A Conversation With My Aunt

My Aunt Mary commented on my Independence Day post. She took my post apart, piece by piece. Here's my reply to her:

It’s July 4th today.

On 2 July I did something I’ve never done before. And something I hope I never have to do again. I laid-off one of my guys because of budget cuts at work. In total, I’ve reduced my staff by 7 people this year and the economy appears to be the
driver.

I’ve been working to avoid this reduction for the past 6 months, but it was inevitable.

It seems that every time our government announces a “fix” to a problem” the economic condition of the country drops.

M: Actually, the problem was the lack of regulation and accountability allowed the economy to run away from sound fiscal practice. The "fix" was needed well before the drop. It was dropped in the lap of the new administration.

J: Actually the problems were self-interested congressmen, interference by those congressmen into the lending practices of banks, a Federal Reserve policy of cheap money, and rampant consumerism on the part of nearly all Americans. Those things,
combined with the fact that our economy is nearly devoid of manufacture and
production for export, makes for the perfect economic storm.

The fix was needed before the drop. No question.

The new administration did inherit the crap-pile we call our economy, but they did it
knowingly and willingly. They even told us that they knew how to fix it, promising that if the first stimulus package were passed unemployment would not rise above 8%.

They overreached.

There is a reason the free markets of capitalism work best when they are free, and it is a tribute to the robust nature of free markets that they continue to work as well as they do under as much regulation and handicapping as governments place on
them.

M: Free to benefit the huge corporations, who were free to operate like a Ponzi or Pyramid Scam, and then bail out?

J: Let's look at a great example of a REAL Ponzi scheme. We call it Social Security. Do you who receive a Soc Sec payout really believe that the money is being drawn from some bank account that the baby boomers paid into and that has been earning interest over the past 40 years?

No way! Your children, and some of your grandchildren, are paying for your retirement. The money for their retirement will come from yet another generation of workers (I mean "investors"). That is how Ponzis work.

The huge corporations (that employed so many of the baby boomers and their parents, providing a living that was unmatched in the history of the world, and allowing them to retire - a notion unfathomed for ages - in comfort) that were unwise and greedy in their business dealings WOULD HAVE failed if the government had not reached its hand into the pot and stopped the failure.

They would have gotten what we all agree they deserved. The only collateral damage would have been the private retirement savings of the baby boomers.

And then we have the House of Representatives passing the Climate Change Act.

M: Here is an opportunity just made for the good old American business ethic to
create products and jobs cleaning up our act.

J: Is that the "good old American business ethic" you just trashed in your comment
above?

Let's look to Europe for a guide. That seems to be the Progressive Pole Star or the Statist Oracle in matters of social engineering. In Spain, they have a "green economy" similar to the one that congress is now seeking. Spain's unemployment rate before its "greening" was below 10%. Now it enjoys unemployment rates in excess of 20% regularly. The "green jobs" that replaced the "jobs before the
Enlightenment" typically pay much less than the jobs that were destroyed.

If workers in Viet Nam can make a solar panel for less money than an American worker can today, what makes us believe that once the government mandates "green" energy, the situation will be different?

I am privy to a view on the "green jobs" in America. I am spearheading the development of a 1.5 megawatt solar power plant for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The solar panels we will install will be imported from Asia and Europe because their quality is superior and their cost is less than any available from American companies. The steel we will use to support the solar array will likely come from Korea or China for cost reasons. Our labor will come from a local or regional
builder who will use temporary workers overseen by a skilled crew of foremen and
superintendents. The work will take 140 days.

The future does not hold a direct replacement of that $40/hr auto worker's job. He's free to go to work for $15/hr if he's lucky.

When the only indicators in favor of a major global climate shift are based on political science fiction and Americans pass laws to regulate the emissions of a LAGGING indicator and place the biggest handicap in human history on their own means of production, I know we’ve passed the Age of Reason and entered the Age of
Insensibility.

M: I'm sorry, but this paragraph defies logic! Unless logic, common sense, and the brains God gave us are handicaps?

J: No, Mary. CO2 has been shown to be a lagging indicator of global climate change, over the past billions of years. As the temperature warms, the atmospheric levels of CO2 then rise. As the temperature cools, the atmospheric levels of CO2 then
fall.

This could have something to do with warmer temperatures leading to more animal and vegetable life, resulting in more animal and vegetable death, resulting in more methane released into the atmosphere as organic matter decays, resulting in the breakdown of methane into CO2 and other gasses, resulting in a rise in atmospheric levels of CO2.

Look at the current warming trend, if you will. We came out of the "Little Ice Age" about 200 years ago, right? Since then the earth has warmed steadily. Now, we see a recent increase in atmospheric CO2 levels. Not the other way around.

