Tag: Obama

Why I Write This Blog?

George Noga
By: George Noga – September 10, 2014
        This posting marks the beginning of the end. Between now and mid-December I will publish the final MLLG posts. I often have been asked why I have taken the trouble. Why have I spent 1,000 hours writing 300 posts filling 900 pages containing 500,000 words since November 2007? Why have I written fact-based and principled tracts about public policy even though I am unenamored with politics and politicians? This post answers the question: why. In the Federalist, Alexander Hamilton questioned and challenged his fellow Americans thusly:
“Whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend on accident and force.”
       If any society of men fails to get its politics right, it affects every aspect of life and life itself. Get politics right and we live our lives in freedom, prosperity and pursuit of our dreams. Get politics wrong and liberty, happiness and property are forfeit and life itself is nasty, brutal and brief. Politics, grubby as it is, is the sine qua non to having a life worth living.
      Examples abound of those who got their politics wrong: Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, Imperial Japan, Mao’s China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia and Stalin’s USSR were all black holes where life and liberty were trampled. Today we have,inter alia, Putin’s Russia, the Jongs’ North Korea, the Castro brothers’ Cuba and Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. And don’t forget the entire Arab world, nearly all of Central and South America, Africa and any place ending in “stan”.
       If you believe the western world is exempt, think again. WWI was a senseless slaughter with 40 million casualties; its politically inept conclusion led to WWII with its 150 million casualties. This was due to a failure of politics in Europe and also in the USA. In the past century and continuing to the present, “civilized” Europe has experienced 100 genocides, pogroms and ethnic cleansings. Vietnam was a  colossal failure of American politics to get it right; it cost 58,220 American lives and 303,644 more wounded. Nor have we learned; we continue to get it wrong right up to this day.

       If we don’t get our politics right, our children and our children’s children will live in an Orwellian torpor with their lives, liberty and property constantly at risk because of obeisance to failed ideologies, fantasies, vote buying, political correctness and the never ending and fruitless search for Utopias. Politics is inherently personal. Following are but some of the ways I have been directly harmed throughout my life by our failure to get politics right.

  • I had no father at home for 4 years during WWII which resulted from government ineptitude in fighting and ending WWI. Father was in Korea, also the result of political blunder, for another year during my childhood.
  • I received an execrable, pathetic non education in government schools from age 5 to 18.
  • The Federal Reserve created economic conditions that resulted in severe cycles, bubbles, panics, meltdowns and deep recessions throughout my life continuing to the present.
  • I was subject to income taxes of over 90%, creating perverse, uneconomic incentives.
  • It now requires $15,000 to buy what cost $1,000 when I was born due to government currency debasement.
  • Regulation run amok made owning my business onerous. The regulations, all in the guise of protecting consumers, in actuality, caused them (and me) great harm.
  • The politically micromanaged Vietnam War disrupted my life for the 6 years I served in the military.
  • The Fed has brutally devalued a lifetime of hard work via chronic negative real interest rates intended to protect a feckless government from the consequences of its ongoing debt binge.
  • A torpid, Europesque economy has been imposed, dooming me to economic stagnation instead of robust  growth.
  • The current crisis of spending, debt and deficits ultimately will result in a lost generation.
  • Our government has recklessly created and/or exacerbated dangerous situations throughout the world by weakening our military and appeasing tyrants. An existential crisis likely will result.
  • Obamacare death panels will ration and deny medical care and ultimately could kill me.
       Due entirely to failed politics I was fatherless for five years and lucky I wasn’t orphaned into a life of poverty. I survived utterly wretched government schools, incessant and severe economic cycles, debilitating inflation, astronomical tax rates and hyper regulation. Vietnam discombobulated my life. And all this was because of a government most consider one of the best extant. And all because we failed to get our politics right.
       Now, in my eighth decade of life, our once vibrant economy is riven by government-created anemia. America has transmogrified into sclerotic Europe where men lead lives of quiet desperation. Government has created a crisis of spending, debt and deficits, one consequence being sustained negative real interest rates that savage my decades of prudence. My final indignity is Obamacare; its rationing and death panels may end my life prematurely.
       Unfortunately, it doesn’t end with me. Our children and our children’s children are doomed to a much poorer and more dangerous future; they will be a lost generation. They will pay for our debt binge and generational theft with vastly reduced opportunity. They will inhabit a Clockwork Orange world where nuclear arms proliferate in places committed to our destruction and solely because we weakened our defense and kowtowed to tyrants. Our weakness invites terror and slaughter for which they will pay dearly, perhaps with their lives. And all this from a government most consider one of the best extant. And all because we failed to get our politics right.
“The correct answer to Alexander Hamilton’s question may be in the negative.”
       As you can see, if we don’t get our politics right, our lives are vastly diminished and trivialized in countless ways; we condemn our progeny to economic stagnation and loss of freedom. Their lives and liberty are at grave risk because we failed to get our politics right. It appears the correct answer to Alexander Hamilton’s question may be in the negative.
       I have tried mightily through this blog to show that the answer lies in more liberty and less government. Hopefully, my efforts have given our children’s children that infinitesimally better chance for liberty. And that is my answer to the question: why I write this blog.
        Note to readers:  I am striving to make the final postings between now and mid-December special as I seek to end my MLLG blog on a high note. I hope you enjoy them.

