An article in the WSJ yesterday gives some specifics on why gas prices have gone up, and how the U.S. Government has contributed to the rise without the citizens being aware of the hows and whys.  It states “U.S. retail gasoline prices are around the highest they have been in three years, according to data from GasBuddy. Gasoline cracks—or the difference between the price of crude oil and the price of gasoline—touched multiyear highs in recent weeks, according to a recent report from BofA Global Research.”  What would cause the difference between crude oil price and gasoline to increase?  The article goes on to state, “Compliance with the Renewable Fuel Standard, which sets annual quotas for the quantity of ethanol and biodiesel that must be blended into fuels, has been the main driver of that price surge.”  It points out the fact that “so much of U.S. refining capacity in the U.S. is concentrated on the Gulf Coast. The region accounts for almost half of U.S. petroleum refining capacity.”  Why is this? Because, “Practically no new major refineries have been built since the 1970s, in part because of stringent environmental rules.”   And, “On top of that concentration, other existing rules such as the Jones Act (which bars foreign-flagged ships from moving between U.S. ports) create needless bottlenecks for alternative modes of fuel transportation, while the Renewable Fuel Standard adds a layer of cost and complexity for refiners that is ultimately passed down to consumers.”  So, decades and decades and layers upon layers of government mandates and special interest influence add up to higher prices, inefficient infrastructure, and less fuel processing and delivery flexibility which is sold piece by piece to some constituency group, but which ultimately hurts us all.

Sex addiction…missing the Elephant in the room

 

Sex addiction…missing the Elephant in the room…missing an opportunity:  The March 16, 2021, eight people were killed in shootings at three Atlanta- area spas. Robert Aaron Long, of Woodstock, Ga., was arrested in the attacks.  Six of the eight victims were women of Asian descent.  Hundreds of people gathered Saturday near the Georgia Capitol, with some demonstrators carrying signs declaring “Stop Asian Hate.”  Protests and vigils calling for an end to violence against Asian-Americans were held around the country over the weekend as lawmakers pushed for better tracking of hate crimes following the deadly shootings.  But, the killer did not appear to be racially motivated.  Law-enforcement officials in the suburban county where the first shooting occurred have said that Mr. Long told them he was lashing out at his sexual addiction in the attacks. Christopher Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, told NPR last week it did not appear that the attack was racially motivated.  The elephant in the room being ignored is sexual addiction, pornography, and the open sex industry and the opportunity being squandered is to call attention to this serious issue that destroys so many lives.  A WSJ article reports that “Wayne Huang, 42, who was born in New York City and lives in Chinatown, brought his two boys to the demonstration. “It’s hard to explain the hate to them, and the evil, but they have to have that awareness that it is time to support the community,” Mr. Huang said.”  Mr. Huang had a golden opportunity to begin teaching his sons about the dangers of sexual perversion, and educating them on a heathy attitude and healthy guiderails regarding sexuality.  Instead, he (along with all the other protesters) went with the false narrative that because many of the victims were Asian the killings were racially motivated.   That is a shame because sexual perversion destroys more lives than Asian Hate.

Wealth Tax

 

Elizabeth Warren is proposing a “Wealth Tax.”  It would be more descriptive to call it a “Property Confiscation Tax,” because your property, what you own, is your wealth.  That is a new ball game…a totally different concept than taking a portion of your income to finance your government.  Once the citizens agree with the concept of the government taking your property, which you acquired with after tax dollars, the only question will be how much property will the government determine you need to keep?  There is also a hidden tax due.  Consider someone subject to a $10,000. wealth tax bill.  They probably do not have that in cash, but have investments which they will have to convert to cash to pay the tax.  For example, they may have Microsoft stock they bought and held which is now worth 10 times what they paid for it.  After the Biden administration changes the capital gains laws to the rate of ordinary income, figuring federal and state taxes, you will have to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of 40% tax on the gain.  To illustrate, if you sell $1000. of Microsoft stock, your basis is $100, so you pay a gain on $900, or $360 in tax, leaving you with $540 after tax on the gain and your $100 basis, or $640.  So, you keep 64% of what you sell, with which you can pay your wealth tax.  So, you must sell $15,625. ($10,000 divided by .64) of stock, and pay it all in taxes, $5,625 in capital gains taxes and $10,000. In wealth taxes.  You have reduced your “wealth” by $15,625.  Sneaky government gets money from you coming and going.  And remember, you bought your original Microsoft stock with after tax dollars.  Just know that the confiscation tax threshold will not stay at 50 million dollars.  With the government handing out money in chucks of $1,900,000,000,000. to buy your votes, the confiscation tax threshold will continue to drop, and the government doesn’t care if you are a Democrat or Republican…they just want your money so they and not you can decide how to spend it.

Bootleggers and Baptists Revisited

Regulatory economist Bruce Yandle invented the catch-phrase “Bootleggers and Baptists” to describe how regulations are supported by seemingly opposing groups when both profit from the regulation.  The theory is that Bootleggers like laws against alcohol consumption because it keeps them in business and limits competition, and Baptists like alcohol laws because it gives them the moral high ground.  A similar situation is unfolding with the Dodd-Frank banking regulations and the political ascension of Elizabeth Warren.  She reaps huge political capital from railing against the big banks and their greedy executives and proposing ever increasing legislation to control the banks, while at the same time, Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, stated publicly that “More intense regulatory and technology requirements have raised the barriers to entry higher than at any other time in modern history,” and “only a handful of players” will be able to compete on a global scale.  So, Ms. Warren makes political hay by limiting the competition that Goldman has to face.  Isn’t it wonderful to see the cooperation between the public and private sectors?

