Flyover Country

Newton’s Third Law of Motion is, to paraphrase, that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This law of physics also applies to actions made by organizations, either public or private and is commonly referred to as the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to see this Law in motion when I was flying across the country. My trip consisted of two flights with a short lay over in between. As you probably know, most airlines have started to charge for checked baggage on flights. I can understand how initially this makes sense from a business perspective. The initial price of the ticket is fairly low, but then you can tack on other fees for baggage, not to mention other ‘extras’ that used to be free like meals, snacks, drinks, pillows, etc., and then you have effectively raised the price of the ticket while keeping the perception of lower prices.

During preboarding of both of my flights, announcements were made begging passengers to please check in baggage at the gate for no charge because there wasn’t room for the carry-on luggage for all of the passengers. One flight was actually held up while the flight attendants arranged the overhead bins to fit as much in as possible.

This got me thinking about how the government seems to be surprised by the unintended consequences of its actions. Take the news that several major corporations took a hit on their
books for perceived future losses from the passing of the healthcare bill, for example. Members of the current administration seemed shocked by this news as if the projected increase in costs occur in a vacuum.

Or, take the current oil situation in the gulf. (As a side note, I refuse to call it a ’spill’. What part of what happened even comes close to resembling a spill? Maybe ‘oil leak’ is better?) There are those who condemn BP, and with good reason, and there are those who want to blame various other organizations some for political gain and some for other reasons both good and not so good. One group often overlooked includes environmentalists. Ironically, by pushing the offshore drilling so far out into deep waters, they have unintentionally contributed to the mess we have today.

When you see a bill passed, a new policy enacted, or an organization make a change, do what most people fail to do and consider what the unintended consequences could be before you decide where you stand on the issue.

Would you give up your home to live in public housing?

I’m assuming, of course, that you don’t now live in public housing.  If you do, let me turn the question around.  Would you prefer to stay in public housing or own your own home?

Myself, I’ve never lived in any sort of government provided housing.  At least I don’t think I have.  My family certainly was not wealthy when I was growing up.  I’m sure we would not have been considered middle class, but I’m digressing here and getting off the point..

I have been around public housing.  I worked at a landscaping company in Dallas, TX and some of the work we did was at public housing facilities.  Let me tell you, most of them were scary places.  My dad (who owned part of the company) still makes fun of my reaction to being at some of those places.

I’ve also known people who have lived in subsidized housing, that is government doesn’t provide everything but just makes up the difference between what the tenant can pay in rent and what the landlord wants (or actually what the government says the landlord deserves.)  I’ve also known property owners who provide such housing.  Some owners I’ve known LOVES to provide the subsidize housing because they don’t have to maintain their property at a very high level because where else are the tenants going to go?  Now, the ethics of that aside, that is part of the problem with abandoning a free market economy in any industry.  See, property owners who rent property to the general public must provide a certain quality of dwelling or those general public people won’t rent the property, or at least won’t rent the property for a decent amount of money.  By providing tenants and a guaranteed amount of rent, the owners have no incentive to keep their property properly maintained, and vice versa. the renters have less of an incentive to maintain the property.

So.. here’s some Flyover Country homework for you.  Drive by some public housing this week.  No matter where you live it is there.  If you don’t know where it is, call your local HUD office and ask them where to find it.  Drive by and take a hard look at it.  Find more than one if you can.

The next step in our homework is to contrast and compare your current housing arrangements with what you see.  (Again, think in reverse if you currently live in public housing.  Compare with your desired housing arrangements.)  What is the quality differences between the two?  What are the visual differences?  Which looks safer to you?  What is the neighborhood like?  What are the schools like?

Now, having looked at public housing in person, are you SURE you want public health care?

Let’s not let the best health care system in the world turn into the equivalent of public housing!

Check this out, FOCers:

http://oneminute.rationalmind.net/capitalism/comment-page-1/

Take a look at some of the other links as well.   Some good reads there.

From CNSNews.com:

The congressional Democrats’ cap-and-trade plan  to tax carbon emissions could cost every American family as much as $3,100 a year and is equivalent to a “declaration of war on the Midwest,”  Republican lawmakers told CNSNews.com this week.

But Democrats disputed the Republicans’ cost figure and said the plan can be accomplished without imposing a net cost on the American people.

In general, under cap and trade, the amount of carbon that energy producers emit is capped. They can exceed that cap through the purchase, i.e., “trade,” of carbon permits. The money for those permits would be collected by the government and presumably redistributed under a system still being crafted.

“The reality is the cap-and-trade legislation offered by the Democrats amounts to an economic declaration of war on the Midwest by liberals on Capitol Hill,” Chairman of the House Republican Conference Mike Pence (R-Ind.) told CNSNews.com.

