Tag: Liberty

MLLG

Liberty: Death by A Thousand Cuts

George Noga

State and local governments routinely assault our liberty in countless ways.

Liberty: Death by A Thousand Cuts

By: George Noga – May 29, 2022

MLLG usually focuses on issues of national scope; however, Americans are more directly affected by local and state government laws, taxes, regulations and actions. Throughout the USA, local governments assault our liberty in thousands of ways; this post describes some of the most egregious. Fortunately, the Institute for Justice (IJ), a public interest law group, ferociously defends liberty in many of the following cases.

Legal Marijuana: Pre-legalization, marijuana (1) enriched criminal cartels; (2) created powerful economic incentives for distributors; (3) spawned turf wars resulting in murder and mayhem; (4) corrupted police, judges and entire governments; and (5) made drug dealers into role models. The purpose of legalization was to end all these horrors as it did with alcohol. Instead, local governments, particularly in Colorado and California, imposed such high taxes and onerous regulations on legal growers and sellers that the illegal trade still is profitable. To top it off the craziness, the Biden Administration is proposing a 163-page bill imposing an added federal 25% tax and voluminous new federal regulations. Now we have the worst of both worlds.

Occupational licenses; barriers to entry: The impetus for licensing comes from industry groups with vested interests in preventing competition. California prohibits anyone without a high school diploma from attending vocational school unless they pass a government exam. Sale of home baked goods require commercial grade kitchens. A Texas town refused to issue a license to a one-man business without adding 28 parking spaces. To become a barber in 20 large cities requires over a year of training and compliance with costly regulations. Any barber who wants to open a shop must navigate a mind-numbing array of zoning, permits, taxes, inspections and licenses. All together, this costs over $3,000, requires 16 forms and over 55 steps before opening.

Asset forfeiture and policing for profit: Police in many states confiscate cash from citizens during routine traffic stops without charging them with a crime. They use this money for their own benefit, giving them a nefarious motive. In Philadelphia alone, there have been 30,000 such cases. In one Alabama town, police pull over residents for spurious reasons, handcuff the drivers, search the cars and have them towed and impounded. Owners are forced to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to recover their cars. As always, most victims are from disadvantaged communities. Shakedowns just like this take place every day in cities and towns across America.

More Examples of Death by a Thousand Cuts

There are many other instances where state and local governments stifle liberty. Due to space constraints, we can only summarize the most egregious ones herein.

Guardianship laws: In many states older people often are declared incapacitated with little or no due process. They lose the right to drive, vote, marry, hire an attorney, travel, consent to treatment and even choose with whom to talk or visit. Young people are free to make poor life choices without consequence; why not older people?

Food trucks: Many locales enact restrictions that make it impossible to operate food trucks, denying owners the right to earn a living.

Pandemic issues: States and cities imposed unconstitutional, arbitrary and capricious emergency edicts. It was okay for liquor stores to be open but not churches. Children lost one or two years of learning. Many lives were needlessly uprooted or harmed.

Property rights: Local governments disrespect property rights. They prohibit small homes by mandating minimum size, ban working from home, outlaw front yard vegetable gardens and ban businesses from placing signage in their own windows.

Fourth Amendment: Unreasonable and illegal searches, seizures and surveillance take place routinely in many jurisdictions. In Tennessee they enter private property to install cameras to search for hunting violations. In Florida, police harass families because a computer algorithm predicted a family member may commit a crime in the future.

School choice: Governments beholding to teacher unions restrict charter schools, teach CRT, gender dysphoria, the 1619 project and indoctrinate students in a state religion that directly conflicts with parental values. They oppose choice in every way possible.

We conclude with the story of Jaime, who has been a model citizen his entire adult life. He was hired for his dream job of an ocean rescue lifeguard, which required EMT certification, 200 hours of coursework and an exam. After meeting all of the requirements and passing the exam (on his first attempt), Jaime was denied a license because of a youthful non-violent drug conviction 20 years ago. His appeal required mounds of documents and time-consuming bureaucracy. Jaime’s story has a happy ending only because IJ took his case and ultimately prevailed. However, there are thousands and thousands of other cases like Jaime’s out there that cry out for justice.

The state and local government abuses of power described herein are but the tip of the iceberg. There is one, and only one, way to remedy this government lust for more power and that is – you guessed it – more liberty and less government.

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“California Screaming” leads off our next post which covers multiple topics.

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More Liberty Less Government – mllg@cfl.rr.com – www.mllg.us

Can the Constitution Survive Progressivism?

George Noga

The Constitution is 233 years old Thursday – but will we be able to keep it?

Can the Constitution Survive Progressivism?

By: George Noga – September 13, 2020

Happy Constitution Day Thursday! The Declaration of Independence established the moral foundation of the United States and the unalienable rights of man. It proclaimed that governments are instituted among men to secure those rights. The raison d’etre of the Constitution is to protect those rights which, for 233 years, it has accomplished through an ingenious system of checks, balances and separation of powers.

