Not-a-Lemming : Obama

The Way Out

FutbolGuru — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:42:00 GMT

Yesterday's post was titled, Mr. Obama, Don't Build That Wall! A reader, Marty Yost, was kind enough to post a comment stating that he agreed with my assessment and was impressed with the analysis I applied to the problem. I appreciate the sentiment. I very much do. Laboring in anonymity is oppressive and stifling and acknowledgement makes the neurons fire like nothing else. Thank you Marty. And I also appreciate the challenge he laid before me. Good analysis is hard to come by. Good solutions are much harder. An order of magnitude more difficult. But that is what Mr. Yost asked. "Again I commend you for your analysis of where we are headed. Now, please show us a way out."

I will admit, as I did yesterday, that I am smart. My IQ is 150+ and I have the degrees and the job to prove it. In fact, I'm actually qualified to use the expression "It isn't Rocket Science" because I'm a rocket scientist. But when you say you are smart you go out on a limb because if you can't back it up you are no better than a bombastic fool. And once the fool is exposed, there is no going back. Fortunately, in this case, the solution to the problem isn't rocket science. In fact, it is fairly simple. Simple in principle. More difficult perhaps in practice. However, I fear that the simplicity of the solution will cause those who read this message to discount its power. People are always looking for complicated solutions to complicated problems when sometimes a set of very complex seeming symptoms has a root cause that is fairly simply. A few examples:

During the age of discovery seamen on ever longer journeys ran into an inexplicable problem. Their bodies began decaying the longer they were at sea. After years of study and complicated trial solutions it was discovered they needed to eat citrus fruits. The cure for scurvy couldn't have been more simple. Thomas Edison attempted ever more complex designs for his lightbulb filament including platinum, palladium, and other precious metals until he tried one of the simplest imaginable, carbon. 90% of pollutants from automobile engines are eliminated simply by using a $3 PCV valve. Brushing teeth nightly has virtually eliminated common dental problems in industrialized nations. Inadvertently changing a "+" to a "-" in a guidance algorithm will cause your missile to miss the target. Simple solutions to seemingly complex problems abound and this is no different.

We are where we are today because of greed. For a more thorough assessment please see my post entitled Killing Conservatism. But simply stated, for the purposes of this discussion, there will always be evil people and good people. We expect the evil people to be greedy, but when the good people become greedy too, then all is lost. This is not a religious or spiritual argument but simply one of human nature. When people become greedy they turn inwards and society fails. The first and most destructive manifestation of this is the promotion of unqualified people over qualified people. Bureaucracy and nepotism.

The answer then is plain to see, but before it can be revealed please note that when you ask, "How do we fix it?" that this is a loaded question. It depends on who you ask. There are plenty of people on the left who say that we need to do exactly what we are doing. That we are headed the right direction. So it can be said that while we are failing, they are succeeding. What are they doing to succeed? They are doing exactly what we need to do if we want to succeed. Who is Barack Obama? Who is this man? He is a nobody from nowhere. In the eyes of many he is worse than a black man because he is a mix. He wasn't born into money. He wasn't born into connections. He didn't have the advantage of a father. He wasn't particularly successful in the private sector. But he is the President of the United States! Do you not see the answer? It is there right in front of you! And that is why we don't see it. It is so easy.

Barack Obama is President because he is enormously talented. He is a very smart man. A very smart man. And a great speaker and writer. He knows how to get people motivated. And he has persistence and drive. Even if you don't like him you have to admit that what he has accomplished is nothing short of miraculous - but he didn't do it on his own. And this is the crux of the matter. If the Democrats had not been open to new blood John McCain would have faced Hillary Clinton in the election and Barack Obama would still be a Community Organizer in Chicago. There are plenty of conservatives every bit as talented as Mr. Obama, but the Republicans are not open to new blood. We will not help one another because we have become greedy and self-centered.

You want to fix this nation Marty? Here's how: Help someone else. Yes. It is that simple. Help someone else. Conservatives are worse at helping others than any group I've ever seen. They all seem to think they did it on their own and so everyone else should too. Well for one, no, you didn't do it on your own. And for two, no, others shouldn't be expected to either.

Here's another example. Do my words make sense? Do I write well? I offered to write a blog and help in the campaign for Wayne Parker who was running for Congress in North Alabama after Bud Cramer retired in 2006. I was going to do it for free. It was the best chance to sieze that seat in 20 years. Wayne had run twice before and lost both times. So what did he do? He went and got the same bunch of priveleged frat-boys that had lost him the other two elections, said the same vapid crap in the same vapid way, and lost again. I'm a nobody from nowhere and he had no real interest in that. Now we have a liberal Democrat incumbent. And you can bet this is happening nationwide.

THAT is why we are getting our asses kicked and THAT is how we can take this nation back. You want to fix it, Marty? Do we all want to fix it? Then we have got to stop thinking about ourselves and start promoting talented conservatives. Talk about them. Pass their blogs and messages on to others. Build community. With the internet it has never been easier. Stop protecting our turf. Encourage the mouthpieces to do the same, because the mouthpieces protect their turf more fiercely than any others. Their chief mission is to direct customers to their own content. Directing customers to other sources is the last thing they're going to do. Greed has blinded them to the enormous positive influence they could provide. Influential conservatives must identify talented, hungry conservatives and help them grow. And that would be my message to the Republicans as well - seek out new blood. Why the Hell are we still talking about Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney? No, the new blood probably isn't wealthy like them, or famous, but that is the very reason the new blood is strong. And hot. And if the new blood is forever stifled by pathological self-promoters that blood will die, the cause will wither, and we'll become just like Eastern Europe behind that horrible Wall. And who then will come and mount a fifty-year siege to save us? The Chinese?

It's not rocket science. It's human nature.

FutbolGuru, www.not-a-lemming.com

Obama and California Health Care

FutbolGuru — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:18:00 GMT

In his article in The Observer on October 4th, Paul Harris asks the question, "Will California Become America's First Failed State?" Governor Schwarzenegger's specious California Vacation commercials notwithstanding, this is a question that needs asking. Indeed, in a scene reminescent of the post-Soviet collapse in Russia, the California state government was paying its employees in IOUs this summer and unemployment is over 12% - the highest in 70 years. (Do grocery stores take IOUs?) Regardless the situation is dire and one wonders how much Federal Stimulus money will go to prop up that teetering socialist state?

