Tag: Capitalism

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Is Government Evil?

George Noga

Is Government Evil?

Government horrors in my lifetime

GEORGE NOGA
March 24, 2024

Previously, I referred to government as a malevolent force; now I call it evil. It is however a necessary evil because it’s better than the alternative, which is anarchy. Since government is an evil force, we should have as little of it as possible, only enough to protect us from foreign and domestic violence and to preserve our liberty.

a field full of white crosses in the grassAmerican cemetery in Normandy

Some readers have questioned my use of the term evil. Following is my lifetime of experiences with government. You judge if they qualify as evil.

  • I was born while my father was fighting in WWII; he also fought in Korea. Both wars (as well as WWI) resulted from government ineptitude. American WWII casualties were 407,000 killed and 671,000 wounded. Worldwide 60 million died, all preventable. My father was away at war during half of my first 10 years.
  • For 12 years I was the victim of an execrable education in wretched government schools. Any learning that took place was purely incidental.
  • I have been subject to a mind-numbing array of taxes, including at one time an income tax with a 94% bracket. Government at all levels takes 40% in taxes.
  • Government mismanagement of the economy unleashed numerous economic cycles, bubbles, busts, panics and meltdowns. The Federal Reserve once jacked up interest rates to over 20% to fix the 15% inflation it caused.
  • It costs $20,000 to buy what cost $1,000 when I was born: inflation of 2,000%.
  • The government-promulgated disaster that was the Vietnam War discombobulated my life and required me to serve in the armed forces.
  • I owned a highly regulated business for 35 years and was subject to a Kafkaesque wasteland of arcane and conflicting government regulations that helped no one.
  • Out of control government spending, debt and deficits will result in the greatest economic and social disaster in US history. Incredibly, government has managed to bankrupt the most prosperous nation in the history of this planet.
  • I only narrowly escaped the Obamacare death panels, but am still at risk for rationing and denial of care under a future single payer system.

Government has bankrupted the most prosperous nation in the history of Earth.

Private Sector Advances

Let’s contrast the above government horrors with the progress made by the private sector over the same time horizon.

  • Medical and dental treatment has improved immeasurably. When I was young there was little doctors could do except palliative care. President Coolidge’s son got a blister playing tennis; it became infected and he died within a week. There was nothing doctors could do. Going to the dentist was to be feared.
  • The progress in pharmaceuticals has been breathtaking. Most diseases are curable and gene therapy is a reality.
  • Computers did not exist in 1943. Today’s smartphones contain thousands of times the computing power used on lunar missions – and at ridiculously low prices.
  • Consumer electronics have made amazing progress. When I was young, there were only 3 channels of TV on a 9-inch screen with fuzzy reception and broadcasting limited hours. Today many hundreds of channels are available in high definition with over 125,000 movies available on demand 24/7.
  • We have advanced from propeller planes to walking on the moon .
  • The quality of all goods – particularly cars – has improved. Food now is but a small part of most family budgets. The cost of most goods in real terms has plummeted.
  • Capitalism has eliminated poverty, hunger and homelessness except for those with untreated mental illness. See my 2/18/24 post on my website: www.mllg.us.

Government Versus Markets

During my lifetime, government has brought mostly grief and failure, whereas free market capitalism has produced miracles. Government is not based on markets; it is top-down, highly coercive and ignores consumer preferences. It is antithetical to human nature. Waste, fraud, abuse and corruption are endemic. Government failure is systemic, structural, ingrained and incapable of reform.

Free market capitalism succeeds because it properly aligns personal rewards, risks and incentives with the goals of the business; it is in sync with (not opposed to) human nature. There also are immediate and consequential personal costs of failure. Capitalism attracts those who are hard working and receptive to risk, whereas government attracts those who are risk averse and value security over opportunity.

Is Government Evil?

Dictionaries define evil as: (1) something that brings sorrow, distress or calamity; (2) suffering, misfortune and wrongdoing; (3) wicked or dishonorable; (4) capable of harm and (5) having undesirable or negative qualities.

Government comports squarely with the above definition. The drafters of our Constitution understood government was capable of great harm; that’s why they created a republic with separation of powers and numerous checks and balances. However, as I wrote at the beginning of this post, you may judge for yourself.

