Free kibbles

TAX AND SPEND:

Just in case you didn't realize how big a hole our government has dug for us:

"At present, available federal revenues are fully consumed by just three programs: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. "The rest of the federal government, including fighting two wars, homeland security, education, art, culture, you name it, veterans, the whole rest of the discretionary budget is being financed by China and other countries.""

It's going to get worse before it gets better.

Somebody in the mainstream media has finally admitted that government spending is harmful:

"Even worse, they found that pork actually pushes private investment out of a state. When the federal government intrudes, it raises demand for the state's workers and real estate, jacking up prices. Often, companies can't compete, so they flee."

This is the first time I've ever seen that. Government spending takes resources from productive work - work people pay for voluntarily - and and puts them in unproductive work - work people won't pay for voluntarily - harming the economy. That's why we have to pay for government spending twice.

Obama's chart regarding the $800 billion stimulus tells the tale. Without the stimulus, unemployment would have topped out around nine percent. Obama projects that the stimulus will reduce that number to eight percent, but in reality, for every unproductive job created by the stimulus, two productive jobs are lost, so unemployment shoots up to ten percent. To put it another way, one job forward, two jobs back. The American people are figuring this out.

Obama to spend $1.85 billion to create 85 jobs with a Spanish green company. That's the same Spain that bankrupted itself with its green jobs push. Assuming an average productive job in the US pays $50,000 a year, that means Obama is going to kill 37,000 productive jobs to create these 85 unproductive jobs.

New York City taxpayers pay an average of $8.60 for each dollar a union city employee contributes to his pension. The people have nobody to blame but themselves.

The unemployment racket. Of course conservatives are on board with this theft too.

Murray Rothbard explains that the number of people on welfare is directly related to how much welfare pays and contrasts that with Milton Friedman's position.

"Being-on-welfare, like all other human economic acts, has a "supply function": in other words, if you make welfare pay enough, you can produce as many welfare clients as you wish to have. Pay them little enough and you can reduce the number of clients at will. In short, if the government should announce that anyone who signs up at a "welfare" desk gets an automatic annual check of $40,000 for as long as he wishes, we will find soon enough that almost everyone has become a welfare recipient – and what is more, will join a "welfare rights" organization to lobby for $60,000 to offset the rise in the cost of living.

More specifically, the supply function of welfare clients is inversely proportional to the difference between the prevailing wage rate in the area and the level of welfare payments. This difference is the "opportunity cost" of going on welfare – the amount that one loses by loafing instead of working. If, for example, the prevailing wage rises in an area and the welfare payments remain the same, the differential and the "opportunity cost" of loafing rise, and people tend to leave the welfare dole and go to work. If the opposite happens, more people will go on the dole. If being on welfare were an absolute fact of nature, then there would be no relation between this differential and the number on welfare.⁸"

So the only way to get people off of welfare is to end welfare. Here's another factor:

"Secondly, the supply of welfare clients is inversely proportion to another vitally important factor: the cultural or value disincentive of going on welfare. If this disincentive is strong, if, for example, an individual or group strongly believes that it is evil to go on welfare, they will not do it, period. If, on the other hand, they do not care about the stigma of welfare, or, worse yet, they regard welfare payments as their right – a right to exert a compulsory, looting claim upon production – then the number of people on welfare will increase astronomically, as has happened in recent years."

Over time, the stigma barrier tends to get lower as welfare becomes ingrained in the minds of people and become normal.

"Another example [of resistance to welfare] is the Mormon Church, very few of whose members are on public welfare. For the Mormons not only inculcate in their members the virtues of thrift, self-help, and independence, they also take care of their own needy through church charity programs which are grounded on the principle of helping people to help themselves, and thereby getting them off charity as quickly as possible.¹⁰ Thus, the Mormon Church counsels its members that "to seek and accept direct public relief all too often invites the curse of idleness and fosters the other evils of dole. It destroys one’s independence, industry, thrift, and self-respect."¹¹ Hence, the Church’s highly successful private welfare program is based on the principles that the Church has encouraged its members to establish and maintain their economic independence: it has encouraged thrift and fostered the establishment of employment-creating industries; it has stood ready at all times to help needy faithful members."

This is one of many reasons private charity is superior to welfare.

REGULATION:

The financial oppression bill ostensibly gives the government the power to subpoena financial records without probable cause a crime has been committed. Of course it does. What else would you expect from the federal government?

EDUCATION:

Only a bureaucrat would defend useless teachers.

HEALTH CARE:

Obamacare bureaucrats already going back to Congress for more money because Obamacare is more expensive than advertised, just as many of us reported before it passed.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

While the press keeps beating the global warming fraud drum with breathless reports about the heat in the east, California enjoys record low high temperatures. You'll hear all about how hot it is in Europe, but not how cold it is in South America.

BP has installed the new containment dome over the leaking well in hopes of capturing all the leaking oil.

WAR ON DRUGS:

Using the war on drugs as an excuse to militarize the police into an occupying army.

WAR:

US expanding attacks in Yemen.

USC is advertising for ROTC students, guaranteeing them all tuition paid and an officership if they agree to fight in Iraq, Afghanistan or Iran. Yes, Iran.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION:

Foxnews has recently been reporting that the Arizona illegal immigration law restricts cops from harassing people about immigration status unless they have been stopped regarding another crime. I wonder how specific is this? Can they ask witnesses to a crime? Neighbors they're looking for information about a crime? If so, this is a bad law. If they can only demand ID from people who have have been arrested for another crime, I have no problem with it.

POLITICS:

Any American who is just figuring out that Obama is anti-business is an idiot. His first book told us he was a Marxist. It was reported he was a Marxist by the summer of 2008 at least. Anybody who couldn't bother to pay enough attention to figure that out before the election should never vote again.

55 percent of Americans have realized that Obama is a socialist. Duh. What's wrong with the other 45 percent?

Two hour documentary of the Ron Paul 2008 campaign.

MISC:

Criticism of Thomas Jefferson for not doing enough to advance liberty as president.

The Swiss reject US extradition request for Roman Polanski and instead set him free.

German concentration camp survivor returns to Auschwitz with is grandchildren and makes a dance video to "I Will Survive". Good for him.