America’s Greatest Threats

George Noga
Power Grid, EMP Attack, Coronal Mass Ejection
 By: George Noga – June 10, 2014
      Weakness, not strength, invites conflict and war – a truth known throughout human history and included in George Washington’s farewell address when he said: “The best way to keep the peace is to be prepared for war“. It is a lesson which America forgets regularly. We (along with Europe) forgot it is the 1920s and 1930s; we had amnesia again under Carter in the 1970s. We deeply regretted it both times. Now under President Obama we have not only forgotten but we fail to take even inexpensive measures that could stave off disasters with potentially 100+ million American casualties.
      Obama displays weakness and appeasement at every possible opportunity. He cancelled our missile defense in Europe to the chagrin of our allies and received nothing in exchange. He manifested weakness in Libya, North Korea, Egypt, Iran, Syria, Crimea, Ukraine and the Middle East. He has savaged the defense budget and made unilateral reductions in our strategic forces. Everything he (and his acolytes Clinton and Kerry) do and say signals weakness. He refuses to recognize the attacks in Benghazi, Ft. Hood and San Jose (power grid) as terrorism.
        Alexandr Solzhenitsyn understands; he said the following when accepting his Nobel Prize. “The spirit of Munich has by no means retreated into the past; it was not merely a brief episode. The timid civilized world has found nothing with which to oppose the onslaught of a sudden revival  of barefaced barbarity other than concessions and smiles. The spirit of Munich is a sickness of the will of successful people; it is the daily condition of those who have given themselves up to the thirst after prosperity at any price, to material well-being as the chief goal of earthly existence. Such people – and there are many in today’s world – elect passivity and retreat, just so as their accustomed life might drag on a bit longer, just so as not to step over the threshold today – and tomorrow you’ll see, it will be all right. But it never will be all right! The price of cowardice will only be more evil.”  Solzhenitsyn preternaturally was describing Obama.
Protecting the Power Grid Against Terrorism and Natural Phenomena
        This post (space limitations) deals only with EMP and power grid threats, but it is: (1) one of the greatest threats in terms of possible casualties, i.e. 100+ million; (2) the most likely to happen sooner or later; (3) the most imminent; (4) accomplishable on a low budget with existing technology; and (5) difficult to trace the source. One threat is an attack on our electrical power grid. Such an attack can be carried out exactly by doing what was done in San Jose on a larger scale; it also can be carried out via an EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) attack involving only one low-grade nuclear device. Shockingly, the same damage can result from a coronal mass ejection or “CME” – more about this infra.
        April 16, 2013 at 1:00 AM near San Jose, California, a group of 2 to 6 terrorists attacked and knocked out a major electrical transmission substation. The terrorists first cut underground fiber optic cables, cut communications and disabled security systems. All skilled marksmen, they commenced a highly disciplined, coordinated attack with high power rifles knowing precisely where to aim. When police arrived 50 minutes later, the terrorists were long gone, left no evidence and never have been found. This likely was a rehearsal for a broader attack that could knock out America’s entire power grid.
        It would require fewer than 10 such teams of terrorists (20 to 60 people in total) under 30 minutes to kill 100 million Americans. Because of the interconnectivity of America’s power grid, knocking out a small number of facilites would shut down the entire country. It took several months to repair the damage in San Jose as key components are manufactured in Korea and not readily available. In that amount of time a broader attack could have killed 100 million. Note: You may have missed the San Jose incident in the news because it happened the same time as the Boston Marathon bombing.
