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Eighty Years and Counting – Lessons learned over a lifetime

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 abovehoweversocialism 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

MLLG

Titanic Myths

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

Why Business Succeeds

Business succeeds because its risks, rewards and incentives are aligned with human nature.

 

Why Business Succeeds

By: George Noga – June 28, 2020

           This post is a companion to the one last week entitled “Why Government Fails“. If you missed it, go to our website www.mllg.us. In that post, we revealed seven reasons why government fails. This week we explain why business succeeds.

          Business succeeds because it excels at aligning risks, rewards and incentives with human nature – unchanged since men walked on two feet. The imperative to make a profit creates urgency, focuses attention and summons great exertion because success confers wealth and status while failure has immediate and unpleasant consequences. As a result, business attracts motivated, hard working, talented, non risk-averse people whose bias favors action over inertia. Business closely aligns personal incentives with the goals of the business such that they nearly are one and the same.

           Business is based on markets, in which knowledge flows from the bottom up and confers valuable information about consumer choices and preferences along with prices. All transactions are voluntary, non-coercive and mutually beneficial; that explains why both parties to a market-based transaction always say “thank you“.

          In business, one solitary person can literally improve the daily lives of billions of people as did Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Sam Walton and Walt Disney to name a few. One driven entrepreneur can change the whole world. Moreover, businesses are able to tightly manage world-wide trillion dollar enterprises and prevent most waste, fraud, abuse and corruption through strong governance and independent audits.

Why Government Fails While Business Succeeds

       At all its levels, always and everywhere, government fails for many reasons; foremost among them is that its risks, rewards and incentives are misaligned with, and often even diametrically opposed to, human nature. Politicians and bureaucrats respond to incentives that reward them even when they are contrary to the public interest.

         Government is top down, command and control and coercive; it ignores consumer preferences. Rather than forming mutually beneficial relationships, it creates winners and losers. It divides people by race, age, income and gender.

        Government brings us TSA, Madoff, USPS, failed public schools, OSHA, Medicaid, IRS and public sector unions. People are fleeing as fast as they can from dysfunctional states like Illinois, New York, Connecticut, California and New Jersey and from cities such as Baltimore, Newark, Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago.

        Government failure is systemic, structural and incapable of reform; nonetheless,  some government is necessary because it is preferable to anarchy. The only possible remedy is to reduce its overall size and scope to the absolute minimum.


Our next post is on July 4th and celebrates Independence Day.
More Liberty Less Government  –  mllg@mllg.us  –  www.mllg.us

Why Government Fails While Business Succeeds

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.

Profiles in Cowardice: Trayvon Martin Debacle

Government Failure at Every Level and in Every Branch

By: George Noga – July 15, 2013

     Since I live in Seminole County, I couldn’t escape the media frenzy over the Trayvon Martin case. Mercifully, it ended this weekend but not before it became the poster child for government malfunction in all three branches and at each and every level from the City of Sanford all the way up to the the President of the United States of America.

   The Sanford police initially investigated and concluded not to charge George Zimmerman with a crime – in hindsight clearly the correct decision. For this act of competence the Sanford police chief was unceremoniously sacked. Government failure at the city level – check!

“The media bought into a counterfactual fantasia.”

   Then came the massive media paroxysm. The media bought into a counterfactual fantasia sans independent checking. The media malpractice, combined with outside agitators with prior agendas, caused Governor Scott to appoint a special prosecutor, Angela Corey. I feel certain that, whether implicit or explicit (wink, wink, nod, nod), Scott and Corey understood what was to happen. This was not Rick Scott’s finest hour. Government failure at the state level- check!

   Dante has a special place reserved for Angela Corey. The fix was in from the outset. Corey skipped taking the case to a grand jury because she knew she couldn’t get an indictment. She then charged Zimmerman with a crime that couldn’t be proven, all for political expediency and correctness. Moreover, she and the prosecutorial team withheld evidence from the defense. She deserves severe sanctions for her lese majeste conduct. State level government failure – check!

   Next congress got into the act. The Congressional Black Caucus insisted this should be a civil rights case and demanded the Justice Department (“DOJ”) open an investigation. Government failure at the federal legislative level – check! The DOJ then sent its “community affairs” team to Sanford to stir up the pot and foment trouble. They initiated a civil rights investigation which remains open today. Government failure at the federal executive level – check! Not to be outdone, Barack Obama gratuitously opined that if he had a son, he probably would look a lot like Trayvon Martin. Government failure at the highest level in the land – check!

