Basic Economics
Jan 9th, 2009 | By Don Stott | Category: Featured, Macro Economics, Politics
There are so many complications, economics wise, and there shouldn’t be, because as Ludwig von Mises once said, defining economics, “People Act.” It’s just that simple! Examples are everywhere. Toyota is closing its plants for 11 days, and how many employees does this affect? Let’s say 2,000, at $200 a day, for 11 days. The loss in payroll to workers is a total of $4,400,000. Toyota will save $4,400,000, and the laid off workers will buy $4,400,000 less food, cars, gasoline, or whatever they won’t buy, because they have fewer dollars to use.
Multiply this by millions of permanent layoffs, bankruptcies, shut downs, going out of businesses, chains closing for good, autos down the tubes, housing starts virtually zero, and sales almost the same, and what do you get? The Toyota effect, multiplied many times over. 2.5 Million jobs were lost in 2008.
You get millions out of a job, millions behind in their mortgage and credit card payments, millions with homes worth less than is owed on them, and the chain reaction follows. The more layoffs there are, the more store closings and bankruptcies there will be, and resultant layoffs and increasing of all of the above. In other words, thanks to the welfare state, which wasn’t in existence in the 1930’s depression, credit cards which weren’t in existence in the 1930’s depression, and un-backed dollars, which were backed in the 1930’s depression, and no money down home purchases and ARM mortgages, which weren’t possible in the 1930’s depression, the conditions currently extant can and probably will make this depression far more severe than the 1930’s depression. The facts say it will be far worse.
Unfortunately, you haven’t seen anything yet.
Carburetors
For over 75 years, cars, trucks, planes, and everything powered with gasoline engines, used carburetors to mix air and gas to feed into the engine’s intake manifold. They worked well, but on occasion, they became ‘flooded,’ and the engine wouldn’t run. (Modern, fuel injected engines can’t be ‘flooded.’) Carburetors had two things on them which caused ‘flooding.’ (1) The accelerator pump, and (2) The choke. On cold mornings, often the choke, which restricts the flow of air, might make the mixture too rich, and cause the ‘flooding,’ or often in hot weather, too much gas pedal pumping would inject too much raw gas into the engine, ‘flooding’ it, and causing it not to run. Both things, which caused the ‘flooding,’ and engines not running, were TOO MUCH GAS.
The solution was to stop the flooding by depressing the accelerator all the way to the floor, and crank the engine till the excess gas was used up, or open the choke and wait for it to evaporate. Gasoline engine technology is not the point here. The point is this: What got us into this economic mess? TOO MUCH MONEY INSERTED INTO AN ECONOMY by the Federal Reserve. Just like the engine being flooded with too much gas, the solution is to cut off the gas.
The Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan flooded America with easy money, easy mortgages, and easy credit. The result was bad credit, bad mortgages, and everything being over-priced. Pouring more gas into a flooded carburetor guaranteed the problem would be made much worse. Cutting off the gas would be the solution. Pouring $2 trillion, and god only knows how much more into the economy, is like pouring gas into a flooded carburetor. It will only make matters worse. Obama says he has consulted 20 of America’s best, most respected economists, and they say pour more gas (printing press dollars) into the flooded carburetor (economy), and the engine of America will start. NUTS! I wish Obama had called me.
The same exact thing was tried in the 1930’s, with huge government spending, and it took WW II to get us out of the depression. We’re already in two wars, and I certainly wouldn’t want us in a third one. How about this as a cure for the current depression?
(1) Get us OUT of both wars we’re now in, and bring home all the troops. Let ‘em solve their own problems over there. We’ve got huge ones here, and can no longer concern ourselves with theirs. This will save hundreds of billions a year, if not well over a trillion.
(2) Disband most federal bureaucracies, especially the Federal Reserve, and do it Quickly. The DOT, DOE, HUD–and the list is long–serve no useful purpose. The Department of Education educates no one, the Department of Transportation transports no one, etc. This will save hundreds of billions a year.