       The same effect can be achieved via an EMP attack by detonating a single low power nuclear device at the right altitude; it would create an EMP that would knock out power in America except for Alaska and Hawaii. Moreover, it recently has been understood that a massive solar storm (CME) could also knock out much of the power grid. Such storms occur every 150 to 300 years and there has not been one since the advent of electricity. Scientists believe we are due for a CME; in fact, one just missed Earth in July 2013. Lloyds of London estimated  a CME would affect 20-40 million Americans for up to two years.
        Some readers may be wondering how there could be 100+ million casualties from an attack (either EMP or San Jose style) on the power grid that knocked out power for months – and that is how long it would take to restore power. Without electricity, the US can provide for less than 10% of Americans; the other 270 million are out of luck. Virtually nothing would work; there would be no food and water; nuclear power plants would melt down because they require power for cooling. Most deaths would come from starvation. Society, civil authority and the rule of law would disappear.
The Good News
       The good news is that it is possible to attain a high degree of protection from all three of these perils at low cost. The quickest, easiest and cheapest is protection from terrorist attacks against our power grid. All that is required is to build high enough fences around our principal power transmission stations that would preclude snipers from knocking them out San Jose style. We also shock stockpile and store all critical spare parts near each facility. This could be accomplished in less than one year at a cost of under $1 billion.
       Protection could be achieved against a CME by hardening our power grid; this also could be accomplished quickly and for under $1 billion.  There is a bill now in Congress, the SHIELD Act, which stands for Secure High-Voltage Infrastructure from Lethal Damage. Finally, deterrence and defense against an EMP attack can be accomplished via missile defense which is well within America’s current capability. Potential adversaries contemplating an EMP attack and knowing we had effective missile defense would decide not to pursue such an attack, and if they did, we likely could prevent it as it would be only one missile. Note: An EMP attack could be launched via balloon from within the USA; for that reason we need to harden the grid as a backup and also in case missile defense fails.
The Bad News
        President Obama refuses to spend the money to protect America’s power transmission stations against terrorist attack – even though it is a shovel ready project. Heck, he won’t even call San Jose a terrorist attack because it goes against his political narrative that terrorism is receding – the same reason he falsely attributed the story about an internet video being responsible for the Benghazi attack. Obama refuses to spend money on missile defense because he considers it destabilizing and would rather spend the money to buy votes. Congress also needs to pass the SHIELD Act which currently is stuck in committee, although there is no reason to believe Obama would sign it.
“Obama won’t call Benghazi or San Jose terrorism; he won’t invest in  missile defense; and he refuses to spend even one day’s borrowing to protect 100 million American lives.”
        The USA borrows $2 billion each and every day to fund a massive government deficit but we won’t spend one day’s borrowing to protect America against the most imminent, likely and deadly threat we face by building walls around our key power stations, stockpiling spare parts and hardening our transmission infrastructure. The most important function of government, and one with which all agree, is to protect America against outside threats. Obama refuses to do this – he won’t even spend $1 billion to possibly save 100 million lives – that works out to a  paltry $10 per American life. How would you feel, while watching your family dying an agonizing death from lack of food and water, to know that $10 per person could have prevented it and our president refused to spend it and for all the wrong reasons?

