Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Common Sense and its history

I followed the logic and some of the format of Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" a catalyst to the American Revolution. I chose this because the truths within it are pertinent to our current situation. The fight for freedom is the same fight our Founding Fathers fought and we must continue it so that we may hand our children their liberty untarnished.

There are so many things we as Americans have forgotten while the economy was "good". We have begun to believe that ease and prosperity is the "American Dream". We have been wrong. The American Dream is INDEPENDENCE. Have we forgotten what independence means?
Independence is the right to thrive or fail according to your own merits and choices.

But what happens when our collective risky investments and bad planning/choices lead us to economic downturn, even a depression? Should the government try to take control of the system so we don't have to feel the consequence? To do this would take away our independence, just so we don't have to go through any hardship or a depression?

Some may claim that taking away our liberty is for our "protection", but it cannot be for our protection or our good to take away our independence. This is the same fight our founding fathers fought when England claimed they were giving protection while robbing basic human rights. We all know the story of the Boston Tea party. It was about more than just taxation without representation. England was forcing Americans to grow tea even though it did not grow well, then Americans were forced to buy the Tea they produced from England at exorbitant prices. This is like the stimulus in that the government is telling us that we are not capable of producing the right things, so they create a stimulus package that tells us what we should be producing. Then they force us to pay for it with taxes plus interest. But the highest prices they ask for a this sense of security is our Independence and liberty. You cannot control the economy without controlling people. England promised protection yet robbed colonials of the freedom they were supposed to protect. This is what the government is doing now, robbing us of our inalienable right to PURSUE happiness. Remember just the pursuit of happiness is guaranteed not happiness, or possessions, not home-ownership, or economic ease. It is Freedom to Rise or Fail according to our own merits.

The auto companies are failing to produce what we really want, cleaner, more economical, fuel efficient, green cars. Now they are failing. But the government steps in and says we can't let them fail and learn from their lessons, that might hurt people. So instead we will make you support the auto companies that you would NOT voluntarily support, because we (government) knows better than you. Because government assumes they are more moral than us. It is true some people might lose their jobs during the turn over of the auto industries, but they will be picked back up as someone comes in and makes better cars. They will move into other industries that have room for improvement, and innovation starts to abound with a free system. It is only to support the governments own agenda's just like Tea supported England's agenda. Consider this, every gallon of gas you buy the government takes $0.50 if there were more efficient cars or even gasoline free cars the government would be out the taxes. But even without taking that into consideration why should we give up freedom because it might be hard. Liberty was worth dieing for to our founding fathers.

I may lose my job, or the stock market may crash, my company might fail but it is only Me that is Responsible to prepare. If I did not prepare for a rainy day, why should someone else pay for my umbrella last minute? If we don't allow the freedom of failure we will punish everyone.
  1. It will punish the failures because they will never learn to be independent of the system and Free. They will never learn from their mistakes and so they will make more. This will happen until eventually they will be so stupid and incapable of choosing that they will just hand their lives completely over to the government and say "here you can do this better than me". Is this the kind of life we wish to lead? Trading our freedom and independence because it is easier to be slaves to a system?
  2. It will punish those who prepared because they will be stuck footing the bill for those who did not prepare. Then they will begin to wonder why even bother working so hard to prepare if they get slapped down to the same point as those who never did anything. They will not work as hard and start wanting handouts too. They will eventually give away their independence, liberty, and freedom to the governmental system (a few elite members of society that get to decide for everyone what is right for themselves)

Liberty and independence is the price for economic ease. Only the uneducated and slothful would trust a government more than themselves with their independence and ask them to fix the economy. This is Common Sense.

For those few uneducated who think a government that is run like this would actually work in the interests of the people, this is a ludicrous assumption. Even if we were to find perfect Angels in government that wanted only the best for society:
  1. Society and the Economy are such complex systems it is impossible for a few people to understand it perfectly and run it perfectly
  2. What is in one person's interest is not in another person's interest. Those in government would decide which group they thought was right and the rest would have to suffer and support those that the few elites decided were right
  3. Absolute power corrupts absolutely: even if you had a perfect group of government officials that would work in the interest of the whole, what happens when the power transfers. Even if you let them have life-terms, they would die and someone else would come in, how can you promise that all people in government will be angels, and stay angels?
  4. They would only be able to appease the median group of people and the rest would suffer. The only way to ensure individual liberty is to allow individual liberty.
  5. So much power in one government would be an invitation for power hungry people, who could lie to get position.
  6. So much power in one government would also be an invitation for a coupe and complete domination over a people so subject to government.

I would like to own a home, but not one that cost my independence and liberty. It would be wicked for me to ask for a home that was bought at the expense another person's liberty. Are we so shallow and covetous that we would rob or "redistribute" the goods of others so we can have more? Things are of less value than freedom! "Give me liberty or give me death!"

It is common sense that freedom is the only right way. It is what our founding fathers called "the last best hope". Every other system has been tried before, but they always fail because they always deny the inalienable right to Liberty. Capitalism is not selfish, it honors freedom. It assumes that most American's are good. It assumes that most will take care of their neighbors and don't need the government to force them to take care of them. It requires us to do good and be honest with ourselves and make educated decisions. We have not collectively done this, and so we are coming to a time of accountability. Where the market holds us accountable and makes us fix the social errors we have allowed to exist because of ease and prosperity. Prosperity is a very dangerous thing if we take it for granted. We must take this economic downturn to re-evaluate our choices. To cut down and not buy such a big home. To Value our freedom more than our ease, stuff, and prosperity.

Give me liberty or give me death!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Freedom: The Last Best Hope



This is how any Freedom loving person should respond to the stimulus. This is how Reagan would have responded to the stimulus! Watch the whole thing!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Heritage foundation link

The Heritage foundation has good facts and information on the free-market system. This is a great resource for anyone interested in why the stimulus is bad for the economy. If you are wondering what this stimulus would do there are a variety of links here that explain what is happening and will happen with bailouts. The bailout for automakers is a good to read to be educated on what is happening.
For simple one page explanations of stimulus effects this is another great link.

Friday, February 20, 2009

How to organize the Tea Party your state

  1. Contact your governor's office and find out their stand on the issue.
  2. Find out your state legislator's stand on the issue
  3. Organize with those against the stimulus package, use them as a resource
  4. Call, e-mail, text message, twitter, blog everyone you know.
  5. Set up a blog with simple time and place information
  6. Get a commitment from those you know, encourage carpooling etc.
  7. Leave a comment on this Blog and anything else about what you are doing to organize.
  8. Network, network, network.

Milton Friedman on Freedom and Free Markets

Milton Friedman on Greed
Milton Friedman on Responsibility

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Fear factor

Some would like to scare us into giving up our freedom by telling us that our economy "may never recover" if the government doesn't do something for us. They try to make the mass of uneducated people that want a handout follow them based on fear, frenzy and lack of education. An example of this is the planting of Henrietta in a press conference with the president while he was campaigning his stimulus.
These same people try and make those of us who don't like this stimulus feel like the minority. They play on the fact that we don't know exactly what to do and are largely unorganized. But we must all do what we can to make our voices heard. Post a comment on this blog if you are wondering what you can do, in the mean time here are a few things you can do:
1. Start networking and e-mailing to people you know.
a. Educate yourself and others by finding and sending links
b. Get their ideas
c. Write your senators and congressmen then send these links to your friends
d. Send them to this site and others sites that teach
2. Don't rely on government: We the people are the Check on government Do something!