Three-penny Op-ed: Democracy and Economics (17 Apr. 2021, The Economist)
Recently, I wrote about Queen Victoria, based on dramatization of her life. At one point in her early years of ruling during the 19th Century, Queen Victoria addressed protestors who were part of mobs attacking the palace where she lived. The scene depicted incendiary weapon of the time which was hurled through the windows of the palace. Those devices made one think of the “Molotov cocktails,” used in the 20th Century and derived the name from Vyacheslav Molotov. The name comes from a time period in which comes after the reign of Queen Victoria. When used in London during the queen’s reign, it approximates to the time of the residency of Karl Marx in London. Due to the time period, I come under criticism for using the words, Molotov Cocktail when they did not exist. People dwell too much on use of words and not on the fact that the name used in my writing referenced a weapon which was generic and could help understand what was actually used by the protestors.
Wording is so important when it comes to the false ideas passed down to our day from the likes of Karl Marx and Adam Smith of Scotland. Marx falsely claimed capitalism was “the problem” in the same way Reagan claimed “government is the problem.” People, particularly the lovers of Fox News, just grab at what was said and don’t give a damn about those of us who speak out about the false ideas which permeate the “herd” mentality from a Nazi propaganda machine like Fox News and other extreme right-wing news outlets.
Marx was wrong in blaming capitalism as a problem because capitalism was like a “new kid on the block” and barely understandable to others. The aristocracy grabbed at the ideas of Adam Smith with gratitude and simply twisted the ideas of capitalism to suit their ideas of aristocratic supply-side economics which disdains the demand side of the market. What would have happened if Marx had actually identified what the true problem was? What would have happened if the media of the day had revealed Adam Smith’s turnaround AGAINST the ideas of “free markets” because he felt humans did not have a natural human ethics and morality (The Theory of Moral Sentiments), so therefore there needs to be a “referee” with a third-party group regulating supply AND demand for the purposes of checks and balances in economics. (Also see Economics professor, Dr. Jonathan Wight’s book, Saving Adam Smith). After all, Adam Smith was a contemporary of the American Deists and Forefathers who saw a lack of chaos in the universe due to a Creator who worked with checks and balances, so they devised a political system and U.S. Constitution with checks and balances. Interesting to note that too many Americans grasp at Marx’s theory that “religion is the opioid of the masses” rather than what Jesus Christ said which applies to Adam Smith’s ideas about “moral sentiment.” Why? I ask. What if we changed this false notion? Shameful that human beings claim to follow Jesus Christ (as Smith was a Christian theologian, too), but really don’t grasp his notions.
Smith promoted the idea that ultimately, “free markets” end up giving us monopolies, regulation of an economy by autocratic big corporations (“deregulation,” as Reagan proclaimed) to their self-serving interests which destroy competition and small business. This is similar to what happened in Ancient China when the small business Mandarin class was destroyed and China imploded on itself (see Zakaria).
In stating, “business and politics are growing closer in America, with worrying consequences,” there is agreement with what is proposed in the text above. The fact that American business in the late 19th Century created a rich commerce for America makes quite a bit of sense. However, with J.P. Morgan and others in the 20th Century, America began to steer away from such a pathway. Teddy Roosevelt, the “trust buster,” worked to regulate the huge corporations. This continued after World War II, even as corporations became larger. International Business Machines (IBM) was created by Thomas J. Watson. However, he and the other executives at NCR where he originally was employed, worked to destroy competition and the government came down hard on them. In the process, Watson became a benevolent autocratic CEO at IBM and the company flourished. But once benevolent ones depart this life, they are often replaced with barbaric, ruthless, and vicious dictators. It is seen that IBM was later headed by such vicious men and this became the norm in America, as we watched as CEOs increased their salaries and bonuses so astronomically that it has been a 1000% rise since the 1970s. Ayn Rand and others promoted, with Reagan, supply-side economics and deregulation. Teams of lawyers in big corporations and the proliferation of so many lawyers in the American economy (creating jobs for themselves as ambulance-chasing vicious ones who attack one against the other in a destructive and greedy manner) meant corporations could better protect themselves than the small little business person. As with what happened to the Ancient Chinese Mandarin small business class, these people were put out of business. Fast food magnate like ruthless and vicious Ray Kroc hired people to scout areas with small mom and pop diners and place McDonald’s near those areas, for the purpose of destroying the competition, with the same regard as Republicans under Trump destroy and destroy and destroy, beginning with the ACA which has a goal of extending competition in health insurance in order to help lower the prices which are ripoffs and nickel and diming the demand-side of the capitalist market.
