Solving the Gay Marriage Issue through Limited Government

The marriage controversy has its roots in government recognition of marriage as a special protected lifestyle.  Straight couples get it, so naturally same-sex couples want that same preferred status.   That seems quite fair and reasonable.

But what about the huge groups of single people and uncommitted couples?  There are no special group preferences for them.   People whose "marriage" is endorsed by the government receive special and better treatment than singles or people in uncommitted relationships.  Doesn't seem fair.

The way to settle this culture war issue is to get government out of the relationship business.  Have marriages exist by private contracts or other non-government means.  Government would recognize individuals only.  Marry whomever you want -- just don't expect any special treatment from the government.  Problem solved.

Some of FDR's Bad Policies

In my continuing series of critiques of FDR, I've borrowed some analysis from elsewhere, and made a list of some of the many bad things he did:

• Seized gold from citizens and forbid owning it
• Suspended gold standard and revalued gold from US$20.67 to US$35 after Treasury had taken it
• Took control of banks
• Agricultural Adjustment Act that forced up prices while destroying farmland/animals
• Federal monopoly of bungling Tennessee Valley Authority
• Insane National Industrial Recovery Act that created 500 cartels
• National Labor Relations Act (surged labor costs)
• US$3.3 billion Public Works Administration 
• National Recovery Administration featuring price-fixing and minimum wages
• Blatantly coercive, ruinous, Madoff scheme known as Social Security 
• Works Progress Administration
• Civilian Conservation Corps, etc. (costly pointless temp jobs)
• Created SEC
• United States Housing Authority 
• Extreme tax increases
• German-American internment 
• Italian-American internment
• Japanese-American internment
• Marihuana Tax Act of 1937.

Americans CAN Manufacture if Government Gets Out of the Way

China has some advantages for manufacturing that are probably temporary. Their currency exchange rate and labor wages are both likely to increase in the coming years. Manufacturing employment is already falling there.

 

We can get some of those manufacturing jobs back in the US with a change in national attitude and policies. Americans and our politicians need to be more welcoming of manufacturing and assembly operations through lower tax and regulatory burdens. It takes approximately forever to get government approval for new plants and equipment in the US, whereas product sales cycles are only 6 - 12 months in many industries. We need to make politicians and bureaucrats do things faster.

 

We also need to stop bashing big business. Small business is fine – I own a couple myself. But only big business has the capital and resources needed to resurrect our once great manufacturing industries. Small businesses can then prosper as suppliers to the big business operations.

 

That's the way it works. That's the path to employment growth and reducing the trade deficit. Stop whining about China and big business, and get politicians to remove the obstacles to doing big things in the US.

Comparing the Tea Party Movement and Occupy Wall Street

Common ground between the Tea Party movement and Occupy Wall Street (OWS)

• Oppose Wall Street bailouts

• Oppose crony capitalism

• Unhappy with the state of the nation.

 

Differences between the Tea Party movement and Occupy Wall Street (OWS)

• Tea Party inspired by the American Revolution

• OWS inspired by the French Revolution

• Tea Party values individualism, entrepreneurialism, and limited government

• OWS values collectivism, third-way socialism, and expansive government

• Tea Party opposes current labor union laws

• OWS favors greater unionization and union power

• Tea Party favors private sector solutions to social problems

• OWS wants government intervention to solve social problems

• Tea Party sees unions and government acting together with business interests as crony capitalism

• OWS sees little or no difference between crony capitalism and free market capitalism

• Tea Party dislikes bailouts of any kind; distrusts government involvement in business

• OWS favors government involvement, subsidies, or bailouts of favored business entities

• Tea Party wants lower taxes and less government regulation

• OWS wants more taxes and more government regulation

• Tea Party demonstrations are clean, orderly, and respectful of authority

• OWS demonstrations are dirty, disorderly, and disrespectful of authority.

How to Live Comfortably

I think it's pretty simple to work toward a comfortable existence:

• Stay in school until graduation.
• Learn a marketable skill.
• Work diligently.
• Marry and save before having children.
• Stay married.
• Live well within one's means.
• Save and invest carefully.
• Stay out of trouble.