Liberty is not the natural condition of mankind. Since we quit living in trees, 115 billion homo sapiens have trod this earth, of which fewer than 1% lived lives of liberty. Constant vigilance is needed to protect freedom; Benjamin Franklin recognized this when he warned, “A republic, if you can keep it”. The words of any constitution are only as good as the will of the people to enforce them. Following are excerpts from the constitution of another country – see if you can you guess which one?

  • Article 64: The state shall effectively guarantee genuine democratic rights and liberties as well as the material and cultural well-being of its citizens.

  • Article 66: All citizens age 17 and over have the right to elect and to be elected, irrespective of sex, race, occupation, party affiliation, political views or religion.

  • Article 67: Citizens are guaranteed freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, demonstration and association and free activity of political parties.

  • Articles 68-70: Citizens have freedom of religious beliefs, are entitled to submit complaints and petitions and have the right to work.

  • Articles 72-79: Citizens are free to engage in scientific, literary and artistic pursuits. They shall have the right to reside in and travel to any place. Citizens are guaranteed inviolability of the person, home and privacy of correspondence.

Liberty is one of the most fragile things ever created by the hand of man and is never more than one generation away from extinction. As President Ronald Reagan said: “We don’t pass (freedom) to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on to them to do the same.” People get just one shot at freedom; those who had it and lost it, are unlikely ever to have it again.

The biggest threat to our liberty today is progressivism. If they gain unchecked power, as they could in 2021, they vow to abolish the filibuster, pack the Supreme Court, admit DC and Puerto Rico as states, abolish the Electoral College and impose national mail in voting combined with vote harvesting. They pledge open borders, citizenship for illegal aliens, gun control and abolition of free speech via hate speech laws. They aim to eviscerate the Constitution to achieve power and to maintain it in perpetuity.

Progressives will abolish 233 years of freedom because they believe they know what’s best for everyone and are willing to shred the Constitution to achieve it. The words of our Constitution, no matter how mellifluous, won’t protect Americans from tyranny any more than the words of the constitution excerpted previously in this post protect the citizens of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or North Korea.

On September 20th, I reveal my decision whether or not to buy firearms.
More Liberty Less Government – mllg@cfl.rr.com – www.mllg.us

True Liberty Not Found in Democracy

George Noga
The Constitution guarantees Americans “a republican form of government”.
True Liberty Not Found in Democracy
By: George Noga – January 13, 2019

     Later in this post we reveal occult facts about the Constitution, mostly unknown even to the erudite among us. But first – a preview of the MLLG blog for 2019.

     As we begin our 12th year, I am grateful to the tens of thousands of loyal readers who receive our posts directly via email, from forwards, on social media, on our website (110,000 hits), on the internet and through electronic media that republish our posts. We use a large commercial email service and they inform me that our open rate is among the very highest they have experienced. Thanks again to all of you!

     We will continue our mix of politics, economics, philosophy and human interest, posted weekly in 500-700 words and readable in under five minutes. You will see more of our signature issues: the spending crisis, climate change and government failure. You will see more micro postings covering multiple topics and we will reprise Montana Moments this summer. For the first time, we will footnote sources on certain postings; but whether footnoted or not, whatever we present as a fact is a fact.

     Our mission is not to write about the news of the day or to present commentary or perspective you can read elsewhere. We remain dedicated to showcasing, in our own inimitable way, the blessings of liberty and the evils (yes – evils) of government. Above all, we will remain true to our name – more liberty and less government!

The Constitution, Democracies and Republics 

     The USA is a constitutional republic. The word “democracy” appears nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. We don’t pledge our allegiance to the United States of America and to the democracy for which it stands. We don’t sing The Battle Hymn of the Democracy. We don’t have the Statue of Democracy. And Russia could not hack our democracy. We are not a direct democracy, representative democracy, democratic republic or even a constitutional democracy.

     Our founders, extraordinarily well versed in history, had justifiable contempt for democracy, which often is described as two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. At the constitutional convention, Adams, Hamilton and many others cautioned that true liberty is not found in democracy. Article IV (Section 4) of the Constitution guarantees Americans “a republican form of government“.

     Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other socialist wunderkinds are poster children for the reason America’s founders had contempt for democracy.  In fact, the strongest case against democracy is the recent behavior of progressive mobs. Imagine what furies would be loosed if they ever achieved unfettered power. Do you know there is one part of the Constitution (described in Article V) that cannot be amended? Clearly, Ocasio-Cortez, Hillary Clinton, and all the other know-nothings advocating for fundamental changes to our republic, are ignorant about Article V of our Constitution!

January 20th – An assessment of the Trump presidency at the halfway mark.

Seventy-Five Years and Counting

George Noga
None of the promises government has made to you will be honored, including, healthcare, Social Security, defense and a stable currency.
Seventy-Five Years and Counting
By: George Noga – March 18, 2018

        Today, on my 75th birthday, I take the liberty to share what I have learned in three-quarters of a century about human nature and the relationship of man and the state. This comes hard on the heels of jeremiads wherein I asserted capitalism is self-destructing and that America has crossed the point of no return in the debt crisis.