Obama Agonistes: Boneheaded Economics

George Noga
By: George Noga – Substantially Updated April 8, 2014
 
        Milton Friedman once asked a foreign government official why workers building a canal were using shovels instead of excavating equipment. The official proudly responded “to create more jobs of course”. Friedman’s classic retort was: “Then why not use spoons instead of shovels?” Most who hear this story viscerally comprehend the foolishness of the government official – except President Obama. He and his minions have said things every bit as wacky as saving jobs with shovels instead of bulldozers.
“Obama’s solipsism and narcissism shield him from his economic illiteracy
and give him delusions of adequacy. He is not unlike a blissfully ignorant child incessantly toying with the economic dials that control the real world.”
        Obama linked technology to job losses: “A lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers. . . . when you go to a bank and use an ATM machine you don’t go to a bank teller, or you go to the airport and you’re using a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate.” Even Economics 101 students  recognize ATMs and kiosks as progress, as greater productivity, as the sine qua non of a higher standard of living and as an unalloyed blessing. Becoming more efficient and productive, doing more with less, produces the cornucopia of goods and services that makes America the envy of the planet. That our president misunderstands this reinforces the image of a child fiddling with the economic dials.
        Obama, Biden and Pelosi have touted unemployment benefits as an economic panacea. They all have stated that unemployment benefits create jobs faster than any other initiative and they have the double benefit of putting money in the pockets of the jobless who then spend the money on consumption to create yet more jobs. Please Mr. President, can we have even higher unemployment so that we can create even more jobs? As far back as Adam Smith (1776) it was well understood that production, not consumption, is what makes us rich.
       The USSR had enormous pent-up consumption but there were no goods to buy. John Stuart Mill debunked the consumption myth best: “the man who steals money from a shop, provided he expends it all again in the same shop, is a benefactor to the tradesman whom he robs, and that the same operation, repeated sufficiently often, would make the tradesman a fortune.” Obama has said that government created jobs will lead to stronger economic growth. He again has it bass-ackwards; economic growth must precede job creation. Obama is ignorant of fundamental economic truths known for at least 250 years. It is hard to dispell the image of a toddler in diapers playing at economics. A toddler is shielded by his age and lack of education; Obama is shielded by his solipsism, narcissism and an equally ignorant sycophant media.
       Obama is harming the very people he passionately asserts he wants to protect, i.e. the downtrodden. He claims his spending binge is for social welfare and health care. Yet, he is condemning the current and future underclass to a much more hardscrabble life. America’s GDP growth already has slowed to European levels and over time the poorer among us will be infinitely worse off than they would have been with higher economic growth. Of course by then few will care or remember – no less understand, who was responsible.
“Obama’s failure to grasp the depth of his economic ignorance is wholly consistent with that of a solipsist and narcissistwho believes only the self exists and who is preoccupied with only his feelings and is egotistically self-absorbed.”
        Obama Agonistes’ slavish ideological dogma and economic illiteracy are leading us all into a netherworld. The president’s people gleefully depict political adversaries throwing grandma over a cliff. Obama is throwing all of us (including his supporters) over the cliff – and all for a failed socialist chimera. Obama’s failure to grasp the depth of his economic ignorance is consistent with the behavior of a solipsist and a narcissist who believes only the self exists, who is preoccupied with only his feelings and who is egotistically self-absorbed.

“He Came – He Saw – He Capitulated”

