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But an equally important issue has been revealed by accident, and is perhaps getting less attention. New York‘s junior Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, provides the setup, applauding the forced coverage of birth control by insurance companies:

“99 percent of American women take birth control, and this is basic health care for most women,” said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

Until this country stops confusing health insurance with health care, we’re on a road to certain national bankruptcy. Indeed, many would argue we’re already there.

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Mitt Romney recently said his effective tax rate is probably close to 15%, because most of his income comes from long term capital gains.  The admission hasn’t helped his campaign much, to be kind.  Warren Buffett has famously said similar things, and has become the President’s biggest gift in his drive towards wealth redistribution.

Nearly since the beginning of the income tax, the government has treated long term capital gains differently than “ordinary income.”  In 2003 the long term capital gains rate was cut to 15%.  Why are we surprised to see that people like Romney and Buffett have matched their behavior to the incentives?  Surely even President Obama understands the concept of incentives. Under certain conditions, section 2011 of his Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 establishes a particularly favorable long term capital gains rate: 0%.

Presumably what everyone’s attempting to foster here are wealth creation and capital formation.  From wealth comes the ability to invest, which creates jobs and, if created via free market capitalism — as opposed to crony-capitalism — advances society.  The opposite of wealth of course is poverty.   We see endless government reporting and programs attempting to alleviate the latter, but little understanding of the need to create the former.   If we want less poverty, we need to create more wealth.

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Fast forwarding a century to our own Great Recession and its corresponding groups of newly impoverished and dejected folk, one wonders what Conwell might have said to the ones who have come to participate in, or sympathize with, the Occupy Wall Street movement.   We need only to look to his “Acres of Diamonds” text to find out.

Equal parts inspiring, engaging and witty, and almost disturbingly prophetic, the lecture derives its name from its opening tale of “an ancient Persian by the name of Al Hafed”, who is lured into a search for diamonds in far away lands.   After spending his fortune in vain and coming up diamondless, he takes his own life.   As the story continues, we learn that if he had only dug in his own original backyard, he would have encountered acres of the precious stones, and achieved all of the riches he lost his life seeking.

But with the hopes of inspiring his audience out of their poverty-stricken ways, Conwell goes on to say  “I say you ought to be rich; you have no right to be poor.”   And he follows that up with:

I think the best thing for me to do is to illustrate this, for if I say you ought to get rich, I ought, at least, to suggest how it is done. We get a prejudice against rich men because of the lies that are told about them. The lies that are told about Mr. Rockefeller because he has two hundred million dollars — so many believe them; yet how false is the representation of that man to the world. How little we can tell what is true nowadays when newspapers try to sell their papers entirely on some sensation!

Much of Conwell’s eleven thousand plus words revolve around the relationships between society’s rich and its poor.  As the self-described “99 percenters” rail against the supposed injustices heaped upon them by the infinitely fortunate 1%, Conwell’s talk is chock full of wisdom that transcends the ages.   In fact, as we shall see, it is almost eery how currently applicable entire sections of the prose are.

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As parents, one of our most important tasks is to know when to say “no” to our children.  We all recognize a “brat” when we see one — a child who’s never been told “no”, and whines and complains until he or she gets his or her way.  ”Shame on his parents!”, or perhaps that’s not politically correct to say anymore.  But bratty children grow up to be bratty voters, too.

Unfortunately our political system often rewards the political equivalent of the irresponsible parent.   Using Other People’s Money, irresponsible politicians promise the world, and the bratty voters like it.  Once elected, these politicians do their best to deliver the goods.   It’s alright, they say, because of their interpretation of the General Welfare and Commerce clauses of the Constitution.  Others beg to differ…

Sadly, under such a system, no amount of revenue to the government is ever enough, because human wants are themselves unlimited.  Therefore, those with a lot of assets, with “a lot” being defined by the politics of envy, become natural targets for the boundless benevolence of these irresponsible people – voters and politicians alike.

At least one prominent media figure is finally on to the correct way to put a lid on this ruinous line of “fair share” reasoning.  Most recently, it was Stuart Varney.

On his September 20th show, Mr. Varney put a simple question to a Democratic strategist, Mary Anne Marsh, in the context of discussing Obama’s plan to raise taxes on the wealthy.   To paraphrase:

“What is the maximum percentage of income that someone should pay in taxes?”

It’s an arresting question, for several reasons.

 

 
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I stand accused of being an an Idealistic Capitalist, to which I plead guilty.

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Or so too many people think, nearly enough for a voting majority that would fulfill de Tocqueville’s prophesy:

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” — Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Fortunately, to back safely and permanently away from the edge of the cliff, we need only allow for true capitalism to thrive and to replace the crony capitalism that so many people confuse it with. Crony capitalism feeds on greed.   True capitalism and truly free markets, defeat it.

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When reading Paul Krugman’s latest New York Times column, “Medicare Saves Money“, it’s hard to fathom who the bigger fool is – Krugman, his employer, or the readers that keep supporting this junk.   It’s also hard to fathom a more complete demonstration of faulty reasoning.  All this from a Nobel Prize winner no less, and one calling out someone else’s supposedly bad idea, an idea according to Krugman “that’s so bad, so wrongheaded, that you’re almost grateful.”

Professor Krugman, I’m grateful to you.

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What’s it going to take for government to get serious about our financial condition and long-term economic health? New legislation, authored by politicians with a different view of what government can and can not do, and what it should and should not do.

Enter, Jeff Flake.     Continue reading at Forbes Opinions…

“Do you support workers’ rights, specifically, the right to not  join a union?”

If I were a union boss, I’d have no counter-move to that.  What could I say?

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