     Government is evil. Some government is needed to avoid an even greater evil: anarchy. Because government is evil, it stands to reason we want as little of it as possible. Our founders understood the key is to limit its power; but the trend always is for government to gain and for liberty to yield. Government has ballooned from 5% of GDP in the early years of the republic to nearly 40% today – and rising rapidly.

       Government can’t be reformed because its evil is inherent. Waste, fraud, abuse and corruption are endemic; any attempts at control or reform are futile. The evil spawned by government is directly proportional to its funding; hence, the only way to reduce the evil is to reduce the funding; nothing else works. Power corrupts; even neighborhood homeowners’ associations quickly transmogrify into power-hungry wannabe dictators.

Politicians respond to personal incentives. Public choice economics explains why elected officials don’t care what you want – except to get elected. Government (and socialism) fails because there is an unbridgeable chasm between self-interest (human nature) and the public interest. This is unlike business, which does a good job aligning personal and corporate risks, rewards and incentives. Everything politicians say and do is to further their own interests which, most of the time, are contrary to your interests.

       People are incapable of sacrifice absent serious and present danger. We refuse to act even to stave off a clear and inevitable disaster unless it is manifest in our daily lives. A good example is the present debt crisis which, as demonstrated in these posts, will inflict unspeakable horrors on America; however, the crisis likely is still years away and there is not yet any discernible impact on our daily lives.

       We have lost the connection between capitalism and our liberty and prosperity.  America has become so rich and the wealth is spread so broadly, we are disconnected from what created the wealth in the first place. That is why polls show us so enamored with socialism. I recently read John Steinbeck’s book, “In Search of America”, wherein he prophetically observed: “We (Americans) can stand anything God and Nature throw at us save only plenty. If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much.”

 

        Americans are losing touch with reality. We spend more and more time transfixed by our devices in the virtual world rather than connecting in the real world. We confuse junk science with actual science, fake news with real news and political fantasy with reality. We are suffering mass delusions about, inter alia, anthropogenic climate change, GMOs, organic food and fascism. Our lassitude conflates identity politics with existential threats – we glom on to the ephemeral while ignoring the consequential. Our politics appeals to people’s prejudices, passions, jealousies and apprehensions.

     In the end, I always harken back to the eternal lesson of Kipling’s Gods of the Copybook Headings; i.e. we ignore the hard-learned wisdom (copybook headings) of the ages at our great peril. Human nature is unchanged since we were living in trees; and just as water surely will wet us and fire will burn, the gods of the copybook headings, with terror and slaughter, will return!

       Above all, I learned what America needs is more liberty and less government!

Our next post takes on business ethics and political correctness.

Old Glory is 240 Years Old Today

George Noga
Flag Day is celebrated on June 14 – commemorating the adoption of the flag by the Second Continental Congress on June 14, 1777 – 240 years ago today.
Old Glory is 240 Years Old Today
By: George Noga – June 14, 2017
      Exactly 240 years ago, the Second Continental Congress formally adopted our flag. Recently, several colleges have banned the flag from campus. Because our flag is under attack, this is a good time to revisit the question of American exceptionalism. President Obama famously stated: “I believe in American exceptionalism just as the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.” In other words, America is unexceptional. MLLG believes otherwise; to wit:
  • Since man first trod this earth, there have been 110 billion humans and fewer than 1% have lived their lives in liberty. Even today, less than 10% of the 7.5 billion people alive enjoy relative liberty. As Lincoln said at Gettysburg, America is a nation conceived in liberty. Clearly, liberty is exceptional throughout human history.
  • America’s founding was unique. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were the driving forces, not bonds of religion, nationality or tribe. We are the only nation ever founded on an idea. Our motto is E Pluribus Unum, or one out of many, which not uncoincidentially contains exactly thirteen letters. The shot fired in Lexington at dawn on July 29, 1775 was the shot heard around the world for very good reason.
  • Our Constitution is by far the oldest surviving written charter of government; the second oldest is Norway’s in 1814 – 38 years later. Over 50% of constitutions fail within 20 years; ours has lasted 230 years and counting. Surely, this is exceptional.
  • America is a nation of immigrants. Despite some hiccups, all have been absorbed into the fabric of America. The Statue of Liberty says it all: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. There has never been a country so welcoming to so many people from so many places for so long.
  • America has laid costly sacrifices on the alter of freedom in many wars and mostly without conquest, territory, resources or occupation. In WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf Wars and Afghanistan we sacrificed to keep the flame of liberty lit.
  • America remains exceptional today. We have acknowledged and sought to correct our mistakes. Many Muslim countries bar non Muslims from citizenship and condone slavery. Any Japanese who is even one-sixteenth Korean is shunned. China has fewer than 1,500 naturalized citizens. Europe fails to assimilate its immigrants. Places like Latin and South America, Africa, Central Asia, Russia and the Middle East are well beyond the pale. America remains the last best hope for the world.
     America is the only nation ever defined by an idea, and one that continues to be noble, true and eternal; it captivates and inspires people the world over who dream not only of coming to America but of becoming Americans. This land is our land, from California to the New York Island, from the redwood forests to the gulf stream waters, from purple mountain majesties above fruited plains to oceans white with foam.
      May God continue to shed his grace on America, to stand beside her and guide her with a light from above and may God continue to bless America – our home sweet home! On Flag Day we celebrate our flag and the exceptional nation it represents!
On June 18th we write about Fermi’s Paradox and extraterrestrial life.
MLLG

