Where Did My Capitalism Go?

I’m not one to write letters to editors, but I saw this article today in The Hindu of India (I’ve been in the country for about a week now) and I had to send my two cents to the publication.  In the online version of the article it’s clearly in the Op-Ed section but that wasn’t made clear in the newspaper…it had the appearance of a news article more than an op-ed.  I’ll probably never know if my letter gets printed since I’m leaving the country tonight, but I thought I’d share my opinion of the article here for posterity:

Dear Editor,
I’d like to make the statement that Narayan Lakshman’s article on July 15th, 2011, “A compromise too far”, should not be regarded as representative of the beliefs of the American people.  As a US citizen that often travels to India for business, I enjoy seeing the an outside perspective on US politics and policies.  But when I see an article such as this which shows the author’s clear bias, I want to be sure that those reading this material understand that Mr. Lakshman’s words are definitively his opinion. 
 
By referring to the heart of the debt negotiations as a “gun to the head of the poor, the elderly and the infirm”, the author certainly tugs at the heart strings of the Indian people, but the fact is that the entitlement programs the US government put in place in the 20th century have spiralled out of control and are a weight to middle-class Americans concerned about their own well-being.  Social Security and Medicare have become behemoths, allowing people to rely on the government for income while forcibly taking money from other citizens that work hard for their money.  Remeber that forced charity is not charity at all.  The American dream is alive and well in the US in the hearts and minds of those that work for their living, but entitlement programs such as these are slowly chipping away at that dream by siphoning off people’s income as quickly as they receive it.
 
The beauty of the American dream is the opportunity to make one’s life whatever one wants; that the individual is in control of their destiny.  Entitlement programs, while they appear on the surface to support the poor and helpless, really work to increase the dependency of the populace on the government.  Without these programs the people are challenged to support themselves throughout life, and to plan for the ups and downs of economies intelligently.  Lack of these entitlements would encourage entrepreneurship, problem-solving and independence rather than dependence. 
 
I have a great respect for the intelligence and analytical nature of the Indian people, and so I hope that the readers of your newspaper will take the time to do their own research, and understand the cost and benefits of these entitlement programs, before automatically agreeing with my or Mr. Lakshman’s perspective.
 
Sincerely,
Andrew Morse
California, USA 

I was thinking the other day about what my federal tax money goes to. There’s a whole range of uses that the government employs our tax dollars for, but I increasingly feel that where I want this money to go is not being recognized by our representatives in government. While I hold that federal tax money should be used for utilitarian purposes like civil works and national defense, our representatives increasingly create budgets authorizing the use of taxpayer funds for social programs that I have no interest in funding. While I understand that we elect these representatives to speak for us in the creation of a national financial plan, we know from experience that what they decide is not always what their constituents want.

So, could we create some sort of check on how our tax money gets distributed for federal uses? What if we developed a survey that was required to be filled out each year at tax time and then sent to the IRS with our other required information? The survey could ask each taxpayer to rank, in order, the buckets that they wanted their money to go into. What percentage of your taxes would you want to see go to the Department of Transportation? What about the Defense Department, or the Department of Health and Human Services? Now, I’m not advocating a mandatory use of these rankings to alter the US budget, but I am interested in seeing the results of a survey like this, and in having some weight attributed to this survey by the US Congress as they develop future budgets. The money we pay today in taxes is used immediately to fund federal programs so it only makes sense to supply the Congress with an accurate portrayal of what its constituents want to see their money go to, and to have that breakdown influence the decision makers.

I realize that our nation consists of a wide variety of people with different backgrounds and from all walks of life, so I’m sure that the summarized results of a survey like this might be different from what I would choose to spend my tax money on. But the great thing about an effort like this is that our representatives would be able to see exactly what their employers want to do with the nation’s money. This would go a long way towards making our Congress men and women honest. We could more easily hold them accountable for their actions if they see in plain light what their constituents expect from them.