© 2024 George Noga
More Liberty – Less Government, Post Office Box 916381
Longwood, FL 32791-6381, Email: mllg@cfl.rr.com

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The “Root” Cause of Poverty

George Noga

The “Root” Cause of Poverty

America has spent $25 trillion in its war against poverty

GEORGE NOGA
FEB 25, 2024

This is a companion post to my offering of last week declaring victory in America’s war against poverty. If you missed that post, it is available on Substack and on my website: www.mllg.us. The above headline notwithstanding, poverty has no root cause; it is the natural condition of mankind. We begin in paleolithic times.
The Natural Condition of Mankind

The Natural Condition of Mankind

At the dawn of civilization our ancestors subsisted as hunters-fishers-gatherers. There was no economy per se. People were divided into small families or clans, each of which functioned as a putative economic unit. They coexisted with other such units, mostly peaceably, sometimes not. Their lives, short and brutish, were on a bare subsistence level – wholly dependent on the fickle bounty of the sea, the exigencies of the hunt and the caprice of nature.

What economic lessons can we sophists of the twenty-first century glean from such primitive people? What, if anything, can they teach us? Surprisingly, they teach us an ineffaceable economic truth applicable across all time and space, i.e. the natural and normal condition of mankind is poverty. There is no known instance where any aboriginal population existed in any state other than poverty.

Most people understand the natural condition of man is poverty, but fail to grasp its implications. Progressives prattle about the root causes of poverty and even have declared war against it. America has spent $25 trillion since it declared war on poverty in 1964. In 60 years of that war, poverty has not been reduced one whit.

Those who consternate about the causes of poverty are wasting their time. They are asking the wrong question. The question we should be asking is: what causes wealth and how can we bring it about. Wealth is not a natural condition of mankind and is rare throughout the sweep of human history. Wealth creation must be understood and fostered. It is only by understanding wealth that poverty can be alleviated.

Progressives assert that, for example, lack of education creates poverty. This is a posteriori reasoning. People are born uneducated. To create wealth they need to become educated. Education creates wealth; ignorance does not create poverty.

What Causes Wealth?

Harken back to our paleolithic fishermen ancestors. They struggled to spear enough fish to survive, until a nascent capitalist thought of a net. Since capital did not yet exist anywhere to finance the construction of this fisherman’s net, he had no choice but to create his own. He worked every waking hour for months accumulating enough extra fish (his capital) to allow him the time to construct his net.

The net worked as planned and our budding capitalist now generated a surplus of fish to trade for other goods – in the process giving birth to the division of labor. His capital investment made him wealthier than the others in his clan – but it also made everyone else better off. He now generated capital which could be used by other entrepreneurs in his clan to increase the prosperity and well being of everyone.

Capitalism Creates Prosperity and Eliminates Poverty

What worked for our capitalist paleolithic fisherman is the same thing that worked for the capitalists who founded Wal-Mart, Amazon, Tesla, Apple and Microsoft. They have become immensely wealthy, but in the process they have enriched all our lives and increased our productivity. Not one of these successes was created by government or socialism. Who has done more to benefit the common man – Henry Ford, Steve Jobs and Sam Walton – or any king, president or commissar?

Capitalism has created a cornucopia of wealth unprecedented in human history. Extreme poverty worldwide is nearly eliminated and every metric of human well being is improving. Average folks live better than monarchs a few decades ago. Luxuries a short time ago are selling for ridiculously cheap prices at Wal-Mart and Costco.

To continue to improve the lives of everyone and to end poverty, we must shed our shibboleths. Unlike our stone age ancestors, we do not blame poverty on deities, animal spirits or the position of stars. Today, progressives and the media blame poverty on bogeymen like greed, multi-national corporations, western civilization, capitalism, fossil fuels, racism, free trade and lack of diversity, equity and inclusion.

In the twenty-first century we understand how to create wealth and eliminate poverty, but we fail to do so because of obeisance to the false gods of progressivism.

© 2024 George Noga
More Liberty – Less Government, Post Office Box 916381
Longwood, FL 32791-6381, Email: mllg@cfl.rr.com

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Eighty Years and Counting – Lessons learned over a lifetime

George Noga

Eighty Years and Counting
Lessons learned over a lifetime
GEORGE NOGA JULY 23, 2023

 

As I begin my ninth decade on this orb, I am taking the liberty to share what I have learned about human nature and, more particularly, the relationship of man to the state. Following are the top ten lessons I have learned.

