1-15-09
Deep Thoughts is changing its mission. Less politics and more general interest pieces. This is going to be hard.
As I throttle back my political analysis, I wondered: Why did I care in the first place?
Most people really do not understand much. I know, I know, passionate voices are heard during the quadrennial elections. Loud as they are, these folks mostly parrot what their party or cable news channel tells them. They are just leaping onto the bandwagon. Many other citizens opt out and go shopping. Only a few attempt to ferret out the truth. So again, why me?
I attended Dartmouth College when Harvard University was sending its Best and Brightest to the new Kennedy Administration. In the spirit of Ivy League competition Dartmouth required pubLic policy courses of all undergraduates, regardless of their major. In our senior year, the course was called Great Issues.
Outside speakers lectured on the underpinnings of current events. Great Issues required plenty of reading, essay work and included a message: we privileged Dartmouth lads were expected to go forth with an understanding of how the world worked and the compulsion to make it better.
That compulsion kicks in whenever I encounter foolishness or venality in our elected public servants. That is, daily. Since I naturally tilt toward the sardonic, I honor a recently discovered message from our mentor: “A discriminating irreverence is the creator and protector of human liberty." Mark Twain.
So as President Bush delivers his farewell speech, here are the only two issues I will discuss in the future: Global Warming and California’s Governance
1. Man-made global warming. The monster here is cost. If all the fixes to Global Warming are implemented, the world economy will be brought to its knees for decades to come. We need to be 99.9% sure there is a problem and that the fixes will actually solve it.
A few days ago the problem became less likely:
Global Warmists justify their doom on a scant 29 years of satellite sea ice data. This looks more and more like alchemy. My previous essay “Bamboozle” summarizes the Global Warming movement.
Two days ago, the situation got worse, however. Incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took up the cause of Global Warming. During her confirmation hearing, she stated that global warming “threatens our very existence” etc., etc. Islamofascists seem a greater threat to me and something the State Department should engage. Perhaps Sen. Clinton is angling for an EPA appointment instead.
It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out what the Democrats are doing with Global Warming.
2. California Governance - Fiscal Incompetence.
Our state legislators’ inability to produce a budget is a recurring disgrace. I have imagined a referendum that would surely pass. Whenever the budget deadline is missed, every California State legislator would forfeit--forever--all pay and allowances until a budget is submitted. I would predict 90+ percent voter approval.
[Newsflash: This morning in his State of the State address Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called suspension of legislators’—and the governor’s—salaries and expense payments if the next budget is not passed by the constitutionally mandated deadline of June 15.
"If the people's work is not getting done, the people's representatives should not get paid either," said the governor. "You have to admit it is a brilliant idea." (Sacramento Bee)
Ah, great minds…]
Just before Christmas I read that the State’s fiscal situation is worse than I knew.
- Since 1998 the CA budget has doubled from $72 to $145 Billion. This is twice the rate of population growth and inflation.
- CA has the highest income, sales, and gas taxes of all states.
- CA has the most generous welfare rules of any state. In fact, CA has not fully implement the welfare-to-work rules that Clinton approved.
- CA forfeits over $1 Billion a year in royalties by prohibiting oil drilling off the coast.
- Even with Prop 13 our property taxes are no less than the national average.
- CA fails to demand Federal reimbursement for
- All unfunded Federal mandates, and
- The never-ending cost of providing healthcare, education, welfare and criminal justice services to Illegal Immigrants. Reimbursement for Illegals alone would close most of California’s current budget shortfall.
Globally, we are now embroiled in an economic nightmare that began in Washington. After a “tax and spend” Democrat administration, we have suffered through eight years of Republican “borrow and spend." Where is the discipline?
Worse yet, many voters feel that it is the government’s responsibility to narrow the wealth gap between the richest and the poorest citizens. As a believer in Self-Reliance, I believe that is the INDIVIDUAL’s job not the government.
The voters have spoken. We now have a government which is pledged to “fairness,” That is, income redistribution. This will harm the Successful while simultaneously locking poorer folks into their class forever. We will become like France but with worse food.
Going forward I leave it to others to figure this all out. Since I made predictions in my essay, “8 Myths of Obama,” I shall leave it up. The future will be interesting.
Keep thinking Deep Thoughts – Chuck Carroll
Afterthought. When I completed Economics 101, the professor told us “you now understand economics better than most members of Congress.” I’ll say. Consider this clip of how our income tax system is “voluntary.”
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