Are International Trade Agreements Bad for America? Part 1

George Noga
Trade between nations always is an unalloyed benefit even when workers are displaced
and trading partners manipulate their currency, subsidize exports and use cheap labor.
International Trade – Part 1
By: George Noga – September 12, 2016

        This post and the next one address international trade, including trade agreements such as NAFTA and TPP, which has become an issue in the 2016 election. There are so many myths about foreign trade it requires two posts to debunk them all. Upcoming posts between now and November address several hot-button presidential election issues including: (1) policing in America; (2) political correctness; (3) real versus phony issues; (4) Uber and gay marriage; and (5) economic growth. Stay tuned!

     Both parties and candidates are demonizing international trade making it their bete noire. They have leveled numerous charges and criticisms including, inter alia, the following list. This post and the following one next week will address each of them.

    • Trade agreements are not really free trade but managed trade
    • Trade deals are poorly negotiated and unfair to the US
    • American companies are harmed and workers displaced
    • Trade is competition as in the US versus foreign trading partners
    • Foreign countries subsidize goods being exported
    • Currencies are manipulated and undervalued by other countries
    • Tariffs and barriers are needed to support vital domestic industries
    • Cheap labor is being used to gain unfair advantage
    • The US incurs harmful large and perennial trade deficits

     Tariffs and trade agreements are asymmetrical in terms of perception about those harmed relative to those benefited. Take the sugar tariff; it benefits a handful of big US sugar producers (mainly in Florida) enriching some by $100 million per year. The tariff costs each American (all 320 million of us) $100 per year but is opaque because it is buried in the cost of products – a few cents here, a penny there. Because the benefits are so concentrated and the costs so diffuse, the sugar growers spend a small fortune lobbying Congress for the tariff while there is no broad based popular opposition.

       Trade agreements are the reverse of tariffs; harm to the industry affected is visible, concentrated and immediate whereas the benefits diffused among all 320 million Americans and realized over a longer period of time. Therefore, opposition to trade agreements is populist and political with the industries affected, and of course labor unions, spending a small fortune on lobbying while there is no natural constituency to support the agreements. It is ripe for media and political demagoguery.

      In all cases – tariffs, barriers and trade deals – a small but highly concentrated cohort forces its will on the American people because of politics fueled by money and abetted by media economic illiteracy. In all cases, Americans would be far, far better off without domestic tariffs or barriers and with all trade agreements – even flawed ones. Best of all would be unfettered free trade without any government involvement.

Consider an example – US imports from China – currently $500 billion per year. Let’s say, a arguendo, China cheats by undervaluing its currency and subsidizing exports; moreover, they employ low cost labor. Let’s further stipulate China’s cheating amounts to 33%, i.e. they are dumping $750 billion worth of goods for $500 billion. This is an unmitigated godsend to America which receives a $250 billion gift each year from China – equal to $780 per American or $2,450 per family. The benefits ($2,450 per family annually) far outweigh the costs of some temporarily displaced workers.

     Take the case of Carrier Corp, excoriated by Trump for moving its manufacturing to Mexico from Indiana. It made the move to stave off Asian competition and it enabled Carrier to retain higher paid US jobs in R&D, marketing and high end components.

      In a personal anecdote, I once wanted a Traeger BBQ smoker but never bought one because they were too expensive. Traeger shifted manufacturing to China and the cost plunged so much that I bought one. Sales skyrocketed and Traeger created hundreds more (and better) US jobs than before they shifted manufacturing to China. The new US jobs are in sales, wood pellets, customer service, BBQ supplies and delivery.

The next post is the final part of our analysis of international trade and tariffs.