We The people text
Photo by Anthony Garand on Unsplash

  1. The US Constitution is the best document ever to define the relationship between man and the state and it may be the finest document ever crafted by the hand of man. It embodies a fundamentally correct understanding of human nature by imposing an ingenious system of checks, balances and separation of powers. Our Constitution is 236 years old; half of all constitutions fail within 20 years.
  2. Government is inherently evil as our founders well understood; however, limited government is necessary to prevent an even greater evil, i.e. anarchy. Because government is evil, we want as little as possible – mainly for security from foreign and domestic violence. Since the evil is inherent, government can’t be reformed. The only way to reduce the evil is to reduce the funding; nothing else works.
  3. Government fails because it is unalterably opposed to human nature. Its incentives are diametrically misaligned with the public interest. Government is top-down, highly coercive, ignores consumer preferences and artificially creates winners and losers; it does not attract talented, hard-working people. It is rife with waste, fraud, abuse and corruption. Business succeeds because it is the opposite of every one of the above described characteristics of government.
  4. The science of public sector economics explains why government is predestined to fail. The goals and incentives of public officials are horribly misaligned with the public good. That explains why taxes are opaque, borrowing is always preferable to taxes, spending is out of control and failed programs never end.
  5. All forms of collectivism are doomed to fail for all the reasons cited above; however, socialism deviates far more egregiously from human nature. It inevitably results in starvation amidst plenty. Colonists in Jamestown and Plymouth chose death over socialism. Once they had private property rights however, these very same people became inventive, industrious and prosperous.
  6. People are incapable of sacrifice absent a serious danger that directly and immediately affects their lives. We refuse to act even in face of a clear and inevitable disaster. The best example of this is the coming spending crisis.
  7. The success of capitalism sows the seeds of its own destruction. This was first posed as a question by economist Joseph Schumpeter; we have resoundingly answered his question in the affirmative. America has become so affluent its citizens have lost the connection with what created their prosperity in the first place. As Steinbeck wrote: “Americans can stand anything nature throws at us save only plenty. If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much.”
  8. Universal school choice – where the money always follows the child – is the only way to improve education. Absolutely nothing else will work due to government failure and public sector economics explained supra. Parents always have the best interest of their children at heart; teachers and education bureaucrats don’t.
  9. Most of our formerly trusted American institutions have become hopelessly woke and corrupted; they include: entertainment, media, corporations, military, sports, fact-checkers, education, government, science, criminal justice, immigration, universities, academia, social media and even religion.
  10. The Gods of the Copybook Headings¹, with terror and slaughter, will return. Americans have not only ignored the wisdom carefully learned and handed down throughout the ages, they have flaunted it. Instead, we worship the false gods of wokeness, debt and deficits, climate madness, political correctness and identity politics. Throughout human experience, whenever people worship false gods, the Gods of the Copybook Headings, always return – with terror and slaughter!
1

Taken from the poem of the same name by Rudyard Kipling. In Kipling’s time, children learned to write using a copybook. Each page of the copybook had a heading which embodied some proverb or kernel of wisdom such as “All that glitters is not gold” and “A stitch in time saves nine”. The children would then copy the headings into their copybook to perfect their handwriting.

© 2023 George Noga
More Liberty – Less Government, Post Office Box 916381
Longwood, FL 32791-6381, Email: mllg@cfl.rr.com

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Adam Smith Tricentennial

George Noga

Why there is no capitalist manifesto
GEORGE NOGA – JUN 25, 2023

This month is the 300th anniversary of Adam Smith, born June 1723 in Kirkaldy, Scotland. Adam Smith was not the father of capitalism, as he often is called, but the first to articulate its principles. He is known for his invisible hand metaphor explaining how self-interested individuals operate in a system of mutual interdependence and direct economic life more effectively and fairly than government intervention.

a statue of a man standing in front of a building

Adam Smith did not invent capitalism because it evolved organically. No intellectual ever wrote a capitalist manifesto. Capitalism doesn’t require pointy-headed professors to theorize; it just happens naturally. To the eternal pique of liberal elites, no one is capable of controlling capitalism, whereas socialism requires controllers, i.e. the same progressive savants who castigate capitalism. Capitalism is egalitarian and rewards those who best serve sovereign consumers; i.e. their fellow man.