The MLLG Blog Returns for 2016 

George Noga
By: George Noga

      It’s baaacck! After taking 2015 off for reflection and discernment, the MLLG blog returns. To be sure, there are changes of which the principal ones are:

  • We have a new commercial email provider with greatly enhanced readability; with few exceptions (such as mobile devices and Roadrunner email), you will see exactly what was written in the format it was written;
  • Our website is being upgraded to contain past posts from June 2011 onward and new posts on a timely basis; there will be subject and chronological indexes as well as a section containing the best of MLLG writings. The new site should be 100% functional soon; when it is ready, we will let you know on these pages;
  • Posts are shorter – 500 words more or less – readable in 2-3 minutes;
  • Current events and opinion are emphasized; however, economic, political and human interest content continues – fact based and principled as always; and
  • Frequency is not on a set schedule but expect 3-6 posts per month.

There is no cost to receive posts via email or internet. We will not request financial support until 2017 at which time we may ask readers and supporters to make voluntary contributions. The costs of operating the blog are not onerous but are nonetheless very real. There are costs for using a commercial email service for tens of thousands of emails and for, inter alia, maintaining a domain name and website.

Why do we need another blog and what can MLLG offer that is not currently being provided elsewhere? If you stay with us for a while, you should agree that you are receiving perspectives not usually found elsewhere. The author’s background as a financial analyst, economist, CPA and high level political operative confers a special knack for combining fact, logic and insight – not to mention well over a half century as a keen observer of life in these United States and beyond.

We unabashedly approach matters from a more liberty – less government perspective but never – absolutely never – at the expense of facts or logic. We have many progressive readers who respect being presented with principled analyses, even ones contrary to their cherished beliefs. However, the MLLG blog is not intended to convert liberals – but to witness the blessings of liberty to a candid world.

      Enough explanation. The next MLLG post you will soon receive is a memoir of the days the author spent with Jeb Bush and Rand Paul. Not many bloggers have spent full days one-on-one with two 2016 presidential candidates. Other upcoming posts deal with the 2016 election, radical Islam, EPA carbon regulations, how bottled water gives the lie to socialism and a special multi-part series about guns in America. Stay tuned!
MLLG

Final Posting and Valediction

George Noga

By: George Noga – December 15, 2014

        This is my final posting for the More Liberty – Less Government Foundation. It comes after more than 7 years and 300 posts totaling 1,000 pages and 500,000 words. The name says it all; those four words “more liberty – less government” are my creed. Deconstructing the name, you will see that, above all, I love liberty; that’s why in the logo the “more liberty” part is bigger and bolder. It is impossible to overstate the importance of liberty.

To borrow from Clarence Darrow: “Liberty is the most jealous and exacting mistress that can beguile the brain and soul of man. She will have nothing from him who will not give her all. She knows that his pretended love serves but to betray. But when once the fierce heat of her quenchless, lustrous eyes has burned into the victim’s heart, he will know no other smile but hers. Liberty will have none but the great devoted souls, and by her glorious visions, her lavish promises, her boundless hopes, her infinitely witching charms, she lures her victims over hard and stony ways, by desolate and dangerous paths, through misery and obloquy.” I proudly am one of lady liberty’s devoted souls.

“Of all who ever have lived, less than 1% experienced liberty.”

The second part of the name “less government” is the corollary of the first. They are mutually exclusive; one cannot have both more liberty and more government; they always move in opposing directions, i.e. if we have more liberty we, ipso facto, have less government. And government is the eternal archenemy of liberty. Of the 110 billion humans who have walked on this earth, less than 1% lived their lives in liberty. Even in the 21st century only about 10% of the world’s 7+ billion souls live in relative liberty. I used the term “relative” advisedly as liberty in contemporary democracies is partial at best. Moreover, the clear trend today is toward more government and less liberty.

Through these pages I have labored mightily to present different and compelling ways to show the blessings of liberty and the evils of government – always in a fact-based and principled manner. I have not engaged in name-calling or besmirching those whose views differ; I attack their ideas while respecting them as people. Again, I used the term “evil” advisedly; I began by calling government “malevolent” but over the years of writing, I came to believe “evil” is more accurate; this is a view I do not shy away from and which has been well documented on these pages.

Reasons for Writing this Blog

        Authoring this blog for 7 years and 500,000 words was, first and foremost, a cri de coeur for America. However feebly and briefly, I ventured into the world of ideas. Using William Buckley’s construct, I stood athwart our beloved republic’s march toward oblivion and yelled “stop“! If I failed, at least I failed daring to try and was not among those timid souls outside the arena. However, I would like to believe I accomplished my mission, providing our children’s children that infinitesimally better chance for liberty. If that was accomplished, that would be a fitting enough valedictory.

