The NewsMediaJournal and JB Williams Are Right

Larwyn just forwarded an excellent post from JB Williams of NewsMediaJournal.US about the importance of supporting John McCain this year. The table in Williams's article is excellent and says it all. See Williams's article here.

Obama and Clinton Vie to Impoverish America

There is little question of the comparative advantage of free trade. While specific jobs or professions may be lost or gained due to trade, the net advantage is necessarily positive. Were it not so, the trade would not occur. Two centuries ago the classical economists such as Ricardo and Smith showed that relative price differences among countries create opportunities. If every country focuses on the economic activities at which it is best, the world becomes more productive. Over the long term the higher productivity is translated into higher wages and wealth. In contrast, the arguments that oppose trade are nationalistic and emotional.

At the extreme, countries like North Korea or the communist countries of the immediate post-World War II era that have attempted economic self-sufficiency or autarky have become impoverished. Likewise, countries with substantial protectionism such as India experience high levels of starvation. India, with six decades of protectionism and a high level of income equality leads the world in child starvation. Similarly, the British Corn Laws in the 19th century led to mass starvation in Ireland (with over one million dead). The argument against free trade is the argument for public impoverishment.

It is not surprising that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, two economic illiterates, compete to proclaim their opposition to free trade. Yahoo! reports that Obama questions Clinton's anti-free trade credentials. With economic illiteracy among the public, shoddy education, an ignorant mass media and a corrupt Congress, our government aims to impoverish the average American:

PITTSBURGH - Democratic Sen. Barack Obama on Monday questioned rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's opposition to free trade agreements that some voters contend has eliminated thousands of U.S. jobs and mocked her weekend visit to an Indiana bar as pandering to the working class.

Repeal the Federal Income Tax

April 15 is nearly upon us. Those who pay taxes might consider the low quality of government services and the high amount of federal tax that they pay. On balance, the income tax destroys savings and personal independence, while the uses to which Congress has put the money are of scant value. The income tax should be repealed. I have written the follwing letter to my Congressman, Maurice Hinchey:

April 14, 2008

Dear Congressman Hinchey:

I urge Congress to repeal the federal income tax. Congress has not proven itself intellectually or morally fit to take possession of so large a share of the American purse. I urge you to return the money to the American people, except for a small amount that Congress might devote to its own education by taking basic economics and ethics courses.

Sincerely,


Mitchell Langbert, Ph.D.

Progressivism and Fear Revisited

The dominant mood of the past century's Progressive era has been fear. The movement that was founded on the claim that self-expression is of paramount importance; that democracy is sacred; and that institutions can be re-shaped to suit public ends has generated neither human fulfillment nor democracy. It has generated fear. It has done so by re-directing economic resources and potential growth toward large, established firms; regulating the economy and so foreclosing entrepreneurship; creating inflation and the income tax and so foreclosing independent wealth and saving. It restricts employment by favoring large firms over small by redirecting capital to the large firms through the governmentally-supported banking system. The re-direction of capital from personal savings into large corporations' treasuries resulted in the reduction in the number of jobs but also changed the character of jobs from those that reflect entrepreneurial initiative and creativity, hence human fuilfillment, to those that depend on conformity to a boss; teamwork; and fear of being fired. The dominant mood of the Progressives was teamwork and group behavior, the sacrifice of the individual to the group. This was paradoxically done in the name of encouraging self-fulfillment and self-expression. But the chief mood has been a century of fear. The Progressives created the Great Depression by first creating the Fed under Woodrow Wilson, with the Fed then mismanaging the money supply. This created a generation whose chief fear was unemployment and lack of "social security". The Roosevelt administration, following through with the Progressive program, intensified the Fed's power by abolishing the gold standard. The result has been mismanagement of the nation's credit supply; inflation; a reduction in the number of good (non-corporate) jobs; and fear. Fear of not conforming to the boss's whims. Fear of not being politically correct; fear of not following the Progressive elite's fashion of the moment; fear of unemployment because of non-conformity to the corporate and state's whimsical definitions of compatibility and interpersonal skills; fear of not laughing at Bill Maher's stale jokes; and fear of not getting a job at all.

Fear is not far removed from hate. Progressivism is not far removed from totalitarian rule and economic decline.