Capitalism evolved in prehistoric times

Capitalism evolved organically. For example, Paleolithic fishermen worked incessantly, spearing just enough fish to survive. Then along came one nascent capitalist who thought of a net. Since neither he nor anyone else had any capital he could borrow, he worked longer hours for months to accumulate enough surplus fish (his capital) to give him time to make a net. With his net he generated a fish surplus to trade for other goods. He also financed others who, in turn, specialized in different skills, with the resultant benefits from the division of labor. Our first capitalist became wealthy, but his capital also made everyone else much better off.

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interests.”

In sharp contrast, socialism never has happened organically. All the failed attempts throughout history to achieve Utopia, Xanadu, Zion and Valhalla were spearheaded and financed by some ivory-tower dreamer. That explains, as well as anything, why capitalism always succeeds and why all forms of collectivism always fail.

More Wisdom from Adam Smith

Adam Smith wrote many other pithy statements about economics and capitalism, which continue to have relevance for those of us in the twenty-first century. His point in Wealth of Nations about comparative advantages of trade still resonates.

“By means of glasses and hotbeds, very good grapes can be grown in Scotland and very good wine too can be made of them at about thirty times the expense for which at least equally good can be brought from foreign countries.”

Smith’s statements about the role of government also are valid 300 years on.

“Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.”

“To hurt in any degree the interest of any one order of citizens, for no other purpose but to promote that of some other is evidently contrary to that justice and equality the (government) owes to all the different orders of citizens.”

“The statesman who attempts to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capital would not only load himself with unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could be entrusted to no council, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had the folly to fancy himself fit to exercise it.”

Perhaps my favorite Adam Smith quote applies (in spades) to today’s virtue-signaling progressives, private-jetting climate alarmists, greenwashing corporations, limousine liberals and their ilk. Adam Smith had their number 300 years ago when he wrote:

“The man who has performed no single action of importance, but whose whole conversation and deportment express the justest, the noblest and most generous sentiments, can be entitled to no very high reward. We ask him, what have you done.”

Adam Smith’s genius lie in being first to clearly explain an economic phenomenon that is as old as our Paleolithic fisherman who first generated an economic surplus. Remember, no one ever wrote a capitalist manifesto because it wasn’t necessary. Unlike all forms of collectivism, capitalism is organic and consistent with human nature. That explains why capitalism and free markets succeed and socialism fails.

© 2023 George Noga
More Liberty – Less Government, Post Office Box 916381
Longwood, FL 32791-6381, Email: mllg@cfl.rr.com

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Tale of Two Islands

George Noga

Both had revolutions in 1959
GEORGE NOGA – MAY 14, 2023

 

I continually search for new ways to highlight the blessings of liberty (both political and economic) and the evils of collectivism in all its many manifestations. Nothing puts this into as sharp relief as the Tale of Two Islands from 1959 to 2023.

Revolutions occurred on two islands in 1959. Both countries were mountainous, less than 25% arable and relied on sugar exports. Both faced large, powerful and hostile enemies, separated by less than 100 miles of ocean. In both cases, their enemies cut off diplomatic and economic relations and threatened military invasions. However, one of the island nations was way ahead of the other in terms of health, education, income and nearly all other metrics of national well-being.

The country you likely are familiar with is Cuba, which in 1959 had nominal GDP of $2.0 billion and a population of 7 million, resulting in per capita GDP of $286. In 1959 the communist revolution led by Castro took over and abolished both political and economic freedom. Prior to its revolution, Cuba was far more prosperous than the other island; its GDP per capita was double that of the other island.

The second island nation is Taiwan. In 1959 its nominal GDP was $1.6 billion and its population 11 million, equating to per capita GDP of $145. In 1959 Taiwan underwent an economic revolution, adopting capitalism and a market economy. In the early 1970s Taiwan also had a political revolution – becoming a liberal democracy.

Fast forward to 2023. Cuba has GDP of $110 billion, a population of 11.3 million and (nominal) per capita GDP of $9,700, ranking 75th in the world. Out of 176 countries ranked, Cuba’s index of economic freedom ranks 175th in the world; only North Korea is worse. Taiwan has GDP of $900 billion and a population of 24 million for per capita GDP of $37,500 placing it 30th highest in the world. Its freedom index is 4th best in the world, much higher even than the USA which ranks 25th.