Public Sector Unions are Bankrupting America

George Noga
Only in the fetid parallel universe of government is unionization expanding.
Unions exact uncompensated value politically that cannot be earned on merit.
Public Sector Unions are Bankrupting America

$4 Million a Year for a Bureaucrat

By: George Noga – September 5, 2016

    US private sector union membership was nearly 50% after WWII; today it is 6% and declining as private sector workers conclude the costs of union membership are not worth the putative benefits. Public sector union membership, non-existent in 1945, is 40% and growing, as union workers average twice the compensation of the private sector for comparable jobs. In short, they use politics to extort from the rest of us.

In the private sector, market forces serve as a counterbalance to unions; if pay and benefits get too far out of line, companies lose money and go out of business. This causes unions’ interests to be closely aligned with the private companies they organize. Private sector unions become fierce advocates for private enterprise and lower taxes. This flip-flops with public sector unions; they become pro-government and anti-market agitating for higher taxes at all levels. They literally are bankrupting America.

Public sector unions have many horrors but two stand out. First is teachers unions. The NEA and other public unions are primarily to blame for our failing schools. They stand in the schoolhouse door blocking inner city kids from leaving, trapping them in failed schools. They have turned education into a jobs program for adults. They suck up more and more resources for ever declining performance. School choice is the civil rights issue of our time and the NEA is the 21st century Bull Conner, fire hoses and all.

Second, public sector unions are bankrupting America with enormous pressure for higher taxes to fund unsustainable public pensions and benefits for workers earning double free market compensation. Many jurisdictions are facing bankruptcy; others must jeopardize public safety and cut vital services to fund the aforementioned pensions and benefits. As shown in the following section, the situation is so extreme that it can cost up to $4 million per year to fund one low level civil service job.

$4 Million a Year for an Entry Level Bureaucrat

This animadversion is stranger than fiction. Assume a man begins working after high school as a unionized clerk in the Department of Motor Vehicles. He works for 30 years, eventually becoming a mid-level bureaucrat. He then retires receiving 90% of his final year pay; this is  based on 3% per year for 30 years – a common arrangement. He and his spouse (who also is entitled to benefits) collect the indexed pension for the rest of their joint lives. Of course, they also receive lifetime health care benefits.

       Our civil servant had a son at age 20 who followed precisely in his footsteps as did his grandson and great-grandson – each, in turn, working for the DMV in similar jobs. Fast forward many years; the original civil servant, his son and grandson are all alive, retired and collecting pensions and benefits. Taxpayers are paying four generations of the same family for only one active worker (great-grandson) who just began work.

      The cost, albeit well into the future, is $3-$4 million/year depending on overtime spiking, health care costs, disability status and inflation. Bottom line: taxpayers are paying up to $4 million for only one active employee, who just began work. In the private sector, the comparable amount would be under $300,000. This means the government, thanks to public sector unions and politicians, is paying up to 13.3 times (1,330%) the private sector for a low skill job. Perhaps now you can better understand how public sector unions are bankrupting cities, counties and states across America.
The next post about international trade begins our fall series addressing election issues.

Let’s Celebrate Capitalism

George Noga
Capital Day – a new American holiday – should be on the Sunday before Labor Day
Let’s Celebrate Capitalism
By: George Noga – August 28, 2016

    Even in the Stone Age, capital made labor more productive. A paleolithic fisherman worked all day to spear enough fish to survive. He intuited that a net could make him much more productive but he had no capital. He slept less, working extra hours each day, until he accumulated enough fish (his capital) to survive the many days required to build the net. Our newbie capitalist then generated a surplus of fish to trade for other goods or to make more nets. His capital investment enhanced the well-being of his entire band. In the 21st century this still holds true – capital enhances labor.

     Poor countries today are underdeveloped due to insufficient capital investment for a variety of reasons. Many are impoverished by obeisance to anti-capitalist ideologies. Others are destitute because they repel capital by not respecting property rights and the rule of law. Some lack educated work forces needed to properly operate capital equipment. Yet others remain poor because of confiscatory taxation and mind-numbing regulation. Many poor nations suffer from many or all of the above conditions. Even Europe and the USA could be far better off by lowering taxes, reducing regulations, eliminating uncertainty, ending creeping socialism and fully embracing capitalism.

