Todd’s Life

I discovered a new author today. His name is Garret Garrett. He was one of the most active critics of President Roosevelt’s New Deal experiment. He wrote in the 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s. It is always a wonderful thing to discover brilliant authors from the past. Today we have so much new technology and gadgets, but I think in most ways we are dumber than our predecessors. We think we are smart, yet we don’t pay much attention to wisdom of the past. Anyway, his work is very relevant to our day, very readable, and short to read. Here is a link to one of his most famous books. It describes how America went from a proud country based on individualism to one based on security. Enjoy.

http://mises.org/books/pottage.pdf

I am currently reading “Human Action” by Ludwig von Mises, a brilliant economist who understood IT.  I’m going to share with you some things that I read from him as often as I can.  I’ll cite him.  If you have a chance, I’d suggest picking up any book by him.  He will provide you the tools to fight those who wish to fight freedom by dissecting their arguments and teaching you to understand the fallacy of security.  There is no security in the world today.  It’s been that way from the beginning.  I wish that Americans would stop and think about what President Obama and the Democrats are proposing.  They are in effect saying that the government can manage health care better than the market.  If that is the case, then why don’t we let the government manage everything and why don’t we just become communist.  Of course most people see the lunacy in that, but to accept Obama’s argument is to basically admit that the market economy and the freedom it entails does not work and so we must choose the government and its police powers to manage our economy.  The best we can hope for is liberty.  Anyway, here is what he said on page 287 about the Inequality of Wealth and Income.

“The inequality of individuals with regard to wealth and income is an essential feature of the market economy.”
 
“The fact that freedom is incompatible with equality of wealth and income has been stressed by many authors.  There is no need to enter into an examination of the emotional arguments advanced in these writings.  Neither is it necessary to raise the question of whether the renunciation of liberty could in itself guarantee the establishment of equality of wealth and income and whether or not a society could subsists on the basis of such equality.  Our task is merely to describe the role inequality plays in the framework of the market society.”

“In the market society direct compulsion and coercion are practiced only for the sake of preventing acts detrimental to social cooperation.  For the rest individuals are not molested by the police power.  The law-abiding citizen is free from the interference of jailers and hangmen.  What pressure is needed to impel an individual to contribute his share to the cooperative effort of production is exercised by the price structure of the market.  This pressure is indirect.  It puts on each individual’s contribution a premium graduated according to the value which the consumers attach to this contribution.  In rewarding the individual’s efforts according to its value, it leaves to everybody the choice between a more or less complete utilization of his own faculties and abilities.  This method cannot, of course, eliminate the disadvantages of inherent personal inferiority.  But it provides an incentive to everybody to exert his faculties and abilities to the utmost.”

“The only alternative to this financial pressure as exercised by the market is direct pressure and compulsion as exercised by the police power.  The authorities must be entrusted with the task of determining the quantity and quality of work that each individual is bound to perform.  As individuals are unequal with regard to their abilities, this requires an examination of their personalities on the part of the authorities.  The individual becomes an inmate of a penitentiary, as it were, to whom a definite task is assigned.  If he fails to achieve what the authorities have ordered him to do, he is liable to punishment.”

“It is important to realize in what the difference consists between direct pressure exercised for the prevention of crime and that exercised for the extortion of definite performance.  In the former case all that is required from the individual is to avoid a certain mode of conduct, precisely determined by law.  As a rule it is easy to establish whether or not this interdiction has been observed.  In the second case the individual is liable to accomplish a definite task; the law forces him toward an indefinite action, the determination of which is left to the decision of the executive power.  The individual is bound to obey whatever the administration orders him to do.  Whether or not the command is issued by the executive power was adequate to his forces and faculties and whether or not he has complied with it to the best of abilities is extremely difficult to establish.  Every citizen is with regard to all aspects of his personality and with regard to all manifestations of his conduct subject to the decisions of the authorities.  In the market economy in a trial before a penal court the prosecutor is obliged to produce sufficient evidence that the defendant is guilty.  But in matters of the performance of compulsory work it devolves upon the defendant to prove that the task assigned to him was beyond his abilities or that he has done all that can be expected of him.  The administrators combine in their persons the offices of the legislator, the executor of the law, the public prosecutor, and the judge.  The defendants are entirely at their mercy.  This is what people have in mind when speaking of lack of freedom.”