This tale of two islands illustrates the differences between freedom and capitalism versus tyranny and collectivism. Moreover, the GDP data for Cuba are suspect and Cuba’s true rank is likely one of the lowest in the world. Take home pay, according to most sources, is less than $100 per month. Cuba remains a brutal dictatorship filled with political prisons that engage in torture. Even its vaunted health care system is a failure. Cuban doctors botched Fidel’s treatment and doctors from Spain had to be flown in. Infant mortality is the worst in Latin America and is based on forced abortion of risky pregnancies and on not counting underweight births.

In 1959 Cuba’s per capita GDP was twice Taiwan’s; now it is 4 times lower, a swing of 800% – and the real data are far worse. But numbers alone do not tell the full story. The juxtaposition of Cuba and Taiwan from 1959 to the present is one of freedom versus repression, prosperity versus stagnation and hope versus desperation. Cuba today is a nihilistic society where 35% of pregnancies are aborted. It reveals the depth and breadth of the human and economic disaster wrought by collectivism.

Che Guevara may continue to adorn the tee shirts of clueless youth. Useful idiots, in and out of the media, may continue to offer encomia; but the Cuban people, when the regime finally crumbles, will render final judgment. Castro statues will be felled, murals will be defaced and the truth about the incalculable poverty and suffering of the Cuban people will be outed.

© 2023 George Noga
More Liberty – Less Government, Post Office Box 916381
Longwood, FL 32791-6381, Email: mllg@cfl.rr.com

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Titanic Myths

George Noga

Setting the record straight

Titanic Myths

GEORGE NOGA – APR 16, 2023

Although Titanic sank 111 years ago yesterday, many Promethean myths (Prometheus was a Titan) reverberate even today. Most accounts (especially the DiCaprio film) are ignorant, dishonest and politically motivated. This post sets the record straight.

Myth: Capitalism (Greed) Caused the Loss of Life

The PC narrative is White Star Lines (WSL) did not have enough lifeboats due to greed (cost) or aesthetics. The real blame lies with inept government regulation by the British Board of Trade (BOT). The designer, builder and WSL all deferred to the BOT about the number of lifeboats, as it was the unchallenged authority. However, BOT regulations were 20 years old and enacted when 10,000 tons and 20 lifeboats was the norm; Titanic was 46,238 tons. Bureaucrats were rewarded for issuing new regulations, not updating old ones. No one challenged the BOT. Once government becomes involved, common sense and personal responsibility disappear.

Myth: First Class Passengers Got Preferential Treatment

Dissecting the data, 74% of women and 20% of men survived. However, 44% of first class passengers were women versus 23% third class. When adjusting for gender, the survival rates between first and third class were about the same. A third class female was 41% more likely to survive than a first class male. Third class passengers were more reluctant to leave the ship and part with baggage; also, their location aboard ship made survival more problematic. When third class passengers reached the boat deck, they were accorded the same treatment as all others. Survival was not about class; it was about women and children – nearly all of whom were saved.

Myth: Male aggression Hurt Survival of Women and Children

The number of men who survived is cited as evidence of male aggression. There was lifeboat capacity for all women and children and 550 men. There were many more men than women on board. If one man were loaded onto a lifeboat for each woman and child, all women and children would have been saved. Moreover, lifeboats would have been loaded quicker and with less fear, keeping families together and saving more lives. Male behavior, far from being aggressive, resulted in more than 200 fewer men surviving than should have been the case.

Myth: The Media – Then and Now – Fairly Report the Facts

Most contemporaneous media accounts were tainted by laziness, i.e. the failure to properly understand the data. Present day media stories hew to a politically correct narrative of blaming capitalism, greed, class warfare and male aggression for the calamity. The movie Titanic falsely depicted third class passengers forcibly barricaded to keep them from reaching lifeboats. Nor was anyone shot. The crew and passengers were stereotyped in the worst possible way, despite acting heroically and fearlessly in the fact of near-certain death. Note: Fox (which made the movie) has since apologized to families of those falsely portrayed in the movie.

