Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Capitalism Magazine - The Tea Party vs. The Conservatives

"According to serious economists (such as Thomas Sowell), the primary cause of the bank meltdown was the fact that mortgages were handed out to people who could not afford houses. As people who never should have been granted loans in the first place piled up debt, the entire mortgage industry imploded. This is because the federally managed mortgage industry mandated that more people get mortgages. Politicians in both parties, including George W. Bush, liked to see those home ownership numbers increase because it made them feel like they were creating a vibrant economy. In reality, the collapse of the financial industry which "required" TARP was due to government intervention in the economy."
Capitalism Magazine - The Tea Party vs. The Conservatives

Monday, December 6, 2010

The American Spectator : Caplan's Constitution

"Far from being an obstacle to solving our economic problems, fidelity to the Constitution would have prevented many of them. If the federal government operated within constitutional constraints, we would not stand on the brink of national bankruptcy. Our currency would not be debased. The federal government would not be inflating real estate or investment bubbles. Taxes would be much lower yet there would not be deficits as far as the eye can see."
The American Spectator : Caplan's Constitution

Thursday, December 2, 2010

The American Spectator : Opposing Obama

I thought the article was pretty insightful about Obama. I just have to laugh, however, in reading so many of the comments that simply ignore the role of George W. Bush in advancing the cause of Leviathan. Granted, Quinn brings up Clinton, but his focus in on Obama. Yet on and on, the comments spew their disdain and hatred for Clinton, a president, who, with a conservative Republican Congress, gave us some of the best, most limited government we've had for decades.

George Bush wanted to transform the world by using Leviathan to advance "freedom" not understanding how self-contradictory and inconsistent it is to create a Leviathan in order to transform the world. Thus we got the Second Iraq War.

GWB created the TSA. He's the president who passed the bank bailouts. He's the president who increased spending and vastly expanded the scope and power of the federal government.
Yet one hears not a peep of criticism. Bush was not a conservative. Advancing the unholy alliance between religion and conservatism, Bush demonstrated that philosophies of government have a moral foundation and when that foundation is based on the religious morality of altruism, of the view of man that claims his life has worth only when sacrificed for the benefit of others, then what do you expect?

Obama simply takes Bush and the religious at their word. He argues that we are all our brother's keeper. That's what altruism boils down to in practice, and that is what the Left believes. Everyone should take care of everyone else.

If you wish to advance the cause of true conservatism, i.e. limited government, protection of individual rights, then religion must not be allowed to corrupt the conservative message and the conservative goal of limiting government to the protection of individual rights, as stated in our Declaration of Independence.

Altruism is fundamentally incompatible with capitalism and with any governing philosophy whose goal is the protection of individual rights. Such a philosophy must be based on the moral premise that man has a right to live his life for his own sake, and not for the sake of others. He is an end in himself, morally, and not merely a means to the satisfaction of other men's desires, goals and purposes, no matter how "noble."

The American Spectator : Opposing Obama

Capitalism Magazine - Voters To Politicians: I Want My Cake and I Want To Eat It Too

The problem is the ideology of self-sacrifice. Politicians rely on the neurotic guilt of their victims (the producers) to get the loot they want for their constituents. The neurotic guilt of their victims is the result of the ideology of self-sacrifice, the false and destructive view that people must sacrifice themselves for one another, regardless of the consequences to self or others. If Americans were more selfish, in the rational sense, politics and wealth redistribution as we know it would come to an end. America would become a free country, a much more prosperous and stable one than it presently is. They would elect the politicians able and willing to bring this about, rather than the ones they keep electing.
Capitalism Magazine - Voters To Politicians: I Want My Cake and I Want To Eat It Too

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Capitalism Magazine - Ideas Have Consequences

Americans have come to realize that it is wrong---morally wrong---for the government to forcibly take the earnings from those who produce values (products and services) and give that money to those who have produced nothing, or are financially irresponsible.


Capitalism Magazine - Ideas Have Consequences

American Thinker: Congressional Earmarks: Embracing and Ignoring a Message From Voters

"House Republicans seem ready to declare at least an earmark moratorium. After early resistance, most senior Senate Republicans accepted the people's November 2 verdict on earmarks, but the body, with eight foolish Republicans defending them, resolved to retain earmarks. Big mistake."
American Thinker: Congressional Earmarks: Embracing and Ignoring a Message From Voters