Opus 2023-011: Free Markets Start with Us

We need more free market capitalism and less crony capitalism.  There are some very vital differences.

Free market capitalism sees the prosperity possible in sharing the wealth.  Henry Ford did not want to make inexpensive cars to get rich.  You could do that many ways but he saw an untapped market.  He wanted inexpensive cars to that his workers could afford to buy them.  He would get rich from their prosperity.  It was the economics of scale.

Free market capitalism understands that more wealth can be generated if you have a healthy middle class.  They spend money.  That means you can make money.  Everyone benefits.  The key word is generated.  When the masses do better, everyone does better.

Crony capitalism is based on greed.  Your goal is to get as many of the marbles as you can and at the same time deny marbles to others.  You figure there are only so many marbles and you want them all.  In stead of making more marbles you scramble for what someone else created.  

Free market capitalism believes in generating wealth.  Crony capitalism thinks the only way to gather wealth is to take it away from someone else.  

One of the great barriers to returning to the free market is the entitlement mentality that has overcome America.  It seems like everyone believes that deserve a special deal and that someone else should pay for it.  They never read the story of the Little Red Hen.

You can’t change everyone else.  Your calm voice and consistent example might open a few eyes.  Like free market capitalism, if everyone opened a few eyes eventually there would be enough vision that we could walk down the street without everyone running into walls.  Change those you can.  Be kind to those you can’t.  Remember being kind does not mean financing their irresponsibility.  

If enough of us become part of the solution then we can fix the problem.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-199: Gilded Guilt

I had recently read Live Not by Lies by Rod Dreher so when I saw him in a discussion with Jordan Peterson, I decided to listen.  At the end of the first snippet I had time to digest, Peterson presented the problem that there is a grain of truth in the privilege we enjoy.  Much of our prosperity was generated over the years from exploiting weaker people and we need to concede that.  Now, I don’t know where he will go with this, I ran out of time, but it got me thinking.

People who hate the benefits that capitalism delivers to the common people have a way of lifting out the abuses of any situation and comparing it to a socialist Utopia.  It is a battle no one can win since socialists don’t need to deal with facts and reality when they set up their perfect world.  Have there been times when the western world has taken advantages of other groups?  Of course.  The unvarnished and ignored truth is that you would do the same thing.  You probably have.  My wife has been known to purchase items at yard sales that still have their price tags on them and return them to the store for the full value.  Was she exploiting the capitalists or the yard birds?  Of course, but she was playing by their rules.  It was a win/win.  

Much of the so-called exploitation was a case of one group giving the producers of a raw material what the seller considered a fair value and then transporting, transforming into useful materials, manufacturing useful products and selling them at the price the consumers feel is fair value.  If you compare the purchase price of raw materials to the sales price of the finished merchandise then there will obviously glaring differences.  Keep in mind that the raw sugar, iron ore, hardwood and coffee beans would just be so much junk if the “exploiters” had not seen a way to use them.

I am willing to acknowledge that as an American I live in an world of affluence and privilege.  It is obvious if you know anything about the rest of the world.  The Progressives*, who want to destroy America try to put me on a guilt trip.  I take a different approach, thanksgiving.  By being thankful, I acknowledge how good I have it but I also recognize the source of that bounty.  And my thanksgiving does not start with my food supply and A/C.  It starts with being thankful that God has put in place a plan of salvation through Jesus that delivers me from the greater evil of sin in my life.  I then move on to such things as the benefits provided by a long line of inventors and entrepreneurs who have done such simple things as make a wide variety of coffees available at a reasonable price.

I reject the guilt because it is manipulative.  The conviction God lays on me causes me to respond in a way that benefits me and society.  The victory of Progressive* guilt leads to the destruction of both.  It is not exploitation to leave people better off than they would have been if you had not passed by.

Skip the phoney guilt.  There are plenty of real things to feel guilty about such as not spending enough time with your children.

