’t create jobs. They send you a check, and strip you of your manhood and womanhood. You are a ward of the state, on the dole, a charity case! Are you satisfied with that status? If not, then do something about it.

The current administration — and Congress — have grievously wounded America. But we have been critically wounded before. We managed to pick ourselves up, shake it off, and do what had to be done to correct the situation that had inflicted the wound in the first place. We have to do it again. No if, ands, or buts! It MUST be done or the survival of America is most assuredly imperiled.

May God grant us the tenacity of heart and soul to pull America back from the brink and restore her to her former greatness.

J. D. Longstreet

 

WesternFront America

We all see the world through the prism of where we live. Most of us live in the cities and suburbs. From the early 1940s when my parents moved to the picture postcard town of Maplewood, N.J. that is where I grew up and have spent most of my life.

Maplewood is a quick half hour train trip into downtown Manhattan and is a bedroom community for many executives that work there. It is famous for its many tree lined streets, manicured lawns, and homes, many of which were built starting around the 1920s after the Erie Lackawanna made it a regular stop. Its school system was renowned. It’s still a beautiful town and its village shopping area was the setting for scenes in the film “One True Thing.”

When the property taxes on my home there continued to rise, myself and many other senior citizens who had lived in the township elected to move. My older brother had already set up house in Florida, God’s waiting room, but I elected to move one town over into a swanky new apartment complex, allowing me to make the short drive into the “village” of town every day to purchase sundries and get what, for me, passes for exercise.

What struck me today was the way the small office building in which my CPA’s firm is headquartered is bereft of any other firms. It used to house a photographer’s business and one that sold insurance. I left off my 2010 tax records. Across the street a take-out food store had closed its doors. The town’s pet store had departed not long ago.

As I walked toward my car I realized that yet another gift shop had bit the dust. Other shops, too. One of the town’s busiest real estate firms had a window filled with pictures and descriptions of homes for sale. My former home where I had lived for more than sixty years had changed owners twice in seven years.

The short drive back to my apartment complex included passing homes with for-sale signs, too numerous to ignore.

When the phone rings these days it’s usually one of a small circle of longtime friends. One of them runs a longtime, successful enterprise that matches people of differing expertise with reporters needing some quick information and insight, a quote on some subject. Talk radio and TV producers use it to find guests.

Over the twenty-seven years I have known my friend he went from running the business from his apartment to a large office with a full staff. He now runs it from his apartment and it is a virtual business. His directory of experts is print-on-demand for those who request a copy and many of the computer and web services he uses are provided from Bangalore, India.

Like a fish in water, it occurred to me that I haven’t met face to face with any of my clients in years. We communicate mostly via email or occasionally on the phone. I am trying to remember when I last put on a suit and tie. I can’t.

When I turn on the television news or listen to it on the radio, what I really hear is that everyone is waiting for the megalith we call the federal government to come up with a budget and to fund its function for another two weeks!

When a nation cannot operate in a predictable, rational way, it forces people to put a lot of ordinary decisions on hold.

That’s why a great swath of businesses is just waiting for someone to buy something. The ones that provide goods that are essential, food, toilet paper, things to keep the house clean, medications, are okay, but anything that is non-essential is moving far more slowly. Even the catalog operations that depend on moving all manner of household items are slashing their prices. The $10 “rehab exercise ball” is now $6.00. The $14 “ratchet pruner” is now $8.00.

I used to go to a nearby mall to purchase things. Now I go on the Internet and they are delivered in two or three days at most. The most extraordinary business in America is the delivery business, whether it’s Fedex or UPS.

As the price of gasoline goes up, reflecting the turmoil throughout the Middle East as it recedes further into its dark ages people are going to travel less. Visiting grandma will be by iphone. The huge business of trade conferences will be hard hit. In turn, hotels, airlines, and tourism will feel the affect.

Nobody has any idea how America will pay off the huge debt it has acquired—the bulk of it in just the last two years—and still Congress critters argue over cutting pitifully small pieces of it.

We have huge government departments and agencies that should simply be shuttered, along with their matrix of duplicated and overlapping programs that suck up millions, if not billions, annually. It won’t happen.

There is a lull in the life of the nation. Shops are closing. Homes are going unsold or foreclosed or both. Everything looks “normal”, but it isn’t. The party’s over.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

 

WesternFront America

By SARTRE.

Economic commerce is the lifeblood of any society. In the simplest of terms, products and services are necessary for physical survival. The business history of the America saga developed under the direction of Alexander Hamilton. His view of commerce for America was to emulate the mercantile model of the British Empire.

The following summary explains the essential viewpoint and legacy of his economic influence:

“Hamilton differed from his contemporaries was, first, in believing that only a “talented few” — understood to mean men drawn from the wealthy and aristocratic strata of society — had the wisdom and dispassionate foresight to implement the measures necessary for the public good. The second major distinguishing feature of Hamilton’s political philosophy was its emphasis on energetic government. He believed that the government should be proactive in economic and military affairs, have the power to supersede lower governments (as at the state level), and be able to exercise authority directly on the people.”