California, among its many socialist programs, has a health care program called Healthy Families that is intended to provide medical care for millions of the state's poorest residents. Over the years people have become dependent on this program. And why should they not? People tend to form dependencies on free services very quickly. The danger is when these free services fail. At present Healthy Families is failing due to the drop in tax revenue resulting from the recession. A recent scene at the Inglewood Forum near downtown Los Angeles, recounted in Harris' article, sounds more like a UN aid mission to Somalia than something happening in an American city. A travelling medical and dental clinic had set up shop outside the forum that promised free services to the first 1,000 people. The line stared forming at 1:00 AM and before the clinic had opened there were far more people in line than could be treated. Some had travelled hours to attend only to be turned away. Those who had become dependent on the state were being treated by volunteer workers. Americans used to travel to foreign countries to do this. Now we're doing it here.

This is the danger of socialist programs: It can not be assumed that tax revenues are going to be constant or that the economy is always going to grow. At some point the economy is going to contract and where does that leave the socialist programs? Introduction of a socialist medical system, even if it is a competing system and doesn't take over the private system, will spell disaster if not for everyone, then at least for those who grow dependent on it.

Consider the recent economic woes that have swept the nation - indeed, the world. To 'save' the global monetary system U.S. tax payers are forking over $750,000,000,000. Actually I should say, will be forking over $750,000,000,000 because the money is borrowed. And since jobs have dried up, the business sector has shrunk, and investment is down, the tax rolls are down, too. Way down. This is the problem in California and is why they can't pay for their socialist medical care program and people are resorting to volunteer run clinics. If we institute a socialist health care system at a national scale the same thing will eventually happen on a national scale. And when it does, not if - when it does, the non-existent private medical care industry won't be there to fill in with volunteer workers. Not to mention that the economy is down right now and talk of a HUGE new program is irresponsible at best and simply ludicrous at worst. It is tantamount to signing a contract for an expensive new gym membership when you just received word you're being laid off.

Before we adopt a socialist health care system, even if it isn't single payer, we had better look at California and ask what we're going to do the next time the economy shrinks. Except the next time it won't be just the monetary system or the mortgage industry that fails, you can pile health care on top of that. (Note: the health care system WAS NOT affected by this latest recession.) And it won't be tens of thousands as in California. It will be tens of millions. That's a lot of people angry at broken promises that should have never been made. It is simply amazing that Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both senators from California, are both such strong proponents for a national system when they are from a state where the system is failing. Are we simply going to borrow more to pay for it like California will have to do?

Will we borrow over $1,000,000,000,000 next time? How many zeroes are too many? How much of our progeny's future do we want to bargain away to feed the poor's insatiable, self-indulgent appetite for warmth and a full belly? This isn't a conservative or liberal question. It's a question asked by anyone who understands the danger of having more cash going out than you have coming in. Asked by anyone in an underpowered airplane or an overloaded ship. Asked by anyone who can't find enough food to replace the day's calories. It is a question ignored only by lemmings who will run any direction they are herded until they hurtle over a cliff and into the sea. Watch the film White Wilderness. Once those lemmings go over the cliff it's too late. See them try to scurry back up the slope? They can't and fall to their death. The narrator sounds really nice but he's the very guy driving them over the edge. And he got an Academy Award for it! I'm not a lemming. You're not a lemming. Anyone who doesn't want to go out and get a job like you and me doesn't deserve health care, much less FREE health care. Or free internet. Or a free cell phone. What kind of a nut is coming up with these ideas?

Futbol Guru

A New Low In Mediocrity

FutbolGuru — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:06:00 GMT

Leave it to the Norwegians. Barak Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize for doing... well, nothing. He did manage to get elected but he's only been in office for eight months. And he wins the Nobel Peace Prize? That can mean only one thing. The Nobel Peace Prize is worth about as much as the dollar.

Physicists strive for years to perfect their theories. Economists are honored after their death. Doctors come up with novel, new treatments that bring relief to millions. Artists and writers compile an entire lifetime of work before they are even eligible for a Nobel. And Obama gets one for doing even less than Gore. Or even Carter. Oh well, maybe he'll put the monetary award into the stimulus package - er, I forgot. The Nobel Prize is tax free.

Futbol Guru

How To Make A Racist

FutbolGuru — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:45:00 GMT

I raised my children to be colorblind. I took no pride in doing so other than the pride I took in teaching them to walk and eat. In fact, you don't teach colorblindness. You teach racism.

At the appropriate age, I sent my children to school. There, they interacted with black and white on an equal level. They had good and bad teachers who were white, and good and bad teachers who were black. They had friends of every color and, I hate to say it, enemies, too. After all, you can't get along with everyone all the time.

This lasted up until about third grade, or about eight years old. Around this time, in January, they started bringing home handouts on Martin Luther King. Projects were assigned. This lasted most of the month. February rolled around and they began their black history studies. Neither of these things bothered me. What bothered me was the flavor and intensity of the material. Unlike the rather sparse learning they'd been exposed to in other areas of history, and to other people, the black history and MLK assignments had the flavor of propaganda. With George Washington my children learned that he was the first president, crossed the Delaware to do battle with the British (which were actually Hessians), and never told a lie. With Dr. King, they learned that through his bravery he prevailed against the tyrrany of the white man and ultimately led his people out of oppression to a promised land. It was personality cult stuff.

I didn't say anything. We did the assignments and turned them in. It continued year after year.

Now, kids are smart. They are people just like us and they know when someone is pulling their chain. It didn't take long for my children to grow weary of the propaganda and start asking questions. While what Dr. King did was important and noteworthy, it certainly doesn't eclipse what George Washington and the founding fathers accomplished. And while George Washington Carver was a brilliant scientist, what he did should not be exalted above the discoveries of Watson and Crick - a revolution that changed everything. By the time my kids got to Middle School, they despised both Martin Luther King and Black History Month. The public school system was turning my kids into racists.

We now have the same thing happening at a national level. Conservatives who are opposing Obama's healthcare overhaul are saying and doing the same thing they did to Clinton when he was trying to restructure health care into a government institution. In fact, there was a huge turnover in congress because of what Clinton did. And, unless my memory is completely faulty, Clinton was a white guy.