“First and foremost, this blog was a cri de coeur for America.”

Although my primary reason for writing was to stop America’s march toward statism as a way station on her longer march to ultimate oblivion and to provide my progeny with a better chance for liberty, there was a second, much darker, motive. In the event it proves too late to prevent the self destruction of our civilization, I wanted to leave a historical record so my children’s children would know there once was such a wondrous thing as the fire of liberty and that some of us took great care to preserve embers of that flame until at some future day the embers could be resurrected and used to reignite the torch of liberty. Perhaps, my progeny might even be among those reigniting the torch.

My favorite author is Whitaker Chambers and my parting gift to you is to again suggest you read Chambers’ books, particularly his classic Witness. Even if you don’t read the entire book, you owe it to your family to read Chambers’ forward which is in the form of a letter to his children; it constitutes arguably the best 85 pages in American literature. Following is how Chambers in his book Cold Friday describes the wreck and possible resurrection of liberty.

“It is idle to talk about preventing the wreck of western civilization. It already is a wreck from within. That is why we can hope to do little more now than snatch a fingernail of a saint from the rack or a handful of ashes from the faggots, and bury them secretly against the day, ages hence, when a few men begin again to dare to believe there once was something else, that something else is thinkable, and need some evidence of what it was, and the fortifying knowledge there were those who, at the great nightfall, took loving thought to preserve the tokens of hope and faith.”

Valediction

        My blog succeeded beyond expectations – albeit in a different manner than originally contemplated. It began with 150 readers and USPS mail. During the past few years, readership has grown to over 100,000. In addition to the thousands who receive it directly via email, my postings have been routinely republished by some large blogs and electronic journals – one of which has 160,000 hits a week, another with 1.6 million hits per month and yet another with 10,000 hits per day. Countless readers forward some or all of the posts to their own extensive email networks and the recipients, in turn, forward it to yet more readers and on ond on. Some posts have received thousands of “likes“.

“The MLLG blog has gone from 150 to over 100,000 readers.”

Despite this success – or perhaps because of it – the time to move on has come. I have written about every topic I set out to write about 7 years ago – often more than once. As the curtain now closes on the More Liberty – Less Government blog, I look forward to moving beyond the cares and drudgeries of researching and writing a weekly post. I look forward to time to reflect and perhaps to devote to other challenges – both seen and unseen.

I look forward to kicking back and reminiscing about my great enthusiasms and devotions and to ponder my once and future deeds, but – at age 71 – I suspect mostly past deeds. I will summon up the living and the dead and replay old coups and scenes of tenderness. As time magically melts away, I am young again, alive with hope; grace smiles upon me and thoughts of mortality recede into the far distance – morphing into the remote horizon.

        Thanks to all of you for you kind support and may God bless the United States of America.

MLLG

Principles of American Politics

George Noga

By: George Noga – December 7, 2014

      Eons ago, I spent considerable time in politics at the local, state and national levels. I learned a great deal and have been an acute observer ever since. I always had believed Truman’s observation that voters could always spot a phoney. That was before Barack Obama. America can survive a Barack Obama who, after all, is merely a pathological narcissist; our beloved republic is less likely to survive an electorate that enabled him – not once, but twice. In the end, Truman was vindicated; most Americans now understand Obama is a phoney; it just took them far too long and only after great damage to the republic. Following are some of the other enduring lessons I learned from my time in politics.

Enduring Principles of American Politics

     So, what is the true state of American politics today? Nearly everything promulgated by the media is both pap and spurious to boot. Four principles I learned many decades ago and which remain valid today are:

  1. There are no permanent majorities: There never has been, is not now, and never will be a permanent majority in American politics. You can put that in the bank! The media like to claim and progressives like to dream that, given present demographics of race, gender and class, Democrats have built a permanent electoral majority. These are the same charlatans who in 1992 said the GOP had a permanent majority. Anyone believing in permanent majorities is ignorant of history and also of Madison’s genius in writing the Constitution. In Madison’s words:“Extend the sphere, and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have common motive  . . . or if such motive exists, it will be more difficult to act in unison.” Issues, positions, alliances and demographics continually shift and minority parties skillfully adapt. In a nation as vast and diverse as 2014 America, any electoral coalition is inherently short term and unstable.
  2. The longer a party is in power, the more likely it is to lose:  This principle is straightforward and has held up throughout the 238 years of our republic. It remains true despite any and all issues and demographics. The longer a party is in power, the odds continue to get ever higher and higher that it will lose. Power corrupts.
  3. Economics trumps everything: Recall Bill Clinton’s mantra: “It’s the economy, stupid“. Far more so than any other issue, economics is paramount. Demagoguing the rich is absolutely of no benefit if the average voter perceives the economy as tepid. The US has experienced stagnant living standards for the vast majority of Americans and there is a downward trend in take home pay. Business is not investing and worker productivity suffers as a result. Wages increase when each worker uses more capital, as his marginal productivity rises. Democrats are okay with low growth as they continue to strangle business, oppose Keystone, thwart energy development, keep corporate taxes high and support unions. When Democrats try to soak the rich, they drown the middle class.