“He believed that an energetic American government should, in the interest of promoting the public good, actively encourage manufacturing, assume responsibility for the country’s debts, standardize and control the currency system through a national bank, link the interests of wealthy citizens with the government’s success, and, finally, maintain friendly ties with Britain in order not to provoke a disastrous trade or shooting war.”

The “implied powers” justification that Hamilton argued for a strong central government, remains a national curse to this day. He was more concerned with who controlled the components of commerce than the nature of the economic elements. Understanding Hamilton’s Federalist mindset and dogmatic drive for a strong central government constitution is crucial for a thoughtful comprehension of Totalitarian Collectivism.

The basic factors that compose an economy are:

1) methods, means and materials of production

2) labor, intellectual expertise and innovation

3) capital, technology resources, marketing and consumers

4) government regulations, tax policy and international competition

Money as a medium of exchange is the tool for keeping score and consummating a business transaction. Barter is business in its most basic form; even so, financial instruments offer convenience and portability. Legal tender laws provides the cover for the government to prevent competing currencies from allowing free selection of superior store of value monies.

Taxes and regulations have more to do with behavior control than revenue collection. Lost in the business equation is that material benefits or service enhancements should improve the ability of citizens to advance their individuality, independence and personal liberty. Contrary to the commerce clause or the general welfare tenet in the U.S. Constitution, the State is the biggest impediment to the ambition, hope and desire of Jefferson’s vision in the Declaration of Independence.

The fundamental principle in any economy is that the government does not create wealth. The reason why governments are consumers and usurpers of prosperity is that it acts as a parasite. It feasts on the labors and endeavors of entrepreneurial risk takers. The state claims that it is a partner with business and is a force for economic expansion. Yet the facts tell a very different tale. The rat race is not solely a chase to acquire money, but is more a survival contest to escape the tentacles of state coercion.

The “TC” society becomes more difficult to subsist within, because the economic environment favors a special elite, who are able to design and manipulate the systems of financial selection. The idea that a guild of meritocracy allows for the ascendency to the Hamiltonian “aristocratic strata” does not square with the record. Making money and placement on the Forbes 400 list, does not assure being part of the inner circle that are the real masters of the State.

Becoming completely insulated from the range and influence of government is impossible. A viable and functioning economy benefits humanity. Collectivist policies directly reduce the ability of economic activity. Impeding the flow and curtailing the velocity of money causes the level of transactions to decline. “The velocity of money (also called velocity of circulation) is the average frequency with which a unit of money is spent in a specific period of time.” When money turns over fast because of the reasonable expectation that funds can be replaced just as quickly, the economy hums. Tax revenues rise, loans are paid, debts retired, sales increase, new development breaks ground, workers are hired, trade markets expand, innovation research commences, M & A acquisitions rise and new venture startups go forward because confidence in a healthy economy is well founded.

Totalitarian Collectivism is the death knell of productive commerce. Free enterprise is quite different from a command and controlled economy. Most people are not business owners. Few workers understand the process of creating wealth. Those who do and decide to become employers usually do not want to take the risk or to pay the price of responsibility for the venture. The State views the business owner as a threat to the system. The government mindset sees the wealth maker as a bank account for exploiting to expand bureaucratic budgets and agencies. The “TC” juggernaut sees taxes as their revenue since their right to exist is paramount.

Social welfare deprives the economy of incentives and people of dread. Prosperity has never been fashioned on subsidies and entitlements. Honest profit is beneficial to society and advances the genuine general welfare with a merchant based economy. The corporate economy is the fulfillment of Hamilton’s lust for empire.

Empires all share a common thread, revulsion for a republic government based upon democratic principles. Mastery over the economy is the means to achieve the “TC” state. Citizens are not chattel. The ethos that sells consumer materialism as the American Dream, is a prime tactic and device employed to deprive people from achieving the real American ambition, that is; an independent and secure economic standard of life. Self-employed persons know the value and risks of fiscal autonomy. They also recognize the constant apprehension, especially during hard times, of their dependency upon a functioning marketplace.

Contrast this understanding with the experience of the government agent. The title, municipal employee, is a misnomer. A state worker is a public servant, but often acts like a bully for a phony superior authority. When an economy relies upon government payments for providing subsistence to more people than the number of workers earning a productive livelihood, that society fails. The net result is an expediential increase in an incalculable public debt. This leads to the ultimate repudiation of the currency, default of government bonds and a total breakdown of commerce.

Haughty Hamilton “proposed that the government assume the entire debt of the federal government and the states. His plan was to retire the old depreciated obligations by borrowing new money at a lower interest rate.” Isn’t that the exact scheme used by the “TC” establishment to reassure that the financial meltdown is in recovery? Today, the twist is that trillions of new debt has been added, to the sum of the old obligations, in a vain attempt to postpone the inevitable.