“No system of social division of labor can do without a method that makes individuals responsible for their contributions to the joint productive effort.  If this responsibility is not brought about the price structure of the market and the inequality of wealth and income it begets, it must be enforced by the methods of direct compulsion as practiced by the police.”

Hi all! As everyone knows by now, I am happily married to a beautiful, intelligent, smart, funny, goofy, nerdy Chilean woman. We have been married now for over 3 months. I don’t think it is very appropriate to post much about our personal life. That is personal stuff. So I am going to turn this blog into more of political, economic, things that I find interesting in the world today. I hope you enjoy.

Right now I am reading the Communist Manifesto. I thought it would be good to understand the great work that espouses communism and is basically the father of all the great socialist movements since the 1800s and according to Barack Obama. I found this next piece on the web. It is crudely written and perhaps a little too simplistic or one-sided, but I think that it proves its point, which is that Barack Obama, no matter how nice of a gentleman he might be, believes in Marxism and would probably agree very much with the Communist Manifesto.

A comparison of Obama’s Ideas to the 10 Planks of the Communist Manifesto

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. (Obama is for more public use of private land by confiscation. Liberals around the country are confiscating private land for new public use. )
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. (Obama plans to rescind tax cuts and to raise taxes, no matter what he says.).
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance. (Obama wants to significantly raise the inheritance tax.)
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. (Obama will soon classify you as a rebel, just like his compaign tried to silence a Chicago talk radio show. Why not just make it official, Obama?)
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly. (Obama calling for strict regulations on banks.)
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State. (Obama just loves the Chinese ports, trains, etc. That’s because he wants the government to take over this function.)
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan. (Obama wants to penalize factories which want to move some operations offshore to participate in the global economy. What are his plans, confiscation)?
8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. (Obama is calling for a new “national commitment to service”. What Obama is not telling you is that it is compulsory.)
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country. (Obama wants several functions to be turned over to the government. For instance, Obama says he’s against the “fairness doctrine,” but he is for severly limiting ownership in the media as a way to control “conservative talk radio.)
10. Free education for all children in public schools. (Obama is for free education, but Obama is really for compulsory indoctrination of children in public schools by fighting school vouchers. You see, if you tax a family to death, then they can’t afford any school by a government school.)

According to the Communist Manifesto, all these were prior conditions for a transition from capitalism to communism.

And here’s an interesting article that will at least get you to think.  If Barack Obama really believes Alinsky’s writings and spent the primary part of his career implementing those things, then is he also a fan of Lucifer as well and his work…  Obama and Alinsky

Hi all! So our first mortgage is a 20 year fixed mortgage at 4.35%. Can you believe that? And you thought that the US rates were cheap. We should be moving in next weekend. Not much else is new. Work is work. It is busy. I’ve got 4 projects going right now. It is finally warming up. To be honest though, Santiago winters are not too bad. It sure isn’t Hawaii, but the winters aren’t bad. The past 2 days have been about 80 degrees during the day. I can survive winters here. The only thing that I do not like is poor air quality at times.

Oh and if you want to read a great article about the economy, here it is from Bill Bonner. http://dailyreckoning.com/read-between-the-decimals/

Hi all!  It is finally kind of warming up in Chile.  After 3 weeks of sun and fun in the U.S. it sure is getting old waking up and being cold.  We can’t wait until we move into our new place because it has central heating.  Hopefully that will happen in the next few weeks.  We are waiting for an exact date from the people building the place and for all the mortgage stuff to go through just fine.  It will soon be warm for quite some time. 