    Capitalists, like our paleolithic fisherman, are responsible for the rise of humanity from isolated hunter-gatherer-fishermen up to and including modern man. They enhanced the IQ of the human race by increasing human interaction and cross cultural contacts in early trading centers – where intrepid traders (mostly from the deepest end of the gene pool) left far more behind than their trading goods. There was however one dark side to this. Seeing the wealth created by early entrepreneurs, early politicians created various means to destroy wealth – a pattern that also still holds true today.

    Traders, entrepreneurs, creators, innovators – capitalists all – have spawned enormous wealth, reduced poverty, increased life expectancy and boosted IQ. They are truly the heroes of the world. Who has done more to benefit the common man – Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs, Sam Walton or any king, president or commissar?

    If you doubt for a moment capitalists are the heroes of the world, look around you. Ponder with amazement the monuments they have bestowed on you. Gape in awe at the medical breakthroughs, consumer electronics, software, technology and the veritable cornucopia of everyday marvels. Average folks today live better than monarchs mere decades ago. World poverty has been halved in the past generation. Luxuries a short time ago are selling today at Wal-Mart or Costco for ridiculously low prices. Not a single one of these miracles was created by government.

    Not uncoincidentally, capitalists are the antithesis of all socialist and utopian schemes. Without entrepreneurs we would be like the former USSR, Cuba, Venezuela and all the other hell holes that elevate the state over people. The greatest metric to measure the progress of a civilization is the rate at which it creates new wealth. The more new millionaires, the better that society is innovating, creating jobs, efficiently allocating its resources and responding to the needs and wants of all its members.

    Labor Day is appropriate to honor work which is a noble activity. However, it must be expanded to honor capitalists who make labor more productive via their risk and investment. America is humanity’s ultimate capitalist bastion; let’s celebrate capitalism and the capitalists who had a dream and the will to see it through. The horn-of-plenty that is America today results from labor and capital – let’s honor them both!

The next post, scheduled for Labor Day, addresses public sector unions.

Food Fight in America

George Noga
Progressive beliefs about food are a witch’s brew of ignorance, politics and religion.
Food Fight in America
By: George Noga – August 21, 2016
     Progressives call GMOs frankenfood and demand it be labeled. They believe organic food tastes better, is healthier, more nutritious, more natural and better for the environment. As usual, we examine the underlying facts.
      Genetically Modified Organisms or GMOs: Vermont recently became the first state to mandate GMO labeling – which could cost $500 annually per family as uninformed consumers buy more expensive non-GMO foods. National surveys show 90% favor labeling food containing GMOs; however, the same surveys show 80% also favor labeling for  DNA – what does that tell you about consumers’ acumen?
      Over 100 Nobel Laureates signed a letter supporting GMOs asserting: (1) scientific agencies find GMOs as safe or safer than other foods; (2) there has never been a single confirmed case of a negative health outcome; (3) the environmental impact is less damaging; and (4) they are a boon to biodiversity. Despite this, progressive groups are blocking a GMO rice that reduces/eliminates vitamin A deficiency, which UNICEF estimates can save the lives of 2 million children each year in Africa and Asia.
      With absolutely zero scientific basis and the most blatant anti-science of our age, liberals deny the fruits of modern science to starving and under-nourished poor people. This is not only callous, inhumane and heartless, it is nothing short of imposing starvation solely in the name of progressive religion. To call it immoral is insufficient.
      If GMOs are labeled, we propose the following. “This product contains organic material altered by human intervention. GMOs began 10,000 years ago per the Bible (Genesis 30:30-43) via our forebears’ selection of seeds and breeding. In recent centuries some GMOs resulted from natural mutations due to radiation or chemicals. More recently, some GMOs were via alterations to DNA. These changes have been an unmitigated boon to all of mankind and to the environment. Bon Appetit!”
       Organic Food: For acolytes of the environmental religion, organic food is their holy Eucharist. It is politically correct manna that the right people with the right ideas consume to demonstrate their good intentions, to feel smug about themselves and to solidify their membership in the progressive tribe. Organic food is mainly a political construct; knowing this, Whole Foods puts its stores nearly exclusively in enclaves with high concentrations of progressive voters. Whole Foods understands that they really are selling warm, fuzzy, feel-good Utopian fantasies rather than food.
      There is no difference in taste between organic and conventionally grown food as confirmed by scores of blind, independent taste tests. Stanford researchers reviewed 237 studies and published their conclusions in the Annals of Internal Medicine concluding there are no differences in health, nutrition or antioxidant levels. Organic isn’t more natural and 25% is fake, grown in China. There is however one clear difference – organic costs up to 300% more. How do you spell g-u-l-l-i-b-l-e?
       Nor is organic better for the environment. Both organic and conventional farming use pesticides, the sole difference is organic uses “natural” pesticides which are not as effective and require much heavier usage with bad consequences for the environment. Organic is inefficient, requiring anywhere from 30% to 50% more land – another body blow to the environment. Organic emits more greenhouse gasses from fertilizer (manure), often trucked in from afar. Organic is neither local nor sustainable.
       Progressive dogma about food is 100% voodoo, a toxic witch’s brew of ignorance, eco-religion, lies, myth and evil. It is indefensible scientifically and morally. Two million poor kids are condemned to death each year from vitamin A deficiency. Those who imbibe the witch’s brew cause needless death to children and destruction to the environment. If liberal ideas are so obviously wrong about simple food issues, how can progressives ever be taken seriously about more weighty issues?
The next post advocates a new holiday – Capital Day should precede Labor Day

