Monthly Archives: June 2015

Supreme Kool-Aid

The Supreme Court rendered two landmark decisions this past week. For those short on time I will parse them in the simplest of terms. In King v. Burwell (the “Obamacare” case) the Court decided that “established by the States” can mean exactly the same thing as “not established by the States.” This ranks right up there with Bill Clinton’s inability to parse the meaning of the word “is.” This linguistic pretzel betrays the court’s predilection to save Congress from themselves. The court regards Congress as a parent would a child who keeps getting into trouble: “aw, shucks silly rabbit, you mean you didn’t anticipate that a poison pill clause aimed at punishing the citizens of recalcitrant states might blow up in your face if those states remained recalcitrant? – well, don’t you worry, old Uncle Roberts will fix that right up for you with his magical judicial word-redefiner.”

In the next decision, Obergefell v. Hodges (the “gay marriage” case) the Court affirmed the principle that we should heap accolades upon our wise overlords when they deign to stop interfering in our lives. Apparently we need the state to stop other states from doing bad things – but who will protect us when the federal state does bad things? State regulation of marriage makes about as much sense as state regulation of healthcare.

Right about now the left is feeling pretty smug and self-satisfied with these decisions. But the right has had their day, and they will once again. That’s just how our system works – the lives of 300 million people must conform to the opinion of nine random people in black robes while each side cheers for their “team.” Both sides trumpet the merits of democracy – until their side loses. When that happens they are both all too happy to jettison the “democratic” results and substitute it with the opinion of 9 monarchs.

The fact that so many wait in eager anticipation for a sign of white or black smoke wafting from the judicial chimney of the Supreme Palace betrays something rather sinister. Nearly all of us are part of a cult: the cult of the State. The figurative “kool-aid” of state-love is doled out year after year at, gasp!, state run schools. There is nearly no defense against this mountain of propaganda. We grow up believing our rights come from government and therefore when the wise sages of that august institution speak, we must pay heed.

Consider a different perspective: The US Government is the functional equivalent of a private corporation that has monopolized certain segments of the economy. It maintains its market dominance and its customer base (us) through a combination of brainwashing during childhood, the illusion of control in adulthood (voting), and the for those that would rebel against paying for products it forces upon us, the overt threat of violence from a massive military complex. Cast in that light we should see that the internal policy making procedures of this company should have as much relevance to one’s life as would the operational policy decisions made at Apple, Walmart or Payless Shoe Stores. Who cares what 9 random people think? How is it that we not only allow – we welcome – other people, (the President, Congress, or the Supreme Court) telling us how to run our lives? If you want to participate in a socialized insurance system called “Obamacare” fine, be my guest. That has as much relevance to my life as does your decision to buy car insurance from Progressive and not State Farm. However, I choose to not purchase the products of U.S. Government, Inc – Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare. I also see no need to ask permission from one of its wholly owned subsidiaries (Georgia, Inc.) to get married, get a job, start a business or educate my children.

Now some might argue that I have a “social responsibility” to purchase some products (“public goods”) and that gosh-darn someone must force me to do so if I won’t. In reality, there is no such thing as “public goods” – this is simply a name that emerges from sloppy and lazy thinking from those that can’t fathom how anything other than violence could bring such products to market. And for those inclined to cite “the roads” please bear in mind it only constitutes about 1% of government spending.

I will close with this one tidbit of irony. The determination of the constitutionality of laws by the Supreme Court (“judicial review”) is itself unconstitutional. You can scour the Constitution but you will not find the authority for the court to engage in this practice.  This notion of “judicial review” was born out of the court’s ruling in Marbury v. Madison in 1803 as a matter of expediency and we’ve suffered the consequences ever since. That the dictum “the ends justify the means” guides this court’s decision should come as no surprise considering its power to render these decisions flowed from the same principle.

Pope Francis: Lapdog of the Ruling Regime

The climate crusaders gained a “useful idiot” (look it up) in their cause this past week in one Pope Francis with the publication of his encyclical “Laudato Si’, On the Care of Our Common Home.”  Apparently the “settled science” and endless “climate shaming” over our “carbon-footprint” has been insufficient to motivate action (that is violence) at a global level – time to bring in the big guns: God. If people won’t listen to reason then let’s appeal to their sense of morality. And if that doesn’t work let’s just bombard them with vacuous nostrums that would embarrass even Deepak Chopra . Writing in his encyclical the Pope states, “There can be no renewal of our relationship with nature without a renewal of humanity itself.” Flowery prose about a collective (“our”) that exists only as metaphor underscores how our “leaders” perennially view humanity not as individuals but rather as mere clay to be pushed, prodded — and trimmed — as needed in order to reshape the world according to their vision.