Enduring Lessons of Titanic

First and Foremost, the Titanic disaster was a failure of government, not of capitalism. The media are feckless and lazy; it is far easier and more dramatic to blame the ship’s designer, builder and owner rather than an amorphous, faceless gaggle of bureaucrats. Nearly without exception, the media falsely portrays a politically correct narrative that blames capitalism, class warfare and toxic masculinity.

Source Note: Data for survival rates were taken from the formal investigation conducted by the British government as reported on several websites.

© 2023 George Noga
More Liberty – Less Government, Post Office Box 916381
Longwood, FL 32791-6381, Email: mllg@cfl.rr.com

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Was the Bethlehem Innkeeper Greedy? The Grinch Who Stole the First Christmas

George Noga

Higher prices result in more people getting more rooms than if prices were static.

Was the Bethlehem Innkeeper Greedy?

The Grinch Who Stole the First Christmas

By: George Noga – December 4, 2022

This year’s Christmas posting is about the innkeeper in whose manger Jesus was born. Last year (posting dated 12/5/21) was about Ebeneezer Scrooge; in 2020 (12/13/20) it was about Christmas Eve 1941 following Pearl Harbor. In 2019 (12/15/19) we featured America’s greatest Christmas story; in 2018 it was lessons from Christmas shopping (12/16/18). All these are on our website: www.mllg.us and worth a read. Note: The genesis for this post was an article forwarded by a reader, but the words are our own.

The story of the birth of Jesus lies at the heart of Christmas. One prevalent narrative is that Jesus was born in a manger because the innkeeper raised prices due to the surge of visitors for the census. The innkeeper often is portrayed as a greedy, and even evil, capitalist. But was the innkeeper truly greedy? The following is from Luke 2-7.

“Caesar Augustus decreed a census be taken and everyone go to their town

to register. . . So, Joseph and Mary, who was with child, went to Bethlehem.

While there, Mary gave birth in a manger as there was no room at the inn.”

The Grinch Who Stole the First Christmas

The Roman government forced people to travel long distances at their own expense and at great risk to register for the census – for the purpose of taxation. Caesar knew there would be great danger and hardship but was oblivious. Conducting a census, even 2,022 years ago, could have been accomplished with much less human misery.

Why was it necessary to require travel? Why couldn’t people register where they lived? The Romans had a vaunted postal system that could have facilitated the census without hardship. Clearly, this was an egregious abuse of power. The hubris of government was responsible for Jesus being born in a manger instead of in his own home. It is incandescently clear that the grinch who stole the first Christmas was government.

Was the Innkeeper Greedy or Benevolent?

If the innkeeper raised prices due to the surge of travelers registering for the census, would that have been greedy or even evil? This situation is no different than the price of hotel rooms during a hurricane or a big football game. Prices convey valuable economic information. By adjusting prices when demand surges, consumers benefit.

Higher prices incentivize travelers to stay with friends or relatives or to lodge farther away where prices are lower. Some families that otherwise might have taken two rooms may decide to make do with one room. Some people may decide to stay for fewer nights. Higher prices would sharply increase the supply of rooms as many local residents may decide to rent out rooms in their home, or even their entire home.

The price mechanism assures more people will get more rooms than if prices remained static. Scarce hotel (or inn) rooms are allocated in the most economically efficient manner. Those who value rooms the most get them. Far from being evil, higher prices enable the market to allocate scarce resources to the benefit of all consumers.

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The narrative of a greedy innkeeper is frequently the topic of Christmas sermons and school plays. It is economic ignorance and anti-capitalist drivel. The grinch who stole the first Christmas was government – and nothing has changed in 2,022 years.

BEST WISHES TO ALL OUR READERS FOR A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND FOR A NEW YEAR WITH MORE LIBERTY AND LESS GOVERNMENT!

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The First Thanksgiving in America

George Noga

The enduring lesson of Thanksgiving is the triumph of freedom over socialism.

The First Thanksgiving in America

By: George Noga – November 20, 2021

This Thanksgiving, as your family gathers to celebrate, regale them with the indelible lessons of the first Thanksgiving in America and not with the usual feel-good, warm, fuzzy, multi-cultural and politically correct narrative of Pilgrims sharing their first harvest and peacefully celebrating with their Wampanoag neighbors. This fusty canard about Thanksgiving is mostly false and offers no enduring life lessons.