    “When Democrats soak the rich, they drown the middle class.”

  4. The roll of money is significant but overstated: Money is important and can be effective; however, its marginal utility decreases as spending increases; there is a point at which the marginal utility of money turns negative.

Political Campaigns Versus Governing

     A few things have changed since my heyday in politics many decades ago. By far the biggest is that political campaigns have become permanent and there no longer is any meaningful distinction between campaigning and governing. This is an uber serious problem and no solution is in sight; it affects both political parties. This overemphasizes short term politics and severely shortchanges the true interests of the country. There are clear and significant differences between public opinion in polling and focus groups and the long term best interests of the people.

“We must recreate a way to govern in the long term best interests of the nation.”

Something needs to change or the perpetual campaign mentality will result in more hostility between factions and confusing political formulations for objective reality. Our current system rewards those adept at campaigning at the Iowa state fair while devaluing their ability to govern. Madison anticipated something like this may happen; he wrote: “We will wait in vain for public-spiritedness to become a pervasive motive in our politics. Instead, we must create – and if necessary recreate – institutions that channel human  nature as it is toward promoting the permanent interests of the community.”Therefore,  it is up to us to recreate a way for America to govern in the long term best interests of the nation or we will live out our lives in a perpetual political campaign where everything is determined by polls and focus groups.

Political Calculus in America Today

      While bearing in mind the principle cited supra that there are no permanent majorities in American politics, let’s take a look at the political calculus following the November 2014 election. Following is my take on where things stand.

  • Most pundits relegate Republicans to permanent minority status because of their low share of the black, latino, Asian. millennial and women’s vote. Democrats should be far more worried about their very low support from white males – currently 35% and in free fall. It will be far easier for Republicans to increase their share of the Asian, latino, women. millennial and even black vote than for Democrats to reverse the trend among white males.
  • The media is right on about a political party being dragged down by extremists – however, it is the Democrats who have by far the greater problem is this regard. Their contretemps with radical socialists and environmentalists eclipses any issues the Republicans have with the tea party. The situation already is so bad that Democrats cannot truthfully campaign (or even govern) based on what they really want for America.

     “There is a political party dragged down by extremists, the Democrats .”

  • The Democrats cannot win with their present economic agenda; yet they are wedded to perpetual low economic  growth by virtue of their inflexible, socialist ideology. Attacking the rich and ramping up class warfare have lost whatever traction they once may have possessed. Their race, class and gender warfare is no longer effective.
  • Demography has been ballyhooed as the enemy of Republicans. Democrats have crowed that the future belonged to them as their lock on ascendant voter groups would overwhelm aging Republicans. This was dispelled by the 2014 election as Republicans made substantial gains among women, hispanics, Asians and millennials. The Democrats (or any other party) ignore James Madison and American political tradition at its own peril!

Readers should take away four main principles: (1) there are no permanent majorities in America; (2) the longer a party remains in power, the more likely it is to lose; (3) economics always trumps every other issue; and (4)  do not read too much into any one (or two) election result. Finally, we must heed Madison’s words and recreate a way to govern America in the long term best interests of all Americans – and not strictly with polls and focus groups.

MLLG

School Choice: The Civil Rights Issue of Our Time

George Noga
By: George Noga – December 1, 2014
        In seven years of authoring this blog, I  wrote about school choice only one other time – once in 300 posts. I have shied away from that subject despite (perhaps because of) having been deeply involved in the school choice movement for ten years from 1994 to 2003. I started the first school choice program in Florida, and only the fourth in the entire USA, in 1995. The program I began (now called Step up for Students) funded 68,000 scholarships this year with a budget of nearly $300 million. During much of that time I also served on the board of the leading national school choice organization, Children First America, which began school choice programs in 100 US cities. This subject is not a new one to me.
“Imagine many kids died because ambulances drove right past private hospitals and would take seriously injured kids only to a public hospital.”
        It is not hyperbole or overstatement to assert school choice is the civil rights issue of our time. Actually, it is far more than that. Although people of color suffer most from the current educational paradigm, everyone is victimized. Imagine there was a terrible accident involving a school bus full of kids and there was a private hospital nearby ready, willing and able to provide high quality care. Now imagine the ambulances would not take the severely injured children to the nearby private hospital – insisting they could only be taken to a more distant public hospital that provided inferior care. Imagine some kids died as a result and imagine the ensuing public uproar. That is precisely what is happening in our schools; poor and middle class kids are dying educationally (and some literally) – yet there is little or no public outcry.

       Never have I seen an issue so demagogued and so rife with downright lies and with those promulgating the lies knowing full well they are lies. In the following parts of this post, I address many of these canards.

