MCViewPoint

Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Posts Tagged ‘GOVERNMENT CONTROL’

National Fire Sale

Posted by M. C. on November 22, 2023

by Jeff Thomas

When the great majority of the people do this, the country thrives economically. The greater the economic freedom (i.e., the less governmental oversight and regulation), the more the country thrives.

But this never lasts forever. The eternal fly in the ointment is that governments seek continually to increase their control over others.

National Fire Sale

Like waves on the ocean, countries tend to go through economic cycles.

First, we have the micro cycles, which tend to rise and fall every few years, but may last a decade or more. Then we have the macro cycles, which tend to take hundreds of years.

In a macro cycle, a nation begins to thrive economically, when the people of that country adhere to a strong work ethic. They invest their money and toil into the economy, make a profit, then either save, purchase goods, reinvest, or a combination of the three.

When the great majority of the people do this, the country thrives economically. The greater the economic freedom (i.e., the less governmental oversight and regulation), the more the country thrives.

But this never lasts forever. The eternal fly in the ointment is that governments seek continually to increase their control over others.

First, they focus on the increased control of their own people through regulations, but invariably, they see the opportunity for broader control, through the domination of other nations. They then invade those nations.

Warfare is the costliest venture that nations enter into, and as such, it’s almost always a mistake. But the zeal to have greater power often brushes that fact aside, and leaders choose to invade other nations.

In almost every instance, they fail to underestimate the resistance from the invaded nation, and very quickly, the cost of the warfare doubles and redoubles, over and over again.

Invariably, the leaders then borrow money to keep the war going. Sometimes, they achieve victory in this manner, but more often than not, they fail. They find that the day comes when they must either sell off major assets to pay their debt, or face economic collapse.

Case in point:

See the rest here

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The AI Arms Race: Government versus the People

Posted by M. C. on March 27, 2023

Government control of AI. What could go wrong.

Joe Jarvis

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The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity : Parents Should Control Education

Posted by M. C. on October 5, 2021

Replacing parental control with government control of education (and other aspects of child raising) has been a goal of authoritarians since Plato. After all, it is much easier to ensure obedience if someone has been raised to think of the government as the source of all wisdom and truth, as well as the provider of all of life’s necessities.

http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2021/october/04/parents-should-control-education/

Written by Ron Paul

During last week’s Virginia gubernatorial debate, Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe promised that as governor he would prevent parents from removing sexually explicit books from school libraries, because he doesn’t think “parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

McAuliffe’s disdain for parents who think they should have some say in their children’s education is shared by most “progressives,” as well as some who call themselves conservatives. They think parents should obediently pay the taxes to fund the government schools and never question any aspect of the government school program.

School officials’ refusal to obey the wishes of parents extends to the anti-science mask mandates. Mask mandates are not only useless in protecting children from a virus they are at low risk of becoming sick from or transmitting, the mandated mask-wearing actually makes children sick! Yet school administrators refuse to follow the science if that means listening to parents instead of the so-called experts.

Replacing parental control with government control of education (and other aspects of child raising) has been a goal of authoritarians since Plato. After all, it is much easier to ensure obedience if someone has been raised to think of the government as the source of all wisdom and truth, as well as the provider of all of life’s necessities.

In contrast to an authoritarian society, a free society recognizes that parents have both the responsibility and the right to provide their children with a quality education that reflects the parents’ values. Teachers who use their positions to indoctrinate children in beliefs that contradict the views of the parents are the ones overstepping their bounds.

Restoring parental control of education should be a priority for all who believe in liberty. If government can override the wishes of parents in the name of “education” or “protecting children’s health” then what area of our lives is safe from government intrusion?

Fortunately, growing dissatisfaction with government schools is leading many parents to try to change school policies. Parents are also responding by pursuing alternatives to government schools, including the option hated most by authoritarians: homeschooling.

The unnecessary coronavirus lockdowns and the teachers union officials’ support for keeping schools closed have also contributed to the growth in homeschooling.

Parents looking for a homeschooling program that includes an introduction to the ideas of liberty should consider my homeschool curriculum. My curriculum provides students with a solid education in history, literature, mathematics, and the sciences. It also gives students the opportunity to create their own websites and internet-based businesses. The curriculum is designed to be self-taught, with students helping, and learning from, each other via online forums.

Starting in fourth grade, students are required to write at least one essay a week. Students also take a course in public speaking.

