Economic Alternative Universes

Rich Kozlovich
 
Back when the Occupy Wall Street Crowd (OWC) was being wooed and lauded by the media and celebrities, Patrice Lewis wrote an article on 12/21/2011 entitled, "Economics for Dummies", outlining 14 points about economics that seem to have gotten lost in the nation's collective consciousness - or at least in a major portion of the population, including the media, who along with celebrities just fawned over these losers.  None of whom stepped forward to give any of these sewer trout the right to write checks from their personal accounts.  They didn't mind swimming in the sewer with them for a short time, as long as they could return to their town houses where there were all the amenities capitalism has to offer. 
 
All of this economic insanity is now being touted once again for this coming election.  I've also stated in the recent past this election is a choice between the economically ignorant Occupy Wall Street children and the  economically adult positions of those who subscribe to the Tea Party concepts of less spending, less taxes, less borrowing, pay off the debt, less regulations and less government overall.   

Patrice starts her article with a quote form Dr. Adrian Rogers saying: You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that, my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.–
 
She later goes on to state the (OWC) crowd "reminds me of a toddler attitude: What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine."  Later she notes how the real world thinks: "What’s yours is yours, but what’s mine is most assuredly NOT yours. It’s mine."  In spite of the fact "the government may steal what’s mine and give it to you, but that doesn’t make it yours. It just makes you the recipient of stolen property." 

I know there will be those who will be outraged at that, but I don't care.  That's what people really believe, that's what is really going one, even if they won't say it publicly in fear of the Politically Correct policing crowd.  In point of fact - as I outline her points I intend to expand on her points for this article to get even more un-politically corret as it goes along.  If you wish to see Patrice's points as presented please go here. 
 
First off I would like to know where this mentality - "you owe me" - came from?  Where did they get the idea higher education should be free?  Where did the get the idea that borrowing money to pay for their education shouldn't have to be paid back? That's a fundamental right they claim!  Really?  No, I'm sorry.  That's not a right or you wouldn't need to steal from everyone else to acquire that so-called right.  When others have to pay for your excesses it costs them money, time, effort and all to provide you will some imaginary right, at no cost to you and every cost to them.  Where does that end?   Why should a laborer making minimal wages have to pay for you to become a doctor?  That's slavery imposed by tyranny, and remember - tyranny once installed is uncontrollable.
 
If you want a job go out and find one you can do.  If you have to start out at the bottom, so be it.  Those people you're making demands from started that way.  You have no right to live the same life style your parents do.  They earned it, and if you can earn it sooner than they did - good for you - but no one owes you a big house and a big paying job, or a job at all for that matter.  We all need a living wage, but having it imposed by the government isn't just a slippery slope it's a destructive flow of lava that will consume everything in it's path. 

Coming in for a job interview unqualified, foul mouthed,  ill dressed, piercings all over your face, tattoos everywhere demonstrating your "individuality" may be your right, but a company has the right to not hire you if that's not their profile for an employee. 

No one owes you!

Do they want things to be cheaper?  Then why aren't these people protesting the government's economically confiscatory practices.  Understand - this demand for the "rich" to pay their fair share to those who pay nothing is flat out leftist propaganda.  Taxes are part of the cost of doing business.  If the government raises taxes business raises prices.  And who really suffers?  Those at the lower end of the economic scale because everything costs more.  And the demagogues in government touting this know raising Corporate Taxes are nothing more than a hidden tax on the poor, which the government will collect from the corporations.  The rich may write the checks, but the poor are paying the taxes in higher prices, and these leftists promoting this clabber know this but use it to gain support and power.  Power that will eventually make everyone equal.  Everyone will be poor.

Taxes are only a part of the story.  Regulations cost the American public at the federal level approximately two trillion dollars a year.

In 2013 the United States Congress passed 65 new laws.  What is really important to understand is when new laws are passed the baton of power is passed to the permanent bureaucracies, whose function is to make even more laws called – “rules”! In 2013 there was an average of 56 new regulations resulting from each law passed totaling 3659 new laws called – “rules”! That multiplier has been as low as 12 per new law, but that was in 2006 when Congress passed 321 new laws. If you average out the multipliers over the last ten years the average multiplier is 25.36.

So what’s the rest of the story? Last year the states passed over 40,000 new laws. If we make a broad assumption that the average multiplier applies to the states we now have a potential of 1,014,400 new laws called – “rules!” Rules created by unaccountable bureaucrats, with their own agendas and views of reality, and who, generally speaking, went to college and then into government.

During the first five years of the Obama administration regulatory costs increased by $500 billion dollars, “with $112 billion in regulatory compliance costs in 2013 alone, and a burden that has been predicted to increase this year to as much as $143 billion”.  The federal registry, where all the regulations are listed, contain 80,224 pages this year alone.  It’s estimated that in ten years at the current rate of regulatory growth there will generate approximately 900,000 new pages of regulations, which will be on top of the approximately 800,000 pages of regulations passed in the previous ten years.

All of these regulations do one thing for sure - create jobs – for non-productive bureaucrats.  It took government employees 10.38 billion hours to do “the paperwork for the federal government in 2013, and will take 78,000 full-time employees to complete the additional paperwork.”

We also have to look at who benefits from laws and the regulations they generate.  In this kind of hyper-regulatory, high tax economy many of these laws and regulations are promoted by businesses that want to make it harder for companies that will be, or already are, competitors.  As a result “all aspects of business, entrepreneurship degenerates into “bribery and diplomacy.” Instead of focusing on creating value for customers, entrepreneurs spend their time lobbying for favors or to avoid penalties, trying to discern the government’s next move, anticipating or adapting to the newest regulations.”

We need to understand it's competition that makes things cheaper, not government control.  Competition eliminates those who are incompetent, inefficient or produce bad products.

Some claim none of that's fair!  So?  Who was it that wrote the Book of Fair!  You can't answer can you?  Do you know why?  There is no Book of Fair!  Fair is in the eyes of the beholder.  Often times what's fair depends on whose ox is being gored. 

Patrice noted "this campaign apparently is not raising the IQ of any of the protesters, because they are still incapable of coherently explaining WHY they should receive something for nothing. When asked to pinpoint specific objectives, they wilt under logical questioning about how those objectives should be accomplished." 

There's a reason these people are losers.    They're caught between reality and an alternative reality full of "stupid".  And you can't fix stupid!

Please view the posts below from that period.