  1. School choice takes money from public schools: Let’s stipulate there are one million students in a particular school district and spending is $12,000 per pupil; total spending therefore is $12 billion. If 20% are given vouchers for $6,000 (50%) and total spending remains the same, the per pupil spending on the remaining 800,000 kids in public school now is $13,500 – an increase of $1,500 per pupil. Yet educrats and teachers unions want you to believe public school funding has been cut when it actually increased $1,500 per student or 12.5%. If every student had a voucher we could slash spending on education by 30% to 40% and improve school quality to boot.
  2. Private schools are not accountable: This is the biggest lie of all. If a parent has a problem with a public school, it is nearly impossible to seek redress. Public schools are accountable only to stultified bureaucracies and unresponsive school boards and not to students or parents. Private schools are directly accountable to students and parents. A consumer armed with a free choice is the most potent force on earth – recall New Coke and Blackberry.
  3. We don’t spend enough on schools: Real (inflation-adjusted) spending has doubled or even tripled in recent decades while schools got much worse. The US spends more per pupil than nearly any other OECD country while test scores in math, science and reading are in the middle of the pack. Actual public school spending is much higher than reported because much of it is hidden, i.e. off the school budget in capital budgets, pension plans, health care, debt service and grants. Often, real spending is double that shown on the education budget. Washington D.C. in 2010 spent $30,000 per pupil and had the worst schools in America. Sidwell Friends, one of the most elite private schools in the USA and where the Obamas send their children, spends only slightly more. Moreover, there is no proven correlation between school spending and any measure of educational output.
  4. Teachers unions and educrats care about students: The educational blob is nothing more than a jobs program for adults. New York state (population 19 million) has more school administrators than all of Europe with a population of 700 million. The head of the teachers union once said he would begin to care about students once they started paying union dues. Out of over 100,000 teachers in California, an average of 2.2 are fired each year for poor performance. Union tenure and seniority rules are nothing but a union racket.
  5. Private schools skim the best students: Every study published shows this is false. Voucher students in private schools are indistinguishable from public school students in every demographic. There is absolutely no skimming of the best students. The popular movie, Waiting for Superman, depicts the cri de coeur  from ordinary, anguished parents facing long odds to save their kid’s life by securing a voucher in a lottery.
  6. Teachers are underpaid: If this ever was true in the past, it has not been true for a long time. When accounting for hours worked and all benefits, teachers are overpaid by more than 50% per a study by the American Enterprise Institute. A typical teacher with a $50,000 salary will receive another $52,000 per year in benefits compared to $20,000 in benefits for a worker in private industry. Teachers have great pay, outstanding benefits, light work loads and ironclad job security despite graduating in the bottom two quintiles of their class.
  7. Vouchers favor the rich, resegregation, scare tactics: With all the facts against them, the education blob (educrats, unions, politicians) resort to scare tactics. They play the class warfare card by asserting vouchers favor the rich. News flash: the rich already have school choice by controlling where they live and via private schools. The blob then says the “rich” could add to the vouchers and send their kids to even better schools. Their argument is they don’t want to help poor kids just because some rich kids might possibly do even better. Race baiters play the race card claiming private or charter schools are more segregated – an argument shot down by the Supreme Court.
         In addition to the above myths, many other significant facts favor school choice. Foremost among these is the matter of values. Public schools teach a vapid, secular, valueless orthodoxy. School choice permits parents to select schools that reinforce, rather than contradict, parental values. Another issue is child safety. Public schools require metal detectors and a perpetual police presence and for good reason. Public schools, particular those in inner cities, have become petri dishes for social dysfunction and breeding grounds for behavioral pathologies. The blob is holding the kids hostage.
“Inner city schools are petri dishes for social dysfunction and pathologies.”
         The favorite story from my time in the school choice movement concerns Tommy. When he attended a failing public school, he continually feigned illness and did everything possible to avoid going to school. In utter desperation, his parents applied for a voucher from our organization for Tommy to attend a private school. After a few months at his new school, Tommy awoke one morning with a fever and obviously was ill. Nonetheless, Tommy insisted on attending school that morning. When his astonished mother asked him why, Tommy replied, “Because my teachers are counting on me.”
        There are millions and millions more Tommies in America and we are killing them educationally just as surely as the ambulances that would not take dying kids to a private hospital. The ones we don’t kill, we doom to lives of dysfunction and desperation. Shame on educrats, teachers unions, politicians, NAACP and their enablers. And yes, shame on unionist public school teachers too, for they are part of the problem. All these people are standing in the schoolhouse door, just like Orval Faubus in 1957, blocking desperate children from leaving. School choice is the civil rights issue of our time!
MLLG

Letter to Liberals

George Noga

Defining Liberalism – Part 4

By George Noga – November 22, 2014

Dear Liberal Friends:

Although I find liberal ideas (to the extent such exist) jejune, vapid and repugnant, I always have accorded you personal respect and dignity, a courtesy few of you have reciprocated. This is akin to the Christian concept of condemning the sin while loving the sinner. Most of you have been quick to call me racist, evil and other vile epithets but I do not reciprocate, again defaulting to a Christian concept, turning the other cheek. Although I have many liberal readers, my blog is not aimed at those impervious to truth and logic. This post is an exception and is expressly for you, my liberal friends.