The reason why the cumulative public debt, not even considering the total of future obligation guarantees, cannot be serviced and retired, is that the productive economy is not big enough to offset the enormous sums required. The financial physics of the law of compound interest even defies the Totalitarian Collectivist junta. The monetary future holds an unavoidable economic breakdown. Dislocation of commerce will dispel the myth in the wisdom of the interdependency economy.

Reduction in a robust standard of living is a planned result. Quashing middle class affluence is no longer a remote prospect. The American Saga need not end in third world subsistence. Substantive national trade and domestic industry grows in a decentralized economy. Government policy operates against small business and self-employed enterprises. A society that aspires to qualify for a government pension lacks the character that developed this nation.

The government bubble is expanding as debt inflates the balloon. A “TC” dictatorship can keep the atmosphere polluted as long as the true nature of the dilemma is ignored or denied. Jobs are a byproduct of conducting business. Paying a person for sought after social engineered conduct is not a solution. The answer is to reinvent the underlying culture that valued hard work, honest dealings and innovative ideas. People’s money must be recognized as their own. Tribute for the State is theft.

The disparity in assets among classes is at a level that ordinarily results in major social disorder. Conspicuous consumption by elites and crooked financial gurus fan the flames of righteous rebellion. The manipulated economy is the hammer used by elites to pound the brains out of the masses. The end game is the Soylent Green society. The elites believe you will go quietly down the path to Totalitarian Collectivism. Will you oblige their plan for mankind? Or will you introduce yourself as Mr. Aaron Burr, to their Mr. Alexander Hamilton.

Related article:
TOTALITARIAN COLLECTIVISM PART 1 – INTRODUCTION
TOTALITARIAN COLLECTIVISM PART 2 -STATE

TOTALITARIAN COLLECTIVISM PART 3 – CHURCH

TOTALITARIAN COLLECTIVISM PART 4 – FAMILY

SARTRE is the pen name of a reformed, former political operative. This pundit’s formal instruction in History, Philosophy and Political Science served as training for activism, on the staff of several politicians and in many campaigns. He is a past columnist for Ether Zone.
SARTRE can be reached at: BATR@batr.org

We invite you to visit his website at: BREAKING ALL THE RULES

“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”

 

WesternFront America

They may have expected the worse after Obama was elected. Knowing they were going to be subject to more profit-robbing taxes including cap and trade, 11 major US corporations beat Obama to the punch in 2009. They have moved their operations overseas. More will follow when cap and trade is finally passed.

These Democrats lie about the job losses cap and trade will create, but we have 11 major corporations who said they have had enough before Congress rapes them one more time. These are more jobs gone overseas.

I once believed companies like Ingersoll Rand were safe thinking the size of their products made the product impractical to ship back to the United States, but so wicked is the Untied States tax code, they are now a foreign based company.

Investors.com sites the threat of new taxes, the convergence of technology, the ease of digital collaboration and ready access to abundant foreign engineering talent. Not only the coming new taxes like cap and trade the culprit, the crummy federal education system is also a culprit. Why am I not surprised? Lack of engineering talent places the blame at the Department of Education—there’s no other entity to point a finger at. Math and science skills are suffering in the United States thanks to these crummy schools that would rather teach a child how to put a condom on a banana than focus on the needs of the country.

Taxes are the largest blame to the problem. The United States corporate tax rate is only second to Japan’s. The Democrats in Congress don’t want to fix that little problem because they are too busy spending money for their special interest projects in their districts and states. They need more funding so they can fund these unconstitutional projects.

Let’s look at what the United States lost this year knowing that both Boeing and General Motors are looking at China and Mexico to lower their production costs and possibly escape the heavy hand of the American government.

Tyco International, Foster Wheeler, Weatherford International, Nabors Industries, Noble Corp., TransOcean International, United America Indemnity, Cooper Industries, Covidien, Ingersoll-Rand and Accenture have all left our once fruited plains now plagued by an oppressive and over taxing government, and they have taken their production jobs to someplace where they won’t have to deal with these fools in Congress.

Investors.com also places the blame on education. The US spends more per capita on a student than any other OECD country, but continues to get the bottom of the barrel test scores. Until parents start putting pressure on their schools to end the social experimentation and actually teach kids something, this is a statistic that will destroy this country.

We all should be concerned that 11 corporations have left our shores, especially when our Congress is looking at tying the hands of more US corporations through taxation, bad environmental policies, and a pathetic education system. It’s really sad to watch our country fall like it is. This doesn’t even include major companies that have closed their doors this year thanks to environmental policies—remember Columbia Falls Aluminum Company? They closed their doors after environmentalist prevented them from getting the needed electricity to run their operations. More jobs gone because of the sick philosophies currently taking over our institutions in this country.

These jobs aren’t coming back. That’s the bottom line.

Originally posted at Bungalow Bill’s Conservative Wisdom © Clay Bowler

 

WesternFront America