The Pilgrims did not invite the Indians to the first Thanksgiving 

The Wampanoags were not invited to the harvest feast but crashed the party after it had begun, not to celebrate but to remind the Pilgrims they were there at their mercy. The relationship turned violent soon thereafter. Native Americans regard Thanksgiving as a tragedy leading to genocide, loss of land and slavery. Americans have been taught a story that is historically incorrect and that ignores the true lessons of Thanksgiving.

The True and Enduring Lessons of Thanksgiving

Following is the authentic story of Thanksgiving in America and its timeless lessons about human nature that speak to us even today. It is an inspiring and uplifting story about human survival, adaptation and eventual triumph over starvation and death.

Once upon a time, good and righteous people seeking a better life came to settle in America; they had sincere and lofty ideas about how they would govern themselves in the new world. They believed that sharing all work and benefits equally was just and even noble. They strove gallantly to make such a socialist system work.

The Pilgrims starved under socialism but prospered with capitalism

But after enduring social dissonance and unfathomable hardships, they came to the realization that a system of communal property is incompatible with human nature. They quickly took decisive action and instituted private property rights. The next harvest resulted in a veritable cornucopia, and they held a feast to celebrate. Today, we celebrate this triumph of freedom over socialism as the first Thanksgiving in America.

The authentic Thanksgiving narrative is about early Americans overcoming starvation, death and collectivism. It is about understanding that socialism always results in starvation amidst plenty. It is about understanding that severing the link between work and benefit is contrary to human nature. It is about understanding that socialism is such a perversion that people choose starvation over living and working communally.

People in Plymouth (and Jamestown) literally chose death over socialism. Yet, all these same people who, one year earlier, starved under socialism suddenly became industrious, inventive and prosperous when they had property rights. And that, dear readers, is the authentic narrative of the first Thanksgiving in America!

A HAPPY AND AUTHENTIC THANKSGIVIING TO ALL OUR READERS

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Our next post about climate change reveals a climate threat that is far worse.

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MLLG Christmas 2021 Posting . . . Ebenezer Scrooge Gets A Bum Rap

George Noga

Scrooge accomplished much good – prior to his Christmas Eve epiphany.

MLLG Christmas 2021 Posting . . .

Ebenezer Scrooge Gets A Bum Rap

By: George Noga – December 5, 2021

Ever since Charles Dickens published his allegorical novella, A Christmas Carol, in 1843, Ebenezer Scrooge, before he was visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley on Christmas Eve, has been universally regarded as a pathetic hoarder. For nearly two centuries the word Scrooge has been both an eponym and epithet for miserly. Scrooge gets a bum rap; although unwittingly, he was really a beneficent humanitarian.

The definition of beneficent is doing good or resulting in good; a humanitarian is someone who promotes human welfare. Scrooge’s behavior meets these definitions even before his epiphany and reclamation on Christmas Eve. Whether he intended to be beneficent and humanitarian is immaterial; his actions meet the definitions.

Scrooge was a rich, hard-working, parsimonious businessman who hoarded his wealth. His clerk, Bob Cratchit, worked long hours for low pay, the norm in that milieu. Cratchit and hordes of others, who had been largely invisible in rural England, flooded English cities during the dawn of the Industrial Revolution and suddenly became very visible. Their lives in the cities were bleak, but vastly better than the devastating rural poverty they voluntarily fled. Scrooge’s actions did not harm anyone but himself.

Although his wealth did not benefit Scrooge personally as he took his gruel alone by the embers of a dying fire, it was a godsend to humanity. It provided capital to fuel the industrial revolution, then just beginning. While Dickens’ books paint a grim picture, every metric of human well being reveals a golden age for workers started circa 1840: wages exploded, life expectancy and literacy soared, child nutrition and mortality improved and child labor receded as school enrollment surged. There had never before been a comparable period of prosperity – and it has continued to our day!

All these blessings were made possible only by the capital accumulated by Ebenezer Scrooge and others like him. Scrooge’s tight-fisted parsimony and self-denial, whether wittingly not, was a great gift to humanity. Scrooge helped to fund the factories, railroads and equipment that greatly increased workers’ productivity and wages. Indeed, it is not an exaggeration to call Scrooge a beneficent humanitarian.