Rick Scott in the U.S. Senate is responsible for the Hospital Corporation of America which is a huge corporate conglomerate begun during the Reagan years with the purpose to destroy the “competition” of public health facilities. The loss of such public facilities really hurt the American people during this pandemic. People like Rick Scott, Jeb Bush, Ron DeSantis and Trump Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, had designs on creating big corporation in America which could be called “Education Corporation of America.”
Jeb Bush and other Republicans like him also privatized the prison system of Florida. The net result has been, to make a profit, by putting more people in jails (concentration camps?). Most of those people are black people who then are removed from the voting rolls. In a recent referendum in Florida, the voters of Florida voted to stop that type of treatment of those who served their time in jails by getting them back on the voting rolls. This applied to non-felony criminals or minor criminal activities, particularly possession of marijuana or cocaine, etc. This push to get black people in jails from these minor offenses is reminiscent of what was portrayed which happened to Billie Holiday when latent homosexual, J. Edgar Hoover, headed the FBI. (See the movie, The United States v. Billie Holiday).
It was very eloquently stated in The April 17 Economist article: “we also believe that concentrations of power are dangerous. Business people will always lobby for their own advantage, but the closer they get to the government, the more harm they threaten to both the economy and politics.” However, to frame this issue as “classic liberals” really puts this too much on the political spectrum, when I know many conservatives who support this ideal, too. As Dr. Howard Dean, one-time candidate for president of the USA, said, “we need to frame the issues to make them more acceptable to more people.” Putting in the word, liberal, sad to say in today’s world, gives ammunition to the fat cats of America who follow fascist Trump and push their own agenda with lies and the re-telling of lies. It is bad enough that they have ammunition with guns and the NRA, let alone words used as ammunition.
Speaking of Dr. Dean. He comes from a state which puts restrictions on big box corporate retailers, not allowing them to build in low density areas where they can become more monopolized by destroying the small business competition. Current U.S. Senator, Bernie Sanders, is from the same state and should nix what Rick Scott of Florida says in his fascist white racist business-loving, greedy, selfish way.
George W. Bush may have had SOME good ideas (i.e., use of switch grass as a renewable energy source). But the worst thing he said, as applied to this article in the Economist about the “political CEO,” “what’s good for business is good for America.” I am glad to read this article which does a good job at shooting holes in this asinine statement made by a former president.
The examples of successful challenges to the pandemic were in nations which were democracies which worked together in good alliances with business and health systems to defeat the “war” of the pandemic.
In the late 19th Century, one could have said, “what’s good for government is good for business.” Ronald Reagan, in his stupidity, destroyed that notion and we are being forced to live by such destruction. It needs to change and we need to rid our economic system of the words of individualist, selfish, greedy, lovers of money and materialism. We need to work on the same principles of checks and balances which our Forefathers used in setting up our political system.
There is evidence that Adam Smith recognized the same thing for our economic system, but the autocratic aristocrats in the monarchies of his day proclaimed they had a “divine right to rule” and grabbed and used Smith’s ideas to their own advantage. They twisted Smith’s ideas in order to keep the status quo of the system they controlled, while playing lip service to the Smith ideas about “capitalism.”
The result was that Karl Marx gave capitalism a bum rap rather than acknowledging how the system of supply-side economics was the problem. In essence, Lenin and Stalin set up the same type of centrally planned supply-side economic system in Russia. The Ancient Chinese did the same thing many years ago. These systems of supply-side economics failed. When will people recognize this?