Why Government Fails While Business Succeeds

George Noga

Government fails while business succeeds because of immutable human nature. At root, it is exactly the same reason socialism fails while capitalism succeeds.

By: George Noga – August 14, 2016

    Business succeeds because its risks, rewards and incentives are properly aligned with human nature. The need to make a profit focuses attention and demands great effort because success confers wealth and status while failure has immediate and unpleasant consequences. Thus, business attracts motivated, talented and hard working people. Why would anyone be a bureaucrat if he/she could succeed in business?

    All that is well understood; however, there are more compelling explanations for spectacular corporate successes like Apple, Walmart, Disney, Berkshire Hathaway, FedEx and Coca-Cola. Juxtapose these against abject government failures such as public schools, terrorism, Madoff, economic growth, jobs, disaster relief, health care, IRS, USPS and most major cities (Newark, Detroit, Chicago), states and nations.

    It all comes down to human nature which is unchanged since man walked on two feet. Humans are hard wired to further their self interest and to respond to incentives. This explains why socialism has never worked outside a small group like a family, clan or tribe. Socialist or Utopian schemes never have worked for more than 50 people – probably it is more like 25. We need look no further than Jamestown and Plymouth to see how socialism resulted in starvation and every form of privation; it was only when the settlers instituted private property that hunger and suffering were alleviated.

    The same principle that dooms socialism also casts its pall on government – even in capitalist countries. Both are contrary to the most basic laws of human nature – self interest and incentives. Public sector economics explains the inner workings of government; it proves,inter alia, why government prefers debt over taxes, why taxes are opaque and why failed public programs continue to exist and even to expand.

    In  business, all it takes is one driven entrepreneur such as a Jobs, Gates, Buffet, Fred Smith, Sam Walton or Walt Disney to change the world. By its very nature government must appeal to the lowest common denominator (“LCD”) of the populace to win elections. Politicians behave rationally when they do whatever is necessary to win elections. That explains why they divide people by race, gender, age and income and pursue policies they know to be detrimental to those they represent.