The curriculum teaches history from a pro-liberty perspective, and the economics section is taught from the Austrian viewpoint. But, unlike government schools, the curriculum does not compromise education quality, distort facts, or undermine parental authority in pursuit of an ideological agenda.

Students using my homeschooling program develop a love of learning, study superior communication skills, and gain real-world business experience. They also develop critical thinking skills that will enable them to succeed in whatever career paths they choose.

Parents interested in giving their children a well-rounded homeschool education that includes an introduction to sound economics and the ideas of liberty can get more information about my curriculum by going to RonPaulCurriculum.com.

Copyright © 2021 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.
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Dangers of Government Control – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on August 26, 2021

The United States has been the world leader in the development of internet technology precisely because it has been relatively unfettered by federal and state regulation. The best thing that the U.S. Congress can do for internet entrepreneurs and internet consumers is to send the FCC out to pasture as it did with the Civil Aeronautics Board, which regulated the airline industry, and the Interstate Commerce Commission, which regulated the trucking industry. When we got rid of those regulatory agencies, we saw a greater number of competitors, and consumers paid lower prices. Giving the FCC the same medicine would allow our high-tech industry to maintain its world leadership position.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/01/walter-e-williams/dangers-of-government-control/

By

We are a nation of 325 million people. We have a bit of control over the behavior of our 535 elected representatives in Congress, the president and the vice president. But there are seven unelected people who have life-and-death control over our economy and hence our lives — the seven governors of the Federal Reserve Board. The Federal Reserve Board controls our money supply. Its governors are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate and serve 14-year staggered terms. They have the power to cripple an economy, as they did during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Their inept monetary policy threw the economy into the Great Depression, during which real output in the United States fell nearly 30 percent and the unemployment rate soared as high as nearly 25 percent.

The most often stated cause of the Great Depression is the October 1929 stock market crash. Little is further from the truth. The Great Depression was caused by a massive government failure led by the Federal Reserve’s rapid 25 percent contraction of the money supply. The next government failure was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which increased U.S. tariffs by more than 50 percent. Those failures were compounded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation. Leftists love to praise New Deal interventionist legislation. But FDR’s very own treasury secretary, Henry Morgenthau, saw the folly of the New Deal, writing: “We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. … We have never made good on our promises. … I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started … and an enormous debt to boot!” The bottom line is that the Federal Reserve Board, the Smoot-Hawley tariffs and Roosevelt’s New Deal policies turned what would have been a two, three- or four-year sharp downturn into a 16-year affair.

Here’s my question never asked about the Federal Reserve Act of 1913: How much sense does it make for us to give seven unelected people life-and-death control over our economy and hence our lives?

While you’re pondering that question, consider another: Should we give the government, through the Federal Communications Commission, control over the internet? During the Clinton administration, along with the help of a Republican-dominated Congress, the visionary 1996 Telecommunications Act declared it “the policy of the United States” that internet service providers and websites be “unfettered by Federal or State regulation.” The act sought “to promote competition and reduce regulation in order to secure lower prices and higher quality services for American telecommunications consumers and encourage the rapid deployment of new telecommunications technologies.”

In 2015, the Obama White House pressured the FCC to create the Open Internet Order, which has been branded by its advocates as net neutrality. This move overthrew the spirit of the Telecommunications Act. It represents creeping FCC jurisdiction, as its traditional areas of regulation — such as broadcast media and telecommunications — have been transformed by the internet, or at least diminished in importance. Fortunately, it’s being challenged by the new FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, who has announced he will repeal the FCC’s heavy-handed 2015 internet regulations.

The United States has been the world leader in the development of internet technology precisely because it has been relatively unfettered by federal and state regulation. The best thing that the U.S. Congress can do for internet entrepreneurs and internet consumers is to send the FCC out to pasture as it did with the Civil Aeronautics Board, which regulated the airline industry, and the Interstate Commerce Commission, which regulated the trucking industry. When we got rid of those regulatory agencies, we saw a greater number of competitors, and consumers paid lower prices. Giving the FCC the same medicine would allow our high-tech industry to maintain its world leadership position.

Walter E. Williams is the John M. Olin distinguished professor of economics at George Mason University, and a nationally syndicated columnist. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page.

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The Death of Truth & the Rise of Centralized Government Control

Posted by M. C. on July 26, 2021

That is, if we thought economic orthodoxy (i.e., living within one’s national means, valuing valuations or honoring free market price discovery) had been tossed into a corner pre-COVID, well, the post-COVID backdrop essentially murdered economic orthodoxy completely.