(3) Revert to the Constitution, which gives government no authorization to subsidize anything. This will put an end to all federal welfare, and save hundreds of billions a year.
(4) Get out of the UN, NATO, and any and all foreign entanglements, at a savings of more hundreds of billions, and get the UN out of America. Declare unconditional neutrality, and send no money or advice overseas at any time, or for any reason.
(5) Close our borders with Mexico, and see to it that they stay closed 100%. More savings.
(6) As illegals come up for police stops, free medical care, welfare, school enrollment etc., which are in the hundreds of thousands each year, instantly send them home.
(7) Renounce NAFTA, and all laws which encourage, tax wise, the building of plants off-shore, and resulting layoffs here. With the budget balanced, and no more Federal Reserve, recovery would be pretty quick.
Today, every single state is in terrible economic condition because of layoffs, bankruptcies, and low tax collections. They have to balance their budgets. The D.C. Gang doesn’t, and can print and print and print, which they are doing, and will continue to do with nary a smidgen of responsibility. We all pay for their lack of responsibility with every single dollar we own being reduced in purchasing power.
I can go on and on, but the point is this: The ones who harm us the most–other than the Congress who has gotten us into this with a hundred years of bad legislation–are bureaucrats, welfare recipients, and illegals, who would be out of work, and that’s great! Let D.C. turn itself into a ghost town, full of worthless, out of work ex-bureaucrats. Maybe they’d burn the place down and we could start over. Let the illegals go home by themselves, or by force when they are picked up. If states want to subsidize the poor, or illegal, they can, but not the federal government. All of these ideas would actually balance the budget, and make America strong again. None of these ideas have a Chinaman’s chance in hell of coming to pass. Not a single one. Obama will print up another trillion dollars in un-backed scrip, and we’ll have hyper-inflation, except in housing, because that has yet to reach bottom.
To fix a flooded engine, you cut off the gas. To fix an economy flooded with paper money, you cut off the paper money, not print trillions more! The economy is in such a sorry state, flooded with fake money, that the fed interest is close to zero. They’ll pay you NOTHING to store your scrip for you. Wise people have taken their scrip, and turned it into precious metals, which will always have value in any currency, or all by itself. An economy such as ours, which has been flooded with unbacked scrip, and ceased to run, as in a flooded engine, has to get itself out of the mess by ceasing the printing of scrip.
It will be very painful to millions of people who have not been acting wisely, or who have been depending on Uncle Sam for their sustenance. The pain of this depression is unimaginable today. We’re only at the very beginning of it. The only sensible way to get out of it, is to let it run its course, and at rock bottom, the economy will begin to rise like the Phoenix Bird.
If my ideas ever came into being, there would be wholesale riots by those cut off, and many millions would die. Wonderful! We are flooded with not only too much scrip, backed by nothing, but too much human trash, who have been flooded with handouts from the public treasury. Millions actually believe that government owes them a living, which is gross error, and extremely costly. They, like the scrip, are basically worthless, and they must be gotten rid of to make our economy healthy again. How to do it? I give up, or at least won’t write about it.
Regards,
Don Stott
January 9, 2009
Mr. Stott,
This article will definitely make my library of common sense literature. I couldn’t have said it any better and, in fact have probably stated the situation many times, just as you have so precisely done. I am in Texas and we are not in bad shape down here and don’t plan on getting to that point. We will not give up our guns nor will we submit to the marxist regime that is now in power. I just love your expressions and they are so right on. Acutally, I am in such admiration of this piece that I find myself at a loss of words so I will just say “awesome”.
Fred Beene
Hear-Hear!
Continuing the carburetor metaphor, the other option (as you’ve pointed out) is to floor the accelerator which, yes, dumps more fuel (money) into the system, but opens the throttle so that all of the necessary components (fuel and air, or printed money and the goods and services represented in the exchange of that money) can get dumped into the system. It removes the barrier and allows the system to speed up on its own. This would create a horrific backlash, in our economy, but I think a smaller backlash than what happens once the public stops turning a blind eye and numb mind to the activities of their representatives.