If there is anything people hate, it is being told that they are something they are not. And telling people they are racists because they oppose something they are opposed to, is going to turn them into racists as certainly as making someone sit in the back of the bus. The idiots making this charge are destroying years of progress. And they have not a single, credible example of what they are claiming. Indeed, to assume a person is a racist because of the color of their skin, is the height of being a racist yourself. Many whites once assumed that the black people they met were unintelligent, based solely on the color of their skin. How are today's accusations any different?

There is a ground swell of opposition to a government takeover of healthcare. The left knows this. They want to stop it. What has worked consistenty when whites are opposing blacks? The race card. Whites back down. The leadership of the left knows this, too. Maureen Dowd says she can almost hear Joe Wilson tack "boy" onto the end of "You Lie!" This isn't news but it's being repeated by multiple new outlets. This is propaganda. Maybe even libel. Josef Goebbles level subterfuge. It never happened. But I'll wager that in a year a lot of people are going to think that Joe Wilson said, "You lie, boy."

Now Jimmy Carter isn't so stupid as to really think this is racism. He has been places where there is real racism - North Korea, Darfur, Palestine - and this ain't it. But he is a good enough politician to get himself elected president. He is a consummate Washington insider and has a vested interest in the the success of his party. He knows how to herd lemmings, and that is what he is doing.

For someone who claims to be such an elder statesman, he is doing a pretty good job of inciting division, hatred, and yes, racism. But should we really be all that suprised, because he was a lousy President.

Futbol Guru

It's Because I'm Black!

FutbolGuru — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:53:00 GMT

My wife is a school teacher. She teaches physics and chemisty to kids a lot bigger than she. The school she works in is a bit different than a normal school. It is called a "Technology High School" and is open to any student in the city - if they can get in. As you might expect, the demographic is very rich with over 50% of enrollment being minority status, which makes them the majority at the school, incidentally.

My wife is white and the most fair and even-handed person I've ever known. Kids who give other teachers a fit are never a problem for my 105 pound ball of spunk. Why? Because she treats everyone with respect. She treats everyone the same. I recall a few years ago when the valedictorian at her school, a wonderful, brilliant, young lady with lovely dark skin exalted my wife, in part, as a role model. She went on to state her qualities and thanked her for setting such an example and helping this young lady attain her dream. It brought my wife to tears.

My wife is no racist. But without fail, there will be those in her classes who accuse her of racism. And who are these? While my wife is no racist and treats all with respect, she retains control of her classes. You step out of line in her class and you are going down. White kids act up, hispanic kids act up, and black kids act up. Sometimes they argue with her as to their guilt and sometimes they hang their heads sheepishly and go to the office. But the black kids, and certainly not all of them, are the only ones who ever accuse her of being a racist. And they'll do it to her face. Even when they were obviously acting up, or get caught cheating, or are using their cell phones. All too often they will mutter, or exclaim, "It's just because I'm black!"

Why did Joe Wilson shout out, "You lie!" Well, maybe it was the same reason my wife sends kids to the office. Because they were talking in class! Because Obama was lying. And that he is lying is demonstrable. (See Ma Bell, Milk and the Medical Industry, and The Single-Payer / Public Option Lie.) I can't tell you how many times a kid caught cheating will deny it and then loudly cry racism. Now Mr. Obama hasn't said racism, but his attack-dogs have surely been yelling it at the top of their lungs. Maybe some of them even believe it. But do you want to know the real reason they are shouting racism? Because whitey trained them to do it. When they use the "R" word, whitey backs down. And why does whitey back down? Because the vast majority of whites are NOT racist, and the accusation stings them and impunes their honor. They don't want people thinking they are racists. And of course, they don't want to get sued either.

Picture this. You're a furry little creature, with hundreds of other little furry creatures going about your furry life, when all of a sudden you are snatched from your world and stuffed into a box. Sort of like the Nazi's did with Jews. Suddenly you're thrust into the sunlight in an unfamiliar place. To one side are big, creatures waving arms and shouting. You and your terrified compatriots turn only to run into more of the strange creatures. Every direction you turn, you meet with the terror. Except one. You run that direction with all your speed. You and your companions, furry little bodies surging forward, panting. An outlet! Then, all of a sudden, you're in free space, falling into the ocean. You never noticed the cameras rolling and certainly had no conception of the narrator calmly stating, "Why they do this is just one of life's mysteries..." (If you don't know what I'm talking about, please click --> here.)

Racism. Another lie. A word for people to get their way. A word to herd the lemmings. A word to eliminate the competition and sieze power. A word used to stay out of trouble. "You lie!" isn't racist any more than "Piss Christ" is free speech. Racism is Tutsi's murdering Hutu's. Racism is Darfur. Racism is Serbs, Croats, and mass graves. We don't have racism in this country any more, just a bunch of pussies, black and white. So don't buy it. Don't be a lemming. Or sooner or later you're going to find yourself falling through free space with the ocean rushing at you. And when it happens, just remember, someone off to the side is calmly saying, "Why they do this is just one of life's mysteries..." I hope you know how to swim.

Futbol Guru, http://mises.org/community/blogs/not-a-lemming

Grassroots Versus No Roots

FutbolGuru — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:50:00 GMT

Grassroots is a term that really needs no explanation. Let a blade of good old Bermuda grass get hold and it will spread across a lawn like an invading army. Grass starts at the gound and does its own thing. Which is why it is applied to viral political movements. Such movements get started at the local level by average citizens who are moved to get involved. That is what makes it special. There is no power structure whipping people into a frenzy with neural linguistic programming and other slick tricks, grassroots is people getting involved on their own initiative, finding each other, linking up, and spreading like wildfire. Or, Bermuda grass.

There've been a lot of claims that the conservative resistance to President Obama's health care plan, and more recently his speech to kids, are orchestrated events. That people are being given 'marching orders' and blindly following them. A number of public officials from Nancy Pelosi to Barney Frank and even the President himself (who should be above such things) have cried loudly that Republican leaders are out trying to scare people, sending them to disrupt townhall meetings, and generally organizing an illigitimate resistance. I have a few problems with these arguments.