Today, we have global debt rising exponentially…

https://goldswitzerland.com/the-death-of-truth-the-rise-of-centralized-government-control/

By Matthew Piepenburg

As I write this from a France making ever more bold moves toward forced vaccination, one can’t help but ponder the broader issues of centralized government control, regardless of one’s take on vaccine or no vaccine.

Focusing on financial rather than viral data, the evidence of centralized state control over natural market forces in the stock and bond markets is becoming increasingly incontrovertible.

We’ve written elsewhere about the death of logic and the madness of crowds. It should therefore come as little surprise that the death of truth is yet another casualty of the increased central control we are experiencing in global markets.

Debt Crisis Disguised as a Health Black Swan

Long before COVID reared its highly controversial head (from viral source debates, baby-with-bathwater policy reactions, censored science as to vaccine efficacy and safety, distorted math on infection rates vs death rates, and centralized government control by officials acting “for your own safety” vs. Constitutional and legal issues of individual choice), the global financial system was already in an undeniable as well as unsustainable debt crisis.

As any one who can fog a mirror and read history in the same breath also knows, whenever a debt crisis is obvious, what follows is equally obvious: an economic crisis, then a political crisis, and from there a social crisis.

In short, and from ancient Rome to 1917 Russia, or 1789 France to 1933 Germany, debt matters.

Debt is a very dangerous thing to economies and societies, and always climaxes with more centralized control in its wake.

The problem for the 21st century, however, is that almost no global policymaker (left, right or center, European, Asian or American) wanted to touch this $280T debt elephant in the room.

Instead, they buried their heads for years in the sand and sought re-election with promises paid for with, alas, more debt.

In this openly embarrassing backdrop (long before COVID), economic orthodoxy had been tossed into a corner as governments around the world took on fatal debt levels like this:

Global debt

…paid for (i.e., “monetized”) with mouse-click fiat money like this…

Central bank assets

But rather than face or confess the sins of a system already on its debt-broken knees, the financial and political actors responsible for the pre-COVID debt disaster had a convenient tale to tell.

A Convenient Lie

That is, and almost as if on demand, along came the tale of all tales, the patsy of all patsies, the blame of all blames, and the excuse of all excuses: COVID.

That is, if we thought economic orthodoxy (i.e., living within one’s national means, valuing valuations or honoring free market price discovery) had been tossed into a corner pre-COVID, well, the post-COVID backdrop essentially murdered economic orthodoxy completely.

Today, we have global debt rising exponentially…

Global Debt is a good metric of centralized government control.

…as well global central banks printing more fiat currencies parabolically:

New Rules Hiding Old Failures and “Fuzzy Economics”

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Egon von Greyerz
Founder and Managing Partner
Matterhorn Asset Management
Zurich, Switzerland
Phone: +41 44 213 62 45

Matterhorn Asset Management’s global client base strategically stores an important part of their wealth in Switzerland in physical gold and silver outside the banking system. Matterhorn Asset Management is pleased to deliver a unique and exceptional service to our highly esteemed wealth preservation clientele in over 70 countries.

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EconomicPolicyJournal.com: Council of Economic Advisers Goes Woke and Calls for Massive New Government Control and Spending

Posted by M. C. on May 14, 2021

Further, they fail to understand another crucial point that Hayek made. This one in Chapter 10 of his book The Road to Serfdom. In the chapter, Hayek makes clear that the planned society results in the worst getting on top.

When you create government power centers, be it for new technologies, family support, education or whatever, the most evil will do what it takes to get close to such power and twist the power for their own benefit.

This is the horrifying direction that the CEA is justifying in this Brief.

https://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2021/05/council-of-economic-advisers-goes-woke.html

The Biden Administration Council of Economic Advisers has issued a Brief attempting to justify more government spending, a greater role for the government in the economy, mixed with woke positioning.

Some key snippets from the horrific paper (COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS ISSUE BRIEFMAY 2021):

The opening pargarapgh: 

For the past four decades, the view that lower taxes, less spending, and fewer regulations would generate stronger economic growth has exerted substantial influence on U.S. public policy. Over this period, the United States has underinvested in public goods such as infrastructure and innovation, and gains from growth have accrued disproportionately to the top of the income and wealth distribution. Long-standing racial, ethnic, and gender disparities persist. In addition, while historic progress has been made in expanding health insurance, more remains to be done to provide adequate protection against economic risk. Indicators of deprivation, such as child poverty, are too high, and declines in overall life expectancy in some years prior to the pandemic, accompanied by increased disparities, are cause for concern.