In applauding your first three solutions to our woes, I must state that I do not hold any venom for the poor, poorly educated, or Mexican. You could’ve stopped at point #3, “Revert to the Constitution”, and the nature of the document and its reminder that we have rights would naturally precipitate each of your following points (and reinforce No. 1 and 2) in turn. “Illegals” would no longer have access to “free medical care, welfare, school enrollment etc.,” since all but the police and private schools would be moot. Those who could afford to, and still wanted social bailouts would leave on their own; those who could not would either get productive and benefit the systems, or become a burden as we try to ship them elsewhere-on the public tab- or in less convenient ways (but I’m an optimist).
You’ve got a good plan here. But how to convince others of it. How do I not feel like an ass each time I read another recollection of how we got where we are? I bought a house just before the crash, I’ve got an auto loan, I’m still in that reflective phase where I look at my mounds of stuff and my dwindling cash resources and think “10% more…I could do just fine, if only I could up my income by another 10%”. Now my reflection is turning to “how can I set the example”, so that when I bend the ears of my Representatives, I can speak from experience and not from passion. Like you say, I could “cut the gas” and reduce my spending, and try to do more with what I have already. Any suggestions for a libertarian lifestyle that might show, more than tell, the Powers That Be how to behave?
for the record i read the articles here everyday and feel they provide a fresh alternative look at current events, buyt who the **** do you think you are (We are flooded with not only too much scrip, backed by nothing, but too much human trash) yeah maybe but what makes you get to decide whos trash, oh i forgot because you are ******** rich and write a free article for a company who is just as deep in the rest of the crap as every other company out there, cmon what makes you better because oh i get it you have a good job drive a nice car and would you pick a man up if hes down and help him get on his feet now i can say i agree with a bit of what you say but judging the people BORN INTO A LOWER “CASTE” THAN you because really thats what it is then when you burn the rest of us whos gonna do your slavework hmm i doubt youll get off your pompous behind and go pick cotton or whatever hmmm, that is the kind of talk why our forefathers established this government judging peolpe because ewhat we dont have as much $ as u i have received food stamps aid whatever but let tell u doesnt mean i am a peice of **** as you so eloquently put it, that kind of attitude is what lets the lion out of the cage(revolutionary war ring a bell anyone) when the starving unwanted dregs of society come tearing your door and the rest of your ilk go with them maybe we wouldnt be in such a mess if the rich and the elite didnt insist on riding on the backs of the weak and obscenely profiting at the expense of hardworking people the world over,oh but what do i know im just a poor peice of **** who deserves to starve ,well i still like your articles lol but your view quite frankly should get you shot
Your latest article echoes Circero as Rome crumbled as the government paid for the votes of the masses.
Another relevant observation (autor unknown) is that democracies crumble when the majority finds out they can vote themselves largesee from the treasury.
Your cure for the depression sounds like Ron Paul’s platform for President last year.
Rock on!!
This is an ignorant and simple-minded essay describing the solution to all our economic problems. So many of these ’suggestions’ are ill-founded, misguided, plain wrong, or based on overt racism and emotion. Where are any data or facts to support these profound solutions? This makes me seriously question the journalistic professionalism of the W & G editors. It is an embarrassment to sling mud without some fact-based objectivity. For example, if we ‘fired’ all the goverment employees who ostensibly contribute nothing to our society (does Stott live in some hidden mountain bunker?), got rid of every single one them, and eliminated all the agencies and departments that actually run our government, it would equal less than 1% of our entire national budget. That’ll sure make a dent in our decifit spending… that should really solve our economic woes. Suggestion- watch IOUSA. This is just an example of the misguided and simply moronic solutions from Stott. Nice work Whiskey and Gunpowder.