Even General Douglas MacArthur, as Supreme Commander of Japan, following World War II, worked to destroy two things in Japan: (1) the communist party and (2) the aristocratic autocratic supply-side economic system which had existed for many years. This system made the Japanese so ruthless that they refused to abide by the international humane rules for POWs, often murdering American POWs and stuffing the genitalia down the throats of dead men (see Ken Burns documentary about World War II, The War).
If America does not wake up, learn and gain wisdom about these circumstances today, then the negative components is described in this article about the “political CEO” might happen.
Three-penny Op-ed: Scum of the Earth
To the person on the Broome County line on New York State Route 38B, for shame on you. Shameful scum of the earth. People tell me if I do a similar thing as what this person (or persons) does, I am stooping to a very low level of society.
What am I talking about?
Look along Route 38B and see for yourself. A nice looking house, not a mobile home, with what appears to be vehicles I could never afford and a banner hanging from the front of the house. What is on the banner? Words. “F**k Biden.”
At one time, I was so angry at Trump that I may have written those words about Trump. Here’s the thing. I thank God that I had fellow Christians who told me, saying such things is lowering yourself to the same low level as Trump and his followers. Indirectly, they told me I was a sinner for doing such a thing because it was handing hatred back at a person. That goes against what Jesus Christ demonstrated for human beings.
Perhaps this guy is an atheist, so preaching would be out of order. However, I have to say this. In the Bible book of Romans, there are words such as this: “the one who abstains passes judgment…” and that is wrong. In other words, it was talking about someone who felt that one should abstain in eating something or drinking alcohol or smoking or taking illegal drugs or prostituting oneself or promiscuous sex or abortion…. (etc., etc., etc.). All such people should not pass judgment on those who do NOT abstain. As a Christian, this, too, means a great deal to me when other Christians work to help me understand that it is wrong to say, “f**k Trump” because it goes against the ideas of, “what would Jesus do?” The answer? He prayed to God with, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He prayed this prayer as the filthy lousy wealthy lawyers and religious leaders of his day were passing judgment on Jesus.
As an educator, I also recognize that those who are not as informed and resort to such bizarre vulgar epitaphs hurled at people. People without the ability to identify TRUE problems, provide solutions besides hatred and gunning down one another, differentiate between evil and good on the basis of TRUE facts and evidence are those for whom need to learn. Educators, without the use of corporal punishment in the classroom, need to humble without humiliation, before LEARNING and WISDOM can take place. Lack of confidence in oneself leads to grasping at something indicating a CERTAINTY in ones life and ignoring an attempt to gain wisdom.
So, I sinned when I used the words, “F**k Trump.” Good and TRUE Christians help us to humble ourselves before GOD and LEARN, thus gain knowledge and wisdom. I got down in the same gutter where Trump lovers are, just to reply to the bad leadership, criminality (the way he treated his employees, tax evasion, and loan payoff evasion, and in general, the bad way he treated other human beings) of Trump and the disgust felt when noticing there were so many people who were unable to differentiate between the bad and the good. I actually am not sure I can see ANYTHING good in Trump and his followers, except egotistical narcissistic bigotry attitudes with selfishness and greed and love of money.
That person appears, on the surface, to have more finances than I have. But do I know this? No, I don’t. It is mere speculation. I just don’t understand those like this person, even as I try to find common ground with such imbeciles, as to why they moan and groan as if they are victims in this life of something which is called a Democrat, never proving WHY they are such “victims,” and never appreciating that the life they have is because of this great democracy we have had over many years which would include both Democrats and Republicans; both liberal and conservative. I hate to say this, but many of these people are dumb, stupid, arrogant, belligerent, snotty Baby Boomers. Maybe this person whom I speak about is not such a person. I would wager that my speculation about this is correct.
