Month: October 2008

Categories
free market freedom of choice politics

I’ve been thinking about this all wrong

I’ve been bitching and moaning for a while about how I don’t really like either candidate. This bailout bill is the straw that broke the camel’s back. Neither of the candidates even said, “Well, maybe we should think about this…” let alone thought that the bailout was a bad idea. Both parties were all gung-ho to pass this as soon as possible. That is an amazing amount of money that has just been handed over to the federal government and there was only token debate about how much power was being given essentially to one man.

I’ve had it, but what to do? I, along with everyone else, have been looking at the voting options as a two horse race. It occurred to me today that that isn’t so. There are a handful of other parties on the ballot in Virginia, how does this platform sound?

“We defend America’s traditional civil liberties and personal freedoms as the foundation of a tolerant society. We believe in the protection of people from dishonest business through liability in the courts. We endorse a foreign policy of non-intervention, peace, and free trade as prescribed by America’s Founding Fathers. Unlike the two major parties, for whom the only debate is whether the government should be enormous or merely huge, we believe the size and scope of government must be substantially reduced. Individuals should have sovereignty over their own lives as long as they do not interfere with the rights of others.”

Guess what party that is? It’s the Libertarian party. It basically fits my sensibilities to a tee and I’m willing to bet it fits a lot of other people’s too, they just don’t know about this party. I’ve known about them, but I never really thought about voting for them. Why not?

Well, there is zero chance that any of their policies will ever get written into law. Zero. Things like real free trade (not what passes for that in all of the trade bills coming out of the congress) and the elimination of all of the unnecessary federal bureaucracy just don’t have any political traction and probably won’t any time soon. Other things like the abolition of the federal income tax are so big that the idea is a little scary. But that’ll never happen either.

As it turns out, that’s probably a good thing. Knowing that the huge stuff won’t get done is fine. Right now, I’d be happy with resistance to the crazy things that are going on right now. A Libertarian would not have voted to invade Iraq (see Ron Paul) and a libertarian wouldn’t have voted for this enormous bailout. it would be nice if someone was fighting for me instead of selling me out.

Of course the big reason I wasn’t going to vote for a Libertarian is because they weren’t going to win. Especially after the Nadar issue that got W elected, third party votes have been seen as throwing away your vote, at best.

This is the killer, the guy isn’t going to win, so why bother? Of course one of the other guys is going to win, so why bother voting for them? Especially if I don’t like either of them. Something struck me today, voting for these guys could actually make a difference, even if they don’t win. Counting votes is the only way people know that that outlook exists in the population at large. This vote will actually mean more than just another vote for the big two, it will show that someone does care about things that the candidates are ignoring. I believe that most of the people that don’t vote are sick of the big two. Politics is stupid, politics is inherently corrupt, etc. If people realize that there is another choice and vote that way, things can be accomplished. Even if I am the only one in my district to vote this way, it might get someone to say, “Libertarians, who are they?” That chance is worth a lot more to me than “throwing away” my vote on Obama or McCain.

So for me, this makes a lot of sense. If you are disgusted by the bailout and Iraq, a libertarian vote makes a lot of sense. A democratic vote may communicate your dislike of the Iraq situation, but it is also tacit approval of Obama’s financial largess to very wealthy people. If you want to say no to interventionist wars, bailouts, ever increasing debt, and government intrusions into things like sexuality, vote Libertarian. It’s gotta start somewhere, so I’m voting libertarian down the line…

Categories
politics

They did it

They passed the bailout bill. I’m willing to bet that the one the House passed is actually worse than the one they rejected. SIGH. There wasn’t any party opposition at all, both were of the opinion that they needed to get it done RIGHT NOW! The parties are looking more and more alike, and not in good ways. It’s really frustrating that both houses were willing to sign away so much money with so little research. Once again, I’m hoping that this is the action that really rouses the ire of a lot of Americans. My biggest fear is that people are going to get away with this. The people that actually ran these banks into the ground are getting a free pass and by the time most of the people that voted on it come up for re-election, everyone will have forgotten about this. What a waste of money…

Categories
Uncategorized

Good thing I checked…

I knew I was registered to vote, but I also knew it had been a while. I think I registered to vote against Bush I in 1992. The trick is that was in a place where i no longer live. I could get there, and I had been planning on doing that, but then it occurred to me that I didn’t know where “there” was. What started as curiosity about where the polling place was lead me to reregistering. Good thing I did, turns out that I was actually registered up in Arlington! I have no memory of ever voting there, none. Anyway, things are taken care of now….