Don- Unfortunately, that is the one thing that they will not do. That is until the American people hold figuratively a knife to their throats and demand that they cut the size and spending of all government. To do what you suggest they would be cutting into their powerbase and short of either that or not being re-elected that won’t happen. You can expect as things get worse and worse that they will go to any unconstitutional method in order to secure fiat paper (better known as money) from any source. My advice is to get whatever money that you can out of the U.S. before it becomes illegal (I’m looking at Uruguay or Panama right now). Get a second passport and start learning the language of whatever country that you intend to move to. If you have to for whatever reason stay in the USA then get as much money as you can in gold and silver, buy some military style semi-auto preferably under the table and move to a profreedom state like Wyoming or Montana. That’s your only hope.
Mr Stott,
You’re right … not a Chinaman’s chance in hell.
To jon.doe (post #3),
Please break the very bad habit of not using the upper case where appropriate and not using appropriate punctuation so that you have presented readers with one gigantic run-on sentence. If you would conform to standard rules of writing you would find your ideas more likely to be accepted.
I respect very much what you are saying Don and think similar as I am no economist but like I d like to say: “Dont need to be a psicologist as I live in my mind & feelings all my life, so I must know something Drs dont and maybe more if I am honest with myself…”. Same applies to economics. We all know results or consecuences for years especially here in Ecuador where I am from. Basic or simple economics is no mistery to anyone with a brain and a honest business. Dont need to be a mechanic is you would have to fix your car everytime is broken. You would probably end up knowing a lot more than so called “pro mechanics” as “you really want to fix your own car”…they dont need to cause aint theirs and are looking at the check to be paid mostly…!
Basically I am talking honesty here and if honesty is not applied or part of the equation in any profesion, is not a profesion is something else.
I learned to navigate a sailboat at 22 years old. Just got a sailboat investing all I inherited and savings. Sailed that boat from USA to Ecuador and made a business of it in only 5 years and a good sound business chartering the Galapagos waters.
And I have to tell you, i have to laugh at big shot Marines with all their hats and medals. They have the worst record in navigation at Galapagos (deep/easy )waters…Thanks to God and that I had to learn or kill myself and people who sailed with me, I truly learned! and never had an accident or hit a reef.
Anyway, quite off of subject but not quite, I have to add just that North America and First world countries in general have to STOP SUBSIDIZING AGRICULTURE. Then you would save billions also. And make this world a real FAIR TRADE and FREE MARKET as it should be. Then all the economy of the planet and not only the first world will come out of this deppression fine and sound and with a lesson learned.
I guess… After all I am not some “laureate economist”…
Real economics is REAL economics. And goes all the way or not at all…
As simple as that.
Like navigating / sailing big seas. Either you have it or you dont. Is that simple.
Cheers from Ecuador
Ricardo
Thank you for writing in Ricardo. The least we should do is end sugar subsidies. The sooner we end the trade embago with Cuba the better. We trade with China. We should be willing to trade with Cuba. We should let in sugar, cigars, and other things. This may benefit our Southern states significantly over time.
If you check out Don Stott’s website and read many of his columns, you may appreciate the following. If you think everybody should fend for themselves always at all times, then you should have to fend for yourself in all ways at all times. No police officer, fire fighter, nurse, doctor, or anybody else should help you out at any time if you think everybody should fend for themselves always. You should never accept help from anybody if you have any integrity at all if you think everybody should fend for themselves always. Racism is stupid. Hating most black people because you have had some bad experiences with black people is stupid. You should not judge a book by its cover. You should judge a book by its contents. You should not judge a person by the person’s skin color. You should judge a person by what the person writes, says, and does. If European countries and our country had not engaged in the slave trade, things might not be so bad in Africa today.
Mexico is one of our biggest trading partners. People who want to know more about Mexico, Canada, and other topics should check out http://www.newgeography.com. I have posted comments after many columns.
