The only thing people care about is themselves and today. Let the future deal with our inability to be leaders.

Then Congress said, “How does the watchman do his job without instruction?” So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.

Then Congress said, “How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?” So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people. One to do the studies and one to write the reports.

Then Congress said, “How are these people going to get paid?” So They created two positions: a time keeper and a payroll officer, then hired two people.

Then Congress said, “Who will be accountable for all of these people?” So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.

Then Congress said, “We have had this program in place for one year and we are $918,000 over budget, we must cut back.” So they laid off the night watchman.

NOW slowly, let it sink in.

Case Study #2

Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY….. during the Carter Administration?

Anybody?

Anything?

No?

Didn’t think so!

Bottom line. We’ve spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency…the reason for which the vast majority of the people who read this cannot remember!

Ready?? It was very simple…and at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate and important.

The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977 in the middle of a severe oil shortage and much hyped energy crisis, TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.

How has this worked out?

It’s now 2010, 33 years later, and the budget for this ‘necessary’ department is at $24.2 billion a year!

It employs 16,000 federal workers and approximately 100,000 independent contract employees – how well is it working???

33 years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports. Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports. What incredible progress we’ve made!

Now, we’ve decided to turn the banking system, health care and the auto industry over to the same government.

Good luck!

For seventy-five years, the rule has been that in order for any class of workers (e.g., pilots) employed by an airline or railroad to unionize, a majority of all employees in that class have to vote for unionization. But the proposed new rule would require only that a majority of employees who actually vote on the question of unionization would be needed to unionize.

All Democrats love unions; Republican progressives love unions; and even many conservatives believe that a worker should be allowed to join a union voluntarily, so long as those who do not want to join the union are not forced to do so.

Which probably makes me a minority of one. Why? Because not only do I believe that workers do not have a right to unionize a company through tyranny of the majority, I don’t believe that any worker has a right to join a union without the consent of his employer.

It is a basic tenet of libertarian-centered conservatism that without property rights, no other rights are possible. Unfortunately, most people do not understand this fundamental concept. They view property only as inanimate matter, separate and apart from a person’s life. They cannot seem to make the connection between the two.

In actual fact, they are so connected that one is virtually an extension of the other. How can one separate a person’s life from his property? If you took everything that an individual owned, the fact is that he would not own his own life, because whenever he attempted to create something for his personal gain, the fruits of his labor could again be confiscated.

The same is true of purchasing property. The money used to make a purchase presumably was earned through the purchaser’s efforts. That makes the money an extension of his life, and, therefore, the same would be true of anything purchased with that money. No matter what the circumstances, when a person’s property rights are violated, his freedom is violated.

A libertarian-centered conservative (i.e., a true conservative) believes that no one has a right to any other person’s property, which includes both his body and everything he owns. Once this concept is understood, it would be proper to say that, in reality, all crime is based on trespassing on the property of an owner.

When people make “

passed by a Congress who hasn’t read it but exempts themselves from it,

to be signed by a president who also hasn’t read it and who smokes,

with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese

and financed by a country that’s broke.

What could possibly go wrong

It never got me anointed poet laureate, but it did get a lot of laughs at the conference. Enjoy.

Twas the early 1980s,
And all through the land,
Everyone panicked
And sold his last Krugerrand.

Clearly unstoppable
Were the deflationist forces,
As the big banks collapsed,
Like Paul Samuelson’s courses.

As inflation tumbled
Almost to zero,
Reagan sat back
And fiddled like Nero.

His buddy Reagan said,
Deficits don’t matter.
We’ll keep borrowing money
And get even fatter.

The masses cheered
At the endless prosperity;
There was no end
To Big Brother’s charity.

Many of us yelled,
Enough is enough.
You’re totally wrong,
This is not the right stuff.

But the masses jeered

And called us doomsayers;
They said,  Keep the faith,
Just say your prayers.

Can’t you see
It’s under control?
Inflation’s dead.
We read the poll.

Even John Kenneth Galbraith
Turned up his nose,
But you can’t trust a guy
Who wears pantyhose.

Then a funny thing happened
On the way to deflation:
Someone yelled,
Inflation! Inflation!