The vast majority of people I know who are suffering financially violated one or more of the common sense behaviors above.

Unintended damage from the welfare state

With our huge and growing welfare state, a person can be a mean and lazy SOB and still get help when down and out.

 

Therefore, before the welfare state, there was much greater self-motivation to be hard working and kind to others.

 

Not to mention we're going broke paying for this.

Don't like? Don't do.

"Don't like gay marriages? Don't get one. Don't like cigarettes? Don't smoke them. Don't like abortions? Don't get one. Don't like drugs? Don't do them. Don't like porn? Don't watch it. Don't like alcohol? Don't drink it. Don't like guns? Don't buy one. Don't like your rights taken away? Don't take away someone else's." – Republican Liberty Caucus

 

"Don't like free market businesses?  Don't buy from them." – Bob Giramma

Why Political Anger Is Increasing

The existence and success of the Tea Party movement is evidence of the right admitting it was wrong about many big government policies or Bush 43 and other Republicans. Typically, Tea Partiers are highly critical of both Obama and Bush.  The shift toward Obama may be evidence that the left determined Bill Clinton and Blue Dog Democrats strayed too far from progressive ideals.

 

I am neither a conservative nor progressive, but I know people on both ends of the ideological spectrum who are fixed in their ways. Moderates are often amenable to compromise, but they lack principles. They'll bend to whoever convinces them their way is best, then they'll bend the other way for the next election after witnessing how idiotic the last big government policies were. Repeat ad infinitum.

 

There's no easy solution when people on both left and right assume societal problems can be solved only by having government force everyone to do things one way. Anger on both left and right has risen over the years as the US have become more of a forced collective, the policies of which fluctuate depending on which collective masters are in power at the moment.

Children Won't Perish Absent Socialism

I reject the claim that poor children won't be fed in the absence of socialism, but no one is allowed to run that experiment to prove or disprove that. Americans are the most charitable people in the world, and I'm confident that the deserving poor will be fed through voluntary charity. The non-deserving poor will find it necessary to quit their sloth or perish.

 

Further, it should not be assumed that people who oppose socialism are heartless and evil.  I give plenty to charity, as do millions of other Americans who similarly advocate voluntary charity over force of government.

Are Charter Schools Better?

Whether charter schools are good or bad is irrelevant. In a free society, people should have choices. That's what really matters.

Losing Focus on the Core Purpose of Education

Perhaps a reason that public schools aren't performing well, and they're running out of money, is we've converted them from educational institutions into soup kitchens, athletic centers, counseling organizations, and centers for arts and entertainment.  We've lost focus on the core purpose of education: educational preparation for young people to provide for themselves in the workforce.

US Government Taxes and Revenue Since 1900

Government revenue, from taxes, fees, and business revenue, has increased substantially in the 20th century. There have also been remarkable changes in the type of taxes raised and in the relative taxing power by type of government.

http://www.usgovernmentrevenue.com/revenue_history 

How to Achieve Freedom and Prosperity

I have no need for the welfare state, nor its associated high taxes and regulatory burdens, specifically because I practice individual responsibility. That's what everyone should do. It's the underlying theme of everything I stand for. Responsible people pay their own way, don't demand money from taxpayers, and don't need big government. That's the path to freedom and prosperity.

Stupid Tea Party Movement?

Those stupid Tea Party people.  I mean, believing in "Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally Limited Government, and Free Markets" is just plain dumb, right?

 

Instead, we should follow the proven path of recent decades for tax and spend policies, big government, and politically run markets.  Because everything has worked out so well that way.

Unions and Freedom

In a FREE society:

• Workers would be FREE to form an association, which they could call a "union."
• Other workers would be FREE to join or refuse to join this union.
• Employers would be FREE to recognize or ignore this union.

Unfortunately, we don't have a free society. Instead, workers can be FORCED to join a union and have fees confiscated from their wages, and employers are FORCED to deal with professional union bosses.