First, there is no Republican leadership and the people who are trying to be the leaders are grossly incompetent. That is evidenced by that Party's nomination of John McCain for President last year. And for at least two years the Democrats have been reveling in, commenting on, and exploiting the lack of any effective Republican leadership. So what group are they talking about who has organized this fierce resistance and where are the converts who didn't show up for the election last fall?

So where has this strong opposition come from? This strong opposition is, well, me. And thousands, even millions, like me. I'm not a Republican though if they had any decent leaders and a plan and would accept poor people into their ranks, I might be. (Ronald Reagan, where are you?) But I'm sitting here writing this blog this morning when I should be trying to make some money so I can pay my taxes. And just to the left of this text you'll find a link to a website selling "Just Say NObama" paraphenelia. I made that stuff. I sat here on my computer and used Adobe Photoshop to put together pithy sayings then uploaded them to a website that turns them into bumperstickers. Nobody told me to do that. I just got sick of being lied to, and yes, I'm smart enough to tell when a politician is lying to me. You don't even have to be a rocket scientist to know that. Just watch their lips. If their lips are moving, they are lying. Why did I spend a weekend making PNG files and getting them formatted right, setting up a webstore, and generally agonizing over the direction of the country? Because a charalatan is trying to sell us a bill of goods and millions of people see the Emperor's New Clothes. Or rather, don't see them. If that isn't grassroots then the word has no meaning.

Third, who the hell are some democrat leaders to tell me that a movement is illegitimate? They are the kings of the special interest. Who the hell do these bastards think they are, telling me I can't go to a townhall meeting and scream my head off like they've been doing since the sixties? What a bunch of effite, pompous, commie snobs. It doesn't matter if the movement is organized, grassroots, or left field, this is a democracy and if somebody is protesting then they are as legitimate as some freak at a San Francisco convention to save the gay whales.

There is a truth of human nature at work here, and it is this: a thief trusts no one. Thieves, being dishonest, assume everyone around them is dishonest also and are constantly expecting to be stolen from. People in general think this way. And honest people, on the other hand, think others are honest. The democrats, because everything they do is orchestrated, can't even conceive of a grassroots movement getting started by itself because they are always out trying to start grassroots movements. And grassroots movements don't come from organization or they're not grassroots. So when they see a large groundswell of protest, they assume it must be orchestrated because their groundswells always are orchestrated. Like the fanatical protesters we see from communist countries - except the cameras don't show the machine guns just off stage. Now I'm not suggesting that democrats point machine guns at their supporters to get them in the mood, but they do bus them around, saturate them with propaganda, and generally organize opposition extremely well. Sort of like the way lemmings were used in the Disney Movie, White Wilderness.

And there's another truth of human nature at work here as well. The democrats know these tactics work and don't want us using their play book.

Grassroots? The opposition to ObamaCare is the definition of grassroots. Why? Because it is a bad idea written into an even worse bill. And yes, there are people out there who know good from bad, prefer good to bad, and will fight against turning good into bad. Who are these people? Well they're not lemmings, I'll tell you that. And they could use a leader. But where do you find great leaders in a land where there are so few humble beginnings?

Futbol Guru, http://mises.org/community/blogs/not-a-lemming .

The Single-Payer / Public-Option Lie

FutbolGuru — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:42:00 GMT

The old joke goes something like this: How can you tell a politician is lying? Easy. His lips are moving.

While elected officials have contributed mightily to our perception of their honesty they are not entirely responsible for their reputation. Having been an athlete for many years on all three sides of the ball - playing, coaching, and referring - I've come to understand one very important fact: emotions influence perception. If someone has a bias towards an ideology or solution the mind is very good at justifying a choice of that particular ideology or soultion. Even to the exclusion of otherwise obvious facts to the contrary. We've all seen this and is something of which most are guilty.

But there is one point in the single-payer approach to healthcare that is a clear cut lie being pandered by the left. It goes something like this. Healthcare is too expensive so we need a "public option." This public option, it is said by many long time supporters of a single payer system, will foster competition between insurance companies and result in lower rates. That is what is being said.

The reality is much different though, and here is how. Elected officials in favor of the public option are almost unanimously in favor of single payer. Single payer, however, means the legislative elimination of all competition. So on the one hand they are saying that the public option is good because it will increase competition and thereby reduce costs, while on the other hand they are on record as favoring a plan that will eliminate all competition. And no-competition always means only one thing, higher prices. In point of fact, they are supporting opposite solutions with opposite outcomes for the healthcare problem. Since it is unlikely they are unaware of this cognitive dissonance the question becomes, for the rest of us, "Why?"

One thing that can be said about Barney Frank and his ilk is that he is a consumate politician. He wants single payer. He also knows he can't get single payer in a single step. So what does a career bureaucrat do when he wants something he can't get? He introduces step legislation. Step legislation can come in two forms. It can be written badly so that interpretation by judges can give the bill's supporters what they want. Or, it can begin the process, increase people's dependency, hamstringing the competition, so that bills introduced later will face less and less resistance. Current versions of the healthcare bill in the house and senate take both approaches.

In some cases it is difficult to know exactly what someone's motives are. If you'd asked a German citizen on the street in 1934 what Germany was going to be like in 1944, I doubt any of them would have predicted a police state with institutionalized death camps. Unless they'd read Mein Kampf. Hitler wrote Mein Kampf while he was imprisoned for having attempted to stage a coup. It spelled out his intentions in detail. But his party was swept into power anyway and he was ultimated appointed Chancellor. The part about the Third Reich being utterly defeated and Germany destroyed and split in the process wasn't in Mein Kampf, however. No doubt an oversight by the Fuhrer.

Do I think Obama is Hitler and the US Germany? Of couse he isn't and no we're not (though Hitler was actually Austrian and the Nazis swept into power amid the tumult of a Global economic meltdown.) But history tells us only too well what happens when mere men are granted power over their brothers. Hitler lost control of the machine he built. While he is responsible for the Holocaust through his association with passing laws that allowed it to take place, he is neither solely responsible nor directly or indirectly guilty of each and every atrocity. In fact, once certain legislative doors had been opened, the fate of Nazi Germany was inevitable. The first laws against Jews didn't order them to death camps, they merely curtailed their economic rights. When that weakened them, and strengthened others, more laws followed. The door only needed to be cracked.