If the United States of America and Mexico legalize, regulate, and tax the sale of marijuana, heroin, and cocaine for people who are at least 18 years old, we may able to spend less money fighting violent Mexican drug gangs. If Mexico is able to spend less money fighting violent drug gangs, Mexico may be able to spend more money on its economy. If Mexico’s economy grows a lot, fewer illegal immigrants may come to the United States of America, many illegal immigrants may leave the United States of America, and many more Mexicans may buy products and services from the United States of America. Most non violent drug offenders should be released from prison to make room for violent criminals. If state governments are able to spend less money fighting crime, dealing with illegal immigrants who are a major expense for them, and dealing with non violent drug offenders, they may be able to reduce their sales taxes.
Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution says Congress has the power
“To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures”
Article 1, Section 10 of the United States Constitution
“No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.”
Congress should eliminate the Federal Reserve or veto many of its decisions. If the Federal Reserve continues to exist, 2 members of the House of Representatives and 2 United States Senators should sit on the board of the Federal Reserve. If 3 of these members of Congress want a Federal Reserve decision to be vetoed, it should be vetoed. If a majority of the United States Senate wants a Federal Reserve decision to be vetoed, it should be vetoed. If a majority of the United States House of Representatives wants a Federal Reserve decision to be vetoed, it should be vetoed.
Congress should consider backing our currency with gold, silver, and other commodities.
People may want to support an Amendment to the United States Constitution that allow State governments to “coin Money” – make gold coins and silver coins. This may reduce the amount of harm caused by the federal government.
Before Amendment Seventeen was passed, United States Senators were chosen by State Legislatures.
I would like an Amendment to the United States Constitution adopted that allows each State to choose 3 United States Senators and allows each State Legislature to choose at least 1 United States Senator.
I would like an Amendment to the United States Constitution adopted that gives State Legislatures the power to repeal federal regulations, federal laws, trade agreements, and treaties.
I would like an Amendment to the United States Constitution adopted that gives State Legislatures the power to recall (fire) their Representatives to the United States House of Representatives, their United States Senators, the President of the United States of America, and the Vice President of the United States of America.
The less the federal government taxes individuals and businesses the more state governments may be able to tax individuals and businesses. Sometimes, I think state governments spend money more wisely than the federal government and obtain better results than the federal government.
The federal government should stop taxing interest from savings accounts, dividends, capital gains, and estates. Businesses and individuals will have more money to spend. Businesses and individuals will have much more incentive to invest in poor parts of our country. Wealthy people and others may donate more money to homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and food pantries. Businesses may have an easier time obtaining loans and investments for hiring workers, research and deveopment, and plant and equipment. People may have an easier time saving for college tuitions and retirements.
I graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1992 with a BA Degree in Political Science and a minor in Economics.
I ran for United States Senate in 2002.
My website is http://www.myspace.com/kennethstremsky
Great anology about the carburator. I would just take it one step further. For about a year Hank and Ben tried using more gasoline to get things to restart. Late last summer they decided to take their last shot and force ether down the manifold. Either it starts or goes up in flames.
I liked that article, especially the steps from 1 to 4 and number 7. However I must say i’m puzzled with number 5 and 6. Wouldn’t closing borders be in direct contradiction with W&GP’s ideal of free market and freedom in general? And if step 2,3 and 7 were followed what would be the need for step 6 (and 5 for that matter) ? Going after welfare recipients and illegals wouldn’t add up to much more than finding a scapegoat in my opinion, a little bit like the Nazis did with Jews and other minorities in there own time. If I leave bread on my door step, I must necessarily end up with bird shit. Just stop throwing bread and you wont need to shoot at the poor bastard! I beleive you have written this text more with your emotions than a cool head, or else you really scare me.
The Right Monetary and Fiscal Policy Can not Get Us Out of the Depression
DIE ZEIT: Can the right monetary and fiscal policy keep the US out of a recession?
Alan Greenspan:
“Probably not. Global forces can now override most anything that monetary and fiscal policy can do. Long-term real interest rates have significantly more impact on the core of economic activity than the individual actions of nations. Central banks have increasingly lost their capacity to influence the longer end of the market.