    A great paradox lies at the heart of government and human nature. Some limited government is necessary but there is no practical way to make it respond to the people’s long term best interests. The only possible solution is to reduce the size and scope of government to the absolute minimum, i.e. more liberty and less government.

    Business structures its incentives to appeal to the best and brightest among us and, as a consequence, one talented and motivated business person can change the world and make life better for everyone. In contrast, government always descends to the LCD or to the level of the least of us. Socialism and government always fail because they are, at the most elemental level, diametrically opposed to abiding human nature.

Next: The timeless struggle between personal freedom and government power.

Without Remembrance There Can Be No Redemption  

George Noga

If remembrance is the key to redemption, the Japanese people are unredeemed

By: George Noga – August 9, 2016

     This post is on the anniversary of the Nagasaki bomb. It is a post I never should have to write and one in which I take absolutely no satisfaction. But it must be written and presented to a candid world. A former German president (Richard von Weizsacker) speaking of German war crimes said, “The secret of redemption lies in remembrance“.  By that standard, Japan has failed utterly and abjectly and deserves no redemption.

    It was only a few months ago (75 years after the fact) and following several decades of legal effort that Japan apologized for and settled its WWII slave labor claims. Only in late 2015 did Japan come to grips with its sexual slavery of young Korean girls; they had to be dragged kicking and screaming and settled only under duress. Japan has yet to accept responsibility for the Rape of Nanjing in which its troops, in a frenzy of racial hatred, slaughtered 300,000 Chinese civilians in a gruesome depraved manner.

    Nanjing was but one episode in a long train of Japanese atrocities. Other Japanese holocausts include the Bataan Death March, subhuman POW treatment, massacres in Shanghai and Hong Kong and the Yellow River flood when Japan destroyed dikes and murdered 1 million civilians. During Japan’s occupation of the Philippines, there were 72 documented massacres leaving over 120,000 dead. The list goes on and on; it includes Laha Airfield, Bangka Island, Parit, Sulong, Tol Plantation, Balikapan, Chekiang, Sandakan Death March, Truk, Manchuria, Pingfan and 40 more wretched massacres, holocausts, ethnic cleansings and atrocities by the Empire of Japan.

    In willful and flagrant disregard of the unambiguous historical record of the past 75 years, the Japanese people remain in denial. They refuse to teach in their schools about the Rape of Nanjing and exclude it from their history books. They persist in ignoring, downplaying and obfuscating their atrocious record of racism and terror. Japanese children are not told the ugly truth about their fathers’ and grandfathers’ actions.

    To anyone who now wants to give Japan a pass on its WWII atrocities, my response is straightforward: Remember Pearl Harbor! Remember the Bataan Death March! Remember Nanjing! Remember the POW camps! Remember all the other horrors Japan promulgated and about which it has national amnesia! Above all, never grant the Japanese people redemption until their collective memory improves and all their children learn the truth about their ancestors. Finally, on this 71st anniversary of Nagasaki, let’s pledge to remember the 3 million lives saved by the atomic bombs.

The next post August 14 addresses Obama’s overtime and payday loan rules.

Hiroshima Revisited 

George Noga

American opinion about the use of atomic weapons on Japan has changed since 1945. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (George Santayana).

  By: George Noga – August 6, 2016

    Today marks the 71st anniversary of the US attack on Hiroshima. We reexamine the wisdom of using atomic weapons on Japan and include recently declassified top secret US war plans for the invasion of Japan. The next post on August 9th, the anniversary of the Nagasaki attack, is titled Without Remembrance There Can Be No Redemption; it catalogues Japanese WWII atrocities and the Japanese people’s ongoing refusal to face up to their past horrors like the Rape of Nanjing, slave labor and comfort women.

    There were many casualties in Hiroshima (65,000) and Nagasaki (45,000); the exact number is disputed (some believe they were much higher) and may never be known. For perspective, the conventional US bombing of Tokyo killed 100,000; the allied bombing of Hamburg, Germany 50,000; and the battle of Stalingrad saw 1.5 million killed. In all of WWII, 80 million people perished. Finally, in Nanjing the Japanese Rape brutally slaughtered 300,000 civilians – nearly triple the atomic deaths in Japan.