*(Liberals, educators, the media, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, BLM, MSM, Deep State, etc.  Synonym for swamp dwellers)

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-081: On the Issue of Wealth

What is the moral high ground in economics?  We are constantly bombarded by the Marxist rhetoric of redistribution of income.  It is watered down and disguised but all this talk about how rich people are evil is part of the Communist desire to put all wealth in the hands of the state and their elite cronies and make it impossible for the average citizen to accumulate wealth.

Some wolves wearing the sheep’s mantle of being Christian thinkers will go along with this idea.  As someone said, “You can prove anything you want out of the Bible.”  It cannot be done honestly but it can be done.  One of their favorites pushing Communism is,

(Act 2:44 KJV)  And all that believed were together, and had all things common;

They totally ignore such things as,

(Gen 25:10 KJV)  The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth: there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife.

There are many references to owning property and doing business in the Bible.  When there is a problem it is not with the concept of making a profit but cheating or defrauding in order to benefit.

C.S. Lewis makes this observation in a chapter called “Social Morality”,

“There is one bit of advice given to us by the ancient heathen Greeks, and by the Jews of the Old Testament, and by the great Christian teachers of the Middle Ages.  All these people told us not to lend money at interest; and lending money at interest - what we call investment - is the basis of our whole system.”  p. 85

He goes on and discusses that this might be just the private money lenders that would squeeze the poor.  I think he is right is that because of Jesus and His parable of the talents.  Toward the end he says this,

(Mat 25:27 KJV)  Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.

I would not build a doctrinal statement on this but it does have something to say about investing at interest.

Our current version of capitalism may conflict with Christianity but like the Bible comments on wealth it isn’t the system of joint-stock investments but the willingness of people who use the system to enrich themselves while adding nothing.  I think of terms I have heard such as “corporate raiders” and “hostile takeovers” and such.  What they do may be legal but it is not moral.

As always, don’t just take the word of gurus.  Do your own reading and thinking.  Everything cannot be explained in a twenty second sound bite.  

Lewis, C.S.  Mere Christianity.  Norwalk, Connecticut:  The Easton Press, 2002.  

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-054: Finally Too Far?

People seem to be listening to Jordan Peterson.  I tried watching a few of his short videos but don’t find them satisfying so I am trying to listen to some of his longer conversations.  They take a lot of time so I parcel them out.  Currently I am listening to a conversation between Peterson and Joe Rogan (#1208).  

Peterson was commenting on how people in business are more socialized than academia.  I think his explanation for the academics was that they can evaluate each other based on their published research.  He called it science.  He said business people are much more socialized.  They need to constantly be socializing to find out whom they can trust.  

Business people need to develop a relationship with their employees and customers.  If they make the wrong choices in employees then they fail.  If the customers find the businessman cannot be trusted then eventually they fall from their positions and go broke.  I think of the ways in which companies have lowered the quality of their products and I have found other sources.  Multiply that by a few million and you have serious money.

This made me think of the major players in our culture, the social media gurus.  They have betrayed the trust people had in them.  The masses are slow to wake up to this because they are already so woke, but the day will come when they say, “Hey” and admit to themselves they have been lied to and manipulated.  Will these corporate giants fall because of it?  It is interesting that we are currently seeing some significant losses in the stock market and in usage.  Is this an indication that people are feeling betrayed or just a blip in the market?  Only time will tell.

People don’t mind being lied to when you tell them they look good today.  I think that they have a little different response when they realize that the actions of the government and crony capitalists are slowly eroding their liberty and freedom of choice.  Please note that I say “crony capitalist” not “capitalist”.  The first is an agent of fascism the second is someone who sells stock in their company.

Markets work if they are allowed to.  Get involved in the process.  If you are tired of being lied to by Facebook and Twitter then look for alternatives.  I can’t give you much advice on that because I have almost no involvement with either one.  If, on the other hand, you want advice on the best Bible translation I can help you.  

