In danger of being eliminated

There is a current movement of social change that has been put into play by those politicians wishing to make changes that will give them more power.  There is no other way to say this for it is and has always been that those that rule are never happy with some power they always want more.  Machiavelli’s the Prince is probably the best book on that subject ever written. This need for absolute power is not related to left or right political views both of these artificial categorizations want the same things each for themselves and only with a different twist.  This has always been the case since recorded history begins and from that we can assume before that to the beginning of mans rain on earth.

This drive for power and wealth is a fundamental aspect of our very nature and it can result in both good and bad if not properly channeled.  The problem arises when we allow those with the desire for power to manipulate the education system and change the way our children are taught.  This is easy to do if the Citizens are not vigilant and we have been asleep for a half century now.

Political Correctness (PC), Multiculturalism, Class Warfare and the cradle to grave welfare state are  the tools that are being used and they have erased from our history the knowledge of all that allows us to be free, which is knowledge.  The promise that was instilled in the young was that with just a little more government and less private sector that all the people would be better off and have more.  We just need the government to make things fairer by asking those with more to share what they had with the rest of us.  What could possibly be wrong with that?

Much of what is being put in place in America now is being allowed because of the way the last two or three generation we taught. Few today much young than 50 would not be able to have even a basic discussion on limited government and big government and on central planning and free markets. This post is not and cannot be an economics text but never-the-less the basics must be understood if we are to discus government so based on the excellent book written my Mark Skousen The Big three in Economics Adam Smith, Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes we will quickly introduce the reader to those three plus one others who has had a big impact on the way we view our world.

Skousen, a gifted writer, takes the reader through six phases of economic development starting with the man that started it all Adam Smith and ending with Milton Freidman (my interpretation of his work).  These six phases are the first six chapters in Skousen’s book:
One, Adam Smith declares an economic revolution in 1776
Two, From Smith to Marx: the rise and fall of Classical Economics
Three, Karl Marx leads a revolt against capitalism
Four, From Marx to Keynes: Scientific economics comes to age
Five, John Maynard Keynes: Capitalism faces its greatest challenge
Six, A turning point in twentieth century economics

The first period is the world’s first formal development of economics principles by Adam Smith where he declares that we will ALL be better off if we are free to produce and sell goods and services as we see fit. That competition in the market place will lower the prices and improve the products.  And that for this to work there must be honest transactions monitored by a fair and just legal system.  This can be boiled down to two principles being “natural liberty” and “laissez-faire.”

The second period is one where questions arise over Smith’s writings that result in the basic principles being questioned.  Smith did not develop equations and formulas his work was one of logical development based on empirical evidence.   Since this was the period of rapid industrialization in Europe and America there were dislocations that were occurring that appeared to disprove what Smith had developed in his work.

The third period was that of Karl Marx and his view that all production belonged to Labor and that land and capital should be placed in the collective for all to use.  Marx believed that the workers were being oppressed and that a new system would be developed based on the principles of Hegel’s Dialectic where a thesis caused an antithesis to develop and that lead to a synthesis (a new order).  Marx’s view was that his Communism was the new order.

The fourth period was where Smith’s views were proved correct by many others when mathematics resolved some of the problems that had developed in Smith’s principles which until now were verbal descriptions not mathematical formulations.  This period ended in the thirties with the great depression.

The Fifth period was dominated by Keynes and his theories of deficit spending, no or minimal private savings and government intervention in the market place.  Keynes developed his theories in response to the great depression that was causing much hardship in Europe and America except for Germany and Russia which had turned to a powerful central government albeit for different reasons.  This economic growth under a strong government gave credibility to Keynes views.

The Sixth period is that which we are now enduring.  Additional work especially by Milton Freidman shows that Keynes was not correct in his views — his work was distorted by the events of those times when he lived which lead him to make assumption that have now proved to be false.  Then there was the fall of the communist states and/or their embracing free market principles in portions of their economies has proved that Marx was wrong as well.  So with both Marx and Keynes both disproved Smith’s views of a free market and laissez-faire were now proved to be true once more.

Skousen’s book was published in 2007 before the housing bubble burst and we elected a very socialist President in 2008.  Those in Washington today believe in Keynes or at least in his big government e.g. like in China.  This view is false as over the past several decades congress has passed legislation here in the United States to the point that our market was free neither in its conduct nor in interference from the federal government.  We therefore find ourselves once again in a period where the politicians that have wrecked the economy are telling us that they need more power to fix the problems.  Since they are the very ones that created the problems this transference of power to them must be avoided at all costs.

Unfortunately, Economics is a complex subject and the politicians depend on that to keep the public misinformed.  Six books that go a long way to showing where the problems lie are now listed. But keep in mind that a full study of the issue would take much more then just these few books.

A Monetary History of the United States, 1867 – 1960 by Milton Friedman and Anna Jacobson Schwartz published in 1963. One section in the monumental book shows how the newly created FED caused the Great Depression.

Free to Choose, Milton & Rose Friedman first published in 1979. Milton and Rose Show how the welfare state cannot exist in the long run, indirectly it explains the collapse of the old Russian U.S.S.R. ten years after the book was published.

The Five Thousand Year Leap, by W. Cleon Skousen first published in 198, an excellent book on political philosophy written for those without a degree in this subject showing how things are not what we may think they are..

The Ruling Class, By Angelo M. Codevilla published in 2010, excellent contemporary book explaining the current push in American to set up a Ruling Class.

Reckless Endangerment by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner published in 2011, Very well document analysis of the 2008 house bubble collapse and what caused it — and it was not the banks it was the US Congress aided and abetted by the FED.

Extortion, by Peter Schweizer published in 2013, an absolutely devastating description of the rampant corruption in the US Government.  The founding fathers are turning over in their graves right now and I would not be surprised to see them come back to get rid of the entire crop of obscenity that now resides in Washing DC.

There are a few other books that would help the argument but they get technically complicated and so the last two are enough I think.  The line of though developed here is that we started with a Constitutional Republic without universal suffrage and the purpose of that was to place “strong” limits on the federal government.  Those limits we needed because of the failing of human nature and that if they were not here a ruling class with arise and the republic would be gone.

This is done by legislation which gives us a large bureaucracy with has the power to write regulations, create rules, make fines for non compliance and set up permits for almost everything. All this is done for our benefit of course but every one of those things takes away a bit of our personal freedom and at some point, not far off now, the freedom is all gone.