Further, some data suggest that the earth has not warmed measurably since 2000-2001.

I have to pause to reflect on what our founding fathers had in mind when they began this adventure called the United States of America.

They were living under a tyrannical government that was geographically distant and essentially out of touch. In a pinch for cash to fund its perpetual wars in Europe and around the globe, the government increased taxes. In fact, it targeted articles of subversion such as paper, ink, and printing supplies. In its quest for revenue the government ignored petition on petition from its North American colonists for relief and consideration. The representatives the colonies had in Parliament were either ineffective or ignored. Many proved to be complicit in the oppression of the colonies they pretended to represent.

The founders envisioned a country free of that oppression. Free of the fear that came with being a British subject. They saw a country where citizens would be free to pursue their dreams. To believe according to their conscience. To work hard and earn the rewards of their labor. Citizens would be free to fail as well as to succeed. To speak their minds as well as express their ignorance.

M: Nice bit of fiction. Here is my version: I think the original idea was to explore and exploit new territory for the King. The Colonists then saw the opportunity to benefit from a change in leadership style. Some were pretty good at it. We have been working on it ever since. The idea was for the "common good". But as we well
know, POWER corrupts, and so it goes! We all have taken part in the corruption. Now it is about time to pay the piper.

J: That's not fiction, Mary. I'm not talking about the Spanish or about the first English colonists. Although many of the English and Dutch came to escape tyranny in Europe and to seek freedom. Specifically, many were seeking freedom of conscience.

I'm talking about the group of men and women who joined in reason and in purpose to break away from England in the mid-1700s.

For an outstanding look into the time, read David McCullough's biography John Adams.

I look today and see only a shadow of that dream in the direction our country has been going for decades.

M: We got fat and lazy.

J: Yes, we did. Your parents came "home" from winning World War II and settled
into life. They trusted the government to look out for them, as they had sacrificed so much for so long. They deserved a peaceful life.

Your generation was spoiled. You grew to despise the "system" that had given you so much as children. You became infatuated with your own pleasure and invented new social constructs that allowed you to immerse yourselves in things once forbidden. You sought to destroy wisdom and replace it with your own reasoning (Don't trust anyone over 30!).

My generation was born drifting without a moral compass. We could look to our grandparents for a sense of morality and purpose, but our parents had set themselves up as the final authority in the universe. There was no respect for state, no respect for others, and no respect for God. Life's only purpose was pleasure. Drugs and sex were rampant in our culture. We acted with only our desires in mind,
regardless of how our actions would impact other human beings around us.

In the meantime, the Statists in the government slowly and insidiously worked to expand the "system's" control over our lives, reaching into places the state had never gone before.

We all, fat and lazy, sat back and watched it happen.

Rather than statesmen and representatives of the people, I see career politicians who are interested first in their own well-being and who are beholden to political parties and special interests.

M: Working on the "ABSOLUTE POWER Totally CORRUPTS, and we all jump on the bandwagon when we vote for special interests.

J: Absolutely correct, Mary. None of us should be "single-issue" voters. We should look at the whole platform and the entire values set and vote our
conscience.

Rather than laws that ensure all an equal opportunity, I see laws that seek to guarantee equal results for all – regardless of their input.

M: Back to your dilemma, John, you must have felt that your work was more valuable input than the 7 workers you reduced from your staff. If they could vote, ever wonder?

J: Yes. I wonder all the time. I know that my salary would have provided nearly half of the budget cut I needed if I had "fired myself".

If they could vote, I'm not sure how things would have shaken out. I had a staff of 43, so it might have been good odds in my favor.

But your question is a powerful and a poignant one. It's one I wrestled with for months before the reduction. In the end, a cynic could argue I acted in my self
interest. I believe, and am confident, that the value I bring to my company and to my client exceeded the value that those workers brought.

Go ahead and call me all kinds of names, now. I probably deserve some of them.

Rather than citizens who have a stake in the future of the country, I see dependents with their hands out willing to take from the “haves” in order to make their life
easier.

M: It is a Bible principal that teaches there is enough for all. How to see that our neighbor gets his fair share is the task given to us. Trouble is we seem to have blinders on. We (mankind) are able to feed the world with our leftovers
given the will to do so.

J: Agreed, Mary. The difference between government redistribution and voluntary, or "Christian" giving is clear, however.

Jesus told the rich young man who had lived a righteous life that he needed one more thing to enter into the kingdom of heaven. He should sell all his possessions and give them to the poor. (Mark 10:17-22)

When the young man went away sorrowing Jesus did not send Internal Revenue Agents to his home to seize his property and to ensure that a government bureaucracy that consumes 70 cents of every dollar in administrative costs gave his wealth to those less fortunate.