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-097: Middle Class Morality: Free Enterprise

There are a lot of people who constantly misrepresent what the Bible has to say about so many things.  As our country is more consumed with a philosophy of feelings rather than facts we get consumed with editing the Bible to say what we want.  One of the attacks that people make is that basic free enterprise is selfish, profit is evil.  

Nonsense.

The Bible is full of examples of people working for a profit and being blessed by God.  All you have to do is read the passage in Proverbs 31 about the woman that is referred to so often on Mother’s Day.  Actually it is not a description of a mother as much as a wife.  If you read through it you find her investing in real estate, manufacturing garments and generally busy making a profit.

That isn’t what I want to focus on today.  Today I want to point out what is easy to mistake as charity and it isn’t.

In a passage dealing with giving and generosity you come across this verse,

(Pro 11:26 KJV) He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it.

What I want you to notice is that the man is not blessed for giving away the corn but for selling it to those in need.  I think it is assumed that he asked a fair price and you can say gouging is bad but it is not charity.  

Profit and free enterprise is a Biblical standard.  It is a moral choice that is part of middle class values.

Viva la middle class morality.

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-259: Save the Republic

Really people?  You are still on Twitter and Facebook?  

Full disclosure requires that I inform you I have never used either.  I have only been tempted to go on Twitter to keep in contact with one person in the younger generation but so far have not given in.  I have nothing to lose by what I am going to say.  It is like a post condemning liver and onions.

If you are paying attention you have heard about Twitter doing everything it can to deep six all information about the corruption in the Biden family.  The New York Post evidently came out with some information they have had for months, organizations like the Trump Campaign have tried to inform the public through their Twitter accounts and have been shut down.  This has happened to others also.

Twitter is trying to destroy the country by managing the information you receive.  If the government were doing it we would call it criminal censorship on the level of the Soviet Union or Communist China.  Some people say that since we have a First Amendment their actions are legal and protected.  In a sense yes but the First Amendment says you have the right to speak and publish what you want, it does not say you have the right to stifle someone else.  I am not a big fan of more government regulation and control so I am not so sure about the government clamping down on the social media commissars.

I say, let the market decide.  You are the market.  If you really resent what these billionaires are doing to keep you ignorant then stop using their product.  Have you noticed how the NBA is changing its tune about its childish social justice warriors?  That is because people used their remote controls to walk away from the NBA.  That hurts them in the pocketbook.  That makes them change.  You have the power to do the same thing to Twitter and Facebook.

So quit griping and write a note, dial a number or drop by their house.  Save our republic.

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-177: Business Opportunity

I wonder if there might be a business opportunity here.  The latest virtue signal is being sent by Dryer Ice Cream as they do away with the Eskimo Pie brand.  Who knows where this will stop.  My thought is that if they don’t want those labels, would they sell them? 

I am guessing that if someone came out with an ice cream bar called Eskimo Pie it would outsell whatever Dryer comes up with to replace it.  I don’t buy pancake syrup but I am guessing that if some entrepreneur were to come out with an Aunt Jemima label it would sell like hot cakes. 

It won’t happen though because these corporate snowflakes would realize that the competition would be bad for their business.  Maybe a package that looked almost the same with a similar name like “Alaskamo Pie”.  Or spell Jemima with a G.  You know, the kind of labeling you often see in a dollar store. 

I won’t be much help because I don’t know how long it has been since I had an Eskimo Pie and I am not big on pancakes.  I will accept a percentage of the profits.

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-103: Caveat Emptor

I am not sure we will ever learn. 

I was scrolling through Instapundit.  I prefer to do that on my computer rather than my I-pad because I can see what the links are and avoid nonsense from the NYT and WP.  I saw a link to Amazon with an offer of face makes.  It seemed to be there were 50 in a box.  I don’t feel the need but I thought I would see if mask are finally available.

First off, the add made no claims to be effective blocking a virus.  Finally it said they were made in China.