    Americans’ attitudes have changed. In a nationwide 1945 Roper poll, 53% agreed with the atomic bombings; 14% believed we should have dropped them on an unpopulated area; 4% believed they should not have been used; and 23% favored using even more atomic weapons. The Roper poll was replicated in 2016; this time 28% agreed with the bombings; 32% favored a demonstration; 15% would not have used the bombs at all; and only 3% would have used even more bombs.

    Today, progressive revisionists claim the bombs were unnecessary because: (1) The Japanese already had decided to surrender and had so communicated that to the US via Sweden; (2) the bombs were dropped to intimidate the USSR; (3) it was a racist act and we would not have used such weapons against Germany; and (4) it was a genocidal war crime similar to what the US did in Vietnam. All of these assertions have been thoroughly disproved before; however, they are once again shredded by the recent release of top secret US war plans for the invasion of Japan.

    Only recently have the war plans for Operation Downfall been declassified. They provide compelling evidence that without the atom bombs, Japan would not have surrendered and there would have been 3-4 million additional casualties – 2 million Japanese, 1 million American and up to 1 million Chinese as the war in China was still ongoing and the Japanese were continuing to slaughter Chinese at an alarming rate. Following are but a few snippets of data from the Operation Downfall war plans.

  • General MacArthur estimated 1 million American casualties; his staff placed the number much higher. Initially 1,000 men would die per hour.
  • Japanese forces would vastly outnumber Americans unlike in all prior battles; Japan had 28 million men remaining in its combat forces.
  • It was expected to be the biggest blood-bath in modern warfare.
  • Russia would have invaded northern Japan and partitioned it just like Korea.
  • Japanese casualties were estimated (including by Japan) at over 2 million.

     Use of atomic bombs saved at least 3 million lives – mostly Japanese. The casualties that resulted from these attacks represented .0014 of all WWII deaths and, to repeat, only about 37% of the Chinese civilians that were massacred by Japan in Nanjing – which really was pure racism. As shown by the 2016 Roper poll, many Americans cannot remember the past; let’s hope we are not condemned to repeat it.

The next post is August 9th – the anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing.

Transgenders, Dragons and Unicorns

George Noga

So, you believe you may know a little something about transgender issues? Think again! Do you know about PGPs, cisgender, gender fluidity, pangender, otherkin and unigender?

By: George Noga – August 1, 2016

      A transgender went to the store where xe bought apples for xemself; xe ate xyrs apples for xem lunch. A pangender went to the store where they bought apples for themselves; they ate their apples for their lunch. A gender fluid went to the store where ve bought apples for perself; sie ate ver aples for vis lunch. The preceding illustrates approved uses of PGPs, or personal gender pronouns, of which there are at least 45, or 30 more than I used in this paragraph. This is serious business. The NYC Commission on Human Rights decreed anyone failing to use correct PGPs can be fined $125,000.

    The 99.994% of us who are cisgender, i.e. our self identity conforms to our biological gender, have much to learn. Transgender is merely the proverbial camel’s nose under the gender identity tent. Following are some other forms of gender identity.

    Gender fluid: Since gender identity is entirely subjective and self determined, it stands to reason that a person is whatever gender he/she/they/zie/sie/ey/ve/tey/exe/per decide(s) to be at any given day, hour or moment. Young people in particular are gender nonconformists and gender defiant and resist fixed gender identities.

    Pangender: Those who believe they are all genders rolled into one are pangenders and must be addressed with plural pronouns. An Oregon pangender teacher claimed harassment when others failed to use correct pronouns; she (they) settled for $60,000.

    Otherkin: Some people identify as nonhuman – dogs, lions, etc. Some identify as creatures that do not even exist such as dragons and unicorns. Some otherkins have modified their bodies to be more like their otherkin identity.