Two to three decades, ago central banks were dominant throughout the maturity schedule.
Thus, the more important question is the direction of long-term real interest rates.”
Alan Greenspan
The Great Irony of Success
© ZEIT online, 30.1.2008
A Credit Free, Free Market Economy will correct all of those dysfunctions.
The only other option is, on the long run, to wait for the physical destruction (through war or rust) of most of our productive assets.
It will be at a cost none of us can afford to pay.
This Age of Turbulence People Want an Exit Strategy Out of Credit,
An Adventure in a New World Economic Order.
A Specific Application of Employment, Interest and Money
http://edsk.org/interest.html
We Shall Cancel All Interest Bearing Debt.
Press release of my open letter to Chairman Ben S. Bernanke:
Sorry, Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, But Quantitative Easing Won’t Work.
http://www.prlog.org/10162465.html
Yours Sincerely,
MC Shalom P. Hamou AKA ‘MC Shalom’
Chief Economist – Master Conductor
1776 – Annuit Cœptis.
Don: I agree with lots of what you are saying, but getting rid of NAFTA is not in the best interest of the USA. You want our OIL, GAS, ELECTRICITY, & WATER (it is the most available, affordable, and safe supply you have) you do not have enough of your own. If the USA does not want our resources by all means let us know and we will find other buyers, no hard feelings.
Your problem of jobs outsourcing is the result of HIGH UNION WAGES and SHORTER WORKDAYS. You are not entitled to a living you have to earn it, and a 40 hour work week is not earning your keep. There are lots of very good jobs in the States in which people are working very hard. There is also a lot of people in North America who want the same things as someone who works twice as hard.
As to the war I am damn glad we are fighting over there instead of hear. I am also very proud of the troops who are defending our freedom at great personal risk. The US is doing the majority of the fighting, but the Canadian troops are also fighting very hard, as are a select few other countries. You don’t have enough to survive on your own. Pick your friends and fight your enemies. Don’t try to fight friends also.
Mr. Stott,
Your article, while valid, leaves out the biggest piece of the puzzle.
The current world-wide economic crash was planned by the Elite a while back to destroy demand for oil. Fact is, the World simply cannot find and produce hydrocarbons fast enough to keep up with infinite growth. Result: the price of oil went through the roof in 2008 before dropping like a rock after making a serious dent in demand destruction.
To make matters worse, the International Energy Agency recently lowered the world-wide production decline figure of -5% per annum to -9%. What this means is that the Western-style, oil-based economy is coming to a close. Unless sustainable forms of energy are found or free energy devices are deployed real soon, billions of people around the globe are simply going to die.
Oil is used in no less than 500,000 products, including pesticides and fertilizers, essential for high-yield, modern farming schemes.
Understand. The US Government and Federal Reserve System are not dumb, nor are they stupid. They are thoroughly conversant with your arguments Mr. Stott. In fact, I dare say more so than you or me for that matter.
The current economic fallout is nothing more than a necessary controlled demolition to bring down oil use to a more sustainable level.
Over the years, the US Government has constructed over 1,400 Rex 84 camps across the United States of America, complete with electrified fences, guard towers and rail lines to the outside world. Why do think? To help hurricane/earthquake victims? No, try the civil unrest that’s about to rear its ugly head on the American landscape. If everything works out as I think, America is facing complete breakdown and a very nasty second civil war, if not outright revolution.
Bottom line: 100 million Americans need to leave America NOW for good or die to make the nation sustainable energy-wise.
That, my friend, is the reason why things are the way they are. Peak Oil. All you need to know to understand the future.
I am very offended by Don Stott’s racist, classist, and hateful views. Who does he think he is to label people worthless and trash. Does he think he’ll never need anyone’s help. No man is an island. Such arrogance is surely a precursor to your highly likely demise.
I used to enjoy reading the articles by your contribuotors but since I might have to read another one of Don Stott’s negative articles I will just stop reading them altogether. It sems to me if he had the power he would most likely kill those he considers inferior to him.