Congressman Pence is one of the few leaders we have in Washington who is willing to stick his neck out there and actually lead.  Congressman Pence never wavers from his principles and is a true conservative.  If we were to ever run for President, I can’t think of anyone who I would vote for over him.  He is a true Fly Over Country hero!

My wife and I were having a conversation last night in which she said something very profound.  Now, it’s not to say that it’s unusual for her to say something profound.  I think she is mostly a very intelligent person, except when it comes to politics.  You see, she claims to be a “conservative democrat” and I claim that there is no such thing anymore.  (Although Indiana Senator Evan Bayh may have given me a glimmer of hope that there may be some exceptions to that rule.)

So it was of great shock to me when I was watching the news last night and once again there was talk of the “shovel ready projects” that would be providing the “stimulus” that was needed to end the current economic woes, specifically the bridge in Missouri that everyone has touted recently.  My wife, who I thought was asleep, mumbled that aforementioned profound statement, “What happens when it’s finished?”

What a great question!  Such is the problem with government spending.  When the private sector spends money, it produces wealth.  When the government spends money, that money is soon gone into the great black hole of bureaucracy.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I know we need bridges and roads and other infrastructure, and I’m not saying we shouldn’t spend money to do just that, what I am saying is that equating government spending with providing economic “stimulus” is similar to saying you can bring to life Victor Frankenstein’s monster with a 9-volt battery.

Creating wealth is a mystery to most people.  It seems based on what I’ve read the last few months, that the majority of people think wealth is limited, a constant amount of money and assets, and for one person to gain money and assets requires another (or several) people to lose an equal amount.  (This is referred to as a “zero sum mentality“)

Let’s go back to some basic economics:

First, let’s say we want a new home and we have $100,000 to have it built.  To make it simple, let’s say we go to a home builder who has the land and everything we need and he designs a house on that land for the $100,000 that we have.  The home builder purchases the materials he needs and sets out to build the house.  Let’s say the land and the material costs the builder $75,000.  After the builder is finished, we have a home that is worth $100,000, but only $75,000 of tangible items are represented in home.  The other $100,000 has been created by the home builder.  Therefore he has traded us $100,000 in cash for $75,000 of his material and $25,000 of his knowledge and skills.  Our wealth has stayed the same ($100,000 traded for $100,000 worth of real estate), his wealth has increased ($75,000 in tangible material traded for $100,000 in cash).  This happens not only with real estate but with TVs, computers, DVD players, lamps, cars, websites, soda pop, sofas, and anything else you can think of that is produced and sold.  That is how wealth is created.

The problem with the government trying to stimulate the economy is that the “wealth” that would be created in the private sector is wasted on bureaucracy and inefficiency.  Whereas the private company or individual makes choices based on sound financial principles, the government rarely does so.  It is more inclined to make decisions based on politics, ignorance, and cronyism.

With everything going on in the economy, and our double-time march towards socialism, I’ve been more and more frightened for the future of our country. This flash on the Drudge Report gives me a glimmer of hope:

At one point, when he talked about the costs of his stimulus plan, senior Maaike Albach and Daudfar looked at each other and said, “uh-oh.”

“Overall I think it’s a good idea, but he’s not addressing the issues of the economic crisis,” said Daudfar, a John McCain supporter who added he leans more toward being a moderate conservative. “The spending bill he just passed is just progressing the Democratic agenda rather than addressing the economic issues in the country.”

Is the messiah losing his touch?

From the New York Post:

After pushing Congress for weeks to hurry up and pass the massive $787 billion stimulus bill, President Obama promptly took off for a three-day holiday getaway.

I remember a certain group of media outlets, usually referred to as the “mainstream media”, criticising a certain former President, usually referred to as “President George W. Bush”, for spending a lot of time “vacationing”.  However, now our current Messiah-in-Chief (who’s been on the job an entire three weeks, by the way) takes a three day vacation before signing the stimulus bill.  However, here’s a quote from President Obama:

“Nobody disagrees with the idea that if we keep on putting this off that we’re going to end up seeing more months with half a million people losing their job each month. We can’t afford to wait.”

Apparently we can afford to wait three more days while he takes a break.

On a related note, did anyone see Huckabee this weekend?  If you’ve never watched the program, Gov. Huckabee usually spends the last segment of the show by giving his thoughts on a particular subject before his “Little Rockers” take to the stage to play a classic song.  (This is off the subject, but who does the sound for this show??  The “Little Rockers” aren’t great, but the sound makes them sound 100 times worse than what they really are.  It’s terrible!)

Anyway, this was from this weekend’s program and it was hilarious, and spot on!

Will these people say anything to get their $1,000,000,000 spending bill passed?