    Once the Pandora’s box of self identity has been opened, it will not be limited to gender issues. There is nothing to stop anyone from self identifying as being (1) disabled; (2) of a different race, ethnicity, minority group or nationality; (3) of a different age; and/or (4) of a different income cohort. A young healthy rich white person could self identify as being a person of color, poor, old and disabled to qualify for disability, social security and other government benefits. Where does it all end?

    Just as there is much more to transgender than you thought, there also is much more to the issue than just restrooms. How about locker rooms, showers, dorms, fraternities, sororities, sports teams and who knows what else? Actions that once were crimes, such as exposure, flashing and voyeurism, now would be perfectly legal. Dirty old men no longer need to lurk in the shadows; they can walk into any restroom or locker room with teenage girls; indeed, it already has happened at public swimming pools.

    Solutions are elusive. One Oklahoma school district opted for single stall restrooms which anyone could use for any reason. The Obama Administration would not approve this sensible solution and threatened loss of all Title IX funding. Not to worry – MLLG has a solution. Anyone who feels threatened can simply claim to be a unigender, a new (made up) gender that believes it must be accorded privacy. Since gender identity is entirely subjective and self determined, unigender must be as valid as any other gender.

    The Obama Administration asserts teenage girls simply need to get over their discomfort at seeing naked men next to them or showering with them. They fail to grasp the pure paradox of their position. On the one hand, they assert gender and genitalia are wholly irrelevant and demand young girls accept anything in a public facility. On the other hand, they assert that for transgenders, gender and genitalia are not only relevant but supremely important and that they shouldn’t have to get over their possible discomfiture in using restrooms that conform to their birth gender.

The next post is August 6th – the 71st anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb.

Derby: A Unique Montana Tradition

George Noga

Derby is special because of the eclectic group of participants. Some players openly smoke dope, while other participants are deputy sheriffs who pretend not to notice.

By: George Noga – July 25, 2016

    During summer I lighten up my blog with anecdotes about my summer home in Whitefish, Montana. Whitefish is sited in the Flathead Valley of NW Montana only 50 miles south of Canada and 100 miles east of the upper panhandle of Idaho. I belong to the Whitefish Lake Golf Club that has a half-century tradition called Derby, which is open to anyone; I have been playing Derby for the past seven or eight summers.

    Each Thursday at high noon, anywhere from 15 to 27 golfers are divided into three man scramble teams made as equal as possible by the commissioner, the member in charge of Derby. The commissioner is chosen to maintain the Derby tradition and serves for life. The teams compete with only modest stakes of one dollar per person per hole. This could happen at almost any golf club in the USA, you may be thinking.

    Your thinking would be wrong; Derby is unique. For starters, all 15 to 27 golfers play as one group and manage to play 18 holes in about 4.5 hours – an average time for the course. Usually three people hit simultaneously; it is a miracle no one has been injured. Imagine the scene with 27 golfers and 15 golf carts barrelling down a fairway toward an unsuspecting foursome of visiting Canadians. Note: I spent several summers playing in Derby before I learned  that drunken Canadian was two words.

    What makes Derby special is the eclectic combination of participants. Players range in age from 18 to over 80. Some earn minimum wage; others are multi millionaires. Some are scratch golfers; others are high handicappers. Some lack higher education; others are professionals with doctorate degrees. There are Americans, Canadians and Native Americans. Many are Montanans; others like me hail from throughout the USA.

    Some players openly smoke dope while other participants are deputy sheriffs who pretend not to notice. Other players imbibe liberally from adult beverages in ubiquitous coolers in many golf carts. Some do both. There is a cohort of Mormon participants that conveniently ignores strictures against drinking and gambling. Some players have Derby nicknames too ribald to include herein. The repartee is incessant and priceless.