George Noga

Syria is to Obama as Munich is to Chamberlain

 By: George Noga – October 1, 2013
        The headline above is a quote from Churchill; he made the remark about a British general (Monro) who upon being placed in command of the Battle for Gallipoli in WWI recommended an immediate evacuation of all Allied forces without further fighting. Churchillian  phrasing is apropos because he also succeeded Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister following Chamberlain’s disastrous appeasement of Hitler at Munich. More Churchillian wisdom infra.
       Lest anyone believe it is unfair to compare Obama to Chamberlain, you should know the first person to bring up Syria and Munich together was none other than John Kerry. Initially Kerry came on strong calling Assad’s  use of chemical weapons “indiscriminate, inconceivable horror . . . an unspeakable crime . . . a crime against conscious, a crime against humanity” Kerry then went on to call Syria’s use of chemical weapons  “this century’s Munich moment“.
      A mere three days later Kerry again spoke publicly stating the US military response would be “very limited and very targeted” and further stated it would be “unbelievably small“. So, a crime that Kerry terms “inconceivable horror” is to receive an “unbelievably small” response. Of course, it gets even worse; Putin adroitly followed up an inept Kerry slip of the tongue and it seems there will be no response at all except to (maybe) take away some of Assad’s deadly toys.
      This is appeasement pure and simple, which is defined as: to yield or concede to demands based on belligerance (actual or threatened) at the expense of principle. Just as with Hitler and Chamberlain, this is only the beginning of the price we and our friends will pay; consider:
  • Despots and thugs everywhere now know using chemical weapons works. In Syria it worked to terrorize the regime’s enemies while also saving Assad’s regime.
  • Cameron, Hollande, Netanyahu and all our allies now distrust Obama and will seek to make accommodations with our enemies – or at the very least to hedge their bets.
  • Bashar al-Assad is transformed from a war criminal into a negotiating partner.
  • The Middle East will become a much more volatile and dangerous place.
  • Terrorists will be encouraged to plan bigger and more unthinkable actions.
  • Obama’s red lines and incessant bluffing are exposed as worse than meaningless.
  • Vladimir Putin has taken Obama’s measure and now can play him like a drum.
  • North Korea knows we are toothless and South Korea has good cause to worry.
  • Iran can go nuclear with impunity – its centrifuges are humming as you read this.
  • The world will be a much more dangerous place especially as we deeply cut our military.
       On October 5, 1938 following Chamberlain’s Munich Agreement  Churchill said: “People should know the truth; we have sustained a defeat without a war. And do not suppose that this (Munich) is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year.” And so it is today!
“You were given the choice between war and dishonor.
You chose dishonor and you will have war.”
       Immediately after Chamberlain returned from Munich, Churchill said the following: You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.”Obama has chosen appeasement and has opened Pandora’s box. In Greek mythology opening Pandora’s box meant performing an action that, in and of itself may seem inconsequential at the time, but turns out to have severe and far-reaching consequences. Oh yes – and in mythology Pandora’s box contained all the evils of the world.
Note to readers:  The next posting will not be until mid November. I am off on assignment to Hawaii to research a future blog post. The Aloha state has been under total liberal dominance for well over a half century and has the most politically monolithic top-to-bottom government in America. Hawaii also has an uber-serious debt crisis despite the highest income tax rates in the USA.  It has record food stamp, homeless and unemployment numbers and a serious drug problem. Have liberals screwed up paradise?

The Declaration of Independence – Barack Obama Mimics King George III

George Noga
 By: George Noga – July 10, 2013
       Upon rereading the Declaration of Independence this July 4th, I was struck by the similarities of the complaints listed in the Declaration against King George III and the actions of our current president. George III’s acts were adjudged by our founders egregious enough to revolt against Great Britain and to fight a long, bloody war for independence; what of the actions of President Obama? Following are but five instances where Obama’s actions parallel those of King George. Note: Our founding documents list many “rights” of Americans but only one “duty”. Do you know what that duty is?

  1. The Declaration states: “He (King George) has forbidden his Governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance.” Obama has acted to prevent several states (Arizona) from enforcing laws to protect their citizens from imminent harm.

  2. The Declaration reads: “He has suspended laws in their operation until his assent should be obtained.” Obama just suspended parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – unilaterally. Obama also has vowed not to enforce parts of our immigration laws and, in fact, to take actions directly contrary to such laws.

  3. Again the Declaration: “He has dissolved representative houses for opposing his invasions of the rights of the people.” His recess appointments while the Senate  clearly was NOT in recess are tantamount to dissolving a representative house solely because he knew the house (Senate) would not assent. Subsequently, even though federal courts have ruled the ersatz recess appointments illegal, the appointees continue in office and to oppose the rights of the people. This final action goes even beyond any horrors promulgated by King George III.

  4. The Declaration: “He has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and to eat our their substance.” President Obama appointed a multitude of unaccountable czars. His administration directed the IRS to harass his political enemies. He is hiring tens of thousands more IRS agents to enforce his dysfunctional and hated health care law. His EPA, NLRB and HHS  have run amok with countless, mind numbing and prolix regulations.

  5. The Declaration: “He has combined with others to subject us to jurisdictions unacknowledged by our laws.” He advocates US law and US courts taking into consideration rulings by international and foreign courts. He has supported treaties and protocols (UN Law of the Sea Treaty) that subjugate Americans to the UN, to other international organizations and to foreign laws and governments.