So, how do you tell when a politician is lying? Well, it is when he's lying.

Futbol Guru, http://mises.org/community/blogs/not-a-lemming

The Economy of Scale: Why European-style Health Care CAN'T Work in America

FutbolGuru — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:24:00 GMT

Dinosaurs were big. They were the largest land creatures to ever walk the Earth. The largest were nearly a hundred feet long. But as large as they were there is a good reason they didn't get any bigger. In fact, there is an absolute limit to the size an Earth-bound creature can grow without collapsing under its own weight.

Complex organisms like humans, bears, and dinosaurs are muscles hung on a skeleton. The skeleton supports the structure and the muscles make it move. As you'd expect, as the animal becomes larger the skeleton and muscles must become larger as well. While creatures can become large and strong, much larger than humans, the proportions at which they scale are not linear.

For example, if an animal evolves into a similar creature that is twice as tall, you might think that the bones would have to be twice as large. In fact, this doesn't hold. The strength of a bone is related to the cross-sectional area of the bone. However, weight of the bone is related to volume, and volume increases much faster than cross-sectional area. A bone twice as large will weigh four times as much. This means the bones get heavier faster than they get larger and stronger. Eventually, the bone will simply break. Bridges, skyscrapers, and other structures have similar limitations.

Economics is much like this. England has a population 51 million. A healthcare system large enough to service 51 million people won't necessarily scale to a country like the United States which has a population of 330 million; six times larger. This is true because the system won't necessarily have to be just six times larger, it may well have to be 36 times larger. Consider this example as you recall the previous example of the bone.

I build cabinets. I don't do this for a living but it is something I enjoy and we occasionally need cabinets at my house. And the scientist inside me likes holding tolerances to 1/64 of an inch. Regardless, I have a 12' x 20' shop in my backyard that is large enough to build one cabinet at a time. I can store the wood and the tools in the shop. Move the partially completed structure around in the shop at various stages of construction. Then, when I don't building it I can clean the shop thoroughly and move on to the finishing phase - which must be as dust free as possible. While I also use my shop to fix my trials motorcycles, clean guns, and do other odd jobs, I can pretty much only do one thing at a time in there.

Suppose I wanted to start a business building cabinets, something I've thought about from time to time. What would it take? At a minimum I'd have to build another building for the finishing because I can't finish and build at the same time. And finishing takes time as the paint, stain, and varnish cure. Time that I could use to start other projects.

As business picked up I'd have to build another building to store more wood or I'd be wasting all my time at Lowe's. And then increases the size of my small shop so I could work on multiple projects at one time. At some point I'd have to invest in larger tools that I wouldn't have to wheel around. Eventually I'd have to hire more people. While some of them would build cabinets, others would have to maintain the machinery and keep the shop clean or we'd be knee deep in sawdust. Others would go out and buy wood, sandpaper, glue, nails, stain, and deliver and install the completed units. Which means I'd also have to buy some trucks. Which would need more people for maintenance.

At this point I have enough employees that I need specialized employees to manage the employees and computers to streamline the workflow. Now I need IT guys to keep the computers working. And someone to keep track of the books. And people to keep tabs on them. My stain supply has gone from a gallon a year to a hundred gallons a month and Lowe's doesn't support that so I have to get someone to go out and find a supplier, then lawyers to draw up the contracts. And now I'm also sponsoring golf tournaments to keep the lawyers and executives happy - yes, people are part of this equation. Never forget that personal appetites are a part of EVERY equation.

Taking this example to the absurd, suppose I get so big that I become the supplier for every cabinet built in the country. I would now have to have a huge distribution system requiring thousands of people to maintain equipment, buy wood, transport raw materials and completed products, manage the people, manage the managers, and schmooze government officials who are breathing down my neck about where I'm going to dispose of the thousands of tons of sawdust and scrap wood. And just the buildings to house all the equipment and cabinet makers will cover hundreds of acres. I've got labor managers, facility managers, machinery managers, utility managers, benefits managers, administrative managers, environmental managers, manager managers, and an entire executive structure that now wants golf tournaments in Dubai. My business is a thousand times larger but the structure has grown much, much more than that, and is now full of corporate climbers, greedy executives, and self-serving lawyers who have multiplied the bureaucracy for their own ends. And everybody wonders why my cabinets suck now.

Healthcare is barking up the same tree. The bureaucracy that will be necessary to support this government acquisition will produce the same waste, inefficiency, complacency, and largesse that would obviously come from World Cabinet Makers International. That is why European-style healthcare can't work on a US scale. Sure it is great, I guess, that everybody gets to go to the doctor for free. But the best parts about these systems will scale far less quickly than the worst parts about these systems simply because of the law of Entropy. Everything in life is like this and you learn it in your gut by the time you're twelve years old. Don't ignore this simple fact of life now or we'll wind up with a huge, ravenous dinosaur that that will roar for more, and more, and more food but never be full. It won't be able to move because its bones are too large, nor can we let it die because it'd take a hundred years to rot, so we just have to keep bringing it more, and more, and more of our resources until the basic service it was born to serve will be so deeply buried in bureaucracy that you won't even be able to find it. There is no European healthcare system. There are separate, much smaller completelyt separate systems, in each of the various contries in Europe.

Obama knows this. So do the Capitol Hill morons who are pushing it. But they're not really interested in what the dinosaur will do for us. They're interested in what the dinosaur will do for them. For they are the dinosaur and it is their appetite for power and control that we'll be feeding. And once we've taken that step towards creating the paradise of Vol, there is no turning back.

Below is a brief list of Western European nations whose healthcare people like Obama and Barney Frank want to emulate, followed by their populations. Some of these countries actually have decent systems. The only free healthcare country I know of with a population close to the size of the United States was the former Soviet Union and NOBODY went there for healthcare unless they wanted to be dead.