At least this person is not living in a mobile home where the Confederate battle flag is flying and the banner just has a middle finger pointing at anyone who walks or drives by the place. Once living in a mobile home myself and a friend teasing me about being “trailer trash,” I now have to laugh at that. But people don’t like me being stereotypical as I recognize that such people with their traitorous Confederate battle flag and a middle finger pointing at ALL Americans are “white trailer trash.” I guess, with this guy living in a nice home, together with the white supremacist I knew in Florida who lives in a very expensive nice home which I could never afford, helps me think that I am also wrong in just hurling out humorous words which a friend of mine shared about ME.
One thing is certain. In my attempts to find common ground with people like this imbecile on 38B, I have NEVER found common ground when it comes to coexistence between human beings, whether it’s the color of the skin, the star of David, Muslims, Hindus, sexual identity, or anything else. I have found some common ground. One such example was once living in a mobile home in Florida. Alas. My neighbors there all had different colors of skin, practiced different religions, and had different sexual identities. I could not say, “white trailer trash,” but I could be identified as simply being “trailer trash.”
I have heard that when there were the protests of the 1960s against the conflict in Vietnam that most of those protests were led by sons and daughters of wealthy Americans. They, too, lacked appreciation for what they had in life which many others did not have. In my mind, that conflict never should have been waged across the Pacific Ocean. But I did not protest it and worked for protecting American public education in various ways. I still work for protection of American public education, whether I am in opposition to Republican Jeb Bush of Florida or Andrew Cuomo of New York. I will always continue to defend public education, public broadcasting, and public health and hospitals (in opposition to a lousy U.S. senator from Florida named Rick Scott).
It takes peace away from my life as I face retribution from the cowards with the money who wish to force their LIBERAL changes to public education. I say liberal because they wish to abandon the CONSERVATIVE idea of public education which has made this nation great and have dreamed up a change – LIBERAL – to privatize it. These idiots fail to realize that, as with all human endeavors, there is human imperfection.
In this sense, we need to be, as Frank Sinatra once said, “having a good time” in fixing the problems here in our great IMPERFECT nation which Frank Sinatra called, “his home” (4th of July 1974, Madison Square Garden). Frank Sinatra became a Republican because he did not like how the Southern Democrats treated his black buddy, Sammy Davis, Jr. The descendants of those Democrats in the South are now Republicans and yield much power in the Republican Party. Too much power.
In contrast, Joe Biden selected the first African-American female to be his running mate. If this guy on 38B has a hatred for Joe Biden, it has to be that Biden abandoned his friendship with KKK member, Byrd, a now-deceased senator from West Virginia. After all, Joe Biden could not run in 2016 because of the death of his son, Bo Biden, who had worked closely with Kamala Harris. President Biden did not win due to fraud. If that is the case, then fraud also helped elect one-party Republican state legislatures (like one-party communist nations) in Georgia, Florida, and other Dixie states. President Biden and the Democrats have made attempts to reach across the aisle to Republicans but have found no compromising. One example is the stimulus package. The Democrats did re-think the idea of an across-the-board minimum wage, but as they worked to reduce the level of money they wanted, so as to obtain compromise, the Republicans refused to budge to compromise one single iota. The Republicans, in this manner, are acting like communists who expect no criticism and if you cannot vote the way they want, then you are too “partisan.” That is a crock from the Republicans. I am a Democrat-Republican who looks for rationality, reasonableness, and sensible American teamwork. I damn the existence of “blue” and “red.” The American flag has “red, white, blue and… yellow fringe” (words from “Don’t Put it Down” lyrics in the rock musical, Hair). America is great under one flag only and consists of stars and stripes, not stars and bars (with an emphasis on the red). Only Joe Biden has said he wants to do this. If anyone listened to him speak at the Democratic Party convention, they would have heard such words. Trump only spoke about his narcissistic egotistical self. Only Joe Biden has talked about helping to be cognizant of needs at the local level. That might be ambiguous, but one never heard Trump say anything like that, unless it means he wanted local states’ rights involving the power and control by white supremacists like the Proud Boys. So many of us at the local level are subjected to centralized power control by big corporations and their supply-side economics. I can repeat many such examples today – right now (i.e., Gannett closing its offices for local newspapers such as the Press & Sun-Bulletin with its “USA Today” network which smacks of Moscow Pravda under the communists. A centrally controlled propaganda machine, as Fox News is the same type of thing.