Categories
economics free market

Greed

If I hear “This whole mess is caused by greedy capitalism run amok” one more time, I am going to scream. I don’t know how many times I have seen the terms Laissez Faire and greed together lately.

First of all, there is a huge difference between Laissez Faire and corporitism. Laissez Faire puts the emphasis on competition. Businesses thrive and fail on their own merits. This is rarely ever mentioned in government circles, what is usually put into place is corporitism. That puts the emphasis on protecting a certain business or sector. Often times, this is masked behind “protecting” the consumer by various means. In any case, a company or group of companies benefit at the expese of all of us. This is what Republicans are famous for. People on the left tend to mistakenly refer to those things as “free market” policies. Here’s a hint, if it benefits a business, it isn’t free market. Businesses hate free market reforms, it means less money for them.

The next thing I would like to address is this; if you think that government regulations had nothing to do with this debacle, you’re delusional. People will always try to make as much money as they can. Is that greedy? When you sell your house, do you sell it for as much as you can get? When you work, do you pick a job that benefits you the most? (Benefits and profits are essentially the same thing, see here for an explanation…) Congratulations! You’re a greedy capitalist!

People work on Wall Street to make money. That sounds obvious, but think just a little bit, people come from all over the world to make big bucks in NYC’s financial sector. Think what you want about those people, but their activities have enormous repercussions throughout the world. Their “greed” propels most of the jobs in the US and probably the world.

You can’t legislate away greed. They will do what makes them the most money for the resources that go into it (capital, time, etc.). Government regulations have shaped what is profitable and generally distorted the entire financial sector. Without going into too mucuh detail, the existence of Fannie and Freddie, tax codes that pertain to real estate, mandates to lend to certain groups of people, and of course the Fed’s monetary policies over the last decade have all come together in the perfect storm.

Once again, this mess can be laid at the feet of government meddling. The economy is not a machine that you can steer. A better analogy would be that the economy is like water flowing downhill. You can try to divert it, and you can try to make it work for you, but it will flow all the same. What we are seeing is the flooding caused by government diversions and dams. The bailout will make things worse long term, who knows what unintended consequence will come out of this intervention. It’s best to allow things to die a natural death, clean up after, and then get back to work without government distortions in the market…

PS. Im not saying that the people and companies involved in this collapse weren’t idiots. Companies make mistakes every day. Most banks did not make these mistakes, but a handful of large ones did. Whenever you hear the phrase “too big to fail” you can be sure we are operating under corporitism. The banks that exposed themselves to this kind of risk should go under, no bailout should be considered..

Categories
politics

voting

I just saw an ad on youtube about voting. In it, they were essentially saying that if you don’t vote, you don’t care about the economy, education, terrorism, civil rights, etc. Using guilt to make people vote is weird. You see, I care about all of those things, but I don’t get to vote on them. We do not live in a democracy, we live in a republic. At the national level, we never get to vote on issues, we can only vote on who our proxy is.

This is the challenge to those people that say that it’s vital to vote, it’s out most important right… People aren’t that stupid. We all know what we can vote for, it’s one or the other. For a lot of people, neither choice is worth picking, so why is it worth voting? There’s a reason that only half the people who can vote typically do…

The more I think about it, the trip and wait in line may not be worth it to me to vote for president. As I’ve said before, I don’t see a lot of what I consider important in either candidate. On the other hand, this whole bailout mess has me feeling vengeful. If any of my representatives vote for it (Both Obama and McCain voted for it BTW), I will vote against them. On the other hand, if they have the balls to stand up and vote no, I will vote for them. The more local the representative, the more important any individual vote is. Pay attention to the voting on this bill and make sure we tell them what we think of their vote!