Tarek,
I’m inclined to agree with you. I don’t recognize the state’s authority (though I am dumbfounded by its power). The borders born of poperty rights dilineate civilization. The borders of a nation state only are about control and aggression; everyone inside is under control of the reigning political gang, looking to rob their neighbors by means of the vote or are on the dole; everyone outside the line is subject to bullying and invasion.
Mr. Scott,
While I agree that the size of our government has gotten out of hand, I dont think that disbanding enmasse is going to bring the country out of our current situation. If anything this will excerbate the situation as you will have an inceased number of people without jobs. I guess you could make the arguement that it would be intense short term pain followed by a faster recovery. I find it interesting that you extoll getting rid of all the non productive people. I find that very brave on your part as you produce nothing. From the description posted here and your website you buy and sell precious metals. Im glad that that occupation has been fullfilling and enriching for you but in no way would I think of it as productive. If going by your theory that all non productive people leave or die. I recommend that you take your own advice to leave as you are hardly ready for a darwinistic challenge should your ideas come to pass which I for one do not wish to happen. The gold and silver you own will hardly be worth anything. I give this advice go buy some farmground. Some good farm land in a place that dosnt need irrigation such as Illinois, indiana or Iowa. Buy some animals, learn to grow your own food and make your own things. If things get as bad as you wish them to you wont be able to eat your gold and no one will trade food for a worthless metal.
I agree with Mark Johnson, Jeff Stears and Sarah. Don Stott appears to suggest that the US disengages from the world. He wrote everything except “Bring back Smoot-Hawley”. US isolationism was tried and failed twice in the first half of th 20th century.
I am a liberal. I believe the freedom of the individual to be paramount, provided that he or she doesn’t interfere with the liberty of another. I strongly advocate free movement of goods, capital and people, also the integrity of currencies. I also believe the rich have a duty to support the deserving poor – those who can’t support themselves, not those who choose not to work.
Sound advice but you lost credibility when you began ranting.
To Don Schott,
While you present some good thoughts and solutions, most of which are admittedly what we need, you are so typical of why this country does not work. You polarize and inflame those that think differently. Where oh where does your brain find it “wonderful” to live with riots and for millions to die? I suspect you have a high IQ, but you surely have a low EQ.
I will put all future Whiskey and Gunpowder issues in my trash bin, and look elsewhere for intelligent thought.
I know Don is harsh, but some of these response are really irking me.
“Deserving poor”..? And exactly how do you determine who deserves what and when? The goverment decides I guess? Then the government forces me to pay for strangers? That’s socialism no matter how you slice it. It’s that kind of touchy-feely nonsense that leads to national socialism and totalitarian communism.
As far as production…Productive activity counts as fulfilling a role that the market demands. It doesn’t have to be farming or manufacturing. My local grocer doesn’t “produce” any of the products on his shelves, but I’m sure as hell glad he is doing his “non-productive” job and making goods and sundries available to me. Same with Don. I’m glad he was there to sell me gold and silver.