Our personal lives, dreams and hopes are not dissimilar; we all want a brighter future for our children and a healthier planet; we live within our means; we assist those in need; we consider ourselves moral and try to do the right thing. We live-and-let-live, which interestingly is a libertarian principle. We enjoy similar pursuits and generally get along very well together. When politics rears its head however, it seems we are from different planets – make that different galaxies.

“Your credo is sentio ergo sum – I feel therefore I am.”

I view your liberalism as an emotional state in which obvious contradictions, disdain for facts, utopian fantasies, obsessive desires to control and to take from others and antipathy for all who differ – in various degrees and patterns – come to dominate your thinking. It seems that you feel rather than think; hence your credo is Sentio ergo sum, i.e. I feel therefore I am. Notice I say liberalism is an emotional state; I do not, as do many others, term it a mental illness. Churchill described your liberalism poignantly as: “the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy.”

Perhaps your liberalism was caused or exacerbated by fluoridation, EMT, the ozone hole, acid rain, GMOs, Thimerosal, dioxin, PCBs, acrylamide, BPA, pink slime or any combination of these and the 50 other instances of junk science in which you once believed – and perhaps continue to believe – and all of which have been proven false or grossly exaggerated. Did I mention anthropogenic global warming and organic foods? You embrace unreason because your progressive dogma is antithetical to objective reality and you prefer the ersatz comfort of mythology to the real world.

“Your liberalism is a lie.”

You believe the darndest things – many of which are contradictory. It is okay for a very young girl to have an abortion without parental knowledge or consent but not for her to sell lemonade in her front yard. Gender specific abortion is fine because we must kill females in order to protect their rights. Fifty million abortions are good but 1,300 executions are evil. Choice is your gold standard but you believe a woman cannot choose where to school her children, to own a gun and whether or not to buy medical insurance or to join a labor union. You believe more money improves schools, raising the minimum wage helps the poor, voter ID laws suppress minority voting, there is a war on women, government creates jobs,ad infinitum. Such modern day witchcraft inevitably leads to the syllogistic conclusion that your liberalism is a lie.

Most of you live inside a plastic bubble with other bien-pensant libs, in intellectually isolated and segregated enclaves; you live your lives without ever conversing with an evangelical Christian, conservative, libertarian or anyone from fly-over land. You attended government schools with a liberal curriculum using liberal textbooks written by leftist professors and taught by progressive unionist teachers in a milieu of political correctness.You are taught there are no values except that there are no values. There are no winners or losers because no one keeps score and everyone is above average. The media, pop culture and even religion reinforce your liberal mythology. If you ever venture outside your plastic bubble and perchance encounter truth, your first instinct is to deny it; your second is ad hominem attacks.

Your last liberal refuge is compassion and good intentions about which you never tire of regaling me. However, recent scholarship exposes your ersatz compassion as pathological altruism in which your attempts to promote the welfare of others, instead results in harm. The entire point of your falsetto compassion is for you to feel better when another’s suffering provokes unease; but this does not assure the sufferer of relief. Your interest is in accruing compassion points that you and others will admire. If you’re trying to prove your heart is in the right place, it isn’t. You regard your compassion as the central virtue that makes you good as distinguished from mean-spirited folks like me. But to bolster your rush of pious, pompous reaction, you need more victims in exactly the same way an addict needs more drugs.

“If you’re trying to prove your heart is in the right place, it isn’t.”

If you are so anguished about others’ suffering, why are you so disinterested in wasteful, misdirected and ineffective government programs? It is because you care much less about actually helping than you care about caring. Hence, it is more important for you to say or to do something rather than to accomplish something. Once you have written, spoken or even held forth at a social gathering about some government program, your work is done and you can bask in your own pious reaction. You always want a bigger welfare state for self validation rather than for helping others. That’s precisely why your mantra always is to spend more – it is really for your benefit for you to feel better about yourself.

To conclude dear liberal friends, you are all about feeling rather than thinking. You bought uncritically into every bit of junk science in your lifetime. You routinely accept grotesque contradictions as dogma. You believe so much that simply isn’t true, the only possible conclusion is that liberalism is a lie. You live in a plastic bubble where your myths are constantly reinforced. If you ever experience a conflict, you first deny the truth and then default to vicious and ugly ad hominem attacks. Unsurprisingly, studies show liberals hate more than any other group, a fact to which I can attest.

Even your compassion is phony; your tears are crocodile tears. If you really cared about the poor more than pumping up your self image, you would be more interested in the effectiveness (results) of programs intended to assist them rather than forever mindlessly spending more and more of other peoples’ money. By the way, study after study shows you talk a good game but don’t deliver; folks like me donate far more to charity than folks like you. You take great pride in your compassion and pristine intentions which you wear on your sleeve for all to see. Everything you do is to show your heart is in the right place; but if you’re trying to prove your heart is in the right place, ipso facto, it isn’t!  Have a nice day.

Acknowledgment and credit are due for the ideas presented herein dealing with the nature of liberal compassion. The books Never Enough: America’s Limitless Welfare State and The Pity Party both by William Voegeli, as well as his summary in Imprimis, were sources for this posting.