Capitalism 101

There has been a lot of talk about just what is it that has failed and caused this terrible economic crisis. And a lot of mis-understanding, and ignorance and denial of history. This is an open invitation to everyone who is willing, and open, to a conversation about this. There IS such a thing as Truth. It CAN be known. And we CAN know it. Let's all find it together, ok? I'll begin with this:
Free-Market Capitalism is the mature realization and recognition of the preciousness of the freedom and individuality of each and every person, and the absolute knowledge that in order to safeguard and secure your own happiness and contentment, you must safeguard and work to secure the ability of others to pursue their own. It is the distilled knowledge that the best way to act in the public interest is to act in enlightened SELF-INTEREST! More than a BILLION people worldwide have enjoyed increasing freedom, liberty, and prosperity in the last century due to even small-scale application of these principles.
Socialism is the admission of, and resignation to, failure. It is the un-natural imposition of the idea that you are selfish unless you subordinate your every act to the pre-supposed wisdom of those that guide and shepherd the people as a whole. You are a cog on the wheel... a brick in the wall... you are expendable and if you are deemed to be acting in self-interest, you will be accused of acting against the public interest, and force will be applied against you. More than 100 MILLION people were deliberately starved and murdered in the last century by socialist governments due to application of these flawed principles. This is undisputed fact.
Free-Market Capitalism is the only system of human interaction that is grounded in an understanding of human nature and respect for individual rights. It is the fruition of thousands of years of experimentation in human interaction. It is the only system that states absolutely that every man is the sole owner of himself. You are not property, to be owned, sold, or used by anyone but yourself. And it follows that the fruits of your justly earned labor, and capital implemented, are your property, to be used, spent, hoarded... whatever you choose. They are yours... absolutely. YOU are the capital. And YOU own it and control it. And whether you put it in play or not is your business.
Every other system that has been tried so far has held that, to some degree, you do NOT own yourself, and you owe some or all of your time, services, even your very person and life, to your king, emperor, lord, society, general, president, etc. Nothing you ever do or create is ever truly yours, because you, yourself, are not truly yours. This is un-natural... it goes against human nature, and is abhorrent to any rational being, which is why, though they may. in their ignorance, desire it, and fight for its' implementation, eventually the horrors of its' obvious conclusions drive people to reject it. Unfortunately, usually by that time it's too late.
It is a testament to the viability and durability of Free-Market Capitalism that it has been able to flourish and create such vast wealth even after 100 years of being crippled and maimed by socialism, dragging the chains and anchors and harpoons of government restriction and tithing along in the process.

This just about sums it up... Great quote from Edmund Burke.

"Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. ... Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters." - Edmund Burke

For a few thousand years that "controlling power upon will and appetite" was provided by Religion. Here in the 21st century we are way too smart, civilized, modern, and evolved for that crap and THAT IS WHAT MAKES US UNQUALIFIED for Civil Liberty! Those Liberals, Marxists, Communists, Progressives, Anarchists, etc. all say they want freedom, but it is their revulsion to putting "moral chains upon their own appetites" that makes them unfit. See, they don't believe in Morality because they can find no basis for it without invoking God. And god forbid anyone should do that! (pun intended)

Before (and contemporaneously with) Religion, the controlling power (moral authority) was provided by Kings, Pharaohs, Emperors, etc. The king demanded civility under pain of death. But Judeo-Christian Morality, which is built up, nurtured, and thrives in the Soul, is what sounded the death-knell for Monarchy and other forms of despotic rule. The more Judeo-Christian influence in a society, the less meddling was needed (or tolerated) by the government. This has been true throughout Europe and the Americas, Australia, the Philippines, parts of Africa, etc., excepting occasional bloody revolts by the intemperate, jealous, and immoral. It is true in Japan, Korea, China, and India also, but not because of Judeo-Christian ethics. I believe Taoism is to credit for that.

Another pertinent quote:

“He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still” - Lao Tzu circa 550 BC

The converse of what Burke said is, "The MORE of it there is within, the LESS there need be without." Think about that... the more moral self-control you have over yourself, the less you will need to be controlled by others.

The moral of the story is: The only form of government fit for those who refuse to control themselves is Communist Dictatorship. The only form of government fit for those who will control themselves, exercise moral restraint, and respect the rights of others, is a Libertarian Constitutional Republic. So far anyway...

Another Quote:

“Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been tried from time to time." - Winston Churchill

And so, I say that it is moral ambivalence, nurtured by the left via the abortion culture, criminal acceptance, denial of natural human physiological roles (homosexuality, gay marriage), denial of personal responsibility, religious hostility (ACLU), intellectual vanity (university professor insanity), abhorrence of logic (animal rights?), and multi-culturalism that will prevent ANY OF US from ever being free. As long as we refuse to control ourselves and act within our nature, we will be controlled. And a socialist society is no society at all... it is farm animals in a pen.

Steve Casas

Questions every American should be asking themselves:

Questions every American should be asking themselves:

What would you do if, say, over a period of years, your personal tax rate went up to 50% or higher? And you really get nothing much more in return? And your yearly tax refund disappeared? And jobs were still scarce, and food prices were on the rise? At what point would you scream "ENOUGH!" and grab a torch and a rake and march on the capital?