The money supply
Is out of control.
To the Federal Reserve,
We’ve sold our soul.

All the politicians
Had tons of advice,
But they sounded a lot
Like a bunch of blind mice.

Down with the rich,
Shouted Gary Hart.
It was quickly apparent
He wasn’t too smart.

John Glenn stepped forth
Like a liberal buffoon,
But he’d have done better
Had he stayed on the moon.

Then Jesse Jackson
Acted with pomp,
But he was just a guy on
Unemployment comp.

Geraldine Ferraro
Said she could do it,
But she was a joke,
And everyone knew it.

President Reagan,
Now he was no sap.
He said, “Leave me alone
Till I finish my nap.

But when Reagan awoke,
He called in his men,
Whose combined IQs
Totaled just over ten.

Now Reagan was nimble,
And Reagan was quick.
He never was fooled

By a Bolshevik.Men,” said the president,
“The country’s worth saving.
Let’s put in a call to
Volcker Printing and Engraving.

Volcker came to the phone
And sounded distressed,
But on hearing the plan,
He pounded his chest.

This is a great way
For me to get high.
For the job you need,
You’ve called the right guy.

A tightening of credit
Is what I’ll hint,
While I’m telling my boys
To PRINT, PRINT, PRINT!

Out of everyone’s pockets,
Dollars came pouring,
And before you knew it
Prices were soaring.

Eight dollars or more
For a jar of jam,
And ten or twelve dollars
For green eggs and ham.

The deflationists shouted,
“How can this be?
We had it all figured,
From A to Z.

The masses soon realized
That it was too late.
There was no way out
Of their terrible fate.

And from that point on,
As everyone knows,
Morals were out,
It was anything goes.

People hoarded hard assets
And hid them away,
And in their panic,
You’d hear them say:

They’ll come for our gold,
Those government wimps,
Instead of cracking down
On rapists and pimps.

All of Reagan’s women
And all of his men
Couldn’t put the economy
Together again.

But the story, alas,
Has a happy ending,
And that’s the message
That I’m sending.

To the delight of the wise,
When inflation was done,
Those in the know
Had made a ton.

The moral?
It’s really not hard to see:
Paper money’s
As fake as can be.

And so it finally
Came to pass
That men used the dollar
To wipe their gold coins.

I wonder how this will read in the year 2032? Stay alive! and stay tuned.

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Copyright C 2009 Robert J. Ringer

Robert Ringer is the author of three #1 bestselling books, two of which have been named by The New York Times among the 15 biggest-selling motivational books of all time. You can sign up for a free subscription to his e-letter – A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World – by visiting www.robertringer.com.

Also check out the Liberty Education Interview Series at A Voice of Sanity podcast.

But what if businesses don

In fact, had B.O. appointed him Secretary of the Treasury, I think he would have added some much needed panache to the otherwise drab Obamastration. I challenge you to name anyone who has a better nose for money than Blago. He’s forgotten more about it than Ben Bernanke will ever know.

But, alas, it was not to be. Blago is far too busy talking to Geraldo and the Obama Bitches on The View. So, I guess it’s up to us common folks – the ones who are, in effect, coming up with the money to bail out Wall Street and the big banks – to figure out what Obama’s up to with his “stimulus package.”

And a good place to begin is with economics. Economics is defined by one dictionary as “the science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth (goods and services).” Simple translation: Economics is the study of how people get the things they want.

By “the things they want,” I am referring to material things. Economics does not deal with love, religion, ethics, philosophy, or emotional issues. These and many other “things” may be important to most people, but they simply have no place in the science of economics.

What economists call “wealth” is food, clothing, TV sets, automobiles, and other products that people desire. Money itself is not wealth. Money is just a medium of exchange. To a businessman, wealth also may consist of factories and equipment, things that can be used to produce products and services that consumers want.

What stimulates real economic growth – i.e., the production of wealth – is action on the part of individuals trying to improve their own well being by obtaining what they desire on a voluntary-exchange basis. It is unfortunate that this bothers some people so much that they attempt to interfere with this natural process. What is even more unfortunate is that many of them are economists who are advocates of the strong arm of government as the most effective way to do it.