I don’t know about you but if I were in the market for masks to block the Chinavirus, I would not want to buy some made in China.  A case of handsoap might be a better deal.

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-032: 21st Century Robber Barons

The concept of the robber baron is another case of the Progressives* taking a part of culture and warping it to remove its meaning and drag down Western culture.  They have done such a good job that if you look for a definition it skips the original medieval source of the word and ignores modern examples.  Welcome to Progressive* education.

The real robber barons were men who had strongholds in key locations on trade routes.  They would force merchants going through to fork over large sums in order to pass.  The fees were not fair in any sense.  They were robbing the traders to line their own coffers.  This made them rich, put a damper on trade and increased the price of goods.  They gave nothing.  They only took.

Move forward to the industrial age in America.  There were a group of men who developed industries and became very wealthy doing so.  Think of Carnegie in steel, Rockefeller in oil or Vanderbuilts in shipping.  The myth here is that these men got rich by robbing the working class.  In reality they became wealthy while lowering the cost of the products they produced while they provided jobs for millions of workers.  They understood that if the workers could make enough to buy the products they were producing then everyone benefitted. 

The list could go on beyond that era in American history.  Edison and Bell brought us into the day of electricity and communication.  Ford made the automobile something that anyone could afford.  Sears brought the material goods of the city to the isolated farmer.  Sony opened the world of entertainment.  Bill Gates would qualify as a robber baron.  People like Jeff Bezos would also fit the bill.  The key is that these people brought prosperity to millions while they made millions.  It is called free enterprise.  They are definitely robber barons in the good sense of the word.

In the historic sense of the term the modern robber barons are the people who have lived in a thriving location like California, amassed a fortune from its blessings, done everything they can to turn it into a socialist paradise and when the fan starts to get clogged with the feces, move to a free state with their wealth.  They have joined the elite by amassing their wealth.  In many cases they have done little to benefit the common man.  They have done everything to destroy prosperity for those outside of their little circle.  Then, when the house of cards is ready to collapse they cash in their chips and run. 

California is on the verge of collapse.  Virginia is starting down that road.  Colorado is testing the waters.  The modern robber barons have their sites set on Texas and Florida.  They want a return of feudalism with them in the castles.  We live in interesting times.

*(Liberals, educators, socialists, communists, elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, etc)

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-021: Yes, in My Back Yard

My wife tells me that we got a slight increase in our Social Security but that the increase in cost for the prescription plan D leveled the field again.  She then expressed hopes that Trump would be able to do something about it.

I am not sure that I want him to “do something about it”.  Usually what we mean when we want a political leader to “do something about it” is to give us free stuff.  We are all happy to talk about reforming Medicare and getting a handle on the federal deficit.  Conservatives are quick to mock the Democrats campaigning for president about their offers of free stuff.  We are not so happy when we are faced with being part of the solution.  We would prefer to be part of the problem.

Some of the solutions could be achieved if we just had honest government.  Yes, I know.  Oxymoron.  Social Security is not in trouble because it is a bad idea.  It is in trouble because it became a political foot ball and sugar daddy.  Politicians have been raiding social security to balance the budget and pay for their dream programs ever since it started.  They have been adding people to the payout that never paid in.  They have expanded coverage in totally irresponsible ways.  As a result they talk about it becoming insolvent at some date in the future.  The solution is easy.  Pay back what the Feds borrowed with honest interest.  Cut off people who never made a fair contribution.  Invest funds that come in.  Things would get workable fast.

Medicare is a bit of a different animal.  We need to look at it as insurance not as a bribe to seniors.  We also need to get over the idea that Cadillac health care is a right.  Like anything else in life, health care costs money.  Doctors, nurses and lab techs don’t volunteer their time after they get off their day job at McDonald’s.  Someone needs to pay.  We seniors want someone else to do the paying.  I remember when my mother went through expensive cancer treatment with a lot of medications.  I asked the pharmacist how she was able to afford all the cutting edge drugs.  He said she had bought the supplemental coverage.  In other words, she paid for it.  And she did it on very limited income.  Of course she did not take cruises or buy fancy jewelry.  She lived frugally, but she lived well enough to have the family over for holidays and still have everything she needed. 