I apologize to all if you mistook my comments earlier to mean that Don is a worthless person or “non-Productive”. What I meant to say was that in the new economy that Don has envisioned his position in life would be very difficult to maintain. With the loss of so many jobs, riots, deaths and scarcity of resources only the people that can change their mindset quickly and act very fast will have a snowballs chance in surviving. The future that he would have us have would most likely include the imploding of the USA as a nation. Think about all the services that Federal and State Government provides, imagine that they would stop instantly tomorrow. We saw what happened during Hurricane Katrina when just a small portion of the USA basically quit working. Ironically the people most likely to excell in a situation like that are those that are probabably on some sort of government assistance right now. Its very likely that most of the readers of this column including myself would not survive this. Imagine a world where only the strongest survives…think africa. That does not sound very appealing at all. The average american simply does not possess the skill sets needed to adapt to this type of lifestyle very quickly. At least during the depression most people still lived on farms and were basically subsistance agriculture. Thats not the case now days. I think the most useful model to see what we would be in for would be to look at Soviet Russia and what happened after it broke up. Are you all prepared to see 50% of the women engaging in prositution at one time or another just to make ends meet? Are you prepared for a lifesyle where if your neighbor wants something of yours he just kills you without any consequences? There was a fellow I worked with during the late 90s who was always talking about what he was doing to prepare for Y2K . He liked to ask other people what they were doing as most people werent really doing anything about it. One time he asked a good ole boy transplant from kentucky if he was doing anything to prepare. The good ole boy kind of sat back smiled and said “I dont have to do anything, I have a rifle and Im a pretty good shot. I also know where you live”… Are you all prepared to have to kill your neighbors in order that your own family survives? Its not the good and decent folks that excell in these situations, it is the person who is willing and capable of being the most viscious person in the area. It would take a massive change in peoples mindset compared to what we have now. Another ironic point is that people willing to band together in some sort of socialistic group or community would also have the best chance of survival. No man is an island and in hard times that is even more so. People like to romanticise the independant person, the lone wolf but when things get bad those are the first people to get culled from society. It has only been recently with our wealth and the support of the government that the individual had a fighting chance by themself. If you look back in history socialistic groups are the norm. Im sorry for rambling on but I truely do wish Don well, I just think that many of his ideals are misguided and will cause needless death and destruction. Is that the society you want your children to inherit, where the law of tooth and club reigns supreme?
I thoroughly enjoy this website as most of the articles make basic common sense. But every now and then an article comes along that hides it’s petulance behind verbose grand standing. I do see your point but you need to rethink it. We have many people in South Africa who think this way… they created Apartheid, and now they’re going to put a criminal fraudster in charge of this country and its a mentality; got nothing to do with skin colour. The only way they get away with it is because an ignorant majority believes its in their ‘best interest’. In the USA your very existence, and success, is based in immigration and you have the only truly respectable constitution on the face of this planet except that it’s spirit is being crushed by a privileged few because the average American is allowing it to happen. Who is more guilty? The rapist or the witness who does nothing? You are now going through the pain that the rest of us went through decades ago… living with constant fear and conflict in a fortress mentality of kneejerk rules and regulations which restrict freedom, liberty and the right to self determination. Look inside and ask yourself… ‘Am I free?’ Only you can answer that. What’s happening to you is not new to the rest of us… we’re watching our own histories repeat itself, with painful similarity, in the US. Isolationism will defeat the spirit of the constitution and only strengthen the ’slavers’ and speed your descent into Feudalism or something similar. Learn to live and let live but consider the sage words of Edmund Bourke: “Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist” South Africa is descending into a swamp of corruption and crime which is being blamed on ‘Apartheid’, a system long gone. ‘Apartheid’ today is just a convenient justification for corrupt South Africans to justify their present crimes. Similarly, do not blame illegal immigrants for your own discontent; they’re a tiny minority and not your enemy and the least of your worries. Go take a long, hard look at your perceived enemies and maybe you will start to see your own smoke screens? Be careful what you wish for
Question for Gary: Your words…
‘”Deserving poor”..? And exactly how do you determine who deserves what and when? The goverment decides I guess? Then the government forces me to pay for strangers? That’s socialism no matter how you slice it. It’s that kind of touchy-feely nonsense that leads to national socialism and totalitarian communism”‘
Aren’t you already paying for ’strangers’? Last I saw some pretty big amounts of cash was being handed out to some rather undeserving ‘indigent’ and ‘poor’ bankers?
The America that once was is no more and there is no going back. This country was founded on a simple concept, go out and take whatever you can get.. unfortunately we have all taken everything we could and now the only thing left is to take from each other so lets all enjoy the ride as we kill each other for.
p.s Oil is nothing but fozzilized plant and animal remains so in essence we are all graverobbers and graverobbing is bad karma, so no wonder the world’s so messed up
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