    Everyone clearly revels in the camaraderie despite what, on the surface, appear to be wide chasms among the various cohorts: young and old, rich and poor, accomplished golfers and duffers, dishwashers and attorneys, dropouts and PhDs, potheads and law enforcement officers and Mormons coexisting with gambling, drugs and alcohol.

    Two factors combine to make Derby an enduring tradition: (1) shared love of golf; and (2) Montana. Derby probably wouldn’t work outside Montana as there clearly is something very special in the air up here. If you golf and visit NW Montana, consider playing in Derby; you will understand why there is nothing quite like it anywhere.

    But if you should visit the Treasure State, please don’t stay too long; Montanans are fond of their bumper stickers reading: Welcome to Montana – Now Go Home. Recently, the population of Montana surpassed one million for the first time and the news was greeted universally throughout the state with great sorrow, gloom and melancholy.

The next MLLG post from Montana will be distributed in about a week.

The Infantilization of America

George Noga

It is illegal to blow up a balloon before age 14 in certain blue states; meanwhile in Montana, kids 8 years old routinely ride bulls in rodeos; if  these kids were to move from Montana to Illinois, they must wait 6 more years to legally inflate a balloon.

By: George Noga – July14, 2016

     A nanny state is being imposed by progressives who believe they know better what is good for us; they began by infantilizing children but are bent on infantilizing all Americans. Age 16 has become the new age 10. Following is a small sample of nanny state regulations promulgated by the federal government and by certain blue states.

  • Amtrak will not accept unaccompanied minors under 13. Ages 13-15 can travel alone only by complying with rigorous preconditions. In effect, no one under 16 can travel alone. In Japan, 8 year olds frequently travel unaccompanied.
  • Children under 14 cannot be left at home without babysitters or legally blow up a balloon in some blue states.
  • OSHA bans see-saws, monkey bars and merry-go-rounds in playgrounds; all tree limbs lower than 8 feet above ground must be sawed off to prevent climbing.
  • Children are not allowed to walk to school in some places. One mother was charged with neglect when her children walked after missing the bus. Another mom was arrested for allowing her 9 year old to walk 1/4 mile to a McDonald’s.

   These strictures do not constitute mere advice or suggestions on the part of government nor are they attempts to reason or to persuade. They bear the full force of law. Miscreants and scofflaws are subject to the government’s monopoly on the legalized use of force. SWAT teams can and do take children from parents and subject them to the full panoply of horrors common to state agencies.

   Amidst all this infantilizing, it is comforting to know parts of the real America still exist. One such place is our summer home of Montana. During summers there is a weekly rodeo near the small town where we stay and a regular event is youth bull riding. Kids as young as 8 ride bulls; to be sure, the bulls are young with their horns cut back and the kids wear helmets. Still, the 500 pound bulls are undomesticated.

     At the same rodeo it is common to see teenagers with serious hunting knives (think: Crocodile Dundee) strapped openly to their waists. Imagine the same sight at a blue state junior high school football game. Within an instant panic would set in; heavily armed SWAT teams would fast rope in; and the stadium would be evacuated.

     In Montana a youth can get a hunting license at age 11 – and the first one is free. Youth deer hunting season is the Thursday and Friday preceding the opening of regular hunting season in October. So many youths go hunting that all schools in Montana have been forced to close during the two days of youth hunting season.

    Infantilization of children is child abuse. Emotional development of victims is hobbled; they are at increased risk of self harm; and they have academic problems and poor social skills. They are averse to responsibility and often fail as adults. Children are but the first victims; it is the aim of progressives to infantilize all Americans and to turn America into a nanny state with government as the nanny and all of us as children. As with all liberal doctrines promising benefits, the end result always is grave harm.

      I’m not sure I would want my eight year old to ride a bull or my eleven year old to go deer hunting. I am absolutely certain however that I prefer to live in a place like Montana that leaves such decisions up to parents rather than to the state.

The next post in about 10 days describes a zany Montana golf tradition – Derby!