“May God bless us, every one!” (Tiny Tim)

Scrooge’s thrift benefitted humanity more than if he had tried to do good via Scrooge & Marley. Marley’s ghost fails to understand that by minding one’s business, one best serves mankind. Profit is the best metric of a business’ value to society and Scrooge’s business was highly profitable. Thus, Scrooge had no duty to give back as he already gave via his business. Scrooge’s capital benefitted humanity far more than if he had donated to charity or if government had taxed it in a misguided attempt to do good. The next time you hear Scrooge used as an epithet, remember, it is . . . humbug.

We end this, our final scheduled posting of 2021, by echoing the final words in Dickens’ novella, as spoken by Tiny Tim: “May God bless us, every one“

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Outside-the-box analysis, such as contained in this post, is what readers have come to expect from MLLG. Precious few people would defend the behavior of Ebenezer Scrooge before his Christmas Eve epiphany; yet, one must acknowledge his actions harmed no one and, to the contrary, resulted in great economic benefit to humanity. You may expect more of the same when we resume our postings on January 16, 2022.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR READERS. WE ARE TAKING A HOLIDAY BREAK AND WILL RESUME ON JANUARY 16, 2022; HOWEVER, WATCH FOR POSSIBLE UNSCHEDULED POSTINGS.

Our next scheduled posting is on January 16, 2022.

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MLLG Labor Day 2021 Special Posting . . . Capitalism Contains a Self-Destruct Gene

George Noga

The cardinal rule for parasites is never to kill the host.

MLLG Labor Day 2021 Special Posting . . .

Capitalism Contains a Self-Destruct Gene

By: George Noga – September 5, 2021

Labor Day rightfully honors labor, but there also should be a day set aside to honor capital, which greatly enhances the productivity and value of labor. Throughout history, man’s labors have resulted only in grinding poverty, but when capital alloys with labor great wealth is produced. Unfortunately, capitalism is self-destructing.

Karl Marx 170 years ago wrote that capitalism contained the seeds of its own destruction. He thought competition would become destructive and exploited workers would rise up to create a classless society. Marx was right about capitalism but for the wrong reason. A century ago, economist Joseph Schumpeter also posited capitalism would self destruct. Schumpeter believed the success of capitalism contained the seeds of its ultimate destruction. Schumpeter was right and for the right reason.

Schumpeter: “Capitalism cannot survive . . . its very success undermines the institutions which protect it and creates conditions in which it cannot survive.”

Not only has Schumpeter been proven right, his rationale was accurate. He reasoned that: (1) capitalism would create enormous wealth; (2) the wealth thusly created would enable many more people to become educated; (3) it would spawn a large intellectual class that made its living attacking the system of private property and freedom necessary for its own existence; and (4) people educated by such progressives would vote for liberal welfare states, leading to the demise of capitalism. BINGO!

Just how bad is it? Nearly half of US adults now say they prefer socialism to capitalism. A poll asked if respondents had a favorable view of capitalism or socialism. A majority of Democrats favored socialism; in fact, Democrats in every age group, gender and race preferred socialism. Millennials preferred socialism by nearly a 50% margin and 60% said they would rather live under socialism than capitalism. Perhaps those folks should spend their next vacation in Venezuela, Cuba or North Korea.

Capitalism has created a cornucopia of wealth; extreme poverty is nearly eradicated and every metric of human well being is improving. However, the demise of capitalism will usher in a dark age and destroy all those blessings along with our liberty. When Schumpeter’s prediction reaches fruition, it will drag the entire planet into a lengthy and unspeakable Orwellian torpor where all men lead lives of quiet desperation. Nowhere is it written that liberty must survive. Of the 120 billion humans that have trod this earth since time began, fewer than 1% have lived their lives in liberty.

We have written often about whether or not the success of capitalism truly sows the seeds of its own destruction. Up until now, we have not answered that question. With much regret, we now must conclude that capitalism will indeed be destroyed by its own success. Somewhere, Joseph Schumpeter must be thinking that he told us so.

The cardinal rule of parasites is never to kill the host – but that is precisely what is happening today as progressive parasites are murdering their capitalist hosts.

Our next post is about the privatization of Social Security.
More Liberty Less Government – mllg@cfl.rr.com – www.mllg.us