When such interference occurs, one of the basic laws of economics – the law of supply and demand – is violated. It is this law that establishes a logical and honest relationship among prices, wages, and costs. If, for example, prices go up, that causes demand to drop … which, in turn, causes employees to be laid off … which, in turn, causes wages to go down … which, in turn, causes fewer goods to be produced.

On the other hand, if natural conditions create an excess supply of goods in the marketplace, those goods will then be offered at a lower price. That, in turn, increases demand … which, in turn, pushes prices back up … which, in turn, attracts more entrepreneurs to that particular industry … which, in turn, leads to higher wages and more employees … and on and on the cycle goes. Unless, of course, government intervenes to stop the natural flow of the market – which is what it is doing as I write this, and what it is promising to do even more in the future.

What is good about the creation of an excess supply of goods in the marketplace is that it leads to an increase in plants and equipment, which, in turn, leads to the creation of both new jobs and new products. The sale of these products to consumers leads, hopefully, to profits – and a large percentage of those profits are then reinvested in still more plants and equipment or in research and development. Thus, economic growth continues and the well being of those who are willing to work is improved.

But what if profits are not reinvested? Good question, and one that I will address in Part II of this article.

—————————————

Copyright C 2009 Robert J. Ringer

Robert Ringer is the author of three #1 bestselling books, two of which have been named by The New York Times among the 15 biggest-selling motivational books of all time. You can sign up for a free subscription to his e-letter – A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World – by visiting www.robertringer.com.

Also check out the Liberty Education Interview Series at A Voice of Sanity podcast.

Stan makes it all the way to the Treasury only to find that the rules for getting a bailout from America is less than orthodox – or even close to logical…

Instead, we should have given $85,000,000,000 to America in a ‘We Deserve It’ Dividend.

To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18 and over. Our current population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child so 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a ‘We Deserve It’ dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free – so let’s assume a tax rate of 30%.

Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes. That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

But…

It means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket. A husband and wife has $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?

Pay off your mortgage? – housing crisis solved.
Repay college loans? – what a great boost to new grads
Put away money for college? – it’ll be there
Save in a bank? – create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car? – create jobs
Invest in the market? – capital drives growth
Pay for your parent’s medical insurance? – health care improves
Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean? – or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!

As for AIG – liquidate it and sell off it’s parts. Let American General go back to being American General. Sell off the real estate and let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here’s the rationale – we deserved it and AIG didn’t.

Could you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party? The incredible Economic Boom? I guarantee you myself and my fellow adult Americans would have made better use of the $85 Billion.

And remember, the ‘We Deserve It’ dividend would have only really cost

And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because
$25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Alas, once again logic did not prevail…

Speaking of success, let’s recap a bit. Here’s an interview with Senator Ron Paul from August – before the monster bailout passed.

A good analysis if whether someone seems to be a person of wisdom is to look at some of their former predictions and see if what they were talking about actually came to pass. All the gurus (and even our president) were warning that if we did not pass the bailout package, our investments and 401K plans would be in jeapardy. Ron Paul and other voices of reason were trying to explain that propping up a failed system would not only not fix the problem but would actually make it worse and prolong the pain.

So, let’s look at what actually has happened to date. On 9/19/08 – the Friday close before the date of this video the DJI average ended at 11,388.44. At the close of day today, 11/20/08 – a mere 2 months later the Dow closed at 7552.29. I’m certainly glad that they took immediate and drastic action to protect our 401k, investment and retirement accounts.

Which brings us to going with what’s working. Since the bank bailout worked so well, congress is now considering a bailout request from the big three US automakers. So, this week the CEO’s of all three companies traveled to DC to plead their case. The only problem is that they are so incredibly out of touch with the real world and have such a sense of entitlement that they thought nothing of coming to the soup kitchen for a handout in their ‘Rolls Royce’. That’s in a figurative sense of course – what they actually did was fly in on 3 separate private jets.

They really need to let these companies die in their own stupidity. It’s the price you pay for years of mismanagement and inefficiency. They’ve been pushing overpriced vehicles on us for years, using cash incentives to make us consider purchasing new vehicles before we actually need them. Don’t ask us to now reward your corporate greed and entitlement mentality.