Germany - 82 million

France - 65 million

Italy - 60 million

England - 51 million

Spain - 46 million

Canada - 33 million

Netherlands - 16 million

Belgium - 10 million

Portugal - 10 million

Sweden - 9 million

Austria - 8 million

Switzerland - 7 million

Denmark - 5 million

Norway - 4 million

Iceland - 319 thousand

United States - 330 million

Soviet Union - 293 million

Futbol Guru, http://mises.org/community/blogs/not-a-lemming

How To Pay For Healthcare - The Wrong Question

FutbolGuru — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:48:00 GMT

I suppose that in a perfect world everyone would have access to healthcare. Well, then I guess the United States is as close to perfect as anywhere because everyone here has access to healthcare. Just like anyone can buy a car, buy a home, or buy clothes and food, anyone can buy healthcare. Healthcare is a service and money is the medium we use to exchange our time for goods and services.

Linking the concept of Universal Healthcare to the word free is a lie. We have universal healthcare. What we don't have is free healthcare. Nor do we have free cars, free houses, or free clothes and food. There was a time, not that long ago, when it was understood that hard work and good choices led to more options in lifestyle. Long before I graduated from high school my parents were telling me that I'd need to get a good education so I could get a good job with good benifits. And lest you think that I was raised with a silver spoon in my mouth, think again. Economically we were lower middle class and neither of my parents went to college. My father worked very hard and understood that hard work and good choices could take you places. Hard work and good choices led to higher paying jobs with access to health insurance. It was one of the benefits of hard work and one of the things that motivated you to stay on track. My brothers didn't listen to his advice, didn't work hard, made poor choices, and have paid the price. But to their credit, they don't expect anything for free.

As a result of hard work and good choices, and years of delayed gratification and personal sacrifice, I now have a good job and work in a nice place surrounded by other hardworking people. No, I'm not rich and my family finances are tight. It doesn't look like I'll ever retire. My cars aren't new and my house needs work. And it galls me to this day that I can't take the vacations I see other people take. As a result I sometimes think my life sucks. Especially since I'm rarely around people who's lives do suck. But I had that chance recently and it opened my eyes.

We had some work done on our house this summer. No, I didn't have a windfall, I borrowed money that I now must pay back. The owner of the contracting company who did the work was a pretty sharp guy. He was reasonably punctual (for a contractor) and accurate and seemed to have his affairs in order. His hired help was another matter entirely. Their finances were in complete disarray. None of them had cars - one of them actually had a vehicle reposessed on the job. None of them had health insurance. They were walking disasters. On the surface it seemed kind of sad. But as days turned into months (no it isn't quite done even now!) their stories began to come out. To a man they had made horrible choices pissed away their public education, and taken every short cut conceivable. Some had been in jail. Others had multiple children outside of wedlock. Some had past drug problems. Others simply failed to show up for work and couldn't be reached. (Naturally of course they all had cell phones.) The owner tried to find better help but good workers seem to be quite a rarity these days.

As I took all this in it began to dawn on me that a) I really had a wonderful life and b) these people were entirely responsible for their own misery. From this I came to c) why the hell should I pay for their free healthcare?

The question Obama is asking, and the question our nation is debating, should not be, "How are we going to pay for free healthcare?" The question should be, "Why should we pay for free healthcare?" Why should my hard work, good choices, years of personal sacrifice and delayed gratification, countless long nights studying when others were out playing, saying no to sex when it sounded damn good, staying healthy by refraining from bad behavior, be used to pay for people who will screw anything with two legs, come to work drunk - or high, fail to pay their bills (because they pay their texting bill first), and called anyone with a decent GPA a geek? And the president is out there preaching that it is partly my fault, and at the very least is my problem, that they don't have healthcare? Pardon my French but, What the fuck?

The short of it is, these people don't deserve free health care. Sure, they may be nice. And these guys I worked with were very nice and even polite. But it was to their advantage to be so when they were on the job. You'd see a far different story Saturday night when they bust some dude over the head with a bottle because they're both to drunk to notice that the guy that just called their girlfriend a "Ho," had already left the bar! Why, how, and when did that kind of behavior become worthy of my time and effort?

I actually lied at the beginning of this piece. I said there were no free cars, free houses, or free clothes and food. In fact, there are. Free housing is called the projects. Free cars is called the public transportation. Free clothes and food are called welfare. And it was government mandates that made mortgage credit available to people who had no business buying a house and led directly to worst recession since the depression. I wonder how long it'll be until "cash for clunkers" morphs into the auto-loan meltdown, because $4,500 isn't a lot of money when you have a $500/month car payment for 72 months.

Yeah, free healthcare. That sounds just great. Only don't ask me to pay for it because I sure as hell ain't gonna be using it.

-Futbol Guru, http://mises.org/community/not-a-lemming

The Conservative Conundrum

FutbolGuru — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:29:00 GMT

Interesting news this week with various outlets reporting that President Obama may not be able to function in a press conference without a teleprompter. It makes me wonder exactly how much information he’s being fed, and what he actually knows. Remember the disastrous Sarah Palin interview when she didn’t know what the Bush Doctrine was? If she’d had a teleprompter with a savvy technophile on the other end she might have been able to fool us. Though Ms. Palin has great legs she wasn’t, and isn’t, ready to run the country. And despite Mr. Obama’s melodious voice I don’t think he’s ready either. I wonder who is actually running the country. Perhaps Joe Biden, Mr. Gravitas himself?

I was also a bit shocked this week when Mr. Obama signed the Omnibus Budget Bill behind closed doors. Or rather, his statement was surprising. He said it was a bad bill full of earmarks but that he was going to sign it anyway. Old business needed to keep the country running. The insinuation is that it is Mr. Bush’s old business even though it was a Democrat congress that drafted, crafted, and put the bill on his desk. He’s getting exactly what he wants and telling the country it’s a bad bill. Slick, but at least he’s being honest. It is a bad bill.

This is government at its worst. Bureaucracy run amok. Even the president is enacting legislation that he is admitting is bad. So why is he signing it? I sure wish I had someone else to vote for. But who?

The problem, for conservatives at any rate, is that there’s nowhere else to turn. Mr. Bush and his administration literally ran this country into the ground. What will crawl out of that smoking hole, if anything, no one can know. Sure there was some bad left-over, Clinton-era economic policy as regards lending, but the deregulation of the investment and banking industry let the wolves into the hen house like never before. And invading the wrong country sucked trillions from the national coffers. The combined effect along with a President who was seemingly uninterested in domestic affairs put us where we are today.