And now a great video that I found by Milton Friedman… He sure knew a lot and understood how to deconstruct the silly arguments of socialists and their many lies they use to take away freedoms for their power consumption.  What arrogant folks socialist leaders are.  Enjoy the video here.  (Milton Friedman)

Hi all.  I know that I have been absent for quite some time from my blog, but I’m back.  I recently got married a beautiful woman from Chile and we have been enjoying our 3 week extended honeymoon here in the states.  I’ve decided to turn this blog into more of a political blog.  There are too many interesting things going on in the United States, most of it terrible and tyrannical.  The presence of government in our everyday lives here in the USA is appalling.  Is there any place that normal, responsible people can go in this country anymore without being harrassess by some form of government to pay more money in taxes?  Now that Obama is president and the Democrats are running Congress, the amount of stupid comments coming from the government has only increased.  Are these people really that stupid to think that the federal government can somehow manage healthcare correctly?  It doesn’t take a genius to know they can’t.  What it does take is a wise person to realize that the problem with health care and the rising costs has been caused by the government’s Medicare and Medicaid program along with it’s meddling in health care.  Let me see if I can set a few of you straight on this.  So the government back in the 1960s creates this Medicare program that gives poor and old people free healthcare.  What do people do with something that is free?  They use it like crazy.  Also, these people are not held responsible for their poor health choices.  They can just keep accessing free healthcare.  So Medicare has been expanded over the years.  So now you have millions of people with free healthcare using it like crazy.  What do you think is going to happen?  You are going to have a shortage of health care and prices are going to sky rocket.  Duhhh, this isn’t rocket science.  Americans are fat and unhealthy and the government only encourages this by rewarding crappy behavior.  Anyway, I will be writing about political stuff once again, but I will be doing it from the safety of Chile.  I don’t think I could stand watching the US implode from stupid, socialist decisions.  Good luck all.

Today I worked from home.  That is the usual for me on Fridays.  I had a pretty crumby anxiety day on Thursday.  I think when I am under stress or am put in a situation such as dating where I perceive to lose the freedom to do what I want when I want, that is when the anxiety gets to be a little to much.  That’s just being honest, but who knows.  In this world, it is difficult often to pinpoint why one feels the way one feels.  Everyday is full of interesting challenges for sure.  I wish I had all the answers, but I don’t.  One thing that is rather interesting to me is that I prayed several weeks ago that God would give me a Spanish speaking girlfriend and lo and behold he gave me Karla.  The interesting thing about Karla is I think she is so much more than a girlfriend for several reason.  First, she struggles with the same anxiety that I struggle with.  Second, she reads the same authors that I read.  Third, she is athletic, not so much right now because she’s taking a break, but she is.  Fourth, she has the same moral values as me.  Now I don’t know about you, but I think I kind of lucked out.  Karla fits the four main criteria in my life for the type of woman that I think would be the best fit for me.  Any objective person would say don’t lose this woman and I’m doing my best not to.  I think there is much more there than I can yet understand.   I hope there is.  Now the hard part is learning to live with the anxiety that comes with being stressed somewhat.  That is an interesting challenge for sure.

So enough about that, tonight Karla came over after work and we went to one of my favorite little restaurants to grab a burger and some awesome natural fruit juice.  Then we came over to my place and laughed, talked, kissed, and just had a good time.  She is a funny woman.  Saturday, we are supposed to go latin dancing for the first time and I can’t wait.  She’s bringing dang hot and I’m sure she’s a great dancer, much better than me.  It should be a learning experience and it should be fun.

On a political front, I noticed that the President was out and about selling his $700 billion stimulus plan and was talking about the saving of 25 jobs was an example of how this plan was working.  Ha.Ha.  I could save 25 jobs if you let me borrow and print money at will.  That’s the simple part.  The hard part is creating the type of jobs that actually create goods and services that people want which brings down the prices of those goods and services.  Unfortunately 25 police jobs don’t produce anything.  They are typical government jobs, in that they take everything and produce very little in return.  Oh well, it’s nice to know that not even an Ivy League educated President doesn’t understand basic common-sense economics.