500,000,000 people in America lose their jobs each month.  I guess most people must lose their jobs twice a month?

From our friends at Breitbart.com via the AP:

In a sobering appraisal of the nation’s banking system, President Barack Obama signaled Monday that he will need more money to bail out the battered financial industry. Even so, he said, “some banks won’t make it.”Neither Obama nor other administration officials said how much a renewed rescue plan might cost. It is possible that additional help could come from the Federal Reserve, not from Congress.

Still, Obama’s acknowledgment reinforced what many economists and bank industry officials have speculated for weeks.

“We can expect that we’re going to have to do more to shore up the financial system,” Obama said.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner plans to announce a new framework for rescuing the financial sector in a speech next week. The plans will focus on how to use the remaining $350 billion in a $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief program that Congress approved in the fall. It will include new programs aimed at helping homeowners stave off foreclosure, and efforts to stabilize the banking sector.

We can’t keep doing this.  This is just insane.

Sometimes businesses, including banks, have to fail.  It’s how the market weeds out those who aren’t doing things properly.  If the government bails everyone out there’s no incentive to fix what’s broken.

Why can’t more people see this?

Also, as I’ve said before

If you aren’t free to fail, then you aren’t free to succeed!

Admin note:  Please accept my sincere apologies for the tone of this post.  My beloved Colts just lost a heartbreaker in the playoffs.

Socialism is running rampant in the land of the free and the home of the brave.  I want to say I never thought I’d see the day when Americans were so ready to give up their freedoms for a piece of the government pie, but that wouldn’t be entirely true.  I’ve always had this fear in the back of my mind that at some point more and more people would start buying into the nonsense that government stuff is free stuff.  As one of my favorite history teachers said over and over again, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”  Someone, somewhere has to pay and the more “free” stuff, the less there are people who are able to pay.

This bailout stuff is insane.  A $700 billion.. wait, let me write that out a different way to make it stand out a little better,  a $700,000,000,000 dollar bailout and now some are asking for $1 trillion.. oops..  $1,000,000,000,000 more.  This is NOT the government’s job to bailout failing companies!  I’ve said it in a previous post and I’ll say it again:  If we don’t have the freedom to fail, we don’t have the freedom to succeed.  Look at it this way:  We are taking $700,000,000,000 (and possibly MUCH more!) away from profitable companies and at least moderately successful individuals and giving it to those who are not profitable for one reason or another.  Talk about a lose-lose situation.  It doesn’t make any sense.

Add to that the liberal policies that are probably at some point at least going to be attempted during the next two, possibly four or even six or eight, years.  (I say two because hopefully the American people will wise up and elect a conservative congress in two years.)  The one that scares me the most is national healthcare.  Look around you and see the things that government provides to the people.  Look at public housing.  How would you like the government to take your house and force you to live there?  Look at the freakin’ DMV for crying out loud.  How would you like the government to run your local grocery store like they run the DMV?  Look at the difference between public schools and private schools in most areas of the country.  Attrocious.

Now compare all of that to healthcare.  We have the best healthcare system in the world.  The reasons why are obvious.  We have the best doctors because doctors from around the world come here to practice.  Why do they do that?  Because they can make a killing here.  Doctors are paid a TON of money in the United States.  My father just had a liver and kidney transplant a couple of years ago and I spent quite a bit of time at the hospital with him.  He had a multitude of doctors who cared for every aspect of his care.  At least 50% of them I couldn’t understand a word they said because they had such thick accents.  But you know what?  Each one was wonderful.  GREAT doctors all around no matter where they were from or how well they spoke English.  Why do you think they come here to practice medicine?  They get paid MUCH better than they would anywhere else they practiced in the world.  And since my dad is still alive today because of them, THANK GOD THEY DO!!

Here’s the thing, if we had nationalized healthcare and the doctors were paid similar to how our government run schools pay their teachers, not many people would want to be a doctor in the good ole’ USA, Americans or otherwise.  This scares the crap out of me.  Imagine going to your local emergency room and being treated how you are treated when you go to put tags on your car.  Listen, I used to work at the local equivalent to a DMV so I know how it works.  Half the people there liked their job and enjoyed helping people and the customers would pray they’d get one of those people and not the others that seemed to take joy in making it difficult.  Those employees would look hard to try to find some reason why the car dealership didn’t fill out a form correctly or why your license can’t be renewed.  So in your emergency room visit, you get one of those government who-gives-a-crap workers and you are left in the waiting room bleeding while they figure out if you have the right documents to get care or not because you aren’t a serious enough case to be seen within the next decade.

This scares me enough to give me a heart attack, but I guess if I’m going to have one I better have it now while I can still get good care..