I had very high hopes in 1994. Conservatives, it seemed, were finally in control of the nation, swept to power on a wave of anti-liberal sentiment born of draconian gun control policies, nationalization of health care, and various social agendas (and other things) being crammed down everyone’s throat. But they quickly became comfortable in Washington and we soon learned they were no different than their predecessors. Newt Gingrich, Mr. Family-Values himself, was found to be having an affair even while he was leading the investigation into President Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinski. Limbaugh, the voice of conservatives, became a drug addict and, seemingly unable to have a stable long-term relationship, divorced one wife after another. The religious right became every bit as materialistic and hedonistic as their liberal counterparts with the sole exception that they didn’t practice homosexuality. At least not in the open.

The problem with the conservatives can be best illustrated by Wayne Parker’s third (failed) run for congress in Alabama’s 5^th Congressional District in 2008. He ran against Bud Cramer in ’94 and lost by a few hundred votes – mostly due to the NRA’s last-minute backing of Cramer. He lost again in ’96 by a larger margin. And when he heard Bud Cramer wasn’t running in 2008 he decided to run again.

It was a perfect opportunity for him since the opposition was weak and we desperately need a conservative in office here in North Alabama. Knowing Wayne from his previous bids, and hopeful of a strong campaign, I volunteered my writing and analysis. What did Wayne do? He went out and got the same people who led him to failure twice before, said the same things he said the previous two times, and failed again. I don’t know if my help would have made a difference but at the very least it would have been a fresh perspective on things. I have little doubt that this happened all over the country. Yes, Wayne is a decent guy and probably would have made a good congressman, but he and the Republican Party made the same fatal mistakes they made before. They’re like a bunch of lemmings – straight over the cliff.

Mr. Obama, on the other hand, is a fresh face. He isn’t from a political dynasty or a wealthy family. He’s not from Washington. He’s been a liberal all his life. But the people who control the party saw his talent and let him in. That is what separates liberal parties from conservative parties and why they stay in control most of the time. They know that new blood is the life blood of any organization. This doesn’t absolve them of bureaucratic tendencies, they have them too, but it manifests itself in different ways.

Now more than ever, conservatives, specifically the Republican Party, need to recruit new blood. They need new talent. Because the people in power right now have abused the public trust to the point that they are, in the words of Howard Dean, laughable. I can’t criticize Mr. Obama and then extol the virtues of the Republicans because they have none. They are the 2-10 coach criticizing his 1-11 replacement. There is no one to vote for. No one the average citizen can identify with or trust. No one from humble origins. No one from ‘outside’ Washington. No one ‘there’ because they are wise, and charismatic, and passionate. No statesmen. You say that Sarah Palin is new blood? We all know why she got picked. Because she’s sexy. She’s not new blood, she’s hot blooded. She got picked for the worst reason of all – Madison Avenue advertising. That’s even worse than the reason they picked George the II.

I guess it isn’t surprising the country is such a mess. The people driving the bus are only there because their daddy drove the bus. And if things don’t change, drastically, and soon, the bus is going to go right over a cliff like a giant, yellow, mega-lemming.

-Futbol Guru, http://mises.org/Community/blogs/not-a-lemming

Why Liberals Fail

FutbolGuru — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:35:00 GMT

Let it never be said that the FutbolGuru is one-sided. Lemmings are one sided which is why they run off cliffs. Or rather, why it is so easy to get them to run off cliffs. What if one of those lemmings in White Wilderness had simply stopped to smell the cameras? Not only would it have been spared the plunge, it wound probably have become a pet of the director and lived to a ripe old age. Not bad for a lemming.

Conservatives fail. But I never said they always fail. And I didn’t disparage their ideas. Conservatives are the idea people for the very reason that they are not the best leaders – because they are highly rational. Which is not to say that there aren’t conservatives who aren’t fantastic leaders, too. Ronald Reagan for instance. Agree or disagree with his politics it can’t be denied that he inspired the masses and got himself elected twice with more than a few Democrat votes. Take a rational thinker and endow him with leadership capability and you have the makings of greatness. It’s like in engineering, a guy who not only understands theory and design, but who also knows how to program the chips, is an indispensable rarity.

Liberals fail, too. And fail spectacularly. But the reasons they fail are wholly different than why conservatives fail. However, like conservatives, who fail because of their strength in one area, liberals, too, fail because of their strength.

I’m reminded of the Alamo, and who knows how many other hopeless battles stretched across the sands of time. The men in the Alamo were besieged by Santa Anna and his Mexican army. They knew they were outgunned, outmanned, outmaneuvered and could not win this fight. It is likely that Santa Anna would have let them leave without harm if they had given up the garrison and laid down their weapons. But Jim Bowie and William Travis knew that the Texas Revolution was on the line and it was important to stall Santa Anna as long as possible. They tried to get reinforcements but knew it was a long shot. Yet they repeatedly told the garrison that reinforcements were on the way. The commanders hoped reinforcements were on the way, but they didn’t know this. In fact, they probably doubted it. So, did they lie to their men? It may have been because the men believed the reinforcements were on the way that they were able to hold out so long. In the end, of course, they all died, but it gave the Texians time to regroup for the rest of the war. The leaders did what they had to do under the circumstances. They inspired their men to hold out and helped win the war, but they paid a heavy toll.

Liberals are like that. And sometimes it is a necessary trait. When a group is under tough times the truth is not always the best thing to tell them. Outright lies aren’t any better, but an expression of hope, even if it is a distant or almost fabricated hope, can inspire people to lengths they could not otherwise go. Liberals are good at this. They have a vision of the future in which everyone is equal, happy, educated, fulfilled, obeying the rules, basically utopia. And it would be really nice if we could achieve this. Unfortunately, its not real and never will be. Keeping a garrison fighting under terrible, hopeless conditions by inflating hope over despair is one thing. But running an army that way on a day-to-day basis will soon lead to disaster. At some point you have to deal with truth.