Americans Have Many Rights But Only One Duty

      Our founding documents list many rights of Americans – but only one duty. The Declaration states the people have a duty: “to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security – when a long train of abuses or usurpations evinces a design to reduce them under despotism (autocratic government).”  As shown supra, there already is a long train of abuses under the present King err, President.
     However, the declaration also wisely states: “All experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they have become accustomed“.
      Apparently, most Americans believe the evils still are sufferable or they eventually will be mitigated at the ballot box. Finally, as the Declaration also states: “Let facts be submitted to a candid world“. To this blogger the facts cited herein demonstrate President Obama is doing one heck of an impersonation of King George III – only he is an elected representative of the American people sworn to uphold the Constitution and not a hereditary sovereign monarch of a foreign occupying power.

You Didn’t Build That

George Noga

Prehistoric Barbarians and Bandits Knew Better

By: George Noga – December 8, 2012

       The very instant I heard Obama’s infamous “You didn’t build that” statement I knew it was not only wrong but bass ackward. Economic literati understand viscerally that economic activity must precede political activity. However, it took Tom Palmer in “The Origins of State and Government” to provide much of the necessary historical and logical underpinnings to juxtapose economic activity (business) and government.

“Economic means must always precede political means. Nomads and hunter-gatherers never have a government.”

      Palmer’s axiom is that the economic means always must precede the political means. That explains why there never are governments among primitive societies; they have leaders but never a state. Hunter-gatherers and nomads don’t generate enough of an economic surplus to support a permanent predator class. Nevertheless, such societies were victimized by roving bandits (precursors of government) who moved on once they plundered what little was available. There was no reason for them to stay once they pillaged all the meager supplies available. Also, the nomads and hunters were not stationary and not easy targets for predators.

      Everything changed once people settled permanently and established agriculture. Now they generated a constant economic surplus and remained vulnerable in one location. Once again, roving bandits came, pillaged and plundered. However, the bandits were not stupid. They quickly understood and grasped the opportunity. Now there was a reason for them to stay inasmuch as the farmers couldn’t migrate and they could pillage permanently. Hence, roving bandits morphed into stationary bandits who, through sheer force (subjugating the people and keeping out other roving bandits), acquired a monopoly on sanctioned physical violence within a given territory and, viola, government was created.

“Once agriculture was established, roving bandits became stationary bandits enforcing a monopoly on physical violence in a given territory and, viola, government was created.”

     The evolution and causation is clear enough. An economic surplus is an a priori condition for the existence of a state. Indeed, government cannot exist without the entrepreneur class; they have to build it before government can plunder it. Without those who invest, take risks and build businesses (despite hindrance by the state), government wouldn’t have any resources and would not exist. Even the earliest farmers had to invest (plant seeds, tend the crops) and take risks (drought, pestilence, etc.) while the now-permanent bandits did nothing productive.

   It is no different today. Permanent bandits, who now sanctimoniously  go by titles such as  kings, emperors, presidents and prime ministers, plunder billions  through their enforced monopoly on violence. It continues in kleptocracies across the globe; witness Putin and the ill-gotten wealth of Chinese leaders on full display during the sordid Bo Xilai affair. Witness most of Latin and South America, the Caribbean, most of Africa, all of Arabia and all the countries ending in stan. Don’t forget the narcostate of Mexico and significant pockets of Southeast Asia.

“Even authentic bandits in ancient times sometimes understood that pillaging less today enabled them to pillage even more tomorrow – thus benefiting both the pillagers and pillagees.”

   Is America really any different just because our rulers may govern with the pro forma consent of the governed? They may call themselves mayor, governor, congressman or president but they continue to behave like bandits. They enrich themselves in many illicit ways including money, perquisites, preferments, legal exemptions and power. They plunder from the rest of us in reliance on a legal monopoly on violence largely to ensure their reelection and thereby continued membership in the predator class.  And now the chief bandit in all the land has the sheer chutzpah to proclaim that government is the font of all economic success – a notion that even the barbarians of yesteryear would have found absurd. Even they, lacking any education, understood that the plunderers did not help the plundered create their businesses.

     We may be better off with authentic bandits of ancient times, like those in the Capital One commercials.  At least sometimes they got sated and left us alone. And some of them even understood that pillaging less today caused the economy to grow faster such that they could pillage even more tomorrow, thus  benefiting both the pillagers and the pillagees. Were it so in America today. Our current crop of bandits never gets sated and is less enlightened than some of their counterparts who swept into the west from the steppes of Central Asia.