I was so tired today.  I should have just stayed in bed because when I get tired I am not a great person to be around.  It was a long day at work with lots of troubles and I just didn’t want to be there.  I came home and went to sleep at 9 pm and didn’t wake up until 9 am this morning.  I guess you could say that I needed a good night sleep.   A friend of mine here in Chile sent me links to these two really funny videos. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXBcmqwTV9s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFmYIFk5i1Q

Well, tonight was a really good episode of 24.  I can’t wait every week for 24.  It is so nice to see Jack Bauer kick some butt.  I was so tired today.  So much stuff was going on in my head.  I think that is why it is important that I run and get enough sleep.  As some of you know, I come from a family of thinkers.  It’s genetic.  I guess that everyone in life has challenges for sure, but one of the worst to too much thinking.  Yikes.  Anyway, I won’t say more about that, just know that life isn’t always a box of chocolates as Forrest Gump used to say.  Life has its ups and downs or what I like to call storms.  When the storms comes, you just got to hunker down until they pass, survey the damage that is left behind, and then clean it up and enjoy the sunshine.  I can’t remember if I shared this great clip from www.dailyreckoning.com so I’m going to put it here for you to read.  It was the most innovative way of explaining capitalism I have ever heard.

From the article “A Broken Down Stock Market” taken from www.dailyreckoning.com

What is capitalism, after all? It is not a system…not a plan…not a program. It was not decreed by any half-wit tyrant…nor written into law by any earnest assembly. It has no constitution…and no boundaries. It is merely a recognition of basic principles. ‘Thou shalt not steal,’ it says in the Bible. Capitalism recognizes other peoples’ property. The baker has a right to his oven. The farmer has a right to his land. The capitalist has a right to his money. What they do with these things is up to them.

Will they make mistakes? Of course they will. Will they do evil and obnoxious things? No doubt about it. Will they occasionally lose their heads and overprice their assets…or run the whole economy into too much debt…or blow themselves up in a bubble? You bet.

As Adam Smith described, they will also bumble along to create the wealth of nations.

But larceny wasn’t invented in the 21st century either. Naturally, people want what the capitalists have. Everywhere and always, the thieves will find reasons why they should be able to take it from them. They will respect the environment better, they say. They will invest in ’socially responsible’ projects, they claim. They will heal the lame and make the blind see. If only they get their hands on your money!

Here at The Daily Reckoning, we don’t particularly like capitalism or capitalists. We just don’t like anyone telling us what to do. So, doing unto others as we would have them do unto us, we make no effort to tell others what to do with their money. If they want to give it to Bernie Madoff or to Barack Obama, so be it - just count us out. If they want to invest in CDOs and MBDs…well, good luck to them; but don’t look to us to bail them out.

Well, today was another great day with my new friend, Karla.  I thought that we wouldn’t be getting together until Saturday, but she surprised me and asked me what I was doing after work.  I told her that I had no plans, but that I really just wanted to relax in my house.  Well, she joined me and we talked for hours and just had an enjoyable time.  It is obvious to me and to her that we like each other.  I don’t know where this will go, but right now I don’t really care.  It is nice and yet strange for me to be dating someone.  Who would have thought that this would happen in Chile.  Like I told her, I wasn’t expecting this.  I thought that she was a good looking woman, but the more I find out about her, the more I like her.  She is a beautiful, charming, and mysterious woman.  I look forward to pursuing her and seeing what good comes of it.  Unfortunately, this means for a time that I’ll need to retire from my biting commentary on our stupid government back in the United States.  I saw how Obama said he was going to save $2 or $3 trillion dollars in the budget, but when you read the fine print, it was a savings over 10 years.  On a politician pulls that crap.  If he were honest, he would say $300 billion this year, but in reality what is happening this year is that  budget is increasing once again, the government is growing, and our freedom is shrinking.  But hey, you get what you vote for.  Sure he sounded nice and looked nice, but he always spoke of big government and socialism, which is change in America… Ha.Ha.  What fools we are for giving the Democrats, or the socialist party of America, the party most responsible for our big government mess that we currently have, control of both the executive and legislative branch.  What do you think they will do?  Tax and spend and gro government.  Is that anyway to fix and economy?    Ok, maybe I do have a little time to rip our government, in between a little love.  Ha.Ha.  I am what I am folks.  That won’t change no matter how much in love I become.