At some point in the future, taxes *MUST* be raised. Debts must be repaid. If not, something will be taken from you. You might even have to fight for your life.

Now, what if you could put this reckoning off until after you're gone from this world? Just let your kids deal with it? Would you just keep on borrowing and spending?

There can be only two outcomes of this: War or slavery. Which one of those would you choose for your children? They will either refuse to pay increased taxes and go to war with their government, or they will give up their freedom in exchange. Also, if they lose the war, they will be slaves anyway. They will have one chance in three of being free like our forefathers, and God, intended... except for the ones who died in the war, of course. It comes to this: Slavery, war and slavery, or war and victory, but at great cost.

Is this what we want for our children? And it has certainly come to this. There is no doubt about it. We are probably at the point already, where our future holds only war or slavery. All we are doing is putting it off. Maybe a year, maybe 10 years. Hell, if we are smart, maybe we can put it off until after we die, living fat and happy while borrowing our children into being the ones that have to make the choice! That was sarcasm. But that is exactly what we are doing.

Here's what's happening now: The government, since 1913, has been borrowing money. Sometimes, they just print it. But they have learned that just printing money has long-term negative consequences that we, here and now, must bear. So, the preferred method has been selling bonds and such, and straight up borrowing from other nations. The way they play the game, they can continue to do this as long as the people will pay the interest, or they can hide it. Everything that has happened since then has been attempts to put off the consequences and keep the ball rolling, like taking the dollar off the gold standard, wage/price controls, raising the debt ceiling, outlawing private possession of gold, capital gains taxes, estate taxes, tacitly encouraging illegal immigration, not to mention the countless accounting tricks employed to make things look better than they are. At some point, the interest payment per year will exceed the total taxes the people are willing to pay. Make no mistake, THERE WILL BE A RECKONING! And then what?

The people that are doing this, our Congressmen and Senators, fall into two camps: The weak, and the insidious. The weak just want everything to be groovy, and can be talked into falling for even more schemes to put off the reckoning. The insidious KNOW what is coming. They welcome it. They have been planning it. They think the people are sheep and it is their destiny to rule us. They might be right.

I propose we, you and I, have this out. Here and now. It is our only chance to give our children something better than what was given to us. And, when we demand this of our government, it must accompany a threat of war. We'd better mean it, or we will be slaves sooner than we thought.

Our only hope of salvation for our nation, and the world, is to rein in government spending. Reduce the size and scope of it. Stop expecting it to help you at every turn. Stop treating it like the candyman. The only money it has to spend is money it has taken from you, or that it WILL take from you.

Plans of action:

• Read your History books. And read Economics. And especially Economic History. Only by knowing how this happened will you be able to undo it and prevent it from happening to your kids. "The Creature From Jekyll Island" is a good start.
• Educate yourselves. We can no longer trust that our hallowed institutions of higher learning are teaching anything worthwhile. In fact, most often, students come out of universities befuddled and confused and blaming everything on capitalism and with a VERY DIFFERENT definition of freedom. Their Diplomas aren't worth the paper they're written on and the odds are we taxpayers paid for the whole fiasco, too.
  
• Vote EVERYONE out of office! Every chance you get. The culture of corruption is pervasive and entrenched. There are only two on my list of for-sure good-guys in congress, Ron Paul and his son Rand. There may be others, but take no chances... send them all home.
• Only vote for strong candidates, tea-party types. Ones that can make the tough choices.Make sure they answer plenty of questions about economics and history and don't worry too much about if they cheated on their spouse or hired illegal immigrants. And then vote them back home after one term. No more career politicians!
  
• Kill the Federal Reserve and the 16th amendment. It is the mechanism by which they will own us.
• Kill Social Security. It is a Ponzi scheme whereby one generation obliges subsequent ones to take care of them, while also getting everyone used to suckling at the teat of the government.
  
• End collective bargaining. Unions enable some to escape the consequences everyone else must bear. They are corrupt, Socialist in nature, and a tool by which people are conditioned to obey.
  
• Learn a trade. Most government workers will necessarily be out of a job, and if all you know how to do is fill out forms you will be at a serious disadvantage and someone else will have to take care of you.
• Get involved locally. School boards, planning commissions, city councils, etc.
• And everywhere demand accountability, fiscal and fiducial responsibility, and ACTION!
• Learn how to grow your own food. The coming hard times will disrupt normal modes of transportation. There will be no grocery stores.
• You will need a source of water. So will millions of others if you live in a city. Think about that now... not later.
• Get to know your neighbors. There is strength in numbers. And we will need strength. The cities, which, not co-incidentally, have been guilty of voting in higher numbers for more largess from the government (blue spots on the map), will be VERY BAD places to be if there is a disruption in transportation. Food will become scarce and you and your family will start to look real tasty in only a few weeks time. Really. Think about that: We city-dwelling Americans will resort to cannibalism in a mere one-months time if the trucks stop coming. But people in Eastern Oregon, among other places, will hardly notice. Think long and hard about it.
• If it becomes time to water the Tree of Liberty, make sure it is your blood and mine intermingled with theirs. I will not go quietly in the night, and neither should you.