In fact, we never find out the end of the story. I like to think that the young man had a change of heart and did as the Lord bid him.

There is enough, and to spare, in this world. Human nature and greed get in the way. One of the best antidotes for my own greed that I have found is gratitude. The other is giving. When I thankfully give what God has blessed me with to those less fortunate, I find that I am less concerned with accumulating "stuff".

When I pay my taxes, then see the money squandered by a hyper-inefficient government, I am not so edified.

Rather than workers able to enjoy the fruits of their labor, I see men and women working until May of every year just to pay the taxes imposed by an ever-reaching government that has become an entity unto itself.

M: Having work to do is what makes life meaningful for most of us. What if we could
keep 100% of "the fruits of our labor"? Pretty boring and meaningless, I think you will admit. Sharing is fair. We all started out provided for, gradually provided for ourselves, and others, and will in the end be provided for once again. Unless you want to get weird and eliminate the "have-nots" and only allow "haves" I don't get the picture. It is like a puzzle with a lot of missing pieces.

J: Mary, how many times have you told your kids that "life is not fair"? You were telling the truth. There is really no such thing as "fair". There is such a thing as "justice" and there is such a thing as "mercy".

Sharing is right. Sharing is good. Sharing is redeeming. Sharing is godly. Sharing is voluntary. Sharing is a love offering. Sharing is a good-will offering. Sharing is
empathic. Sharing is kind. Sharing is noble. Sharing is ennobling.

Sharing is not fair. Government forcing me to share is not sharing at all. It is taxing. It is taking.

A life of selfish accumulation is meaningless. We all know why miserly Scrooge is miserable, in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Notice that what gives him joy and purpose is not when the tax man comes calling. It is when he comes to the realization that he is not living right and decides to share on his own.

Further, the change is more than behavioral. Scrooge is redeemed. He is a better person than he was before. Without a government program to help him.

Do you really find "meaning" in filing your taxes? Do you really find "meaning"
when you see people receiving government welfare checks and food stamps?

Or do you find meaning when you perform acts of kindness and charity to those around you?

Do you find meaning in sponsoring a child who is starving in the Philippines? Do you find meaning in planting trees with the Sierra Club? Do you find meaning in working at a women's shelter? Do you find meaning in rescuing abused animals? Do you find meaning in volunteering with the local library's literacy program?

Is there a chance left to redeem our nation from its lost and fallen state? I don’t know.

M: "Yes we can". That is the plan.

J: "Yes we can" is the plan???

How about this? Each one of us as Americans needs to examine his or her life. We need to find the undesirable things that we do - the bad things that we do. We need to resolve to root those things out of our lives. We need to ask whatever god we pray to for help in overcoming whatever we believe is evil and in filling our lives with whatever we believe is good.

We need to seek mercy and give mercy. We need to want good and to do good. We need to be forgiven and to forgive. We need to have kind friends and be kind friends. We need to work with honest people and we need to be honest workers. We need to
love our families and to be loved by our families.

We need to aspire to greatness and to believe that we can do it. We need to rely
on ourselves and our families and our friends and our faith.

We need to seek lasting change in our hearts, in our minds, and in our lives.

But I do know that I will not be able to live with myself if I do not try. I want to be able to tell my children and my grandchildren that I did EVERYTHING I could to leave them a better country than I inherited.

M: You say it very well. It is a chorus of "Yes we cans". I love it.

J: Thank you, Mary. You see, deep down we all want what is good and best for ourselves and those who come after us. We have to move past the slogans and the
rhetoric and get to the heart of things. That's where power is.

This Independence Day I will not reach for my rifle. Instead I will join the New Revolution by writing and calling my representatives in government – local, state and federal – on a regular basis to let them know my thoughts and opinions.

M: Free speech, it's a "GOOD THING". One of many, to quote Martha Stewart, one of my folk hero gals.

J: I like MS, too!

I will find the candidates who share my values and will be their constituents’ voice. When I do I WILL NOT think I’m wasting my vote on them.

M: They are all human. Bound to have a flaw or two, don't be surprised.

J: True. But it's not humanness that bothers me; it's inhumanity.

I will no longer be bullied into voting the party line for fear of throwing away my vote. (What happened to my vote for John McCain, anyway? HE threw away the whole ELECTION in 2008!)

M: Actually, Bush did it without John's help. Not many wanted more of the same war, waste, and deception.

J: I think there's a lot of truth in what you say, here, Mary.

I will work for the rest of my life to bring America back to the place it is intended to be – a land of opportunity, strength, optimism, and hope.