Free Money

Free Money?

All government programs malfunction; that is inherent in the nature of government. In the Record Herald of 12/9, Sen Sherrod Brown laments the fact that citizens voted down the Emergency Senior Citizens Relief Act of 2010 saying “It seems Republicans are living in some alternate universe where people aren’t having trouble making ends meet or finding it hard to put food on the table every night.” With a tear jerker title like that and Sen. Brown’s weepy analysis, I wonder how can reason ever win out over emotion? Could it be that citizens are realizing that all government program are dysfunctional and designed for continual manipulation by grandstanding politicians?

As we all know, Social Security was long ago hijacked from being an insurance program to being a political football. Social Security is mis-designed, manipulated and broke. To a politician, like Sen. Brown, 13 billion of additional outlay for this “Emergency” measure is only part of a day’s work. To get ‘Brownie’ points for giving out $250 checks, the senator ignores the question, “Where is the money coming from? My guess is that to give senior citizen ‘A’ $250, some other citizen ‘B’ must cough up $350. That is normal government math. I can only say, “Stop helping us, we can’t afford it.”

Will freedom prevail

Individual responsibility Social responsibility
Equality of opportunity Equality of outcome
Personal freedom Personal welfare
Limited government Paternalistic government

Which 4 of the above do you choose? The conflict between these 2 sets of values is plain. Justice Brandeis in 1928 or 1929 in one of his Supreme Court cases said: “Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficial. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greater dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”

This conflict precisely occurs in Washington today with the passage of one after another bill, regulation or do-good rule by politicians with no understanding of the 4 principles at the top on the left. Liberals have been preaching and practicing the 4 opposing principles in the right column for years under different names like fairness, social justice, shared sacrifice, level playing field and reparations. Milton Friedman’s life works championed the virtues in the left column as our inheritances from our Founding Fathers. We in the TEA party have taken up Friedman’s and every free man’s baton, we wave our country’s flag, we shake our fists at liberal tyrants, we stand firm in the right and sleep tight.

Social Irresponsibility

“I wouldn’t buy stock in a company that hired that kind of leadership ( social responsibility). A corporate executive’s responsibility is to make as much money for the stockholders as possible, as long as he operates within the rules of the game. When an executive decides to take actions for reasons of social responsibility, he is taking money from some one else - from the stockholders, in the form of lower dividends; from the employees, in the form of lower wages; or from the consumer, in the form of higher prices. The responsibility of a corporate executive is to fulfill the terms of his contract. If he can’t do that in good conscience, then he should quit his job and find another way to do good. He has the right to promote what he regards a desirable moral objectives ONLY with his own money. “ So said Milton Friedman in an Playboy interview in 1973. Who knew? Who listened? Who listens today?

Today, Dec. 1st, 2010 I read an ad from Chevron which states: “ Fighting AIDS should be corporate policy. We agree.”

I disagree and agree with Milton that corporations and now our government should NOT put the false claim of social responsibility into policy. Today state capitalism (socialism) won AGAIN. By a vote of 73-25 the Senate passed a Food Safety bill that ORDERS the FDA to issue recalls for food poisoning, mandates blah, blah, blah and tracks blah, blah, blah...

More liberty down the drain. Here’s how the data adds up. 13,300 people sickened for the past 3 years from food poisoning; 14 dead. This out of the 300 million population in the U..S. Is this cost effective, common sense?

What good would it do now for Milton to arise from his grave and preach to a tiny minority of a choir of citizens who think like me?