Capitalism and such

Ayn Rand observed more than 50 years ago that it is
always "philosophy". There cannot be any
redistribution unless there is production - which
requires the deliberate application of human
reasoning. Nothing grows or is made randomly - and
the free exchange of ideas for money or whatever is
what has propelled the productive societies to make
every one's life better.

There are always examples that can be used to
demonstrate that there is no such thing as a free
society (yes even the rich get handouts and steal and
all that). If anything these examples can be used to
show that if it were NOT for such outright thievery,
lives would be better.

Throughout history the most dynamic of all
civilizations are the ones that have progressed and
become better - the ones that allow for the free flow
of ideas and good - unfettered by central control.

``You are so wrong" - I can imagine the cry. And yes
there are examples galore of how some capitalist
somewhere made off like a bandit and stole many
people's money. It/others does not prove capitalism
does not work - but that stealing is stealing is
stealing no matter what. We have become so used to
thinking that by somehow having "some group"
controlling everyone else we all will be better off
that the ideas of unfettered capitalism is difficult
for most to understand and accept.

The idea of charity or helping others is somehow built
into people - a reverence for the sanctity of life as
it were. So, when I hear cries about how we need a
strong central government to take care of the
sick/needy - it makes no sense. Even in societies
that were completely controlled, there were poor
people - and many more as a fraction of the population
than rich societies. This was not because these
societies somehow had bad leaders - but that it is
impossible to have completely controlled societies
that expropriate property/wealth that will also
benefit the most. But given that we cannot do such
experiments and objective historical analysis is
difficult to impossible, we are left with one group
saying "Government" is best and the other trying their
best to limit that "Government".

My choice of remaining on the public dole is a selfish
one - for financial support. I will however not
denigrate the ideas of a free market system that I am
convinced will be better in all respects. Yes, even
education and health care and everything. Yes, a lot
of it is messy and there are cheats and thieves and
all that. It is amazing that inspite of the dregs of
humanity, it still works

The system of advocacy/conflict seems ill-equipped to
have any chance of resolving the fundamental issues
and differences for a system/country. On this issue,
the rapid/instant availability of "data" has made it
worse - people demand instant answers and seem
unwilling to spend the time to read/research issues.

The news media at large are aligned, mostly, with one
view that tilts mostly to the "left". When a
newspaper or article or channel provides a view that
is diametrically opposite to the majority view, the
epithets come furiously - Amazing to see what gets
spewed at the Fox News channel (and I am not even a
fan of Ann Coulter or Bill O'Reilly or many of the
demagogues there).

Obama's comment about Reagan is drawing incredible
fire from almost everyone in the Democratic party and
in much of the media. The venom from Roland Martin's
mouth on CNN was a good example for me (and I thought
he was OK - but now it seems "color" is important to
him than anything else).

The NY Times never lets an opportunity to comment on
anything that even smacks of being "not left" aligned
(they seem to take some glee at the unfortunate
killings of some kids who were home schooled and so
used a broad brush to damn the entire home schooled
society/groups - I cannot imagine why anyone would
home school - but I cannot imagine excoriating them
for their choice - even if a number of them may be
kooks and crazies - some make the rational choice that
they cannot afford good private schools and hate the
public school systems and so a parent decides to
forego one income to school the kids - so, not
everyone is a kook/crazy)

There was this NYTimes reporter on Democracy Now (Amy
Goodman) a few days ago and he talked about the
"incredible transfer of wealth from poor people to
rich people" like Steinbrenner of the Yankees and
owners of football/baseball clubs ... Yes, I find it
abhorrent that cities are being held hostage to teams
by rich owners - almost like being at the point of a
gun. He was using those examples to show why
"capitalism" is bad (or some such) - and I thought -
"Well, stop passing taxes for stadiums - and let the
teams leave" - but no, cities and people WANT teams
and GAMES AND ALL THAT - so, the owners demand the
ransom and get it ... and after the team stays, the
people complain that they are being taxed (they forget
conveniently why they passed the taxes/increase)

In Huntsville, there is a company called CINRAM that
recently got into trouble because they were LEGALLY
bringing in workers for the christmas season to
package/box DVD's for sale through out the country -
and were paying them $8/hr. The hue and cry locally
was "Why are they not hiring locals? We should cut
off their tax subsidy/whatever". Of course the city
gave all these incentives to come to Huntsville. Of
course, the company has on their payroll several
thousand employees who work year round AND make market
wages - So, if they are driven away, those people will
also lose jobs - If cities demand that every employer
pays their employees what the cities demand they get
paid, fine - they can if they want pass such
ordinances/laws - and if manufacturers can come/set
shop, great. But you cannot bribe them, and when they
come in, take the rug away and demand the company do
what the city demands.

As countries like India and China grow and as we in
the US stagnate, the politics of envy will rear it's
ugly head and we will then see how vicious the current
anti-immigrant sentiment will turn. I am alarmed at
how both parties are fanning the flames of
intolerance. The 1930's will look like a walk in the
park, unless someone, somewhere, at sometime knock
some sense into the national dialogue of what makes
economies tick and why the US remains the world's
magnet for humanity and how we will suffer if people
stop looking at the US as the shore of first resort.