As a Catholic myself (this statement now giving me a pass on the anti-Catholic label) I am dismayed by this Pope’s proclivity to not only issue papal pronouncements on issues he is ignorant of (e.g. economics, the climate) but to deliver those messages wrapped in an unabashedly pro-state and curiously un-biblical package. This Pope (and Vatican) have spewed a mountain of anti-capitalist rhetoric over the past few years that entirely misses the mark as to the cause of rising wealth inequality. It is entirely the result of big government and central banks colluding together to inflate the money supply and not, as he says, by “ideologies which uphold the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation.”  This is no mere pontificating on the dangers to the soul of single-minded pursuit of wealth, no, this is full on promotion of Marxist redistribution of wealth. For example from the above quote he further endorses, “…the right of control [of financial resources] to States…”. When he spoke to the UN last year he invoked the parable of Zaccheus as a way to justify the use of “political agents” that can force the “legitimate redistribution of economic benefits.” Wow. I wonder if he wears a Che Guevara t-shirt under that robe.

The Vatican even promotes the concept that evading taxes is equivalent to “stealing” from the state and the poor (because of course it’s all the state’s to begin with and their sole job is to help the poor).  I’m not sure which version of the Bible Pope Francis is reading, but in my version Zaccheus (the selfish tax collector) VOLUNTARILY chose to give to the poor. Jesus didn’t say “do this or else I’ll send the Roman guards after you”.

To underscore this Pope’s preference for state action, his new encyclical distills the fight against climate change down to a simple message: governments everywhere have a moral duty to fight climate change. Yes, you read that correctly. Fighting climate change is now a moral imperative for all mankind. The unique thing about this new flavor of “morality” is its ambiguity. Traditional moral issues (murder, rape, theft) are pretty straightforward: don’t do them. As long as I don’t murder someone, I have upheld that moral edict. But “fighting climate change”? How do I uphold that? What exactly am I supposed to do? If I drive a car that gets 30 mpg am I violating a moral tenet but not violating if it gets 40 mpg? Shall I get rid of my air conditioner (as Pope Francis has actually suggested!) in order to get in God’s good graces? Or should I just follow like a good little subject the climate edicts of my government… which may change with the prevailing winds of the latest computer model. This ambiguity should be more than sufficient to indict its moral status.

The Pope should indeed be promoting ideas of charity, peace, forgiveness, tolerance, and good stewardship. But to then endorse the authority of the state to impose these virtues upon the population is to utterly reject God’s message of salvation via the gift of free will. He gave us free will in order to allow the individual to make his or her own choices (choices which may or may not eventually lead to salvation). Apparently this Pope’s message is, “Do the right thing, but if you don’t, that guy over there (the state) will make sure you do.”

It is absolutely astounding that a Pope would make not just one but two gross theological blunders. First to cloak an ambiguous political issue in the vestments of morality and second to endorse the sacrifice of God’s gift of free will upon the altar of state sponsored utilitarianism. I don’t know whether to laugh at his brazenly sycophantic parroting of regime talking points or to cry for the untold billions that will die in the coming decades due to artificial constraints on energy production and economic output if the chicken little doomsayers like the Pope get their way.

Too Much Choice

Bernie Sanders, the (self-described) socialist Senator from Vermont recently quipped in a CNBC interview that “You don’t necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants or of 18 different pairs of sneakers when children are hungry in this country.” The absurdity of this remark should be self-evident, but for those that think perhaps he has a point I thought it might be instructive to deconstruct the remark so as to reveal the base ignorance of economics and markets that lead to such thinking.

The first flaw is purely a logical one. He engages in what is known as a ‘non-sequitur’ fallacy. A true claim is made (that numerous choices exist in the market) followed by another claim (children are hungry) that supposedly is a causal result of the obviously true condition already stated (too many market choices causes children to be hungry). To more clearly illustrate the absurdity of this remark, let’s modify it slightly while retaining the spirit of his rhetoric: “You don’t necessarily need a choice of 23 types of cereal or of 18 different vegetables when children are hungry in this country.”

Marxist romanticists like Sanders still pine for a past that never was in order to justify a future we should all fear.

This notion of wasteful duplication is unabashed Marxism. It has been thoroughly debunked by over one hundred years of empirical evidence. To make this claim today is tantamount to pondering if perhaps we shouldn’t rethink this whole “earth goes around the sun” thing again. Market based economies that “allow” their citizens to pursue their own independent ends in bringing goods to the market have vastly outpaced centrally controlled command-driven economies (Russia, Cuba, North Korea, former Eastern block countries) in terms of growth, overall standard of living, and reductions in poverty. But Marxist romanticists like Sanders still pine for a past that never was in order to justify a future we should all fear.

Why do some persist in subscribing to this fantasy, that if only a wise overseer could have the final say on economic activity we would have Utopia on earth? Because on an emotional level (that is, non-thinking) it feels superficially plausible. It certainly does seem like a lot of wasteful duplicative effort for many people to all make the same good in slightly different ways and then try to sell that good to the same people. Indeed when companies merge they can become more efficient by eliminating such duplication. What Sanders is actually implying (unwittingly?) is that all businesses ultimately should be merged into a single entity so as to remove all such inefficiencies. Of course this single entity would be run by the state. That hasn’t worked out so well in the past. But hey, maybe this time they’ll get it right.