For us Medicare has worked well so far.  We may hit a wall someday but when we set up our coverage my wife paid for what she wanted.  I think we pay more.  We do that so we get more.  It is called insurance, not welfare.  Will costs go up?  Probably.  That will be double true if we continue to give people what they have not been willing to pay for.

We can have a basic safety net.  I would say that anything that can be provided at your average urgent care is within the realm of a right.  We are a wealthy country and we can afford to take care of people with general illnesses.  What would not be a right would be things like I have, a pacemaker or the expensive blood thinning drug I am taking.  I could get an old fashioned blood thinner for a lot less but it would be less convenient.  You should not have to pay for my convenience.

In time, once the stupidity is worked out of the system, we might be able to expand the basic services.  Will people suffer?  I am sure they will but society cannot make up for people who have made repeated bad decisions. 

We all agree that something must be done.  Each of us needs to accept our share of the doing.

homo unius libri

Opus 2019-017: Progressive Barbarians vs Us Common Folk

Modern technology and free enterprise economics have changed the way we look at wealth.  It is no longer a zero sum game although a lot of progressives act like it. 

Before the industrial age wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few.  The masses lived hand to mouth and day to day.  All but a few were farmers and a bad storm could wipe out a years work.  Land belonged to the nobility and the church.  The only way to accumulate wealth was to deprive someone else through coercion, theft, or looting in war.  We get a picture of this in Joshua 22:8

(Jos 22:8 KJV) And he spake unto them, saying, Return with much riches unto your tents, and with very much cattle, with silver, and with gold, and with brass, and with iron, and with very much raiment: divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren.

This was to soldiers coming back from attacking and looting a city.

Riches was not defined by what they have created but by what they have taken from others.  The only way to get wealth seems to have been looting and pillaging. 

Then came the industrial revolution.  Now, with machines and sources of power, one person could make large numbers of items.  Production soared along with productivity.  Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations gives and example in making pins.  He said that it would be considered a major accomplishment for a lone worker without all the machines to make one pin in a day.  With machines and the division of labor a crew of 10 could make 48,000 in a day.  Imagine how that reduced the cost of such a simple thing as a pin and improved the life of everyone. (page 2)

Wealth today is not just a case of moving gold coins around from bank to bank.  New wealth and value can be generated by reducing the cost of making the same item and because of the reduced cost, selling many more to the public.  Of course this assumes that the public has jobs that pay enough to buy the items.  There is no end to the level of prosperity the world can know.

Another reason that prosperity is more wide spread is the innovation of the entrepreneur.  Automobiles were at one point only for the rich.  Competition drove Henry Ford to come up with the assembly line and the car became available to almost everyone.  We have seen the same thing in computers and telephones.  Wood was replaced by coal.  Coal was replaced by oil products.  Electricity became a common resource.  Nuclear energy is now available.  Perhaps we will see engines run by hydrogen and solar power may become economically feasible.  Every step generates more wealth and the cycle will keep going on.

So don’t get too upset by the economists who are living in the days of barbarian looting.  Most of the well-known ones are socialists at heart and live off the productivity of others.  If they had their way we would be back to feudalism, with them as the nobility, of course.  In reality, there is enough to go around and more coming.  All we need to do is free enterprise and the ability to pursue our dreams.

Smith, Adam.  The Wealth of Nations.  Norwalk, Connecticut:  The Easton Press, nd.

homo unius libri

Opus 2019-015: Pick Your Future, part 3 of 3, Beyond the Dream

Dreams are wonderful.  In my dreams I am God’s Golden Boy.  I am a world saver.  I am awesome.  Not so much when I wake up.

