Fear for the Future

Barack Obama scares me, almost as much as does the idea that Barack Obama might actually get elected President. Don’t get me wrong, I admit that he’s charismatic as hell, and has a knack for getting people to see things his way. But Satan has those qualities too, and I wouldn’t want him to be President either. Think about it: if the Prince of Darkness were to appear and run for political office in America, how would that script go? How about this: he comes out of nowhere. No real history in politics. No real experience. Nobody really knows a whole lot about him. But GOD DAMN is he charismatic. He has no political track record, and many of the points in his platform are either internally inconsistent, or simply don’t make sense at all. But the man is just such a great personality, such an amazing guy, that none of that really matters, because you WANT to believe that he really can magically solve all your problems, the way he promises he can. Promise him your allegiance, do as he says, and he will make everything good for you. That’s how I think Satan would come into the American political picture.

Does that sound familiar at all?

Now before anyone jumps in with some idiotic bigotry comments, my worries have nothing to do with race. I believe America is ready to elect and support a black President, but I avidly hope that it’s not ready to elect or support a CRUSADING black President who has no real idea how to run a country. Along the race lines, I have no doubt that in a nearby parallel universe, there is a healthy, happy, economically strong United States of America, where President Colin Powell is just finishing his second term, and is expected to be succeeded in office by his former Vice President, John Edwards. Things are going well, and shit is getting done. Unfortunately, we don’t live there, and instead we have to hope that the populace comes to its collective senses and saves us from four years of political and economic stagnation while Barack learns what does and doesn’t actually work in politics and economics.

The simple facts of the matter is that besides having great sound bites, Barack Obama has absolutely no political mojo or experience. The American government - for better or worse - is a bureaucracy. Wheels turn in certain directions, and generally speaking, only turn in one direction. Obama, for all his charm, has no experience with those wheels, and his while he talks about sweeping change, and doing away with those wheels, it’s infinitely more likely that those same wheels will grind him down to nothing, and probably not greatly notice his coming and going. America is what it is, and Wall Street, Big Business, and greed economics are a way of life that are not going to change no matter how rose-colored your glasses are. Nor should they change. As I’ve posted here before, advancements in business, technology, politics, or any other field are not made by societies. Such advancements and breakthroughs are made by individuals: by people with drive and ambition, striving forward, hoping to better themselves. Naturally, this is directly contrary to the Democratic platform, which does not acknowledge such capable people, except as targets to tax, so that the government can ensure the health, comfort, and benefit of people without such drive, ambition, and productivity.

More importantly, the platform that he is running on simply makes no sense. His economic plan (http://obama.3cdn.net/8335008b3be0e6391e_foi8mve29.pdf) is to provide $120-billion in economic stimulus with tax breaks and expanded government aid to the unemployed, and to people who (generally by buying beyond their means) are in foreclosure. I’m not quite sure how handouts to people are going to get America back on firm economic footing. Historically speaking, all that does is allow them to postpone people doing what they need to do to support themselves (by, for example, working). Handouts and government assistance allow people to live beyond the means that they are capable of providing for themselves; how is that supposed to get people doing what they need to do to rebuild an economy? I empathize with the ideas that people should be able to get the healthcare they need, and that every child should have an education, but is it really the position of the government to guarantee a certain standard of living to every single American citizen? At the cost of the remaining members of the nation? Wiki “Bread and circuses,” and take a look how that turned out in the long run.