I can provide numerous other examples of customer service being centrally located in big corporations serving the Binghamton area and screwing the demand side of a capitalist market. I can explain and prove such actions are primarily due to cronies and friends of Trumpicans at the highest levels of these corporations who make this happen.
Meanwhile, we at the local levels can be damned like we are chopped liver. Government is NOT the problem. The ONLY person who has expressed any hope for change in this area is President Joe Biden, not Donald Trump. Shame on you if you have a belief like this and perhaps this is because you listen intently to Propaganda Fox News?
Government was NOT the problem when Republican Teddy Roosevelt, known as the “trust buster” and others helped put in place regulations which put Americans in legal problems should they work to deliberately destroy capitalist competition. Who uses the word, “destroy” today? How many times has Donald Trump used the word, “destroy?” He used it against the Republican Mitt Romney inspired healthcare system called Obamacare, yet wimpy Romney supports Trump and other Republicans in the U.S. Senate. It just happens that IBM founder, Thomas J. Watson, before starting IBM, worked for NCR where his duty was to DESTROY THE COMPETITION, like a bunch of vicious lousy gladiators from the Roman Empire who DESTROYED Christians. Watson and others were brought up on charges against the acts of destruction of competition. The government was regulating the capitalist economic system, opposed to the centrally planned supply side economic system which is similar to the running of central businesses in the communist Kremlin. Yes, Watson went on and established a very successful corporation.
Perhaps Watson at IBM still used what he learned at NCR to destroy competition with IBM? I won’t comment on that, but I do have evidence that IBM did such a thing and that eventually created a slothful corporation. Ultimately, after destroying many businesses and lives, like gladiators in Rome, the company imploded from within itself. Today we have no IBM in the village where it was created because it moved to the white supremacist South and sent its manufacturing facilities overseas. Fighting the destruction of capitalist competition was NOT the government. The problem has been with snotty ruthless business people who get graded as being successful by the wrong assessment: love of money which is evil. Ray Kroc is another one. There are others, too.
I can continue and go on and on with much more to say. But it does nothing to impart knowledge and wisdom to people. I suppose wealthy ones just wish to brush me off as being stupid and having nothing to add to the conversation. That is because they think they are the only smart ones because they have money. To which I say, as we often said in the U.S. Air Force: you proclaim you are experts, but you are drips under pressure. To such people I also say, shame on you bastards.
To the one with the “f**k Biden” sign on 38B, I say: shame on you bastard. You help destroy what is good about America by throwing out the baby with the dirty bathwater. Expectations of perfection, you sicko lousy people. Notice I don’t say, “f**k you.” And I won’t either. Such people are merely scum of the earth and I don’t want to get down into the gutter with such scum.
Seeking peace, but peace cannot be achieved without justice. And I am not referring to justice based on the perspective of hate for fellow human beings and lousy unappreciative attitudes for the lives which we have all attained. I am blessed, even if I don’t have as much as some of the wealthy ones who consider me stupid. However, I stand up to protect the lousy American healthcare system which Trump described as “private” healthcare. I have evidence that it would be better, for me, as a diabetic, in Canada. But I am blocked from doing so. I am mocked and patronized by the stupidos who defend the wealthy and the lousy American healthcare system.
Once again, I seek peace, but cannot attain peace unless justice is achieved. So I am pushed into a contentious mode which caused me to one time say words for which my fellow Christians may have thought of me as a “sinner” because I used the “f**k” word, as did this idiot on 38B. But you see, once a person acknowledges the mistake, then there is forgiveness, according to Jesus Christ. And it is not up to (the book of Romans) humans to render a judgment.
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