In reality, we already have a centrally planned economy; every business is individually centrally planned by those running that business. It is also true that any business that directed all employees to perform the exact same task would quickly fail. So if central planning without effort duplication works at the small scale (individual business), why would it not work at the large scale, as Mr. Sanders imagines? Scaling effects and limits on human cognition. A business with 100 employees is more than ten times complex than one with 10 employees. At some point it is simply impossibly for the human mind to manage such a complicated system. We are simply incapable of processing that amount of data and making any sort of useful decisions with it. Indeed that is the biggest challenge for any growing businesses; effective management that ensures all parts runs smoothly and work together as a cohesive whole. It is far easier to manage 5 employees than 5 million. At least in the market if a large business is poorly run (and is not bailed out by the state) losses each year will tell them they are doing something wrong. In a state run economy there is no profit/loss test to tell the state they are doing it wrong; it will just merrily go about walking straight off a cliff

The amazing thing about the market is that all of these smaller parts work together in a cohesive whole without any market level central planning – it’s simply not needed. What some view as wasteful duplication is in fact a discovery process. Bernie might as well complain about all those drug researchers wasting time with experiments that go nowhere. Why don’t they just invent the drug that works from the beginning? The market operates like a science experiment. No one person can know ahead of time what is the best computer, cell phone, deodorant, or toothpaste. Many experiment with variations and then subject those experiments to the market test. A positive result equates with profit and a negative result equates with losses. The system is a self-reinforcing feedback loop that retains what we want and removes what we don’t.

So yes Bernie, we do need those choices. We all have the right both to offer whatever we want to the market and to vote with our dollars on what we will consume from that same market. Seeing as how you are not an omnipotent being, you and the state have no right to restrict those choices in any way.

Red Card!

This past week one of my neighbors was arrested by our Homeowners Association for accepting cash in exchange for allowing mere acquaintances of their son to attend his birthday parties. The HOA felt that this base corruption might reflect poorly on the neighborhood. Oh, wait, that didn’t happen. I got that confused with the fact that the U.S. government had several officials from FIFA (an international body governing soccer (or football in the rest of the world)) arrested for apparently being “corrupt” and accepting bribes because on occasion the bribe payments happened to transit U.S.territory. The parallels are uncanny. A member of a private group violated an understood trust relationship established amongst members of that group. An outside third party then felt it was incumbent upon them to throw that violator into a cage because, well, I don’t know why – it’s really none of their business in either scenario.

The FIFA members are accused of committing “crimes” that either have no victim (money laundering) or which are entirely internal conduct matters (bribery). Murder, rape, and theft – sure, feel free to get involved. But I fail to see how simple misconduct or boorish behavior rises to the level of a compelling state interest. The flip side to this corruption scandal that has so far gone unnoticed is that for every corruptor there is a corrupted. That is to say, aren’t the high ranking government officials who paid the bribes out to these FIFA officials just as culpable? That is precisely the area a state body should investigating; the corruption of its own members.

Corruption is not a crime. Corruption is a contract violation, or more specifically, a trust violation. Party A entered into a contract with Party B whereby Party B is to act in the interests of Party A. Trust violations typically occur when there is no unobtrusive way to ensure Party B is always acting in the interests of Party A. For example, if the electorate puts a politician in office to further the interests of the community but instead that politician accepts bribes and acts contrary to said interests, this would be corruption. Should that be illegal? Should that politician be locked in a cage? Or is it not a better solution for the electorate to “fire” them immediately and take back whatever gains he may have acquired? Likewise there can be corruption in a private organization such as a business, club, church or any other similar group. If an employee takes bribes to swing business toward some particular vendor, then the employer-employee trust compact has been violated. That is a dispute between the employer and the employee. If a CEO takes bribes in order to drive business in a certain way, that is a violation of trust between him and the board of directors and ultimately the shareholders. These are all strictly private matters.

The apparent open secret of widespread corruption by top FIFA officials is certainly nothing to cheer about – but it is not a crime. It is a violation of trust that harms the name of FIFA and thus by extension all who are members of FIFA. It is these members that should be pursuing their corrupt brethren, not the US Government. Some might believe that cities that lost out on World Cup hosting bids due to corruption are victims as well, but that is not the case. Such cities are no more a “victim” than is the loser of several men competing for the affections of a single women because the “winner” lavished the women with extravagant gifts. The recourse of a losing city is the same as the recourse you or I have when we discover someone does not deal fairly – refusal to associate. If a friend, associate, or business lies to us, then we can cut them out of our lives. Good riddance.

It is in the interests of FIFA to clean up its act. They may soon find that many cities will no longer trust them and will simply refuse to participate in future FIFA events. This will erode their market dominance and thus the price they can command for participating. If they don’t reform themselves quickly then this corruption will open the door to a new, and better run, organization that can take over FIFA’s role. However, the fact that this corruption has apparently been going on for well over 20 years suggests that perhaps a mountain is being made out of a molehill. We shall see.

In any event, the arrests this week should serve as a reminder of the overpowering arrogance of the U.S.government. They have in many respects taken on the mantra of the One World Government. It exerts its dominance globally both militarily and legally. It can establish whatever arbitrary rules it wishes and then enforce such rules with virtual impunity upon any person, anywhere on the planet at any time. Let freedom ring.