A healthy economy is based on the grassroots, and is exceedingly simple. PEOPLE MUST WORK. THEY MUST PRODUCE AT LEAST AS MUCH AS THEY CONSUME. THEY MUST SPEND WHAT THEY EARN, BUT NOT LIVE BEYOND THEIR MEANS. There is no other way: look at the plunge France has taken since legislating 30-hour work weeks and 8-weeks of paid vacation. Turns out that you can’t run an economy where the productivity of every year’s work amounts to less than that year’s consumption. Imagine that. Look at what a success communism was, with it’s intrinsic (and unrealistic) ultruism. People knew that working sucked, and then learned that working didn’t result in any net gain in their lives, since their productivity was benefiting others before benefitting the worker. So they quit working, even if they did keep going to their jobs. Read “Atlas Shrugged.” All of this adds up very simply, and doesn’t take a rocket scientist. Productivity cannot be surpassed by consumption. By that fact, anyone who consumes MUST produce some level of productivity, or else the system will fail. If they are allowed to live on the productivity of others, people will learn that they don’t have to be productive. You cannot have a healthy society where a sizable portion of the populace depends totally on the remainder of the populace to guarantee their standard of living. A decent life for self and family is hard enough to build even when you are NOT responsible for providing a decent life for your neighbor as well.

As with most democratic and/or socialist economics, Barack’s economic plan is not going to work, since what it amounts to is promising health and happiness to people, where the only way for people to have health and happiness is to earn it for themselves. He cannot simply Order things to work, Order gas to be cheap, and Order healthcare to be free. But hey, it sure does sound good if you’re one of the people who gets a handout, and who count on the industrious parts of society to carry your lack of industry along with them. After all, everyone else has always come through before. They can do it again. You don’t really need to go out and work hard to be financially secure. Just vote for Obama.

The heart of the issue comes down to how Barack is going to provide funding for all his programs. Besides the $120-billion in handouts he promises, Barack also promises national healthcare for all. (http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/) As above, this is an idea that I can theoretically support, but not at the cost that will be incurred. Like Grey Davis ordering power companies to produce electricity from nothing, Barack ordering insurers and hospitals and care providers to magically cure the sick and injured is not going to work. Providing healthcare for everyone - no matter what spin you put on it - means that the Government will have to PAY FOR PEOPLE’S HEALTCARE!!!

We’re talking billions of dollars that are going to need to come from somewhere. Who the fuck is supposed to pay not only for “economic stimulus” handouts to the masses, but also pay for the ongoing healthcare of the uninsured into perpetuity?!!

Not to worry, says our good friend Barack. You can trust me, I have a solution. The plan is to place higher taxes on large corporations that (like PG&E in California, infra) have been “exploiting” the American people. Time for them to give back, whether they like it or not. Sounds great in theory, especially since corporations don’t vote. Of course, like so many political positions and promises, it entirely overlooks the reality.

How many banks have been going bankrupt lately? How many airlines have needed bailouts? GM is one of the largest corporations in the world, and has been teetering on folding for years. Billion dollar banks, lenders, and businesses are collapsing. How exactly are these corporations supposed to pony up the billions that Barack is going to levy against them? The only industry that is healthy is the oil industry, which has been making amazing profits (which you can share in by buying their stock, and where most of their profits is generated by assholes driving too fast in cars that are too large). But even as a non-stockholder I for one LOVE the fact that Exxon-Mobil is booming. America is in recession, yes. No doubt. But America is still strong. America is still working and moving forward. Realistically speaking, there is ONE THING that presents a legitimate threat to the ongoing American economy and way of life. We will continue to move forward, so long as the oil keeps flowing. I could talk about this point for hours, but if you give it any thought at all, you will agree that there is one catastrophic development that could plunge us into abject chaos and reduce us to a third-world economy. That development would be the oil running out. Don’t worry; it’s not happening. And it won’t for a LONG time. It will get more expensive, but only to the point where it’s uncomfortable, not to where it’s untenable as an energy source. But seriously, people should sleep better at night knowing that the oil companies are continuing to do their thing, and are continuing to do it profitably and productively. A healthy oil industry is the closest thing that America will ever have to a guarantee that the American economy will continue forward.