The Root of Crony Capitalism…Human Nature.

The Root of Crony Capitalism…Human Nature.

The basic unit of the human species is the individual.  All groups, organizations and societies are made up of individuals.  Political groups and business groups are made up of individuals, and these individuals are all guided by basic human nature, the most basic of which is self-interest.  The individuals who control the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, Walmart, Exxon, the House of Representatives, the Sierra Club, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Small Business Administration, Monsanto, the EPA, GlaxoSmithKline, the Federal Executive Branch, your local barber shop, and any other group or organization you can name, are all motivated by the same basic human urge…self-interest.  If all these groups are made up of individuals acting in their own self-interest, is there any difference between the groups and organizations listed?  The most obvious difference is this.  In the case of the governmental agencies listed, they have the power, using force, to impose their will on all the individuals under their power.  The private companies and private groups, on the other hand, can only offer goods and services to individuals, and the individuals can voluntarily choose to use or not use those goods or services.  Individuals in private entities, when given the opportunity, will purchase the influence from the individuals who control the power of government, to force the individuals under the control of the government to utilize the goods or services they offer, and this is called crony capitalism.  It is rampant in our political system today, and it cannot be stopped no matter how many laws are written to prevent it.  The only way to limit crony capitalism is to limit the power of government to those essential tasks which only government can provide and limit the areas where they will have power and influence to sell. If we continue to allow government power in all areas of our lives with the power to sell favors and to pick winners and losers, the individuals in government will use that power for their own self-interest…that is human nature at work.  It seems so simple to understand.  Those who wrote and ratified the Constitution knew this.  It would behoove us to rediscover this truth.

How do we keep America strong and its citizens free?

How do we keep America strong and its citizens free?  There is only one way…adherence to the Constitution.  The Constitution is not a dreamy eyed document of how we wish things to be.  It is a well thought out structure of government that protects us from human nature.  No other system has proven to provide both long-term stability and individual freedom.  Only by limiting the concentration of power can we assure continued freedom and liberty.  To limit the concentration of power, our Founding Fathers established three branches for the Federal Government, each branch with different roles, freely elected on a regular basis.  A Federal Government of limited and enumerated powers, with the rest of the power dispersed among the States, which States must honor the Constitution’s guarantee of individual freedom and property rights.  But, its continued success is dependent on a citizenry with the will to hold the Federal Government to those limits.  Certainly, long term, the path that America has been on for the last half century has resulted in, and will continue to increasingly result in, reduced individual freedom and reduced property rights.  Our path has increasingly allowed a concentration of power in the Federal Government, effective tyranny over its citizens by a bureaucracy that increasingly, with no end in sight, tells what we can and can’t do with our lives and our property, and more and more national laws that are made ad hoc without regard to the Constitution, written in a way that they are nearly impossible to understand or follow, and then arbitrarily and selectively enforced or ignored at the whim of those in power.  We still have time to correct our direction, but there will come a time when the tipping point is reached, and the entrenched interests who have a stake in an all-powerful Federal Government will gain such power that it will be impossible to peacefully turn back to the Constitution.  Perhaps in 2014 we can begin to have a serious national debate regarding these issues.  Sadly, we debate myriad issues…minimum wage, core curriculum, gun laws, drug legalization, income inequality, national mandated healthcare, environmental laws, etc., without first asking the basic question “What is the proper role of the Federal Government?”  It is as if that question has already been answered, and the answer is “Whatever the Federal Government wants to do.”  If that is already settled, then not only will our grandchildren suffer the consequences, but the world will indeed lose a “shining city on a hill” and the last great hope of the world for a major power to set the standard for individual liberty, and stand strong against the huge forces around the world that want to snuff out individual liberty for a collectivist agenda that will ultimately result in tyranny and global conflict.  As this new year dawns, my hope and prayer is that Americans will wake up and rediscover the reason that we broke away from the British Empire and risked all for freedom.  Our American Founders, as articulated by Frederick Douglass, “preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage.”  We still have time for a peaceful revolution at the ballot box, but only if we will elect individuals who will promise and deliver a return of power to the States, and a return to the Spirit and Words of the Constitution.  It is that simple…it is the only way to preserve America as a land of freedom, prosperity and opportunity.  There is no other way.

THINK YOU ARE "ENTITLED" TO SOCIAL SECURITY?

In reality, there is no legal right to Social Security benefits, no matter how much you have paid into it. The government encourages this myth by referring to Social Security taxes as "contributions."  In the 1937 Supreme Court case, Helvering v. Davis, the Court ruled that Social Security was not a contributory insurance program, saying, "The proceeds of both [employee and employer] taxes are to be paid into the Treasury like internal-revenue taxes generally, and are not earmarked in any way."  In the 1960 case of Flemming v. Nestor the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that workers have no legally binding contractual rights to their Social Security benefits and that those benefits can be cut or even eliminated at any time.  In other words, Social Security is simply another payroll tax that has been collected by the government and spent as the money came in.  When there are not enough young people to continue this Ponzi scheme, it will come crashing down and we, who have paid into the system for the last (in my case 45) years will lose the benefits under the guise of “means testing” which means only those people who have lived off the government for decades and have not prepared for their retirement will collect it.