Maybe a survey like this would leave some Americans disappointed, thinking that they might not benefit from the outcome of such an initiative. That line of thinking might be warranted given the fact that the power of decision, in terms of monetary value, would be held by the rich, and the weight of fund division would be skewed towards their preferences on tax funding. This makes sense if you look at it from a business standpoint: the investors of a company that hold the highest amount of shares (have supplied the largest amount of capital funding) have the highest percentage of say over how the company is run. It’s the wealthier taxpayers in America that have provided and continue to provide the majority of funding for America’s federal programs, whether utilitarian or social. So why not give them their fair share of say over what those tax funds are used for? Those citizens providing less funding to the government through taxes might cry foul, but the fact is that they would still be given the right to influence decisions about where their tax money goes and their contribution, like everyone else’s, would be taken at face value.

In the end, I think a survey like this would incentivize those with a smaller stake in the breakdown of tax distribution to increase their wealth, and become greater voices in the national discussion. I know I’m extremely interested to see the results of such a survey. It would be fascinating to look at the breakdown and spot the differences and similarities between what comes directly from the voters of America and what comes out of the halls of Congress.

Well, gosh, there is just so much going on with this health care legislation that it’s difficult to not write about it.  This new law encompasses the most effective denunciation of personal responsibility and decrease in incentive to better yourself than any other piece of legislation I can think of.  This is what America has become, and we have to turn it around before more of our individual responsibility slips away.  It seems that more and more people don’t want the responsibility of taking care of themselves, but I guarantee that a major portion of the citizens of this country understand the after-effects of responsibility lost.  This governmental takeover of personal responsibility is a slippery slope, with the gravity of every new piece of legislation accelerating us towards a totalitarian end.

American liberty used to mean the power to choose for yourself how you wanted to live. With this new healthcare law, every American that chooses not to buy health insurance will be penalized.  How does this profess the principles of liberty and freedom to the citizens of our country?  To be required to pay for something you don’t believe in.  To be forced to take part in a government-run program that you don’t need.  To be penalized for not wanting to be under the thumb of the US government, and by paying that penalty effectively contributing to the program’s upkeep and expansion.  How is this freedom?

American liberty has been replaced by the priority of equality.  With this law, the government has demanded that the rich pay for the care of the poor.  Mandatory charity nullifies the good intentions of the benefactor.  It removes the morality of a good deed and destroys the integrity of both the giver and receiver.  But, hey…everyone is entitled to health care, right?  Not at all.  Are you entitled to your neighbor’s wealth?  Is it your right to force your friend at gunpoint to hand over their wallet?  Some citizens of this country would have you think so, because they think they are entitled to receive the benefits of their fellow citizens’ hard work. Entitlement was a relic of monarchs past…it has no place in American society.  Yet, somehow the concept of health care entitlement ended up in US Congressional legislation.

I commend the 14 state governments that are suing the US government over the constitutionality of this new law.  How the Congressional Democratic supporters of this bill think the forceful distribution of earned wealth to the undeserving was something the founders intended is beyond me.  Of course there will be haggling over the word of the law (as there should be in a government of law, not of men) but to myself and many Americans it is obvious that the spirit of the Constitution is what’s being trampled here.

The intention of the creation of the United States of America and the governing document of our nation was to preserve a person’s right to his or her property.  This new legislation only serves to redistribute the property earned by many hard working wealthy Americans to those people that are not incentivized to take responsibility for their own care. The lack of desire to take responsibility for oneself and the misguided intentions of those that sympathize with the irresponsible is the reason why our country is at this point in our history. We cannot rely on these people to bring themselves up and realize the immoral and illogical nature of their ways. The personally responsible citizens of this country that strive to exercise their basic rights of life, liberty and property will have to make the changes necessary to ensure our return to the principles that our wise and forward-thinking founders originally intended.