And that industry - and others like it - are the ones that Barack want’s to saddle with responsibility for the health, welfare, education, and happiness of a few million unemployed (and/or unemployable) people who will generate little or no productivity in return. Again, read “Atlas Shrugged.” Industry, whether in individuals or in corporations, happens because people see opportunity to get ahead. People work TO MAKE MONEY. What’s going to happen when people and companies are so saddled with responsibility for welfare that they cannot get ahead no matter how hard they work? Ask any Russian former communist. And what benefit to America if the big corporations that employ thousands of people and generate billions in revenue are squeezed into bankruptcy? This actually might be Barack’s plan: since his power base rests on his work with the dirt poor, unemployed, and dispossessed, he might be trying to turn us all into dirt-poor, unemployed, and dispossessed. But it’s going to be that way, he says. He is going to make sure people get their welfare checks. He is going to make sure they live comfortably. He is going to make sure that they get healthcare. He is going to Order it. Did I mention that this man does not have a fucking clue about how business and politics work?

And what happens when only so much money comes though, and it ends up not being enough? Given a finite amount of tax revenues, what is the money going to go towards? Is it really going to be spent on economic re-development and getting the business world healthy? Are breaks and subsidies really going to go back into businesses and emerging energy technologies? Obama has no connections with any such businesses, nor any clear motive to help them out. Seems much more likely that increased tax funds are going to go the welfare programs to help the inner-city dirt-poor that Obama has founded his entire political career upon helping. Raise your hand if you think American businesses are going to work better, hire more people, and develop new technologies while at the same time being responsible for guaranteeing healthcare and reasonable standards of living for the entirety of the American unemployed.

It simply doesn’t work. Wishful political thinking and passing of laws does not create the resources needed to effect those laws. Only work does that. Only industry does that. And when the burden of the consumption exceeds the productivity of the industry, THE INDUSTRY FOLDS, CATASTROPHICALLY.

Let’s take a look at the last major incident of that happening, which was incidentally the result of Democratic attempts to build a better economy based on legislative wishful thinking instead of facts and numbers. Once upon a time, there was a land of absolutely spectacular economic wealth and growth. Fertile farmland, big industry, and aggressive, dynamic individuals making incredible strides in every conceivable area of science and industry. California in the early-1990s: talk about a land of plenty. At that time, and for some time before, all of CA’s power and natural gas requirements were handled by a regulated industrial giant: Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), which provided gas and power to every single resident, and at pretty good prices. CA, despite ongoing growth and economic boom, had no power worries whatsoever under the aegis of PG&E.

Enter a crusading politician: Governor Grey Davis (D - CA). He and his liberal buddies don’t like PG&E, and not just because PG&E, as a powerful vested industrial bloc, was intrinsically Republican. They were also upset that PG&E was a total monopoly, and that PG&E wasn’t doing as much as they thought is should towards providing the “Green” energy that Grey and his liberal supporters thought so critical to the future. So, with the help of the Democratic State Senate, and under the tacit ploy of ending an industrial monopoly, laws were passed that effectively disbanded PG&E. Grey and his buddies assured everyone that this would have a net positive effect on the economy. New power companies would arise, through which people could choose where their power came from. With competition in the market, prices would drop. Moreover, people could elect to buy power from “Green” sources, and the sources which were not “Green” could be isolated for taxation so heavy that they would become “Green,” or fold. The future would be bright, and everyone would be happy.

But it didn’t happen that way. PG&E was a monopoly, but it was a very efficient monopoly: people got cheap power and gas. After the breakup of PG&E, electricity and gas prices rose. A lot. Which made people unhappy; liberal Southern California Democrats couldn’t afford the power bills to keep their Beverly Hills homes air-conditioned, much less the inner-city welfare recipients. So they went to their buddy, Governor Grey Davis. Grey stepped up to bat for them, and (here is the part the absolutely, irreversibly screwed the entire State of California for the next 15 years) set a cap on the amount that the power companies could charge people for power. The government, rather than the market, decided how much power should cost. They Ordered it to be so.