How do the dreams of the Progressives and free enterprise buffs look in real life?  Nowhere near the ideal of either group but if you could travel back in time you could see the difference in real life in a place called Berlin.  At the end of World War II Germany and Berlin were both divvied up into four sections to the four major victors.  The western quarters merged and the Soviet quarter started putting up barbed wire to keep people in.  Berlin, the capital, was located in the middle of the Soviet quarter.  Before the Berlin wall fell the three sections in the west of the city were a reflection of the free market of the West.  The one quarter in the east was a good example of life under socialism.  It was possible for Western tourists to travel from one to the other.  The west was vibrant, colorful and bustling.  The east was dull and dreary.  This is literally true.  It was like someone turned off the zest of life when you crossed the border.  For those too young to have seen this difference between Communism and free enterprise, watch the opening moments of The Wizard of Oz.  Do you remember the first time you saw Dorothy move from black and white to technicolor?  That is what it is like going from one reality to the other.

One of the events that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall was a simple visit to an American grocery store by Boris Yeltsin in 1989.  You can read about it at The Federalist if you want.  He could not believe the simple daily reality of an American grocery store.  It is something that we take for granted but much of the world would think they had gone to Oz.

Socialism has a long list of poster children.  The most current example of the socialist dream is Venezuela.  A few years ago it was the wealthiest country in South America and then the socialists took the wheel and began to drive the country into the ground.  Grocery stores are empty.  Electricity is often not available.  Life is miserable.  It is socialism in action.

The closest to the free enterprise reality would be what we call the West.  All the necessities of life are freely available.  All the comforts are available.  Of course much of that is available in the Socialists paradises too but only to the elites who run the country.  In free enterprise they are available to just about everyone. 

What is your dream?  If it only involves you then dream all you want and enjoy your sleep.  If it involves forcing your dreams on everyone else then you need to wake up before someone else builds the wall you will run into.

homo unius libri

Opus 2019-014: Pick Your Future, part 2 of 3, The Dreams

What is the dream of each group?

The Progressives dream of a world of perfection.  They see everyone being equal and having their needs met.  Everyone has a job at a good wage.  Everyone has a nice home.  Everyone has great health care.  Everyone goes to college.  Everyone..., well you get the idea.  They actually believe this is possible.  What they don’t share with you is that there is another group outside of “everyone”.  Those are the wise ones who put this all together.  They tell you what a good wage is.  They set the cost of the foods you eat and tell you how much is enough.  If you step out of line they come down on you like a ton of bricks.  They assure you it is for your own good.  They also assure you that they deserve to live in those bigger and nicer houses up on the hill with the gates around them and the security guards.  They deserve chauffeured limousines while you ride the bus.  They deserve Kobe steak when you only get turkey bacon and beef flavored tofu.  From their point of view it is a perfect world.  You are incapable of knowing what is best for you.

The free enterprise dream is a world of opportunity and liberty.  Everyone is free to go as far in life as their natural ability and willingness to work will take them.  There will be a group at the bottom economically but they will have opportunity if they want to pursue it.  There will be a generous portion at the top enjoying all of the things money can buy.  In the middle will be the overwhelmingly largest group.  This middle group will be secure and prosperous.  The only hurdles will be the limits on their willingness to work and be good stewards of the rewards of work.  They believe they have a chance to make it into the top group and many do.

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2019-013: Pick Your Future, part 1 of 3 The Dreamers

What kind of future do people dream about when they are lost in their fantasies?  Keep in mind that reality is never totally like dreams but it gives an indication of what people want.  I am going to look at the future fantasies of the Progressives as opposed to those who believe in free enterprise.

Progressives include a lot of people who have never used the term.  It includes the socialist elites.  This would be made up of all the people in the media, education and government who feel they are so superior that they deserve to make decisions for everyone else.  They want government control of everything.  For that reason it includes most of the professional politicians of both parties.  This would also include many business people who should be free enterprise capitalists but are really into crony capitalism.  Crony capitalism is demonstrated by the rich businessmen being in bed with the government and using government regulations to keep the smaller business from succeeding.  This would also include the rioters calling themselves Antifa. 