“All levels and branches of government failed – city, state and federal as well as the executive, legislative and judicial branches.”

   Nor does Judge Nelson come out of this smelling like a rose. It was apparent to any scient person the state could not prove second degree murder. Judge Nelson should have dismissed that charge – although that would have required a heavy dose of courage. No one from any government involved in the case qualified for a profile in courage; instead, they could fill many chapters in a book titled Profiles in Cowardice. Government failure at the judicial level – check! Note: The book Profiles in Courage was not written by John Kennedy even though he received the Pulitzer Prize; the real author was Ted Sorensen. How’s that for a profile in courage?

   Government failure was massive and endemic throughout the Trayvon Martin debacle; indeed, it is difficult to find one instance of a government official who acted properly. There was failure at the city, state and federal levels as well as in the executive, legislative and judicial branches. This case should become the poster child for government run amok. As I point out time and again, government is inherently a malevolent force; this is just one more example.

Public Choice Economics Explains Government Failure

 By: George Noga – July 1, 2013
       The science of economics, far from being dismal, can be truly exciting; it offers much more than arcane supply and demand curves. In recent years economists have captured the public imagination with books such as Freakonomics, Super Freakonomics, More Guns – Less Crime and More Sex is Safer Sex. They are popular because they use the tools of economics, including rigorous logic and analysis, to reach what often are counter intuitive, but valid, conclusions.
     So it is with public choice economics. In the private sector, theoretically correct economic solutions usually are positively correlated with real world decisions In the public sector however, there is a huge chasm between the correct theoretical (economic) solutions and the choices made by decision makers, i.e. politicians. Public choice economics explains this chasm.
      Many citizens, particularly young people and liberals, have an infatuation with government. They see elected officials as benevolent, dispassionate planners looking out for ideal social outcomes as contrasted with self-interested actors in the private sector. Yet we constantly are bumfuzzled by political decisions contrary to all logic and national self interest.
“We constantly are bumfuzzled by politicians acting illogically.”
     Why is private sector decision making far superior to government? Business ownership and governance do a much better job of aligning business and personal objectives and incentives so that decision makers choose the economically (theoretically) correct decision. In government there is a wide gulf between self interest and public interest.
      In both government and business, decision makers usually decide on the basis of personal risks, rewards and incentives; this is embedded in human nature and is immutable. The private sector understands this. The founders of our country understood this, hence our constitutional system of federalism, limited government and checks and balances. Public choice economics explains why government fails us; consider five tenets from public choice economics.
  1. This comes as no surprise but politicians are far more interested in winning the next election than in doing the right thing. Their desire to win elections far outstrips their duty to the country. Their personal incentives are grossly misaligned with the public interest.

  2. Politics is extremely shortsighted, favoring debt financing over taxes; that explains why we have had deficits in 47 of the last 52 years. Politicians love to make unfunded  promises such as unsustainable pensions and benefits. They want to provide immediate benefits while borrowing, hiding or deferring the costs as far into the future as possible.

  3. Special interest groups and rent seekers (those who extract value from government without giving value in return – such as public sector unions) dominate the process. Politicians always favor highly concentrated and organized groups (that return the favor in various ways) at the public expense and contrary to the public interest. A great example is sugar subsidies where a few growers share nearly $1 billion a year in added profits while all 310 million of us Americans pay $30 too much for sugar each year.

  4. There is a myth that central planning leads to good decisions. This ignores the real world preferences of real people, creates perverse incentives and disincentives and inevitably creates a myriad of unintended consequences. The real world is far more complex and dynamic than any central planner or computer model can ever simulate.

  5. Whereas in business the culture is to quickly recognize and to cut losses, the incentive in government is to deny anything is a blunder and continue to throw more money at it.
      Public choice economics can lead to better decisions if we give it heed. We must recognize  economic science is just as applicable to government as it is to business. We must understand  human nature has not changed since the dawn of time. People are people and they do not suddenly become benighted when they enter public service. We need to return to the system  envisioned by the founders where government is so limited as to minimize the harm it wreaks. Failing that, we must closely align the risks, rewards and incentives of public officials with the long-term public interest – just as the private sector has done so successfully.