The result was that the power companies stopped growing. They couldn’t afford to. They could maintain a status quo in the levels of electricity and natural gas that they could provide, but no new powerplants were built. Nor any new oil wells nor gas mines. Nor any new power substations or infrastructure. Not enough money was coming in to keep developing the power industry. The rest of California kept on booming and growing, but the power industry stagnated, as a result of the collar Grey Davis put around their neck.

At about this time, the power industry went to the Democratic Senate and Governor, and laid out their position: “Mighty Democratic Overloads, Keepers of the Flame, Defenders of the Downtrodden, and Guardians of the Bright Future: we have a problem. Demand for power is increasing. The economy is growing, but we cannot go on feeding its growth. We lack revenues to keep pace. We cannot afford to build new power plants. We cannot afford to build infrastructure. We must raise the price of power, lest we be left behind by the economy, and lest Mighty California then starve for electricity and gas. Our Mighty State shall grind to a halt, and there shall be great financial chaos and much gnashing of teeth. You must remove this collar you have placed up on us. You must lest us raise prices, to so that we can build new supply to keep up with new demand. Should ye not, we all shall surely be fucked.”

Sayeth the Mighty Democratic Overlords in response: “Raise the price of power?!! Surely ye doth jest! Our Mighty Palm Springs Vacation Homes should then be left without AC, a thing that must never come to pass! Come not to us with threats and warnings! Long now has the power company exploited our Great Democratic People with monopolies and price gouging! Long have ye sinned by the earning of Profits from selling your ware to Our People! Long have ye done evil in the growth of your unholy Big Business! Now thou shall reap what thou hast sown! No longer shall you grow and prosper at the expense of The People! We Order you to continue to provide all of the power and gas needs for our Bright Future! You shall do so with such revenues as you now possess. Furthermore, the new power we Order you to create must be from Green sources, that our Future shall remain Bright, and that our air and water be sullied only by our SUVs, and not by your production of trivial electricity. So shall it be written, so shall it be done. Now remove yourselves from the sight of our Enlightened eyes, thou profiteers and exploiters of Our People! ”

Guess what happened then?

Yup. The power companies could not Work The Will of the Mighty Democratic Overlords. Orders notwithstanding, they could not produce more power and gas, since they could not summon it from thin air, and they were forbidden to raise prices. So prices stayed the same. The power companies got less and less healthy. No new plants. No new infrastructure. Demand kept increasing, supply kept not increasing. As was foretold on the floor of the Houses of Enlightened Government, power demand broke the back of the power supply, we all surely were fucked, and there was financial chaos and much gnashing of teeth. Rolling blackouts. Homeowners paying four-figure power bills. The State of California, 6th largest economy in the world, brought to its knees, reduced to buying power at amazing markups from companies in other states. (Ever wonder how Enron got so huge so fast? That was one of the companies that feasted - as a true profiteer - on the huge mess that fucking Most Enlightened Governor Grey Davis created.)

This is what happens when politicians convince themselves that Ordering something is the same as Creating something. As a footnote to all this, the Most Enlightened Governor Grey Davis was removed from office shortly thereafter, replaced by a action movie star from Austria, who has done an infinitely better job managing California’s business and economy, by the simple means of staying the fuck out of the economies and markets.

Barack’s economic plan looks like much the same thing as Davis’ plans. He will guarantee the standard of living for his constituency, and Order the industries that keep America running to make it happen, regardless of the practical or economic realities, and completely oblivious of the fact that you cannot legislate production or productivity. The end result is going to be the same among the overburdened industries that Barack decides to make responsible for paying the checks that Barack writes. They are going to protest, they are going to weaken financially, and then they are going to fold.

I genuinely fear the result that this man will have on this nation. I hope that at least one Obama zealot reads this, and I challenge them to seriously argue that Barack’s policies amount to anything more than “Things will be well. I will Order it.” Because you can ask any early 2000s Californian how well that works as an economic model.