Categories
photography

New scans

kids3kidtoughkids2crazygirl

Some new scans. Turns out that not only was their chemistry off, it was very different the days I took it in. That means a lot more work than there should be. I’ve also notices more pinks than the original scans. After a more careful look, I think that they had routinely clipped the red channel making most pinkish things just red… Anyway, I’ll continue to go through this as I can…

Categories
economics free market

Wealth disparity

There are a lot of people that complain that there is too much control held by wealthy people. I don’t really think it’s that big a deal, if there is buying of power I don’t think the people buying it are as bad as the ones selling it…

Anyway, if you are someone that worries about power being controlled by a few people with money, you should be livid at the prospect of $700 billion being handed over to the treasury secretary. Talk about too much power in someone’s hands! The money part of this whole debacle is infuriating, but the power issue is really scary IMO. I’ll give Paulson the benefit of the doubt and assume that he’s a decent, upstanding guy, but no one should have that kind of discretion with that amount of other people’s money without their say so. To me, this is the last piece of W’s legacy, government power gone amuck. I’m really hoping that this whole mess will finally wake people up. Government needs to be reigned in, there has to be hard limits on what they can do. I hope that this isn’t too expensive a lesson to learn…

Categories
politics

More info on the bailout…

In the aptly titled “A Tourniquet for a Hemorrhaging Economy,” Andrew Leonard goes through the ridiculousness that is this bailout bill from the senate. What was once a 3 page plan is now 451 pages long. Here are some of the goodies in it:

Sec. 105. Energy credit for geothermal heat pump systems.
Sec. 111. Expansion and modification of advanced coal project investment credit.
Sec. 113. Temporary increase in coal excise tax; funding of Black Lung Disability Trust Fund.
Sec. 115. Tax credit for carbon dioxide sequestration.
Sec. 205. Credit for new qualified plug-in electric drive motor vehicles.
Sec. 405. Increase and extension of Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund tax.
Sec. 309. Extension of economic development credit for American Samoa.
Sec. 317. Seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility.
Sec. 501. $8,500 income threshold used to calculate refundable portion of child tax credit.
Sec. 503 Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.

This is for Wall Street? Clearly, it’s an attempt to throw enough bones to the House to get them to pass this thing. I’m hoping against hope that they don’t fall for it. This bill will cost considerably more than $700 billion after all of the costs are added up.

Categories
economics politics

The senate has done it..

They passed their version of the bailout bill. Some of the additions are comical. There is a tax benefit for bicycle commuting in there as well as an extension for a renewable energy tax credit… These are clearly needed to help save the economy and help wall street… Gah, this better not pass the house.

Categories
economics

Wow…

Warren, over at Coyote Blog pulls no punches when talking about the bailout. Here’s his response to a democratic friend of his lamenting the republicans not getting together to pass the bailout…

“I find it surprising that you take this administration on faith in its declaration of emergency in the financial sector. You’ve lamented for years about the “rush to war” and GWB’s scare tactics that pushed, you felt, the nation into a war it should not be fighting, all over threats of WMD’s that we could never find. You lamented Democrats like Hillary Clinton “falling for this” in Congress

But now the mantra is the same – rush, rush, hurry, hurry, fear, fear, emergency, emergency. Another GWB declared crisis in which the country needs to give the administration unlimited power without accountability and, of course, stacks of taxpayer dollars to spend. A decision that has to be made fast, without time for deliberation. Another $700 billion commitment. And here the Democrats go again. Jeez, these guys may have the majority in Congress but it is sure easy for GWB to push their buttons when he wants to. Heck, Pelosi is acting practically as the Republican Whip to get GWB’s party in line.

This is Iraq without the body bags, and without the personal honor of brave soldiers in the trenches to give the crisis some kind of dignity.”

So Warren, what do you really think? I think he overstates why dems are chomping at the bit for this bailout, but still, it makes one wonder. You’d think we’d learn by now….