One of the things Ronald Reagan did well was give Americans back their sense of pride. We’d just lost our first war, an ugly conflict that divided the nation. Nixon had resigned in disgrace only a few years before. Carter had driven the country into the mud through inexperience and naïveté. Iran was mocking us with hostages. The economy was in the tank. Interest rates were soaring. Inflation was up. Being an American sucked. When Reagan took office he knew our biggest problem was our self image. So what did he do? He ramped up tension against the Soviets. He wasn’t a warmonger but he definitely parlayed the Cold War into a tit-for-tat game of chicken that he knew we couldn’t lose. It was risky and had to be carefully managed or it could explode into a shooting war. But it worked and gave Americans something to rally around. A few years later the Soviets folded and we reaped the rewards, the most important of which was a much improved self-image. It was great leadership even though much of it was based on stereotypes and nationalism. And with lower taxes and decreased government regulation to go along with a sense of national pride, Reagan set up the economic boom of the ‘90s.

Clinton on the other hand played to peoples’ sense of class distinction. Class warfare has never been hotter, or worked better, in U.S. politics. President Clinton was a great leader. Perhaps the greatest of our generation. And by leader, I mean his ability to galvanize people behind him. Whether you love him or hate him it can’t be denied that for those susceptible to it, he had an almost Rasputinesque charm. People LOVED President Clinton because basically, he lied to them. He told them whatever his focus-group polling decided they needed to hear at the moment. No matter what decision needed to be made, he would lick his finger and stick it into the wind. While this can work well when a group is under duress, such as during a siege, we weren’t under duress at the time. So what resulted was an entire population that claimed permanent victim status. By the end of his tenure everyone was pointing their finger at everyone else and no one wanted to work together. Predictably, the economy went into the toilet. The recession at the beginning of the Bush presidency had nothing to do with George II, and everything to do with an epidemic of paranoid greed inspired by President Clinton’s class warfare. There is a time for government to conceal the truth, and perhaps even to lie, but it should be saved for emergencies, not become standard operating procedure.

What will President Obama do? Does anyone doubt that he took office and found the economy to be much worse than he’d been told. Was he shocked? Should he be rational and tell us the truth? Do we want to know the truth? Or does it make more sense to play on hope? For the short term, I say he’s doing the right thing. People need hope. People work harder with hope. They can face more difficulties and be less argumentative when they have hope. Giving hundreds of billions to the wealthy probably sucked more hope from the average American than ten nine-elevens would have. Imagine having to overcome a debacle of that magnitude. But a time is coming when the truth must come into the light. And then we’ll need ideas. Debt will come due and bills will have to be paid and the lying must stop. Liberals have shown great difficulty transitioning from generating hope to producing practical solutions. Will Barak Obama be a great leader or just another liberal failure? I have high hopes if only because it best having low hopes.

-Futbol Guru, http://mises.org/community/blogs/not-a-lemming

A Truly Great Day

FutbolGuru — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:57:00 GMT

Today is a great day to be an American. For the first time in the history of the United States, a black man will become the President of this land. Today a black man becomes the most powerful individual in the world.

It would be easy to become a lemming and join the herds of fuzzy brown creatures hurtling in opposite directions towards the cliffs. In one direction are the nay-sayers, not only horrified of the thought of a black President, but once again facing the prospect of a liberal leader. In the other direction are those convinced that no matter what happens it will be better. Both are wrong for so many reasons I’m not even going to talk about it.

Today isn’t a great day because Barak Obama ascends to the Oval Office. Today is a great day because his inauguration proves, once again, that the United States is the finest, most progressive nation on Earth, and her citizens have no parallel.

A mere forty years ago, within my shockingly inconsequential lifetime, black people were, by virtue of their skin color, denied access to colleges and universities. The very idea seems absurd to us today but here we are, barely a generation removed, and a black man is President. The sea change in attitudes is very nearly impossible to quantify or even express. Civil Rights was a long hard struggle and black people have every reason to be proud of their achievements. And I am proud of the achievement as well, for it highlights that We are still the melting pot. That We still hold these Truths to be self-evident: That All Men Are Created Equal. No where else in the world is this the case.

Sixty years ago Nazis were murdering Jews but you won’t see a Jewish Chancellor in Germany any time soon. What are the odds of an ethnic Khazak being elected to the Russian presidency? Or an immigrant from India becoming the Prime Minister of England. Does anybody really think there will ever be a non-Arab leader of Saudi Arabia? Or a non-Italian leader of Italy? What about an Inuit PM in Canada?

People talk about racism in America. Yes, at one time it was as bad here as anywhere. A black man could be lynched for nothing. A Native American could be murdered and there would be no investigation. That’s gone, now. Gone. America is no longer a racist nation. In fact, we are the ONLY non-racist nation on the planet. If you want to see racism, go to China where Mandarin Chinese oppress all other ethnicities, like Han, Mongol, Tibetan, etc. Did you even know that China had more ethnicities than the United States and if you’re not Mandarin you’re pretty much screwed? But they all look the same to us. And Africa. Every atrocity there is race based. Rwandan Hutu’s murdered as many as one million Rwandan Tutsis during the genocide of 1994. Do you even want to talk about Sudan? And yes, there are people who dislike Iranians even more than Americans do. They are called Iraqis. Or didn’t you know they are different races? Iranians consider themselves Persians while Iraqis are Arabic. And naturally, both feel superior to the other so of course they hate each other and try to kill one another whenever they get the chance.

But America is special. It is different, and that is a good thing. It is different because it wasn’t founded based on race. It was founded based on the idea of freedom, liberty, and equality. It took a while even for us to realize what that meant and there were injustices along the way, but even then it was at the core of what we are. And in time that idea has finally erased the most widespread vice of humankind – racism.

To be called an American, to call oneself an American, is a thing of tremendous power and pride. Nowhere in history, nowhere in the world, has there ever been a place like this, where a race can go from slavery to leading the entire nation in a few generations. For the past sixty years our victory in World War II has defined us as a nation. What we were able to accomplish in a few short years said more about us as a people than any other event in our history. I believe that milestone has now been exceeded. We, as a nation, have now beaten an even greater enemy. The enemy at the heart of World War II and every war ever fought. An enemy that no other nation on Earth has ever defeated. And that enemy is racism.

There are still racists, and there always be racists, but institutionalized racism in America can now be officially laid to rest. And whether you are on the left, or on the right, Republican or Democrat, man or woman, that is a thing you can be proud of. For the nation to which you’ve sworn allegiance, a Nation of the People, for the People, and by the People, has achieved what is perhaps the greatest victory of all time.

It is a great day to be an American.

-Futbol Guru, http://mises.org/Community/blogs/not-a-lemming