Those who believe in free enterprise want a minimum of government interference.  They feel they are grown ups and can make their own decisions.  They are willing to take risks and accept the rewards or the cost of failure.  They don’t believe that a government appointee can make any kind of plan that will work in the real world.

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-284: Want to Be an Omelet?

You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.  That is obviously true but like many sayings you can push it too far.  Would you make an omelet from fertilized eggs that are days away from the chicks breaking out?  Also keep in mind that you can’t do much of anything with eggs if you don’t break them.  I guess you could boil them, but then what?  People are not eggs.

Socialists down through history have broken a lot of eggs.  The leftists who are in it for power alone don’t care about the pain as long as they win.  The true believers think that the end justifies the means and that some day we will thank them for the destruction they are causing now.  Today’s Progressive leaders, be they labeled Republican or Democrat, only care about their omelet but talk about the eggs a lot.  One bit of cognitive dissonance that has been pointed out is claiming that they are for the children but at the same time advocating killing unborn children with abortions.  Historically socialists have butchered untold millions of people in the name of the people.

Capitalists break eggs too but they generally pay for the eggs so they only break what is necessary.  They realize that eggs are not people.  A genuine capitalist realizes that it won’t do him any good to make fancy computers if no one an afford to buy them.  A genuine capitalist knows that he can make more money if workers are paid enough to live well.  A capitalist knows the difference between fertile eggs that produce more chickens and the ones that have no use if not broken.  Capitalists make omelets that are big enough to share so that no one goes hungry.

All societies have elites.  Someone will be on top.  Socialists by their nature are elites that must use force to stay in control.  Capitalists are elites who stay on top by risking their own wealth and reaping the results.  They don’t use the police to force people to buy their products.  The modern perversion is called crony capitalism which uses government force in the form of regulations to do away with competition. 

Which direction do you want the country to go?  Remember that in socialism only a small controlling minority will enjoy the fruits of society’s labor.  In capitalism there is a massive majority that live well in addition to the very rich.  Think about it next time you are tempted to vote for someone who promises to reward you with government largess.

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-255: New Terms: USM and OMQ

I continue to see the “Just Do It” meme based on the Oppressed Millionaire Quarterback OMQ with bad knees.  I am wondering if the Unnamed Shoe Maker (USM) is like Liberace, “laughing all the way to the bank.”  Someone once commented that there was no bad publicity except no publicity.  As long as people who are angry at the USM for what they did and continue to make fun of them, they get free publicity. 

This is a page out of the Trump play book.  Remember all the free publicity he got because the media kept mocking him.  My guess is that the USM is good with what is going on. 

Sure they are funny.  Yes, they are creative.  I do enjoy them.  I am just wondering....

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-324: Football and Pork Belly

First a bit of disclaimer.  I am not an interested party.  I can’t remember the last time I ever watched an NFL game.  I find that as I get older and my time of playing football gets further away, I have lost interest.  I can remember how New Years Day was a line up of football.  Now I don’t even know who is playing.  The same goes for baseball.

I can’t help but notice the headlines I keep seeing about the decease in interest in professional football.  The first time it came up was when the snowflake quarterback knelt during the national anthem.  I began reading comments of people saying they would not watch NFL games any more.  Since then we have had more and more rich, spoiled athletes protesting the terrible harm that America has done to them.  More people tune out. 

It is really cause and effect?  I don’t know.  I hope so.  It is the way a free market is supposed to work.  Professional sports offers a product.  It is not a needed commodity like corn or gasoline.  It is not pork belly or soybeans.  It is part of the luxury market.  They need to attract customers.  That is why the forward pass was made legal.  It is why they have those silly cheerleaders.  You have instant replay and all kinds of innovations.  It was to expand the viewer base.  People are free to tune in or tune out.