And the start of the call for more government involvement in the economy: 

The economic theory underlying President Biden’s American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan is different. These proposed policies reflect the empirical evidence that a strong economy depends on a solid foundation of public investment, and that investments in workers, families, and communities can pay off for decades to come…

In order to function and deliver strong and shared economic gains, markets need an engaged, effective public sector. From policies that spur innovation and facilitate labor supply to those that provide investments in children and protections against economic insecurity, the public sector has an important role to play in supporting the economy.

There is a call for government supported and managed technology development: 

Innovation—and the new technologies that result from it—drives growth, and the public
sector plays a pivotal role in that process…

Public support for research and development is essential to achieving an appropriate level of innovation…

There are also times when the public sector has to consider the composition of what is produced or how it is produced. 

 Then the Brief goes woke.

An economy where economic gains are not shared is one that is not delivering on its full promise to those who do the work of producing economic output…

Investments in children are a powerful force for equity…

Investing in children will thus not only deliver improved outcomes and faster growth, it will also advance equity by narrowing racial disparities and reducing child poverty.

The public sector plays a crucial role in ensuring that communities are not left behind…

New forms of protection against economic insecurity are necessary to ensure that
unavoidable risks do not become avoidable economic pain. Research finds that social
insurance programs not only directly reduce hardship and financial risk, they also moderate
economic downturns, improve health, and save lives. Investments in expanded social insurance would build on a long tradition of American social insurance programs, including unemployment insurance; Social Security; and Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act.

In short, the Brief from start to finish is justifying a move away from freedom and individual initiative and in the direction of the idea that the state must act as the director of economic activities and outcomes. It is far along the way to a vision that is fundamentally anti-American and in the direction of planned societies that have delivered such horrors as the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, the Soviet Union, and Mao’s China.

It is a Brief that shows naive thinking that Hayek warned about when he stated that “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.”

It appears that none of the Biden economists at the CEA understand any of this. They appear to truly believe they can design the economy.

Further, they fail to understand another crucial point that Hayek made. This one in Chapter 10 of his book The Road to Serfdom. In the chapter, Hayek makes clear that the planned society results in the worst getting on top.

When you create government power centers, be it for new technologies, family support, education or whatever, the most evil will do what it takes to get close to such power and twist the power for their own benefit.

This is the horrifying direction that the CEA is justifying in this Brief.

It is a recipe for a collapsing standard of living coupled with more state authoritarianism.   –RW

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Oops… best climate change solution doesn’t involve government control | The Daily Bell

Posted by M. C. on August 29, 2019

THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED…again.

Because if it were up to me (and it IS up to each of us making individual choices) then these new trees would be food trees.

Imagine a world where just walking down the street offered as much food as a supermarket aisle… except it was actually good for you, and free.

https://www.thedailybell.com/all-articles/news-analysis/oops-best-climate-change-solution-doesnt-involve-government-control/

By Joe Jarvis

Turns out the best way to combat climate change is NOT flying in private jets across the world to meetings on how to stop the peasants from using fossil fuels, modern technology, and heat.

A “mind-blowing” study found that planting trees is far more effective at capturing CO2 than carbon credits, or other heavy-handed government actions.

How did the “science is settled” gate-keepers let this one slip through…

The abstract of the study states:

The restoration of trees remains among the most effective strategies for climate change mitigation…

Excluding existing trees and agricultural and urban areas, we found that there is room for an extra 0.9 billion hectares of canopy cover, which could store 205 gigatonnes of carbon in areas that would naturally support woodlands and forests. This highlights global tree restoration as our most effective climate change solution to date.

The study claims that the amount of carbon in the atmosphere could be cut by 25% if this area was planted. And like the abstract says, they aren’t even talking about farmland or currently settled areas, so food production and human habitats would not be affected.

Although this would require about 500 billion additional trees, there is no need for humans to plant all those trees. Just seeding new forests would be adequate to reforest large swaths of the earth.

Plus, each individual on earth doesn’t have to take responsibility for growing 71 trees. Organizations can mass scale this solution… even some unlikely ones.

For instance, in honor of Arbor Day, PornHub is planting one tree for every 100 videos watched in one particular category. So far they are up to 11,000 trees. Apparently, some people are already doing their part…

Planting trees is a good idea, even if you don’t think atmospheric carbon is too high.