I have a lot of ideas that I want to follow through with to completion. The problem is that I get distracted as I formulate a certain idea into a reality…so much so, that sometimes I leave that certain idea and don’t revisit it until weeks later. I don’t know whether to continue at my current pace, working on mutlitple projects at once, or to focus all my efforts on just one endeavor. Take this blog for example. I definitely want to continue writing it because I believe in the idea that underlies my writing here (a resurgence of capitalism in unregulated form), but I made a push two weeks ago to write more and only got one post out of it. Other things came up: I’m trying to get into furniture building, I also write and record music, and I just got back into writing for a certain project after getting my personal studio set up in a new place, and I’ve also been focused on developing my ability to make really good cocktails (studying up on mixology and making a different drink every night to increase my personal library of drink knowledge). It’s a varied list, and those are just some of the ideas/hobbies that have been on my mind and taking precedence lately.

I also have business ideas that I’m interested in pursuing. My inclination is to focus on these since they have potential money-making ability, but if it’s just a good idea rather than something I’m genuinely interested in, why bother to pursue it? Capitalism would essentially tell me to “capitalize”. Make the most of what you have, and use what you own to engage in and profit from other endeavors. Even if I’m not making money by engaging in my hobbies, I’m essentially profitting from them since they bring me happiness. And I know that I’m making the most of my mind by using it to immerse myself in activities that stimulate it. Time is the problem. I don’t think I use my time wisely enough to engage in all the activities I’m interested in. I guess I just don’t feel like there’s enough time in the day to do all that I want, and that’s discouraging. The discouragement sometimes hinders my ability to further engage in these hobbies and ideas, but that’s what I need to overcome.

Destroying discouraging thoughts and laziness is the only way to progress, create and capitalize. Every person has thoughts of doubt and suffers from laziness…but only truly great people can overcome these plagues time and time again. I hope I can educate myself in the ways of destroying these hindrances, because I want to be great. I want to do so much in my life to take advantage of the time given to me. Plan the work. Work the plan. That’s my new mantra. If I continue to write this blog in the next few weeks, you’ll know I’ve decided it’s worth the effort, but if you never hear from me again, you’ll know that I’ve found something to do that’s adding more value to my life.

This blog has been silent for too long a time (over six months!), but over the next few weeks I’d like to change that. 

Given the recent events in Massachusetts regarding Scott Brown’s win of that state’s Senate seat, the Republicans now have the ability to filibuster legislative action in the Senate.  Even with this greater balance of power, however, the citizens of this country and our representatives must remain diligent in their efforts to combat the anti-capitalistic tendencies that have emerged from the Democrat’s Congressional majority over the past year.  Now that the Democrats can be stymied by a Republican filibuster, we must be wary of the political wheelings and dealings that can occur on both sides of the aisle.  As the balance of power approaches equilibrium in Congress, the propensity for compromise grows, and the temptation to make a deal in order to push legislation forward can become great.  I urge all members of Congress to resist this temptation. 

This nation was built by those who would not compromise their beliefs, who stood for what they believed in and could not be swayed by gestures of appeasment.  Spirited debate led us to independence and gave shape to our government, but a deal that compromises the morals, values or beliefs of the dealer has no place in the realm of a republic.  Speak for your people, for those you represent, and for yourself.  When you deal in politics as a trader, you speak only for politicking itself. 

Our Congress should be pressed by their public to serve the American and capitalisitc ideals that have made this country the nation that it is today.  Those ideas of spirited competition, freedom from government restriction and unbounded opportunity for all citizens which were so celebrated in early America have been gradually limited  by our government over time.  I can imagine that these ideals might have remained as centerpieces of American business and thought had our politicians been less compromising in their agendas.  It would be an interesting study to find out how we got to where we are in our current state of government, but that’s a conversation for another post.  As far as this topic goes, I believe it is the representatives duty to hold the peoples will at heart whenever decisions are made, and when this will is compromised, the representation of the public is forfeited.