They seem to be tuning out.  Should players be free to sit during the national anthem.  Sure.  Should I be able to take a nap during Monday Night Football?  (Is there still Monday Night Football?)  Of course.  Could I read a book instead?  Or I might even go to the closet, pull out my old football and go out to throw it around.

So keep protesting, snowflakes.  Protest the system that has made you rich, famous and pampered.  It may raise the intellectual level of the nation and improve my health.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-170: The First Amendment Applies to Left Wing Fools Too

We were all offended by the “humor” showing a decapitated president.  Rightly so.  It was offensive.

At the same time, it was her expressing her political opinion and is thus covered by the First Amendment.  The thing the left has forgotten is that freedom of speech is a right because it covers things that we find offensive.  We on the right cannot afford to forget.

It is also a chance for the free market to do its job.  We keep hearing the whining about how the president is bullying her.  Not really.  What is working to whip her into shape is capitalism.  She is not being cancelled because the venues disagree with her.  I imagine that before they stopped to think, the left wing thought the picture was a great expression of their desires.  She is being cancelled because the average Americans who pay money to attend events would refuse to let the cash flow to support such a sick mind. 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  By the time it is finished this picture will be worth a million dollars, or more.

Allowing her to display her true colors is a way of supporting our liberty.  Allowing her to crash and burn is also a way of supporting out liberty.  I just wish I could be there when she applies for her first EBT card.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-039: Headlines: Social Free Enterprise

I keep reading about how everyday Americans are sick and tired of the media lies and bias.  I like hearing that because that is the way I feel but feeling doesn’t make it go away.  If so many people are turned off then why aren’t they turning them off.  How is it that these people have any advertising revenue at all.  Why do people watch their programs?  Why do people buy their publications?  How can they stay on the air and in print if the masses don’t like them.

Could it be that the people complaining are too lazy to cancel subscriptions, turn off their TVs or write a letter?  If all the people complaining would actually put their money where their mouths are then the major media outlets would be forced to shut down.  Can you still get news?  Yes, but you have to work for it.  You need to make sure that you check facts, leave your brain turned on and ask yourself, “What is their bias?”  You need to make sure that you don’t click any links that can generate ad revenue.  You need to find other sights that are more concerned with truth.

We can change America the old fashioned way, by free enterprise.  Movie stars live in million dollar homes because we go to their movies.  Read a book.  Make sure it is one you got at the library if the author is part of the left.

The future waits on your purchases.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-332: Keep Dreaming

One of the principles that capitalists like Henry Ford understood was that if your employees can’t afford your product then your market is very limited.  Increased sales means more profit.  He figured out that if you sold one Cadillac and made $500 it was less than if you sold 1,000 Model T’s and made $1.00 apiece.  Find the balance of paying as well as you can, selling as low as you can and making money on volume.  That is capitalism at work.

We need to apply that to the third world.  Much is being made about Carrier and Trump.  I take it all with a grain of salt but there is an opportunity we need to take.  We need to find ways to raise the economic level of the average Mexican so that they can buy American made air conditioners.

One side of that is raising their income.  That will never happen without political reform in Mexico.  I was talking to a man from Mexico and all he could talk about was the corruption of the government and how rich the politicians were.  There must be a peaceful way we can encourage liberty and free markets in that country.

A second side is to lower the cost of A/C so that everyone can afford it.  We need a Henry Ford of air conditioning.  Why have we lost the ability of dream big.  It used to be the American way.  Now the American way seems to be snowflakes in the street having social tantrums.

A third leg is cheap energy.  That could be atomic.  It could be hydrogen.  It could be something we haven’t thought of yet.

The future has so much potential if we would get rid of the Progressive mind state that tells us we need the government to take care of us and the EPA to keep us safe from ourselves.

Keep dreaming.

homo unius libri