Because if it were up to me (and it IS up to each of us making individual choices) then these new trees would be food trees.

Imagine a world where just walking down the street offered as much food as a supermarket aisle… except it was actually good for you, and free.

That’s really not that far fetched. Look into the closest forest, even a small strip of woods in between a parking lot and roadway. There are hundreds if not thousands of trees, shrubs, vines, mushrooms, and groundcover in there.

Chances are, there are already some edible plants present, like shagbark hickory nuts, raspberries, common brier, dandelions, puffballs, or common plantain (not the banana-like fruit, the leaf).

Imagine how much food could be packed into such a small area if humans were deliberately designing these woods to be food forests.

You start with large canopies like walnut or pecan trees, then move down to smaller fruit trees like apple and peach, then shrubs or smaller trees like blueberry or banana. Next add the vine layer with raspberry or beans, ground-cover (and underground) with peanuts or sweet potato, vegetable ground cover like lettuce or chicory, spices, and finally some edible mushrooms like boletes.

There are so many different plants to choose, based on your climate and what you like to eat.

After you do the initial hard work of creating a food forest, it perpetuates itself. That’s the whole point, forests are complete systems…

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Lesson 6: Plant Parts with Nutrition • Illinois Farm to ...

 

 

 

 

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The Difference. With Some Practice It Is Easy To See.

Posted by M. C. on July 17, 2019

My general disappoint with certain elements of society has led me to some self-examination and (hopefully) improvement.
In my research I discovered and re-discovered concepts and products that are new, been lost and/or generally foreign to the masses.
As a result, some other revelations have made themselves apparent.
Store shelf space formally littered with the same tired men’s products are teaming with new shampoo, deodorant, shaving and beard choices. Pre-shave oil! Beard oil! Charcoal toothpaste! Whoda thunkit?
Single and double edge razors and that cup and shaving brush you got for graduation are coming back. Not a fad but because they work and don’t cost a bundle.
I notice how new and formally dubious eating establishments have stepped up and improved their quality.
Along with food, those that enjoy a mild tipple have plethora of specialty beer, wine and liquor establishments from which to choose.
Computers are getting smaller and higher performance. Phones and TVs are getting bigger and higher performance.
Smokeless venues became the norm before Pennsylvania passed laws and took the credit.
And there are cars.
Front cameras, rear cameras, mirror cameras, a myriad of sensors and computer screens. Beepers and buzzers for anything some faceless bureaucrat deems unacceptable. Meanwhile violations and your GPS position are reported through the satellite “safety system”. A system you didn’t renew but still runs. Mileage reducing ethanol became a requirement distorting the (food) grain market. Even “W” knew ethanol was bogus. Unrealistically increasing emission requirements where emissions are already essentially minimal. The prelude to all electric.
It all costs you a bundle. You cannot escape.
The difference between cars and the rest of the above? With some practice it is easy to see.
One is customer driven, free market demand. We have choices. No government control required.
The other is central planner driven, government demand. No choice. All about control.
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Central Planning Delusions: From Helicopter Money To NIRP

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THE ‘GREEN NEW DEAL’: A RADICAL MANDATE FOR GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF AMERICAN SOCIETY

Posted by M. C. on January 3, 2019

More, Ocasio-Cortez sees this plan is being a vehicle through which social equality might finally realized through the use of reparations to right historical injustices.

Going back how many thousand years?

Ocasio-Cortez may not be in Congress yet, but she already has a plan to remake the way Americans drive, commute, live, work, and even use the financial system. Let there be little doubt how she aspires to wield power in Washington.

https://news.grabien.com/story-ocasio-cortezs-green-new-deal-radical-mandate-government-con

By Tom Elliott

…

More specifically, Ocasio-Cortez’s plan calls for, within 10 years, a series of lofty overhauls of American life [emphasis added]:

  • The installation of a “national, energy-efficient, “smart grid.”
  • “Upgrading every residential and industrial building for state-of-the-art energy efficiency, comfort and safety”
  • “Eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing, agricultural and other industries” as well as from America’s transportation and infrastructure network
  • Funding “massive investment” in reducing existing greenhouse gasses

Between its calls for “upgrading” homes and overhauling travel, public infrastructure, and even the way Americans consume electricity, the plan leaves virtually no facet of everyday life untouched. Think of how often you don’t use electricity to imagine how much of your average day the plan wouldn’t impact.

The proposed committee would also have seemingly total oversight of American industry, with a mandate for pushing union membership. Read the rest of this entry »

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