Sixty Two: Save Versus Spend

Everyone I know who has any money is watching their pennies and taking steps to preserve capital and cut back spending wherever possible. This is partly how we came to have money. In addition to working hard, we were careful with our money.

Now we have Melissa Bean, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, and Christopher Dodd, pulling strings for BO and spending gargantuan amounts of our money on whatever hair-brained schemes and boondoggles they can dream up. All of this because the Democrats don't want any of their backers to feel any pain from any of their stupid decisions. And I guess the way to ease this pain is to take money from those of us who were prudent, and give to those who were stupid. Thanks Melissa.

Sixty One: Lincoln On The Stimulus Act

"The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves - in their separate, and individual capacities.

In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere."

The foregoing was written by Abraham Lincoln sometime around late September of 1854.

Applying Lincoln's standard of legitimate governance, I wonder how much of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, signed into law by BO today, would measure up.

Sixty: Throwing In The Towel

All these years, I have clung to the core belief that ordinary people are essentially intelligent and decent creatures, and therefore know best how to allocate and spend their respective resources. This belief is espoused to varying degrees by Libertarians, Independents, and Republicans. Then there are Democrats, who believe that ordinary people (i.e., those not elected to public office) are ignorant, self-destructive, and unable to make even the most basic and simple decisions without the guiding hand of government to help the poor dolts.

I now freely admit that my core belief about people has been wrong. The Democrats are right. People are as dumb as posts. And on top of that, people even know they're stupid, and so gladly accept government handout after government handout, each handout coming with the inevitable quid pro quo, and dashing what little bits of independence and free will remain untouched by government.

Since coming to my senses and realizing that we citizens would fall into an absolute stupor without our government masters, I can now understand that even when Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd all lie through their teeth and tell us how much they cherish the Constitution and its principals, wen in fact they are turning the Bill of Rights into dust, they are doing it for my own good. I am just too simple minded to understand how lucky I am to have such benevolent government minders.

As the saying goes, "ignorance is bliss."

Fifty Nine: Melissa Bean Promotes "Spending"

The following quote comes from Melissa Bean's official website.

“This bold action is necessary to preserve and create jobs and spending.”

The "bold action" to which she is referring is the $819 billion so-called "Stimulus" bill passed by the US House of Reps last week. As I read Melissa's quote, she wants to create spending. How does one "create spending" you may ask? Well, in government-speak, I guess you just turn on the printing presses and print money and give it to people who are likely to spend it, i.e, Democrats. What will Democrats spend this money on? Who cares, Melissa says, just spend the bloody stuff. Spend it on Chinese crap. Spend it on campaign contributions. Spend it on producing more MBAs who can dream up things like "collaterlized debt obligations." And most importantly, spend it on increasing the size of government, which Melissa says is answer to the problems which government has created.

Fifty Eight: Not Enough, Too Little

Not enough farmers.
Not enough good teachers.
Not enough family reunions.
Not enough used book stores.
Not enough good deeds.
Not enough silence.
Not enough stay at home parents.
Not enough saving for retirement.

This list was much harder to write than the "Too Much" list. I think that's because the "too much" stuff gets in the way of seeing what's missing, or the "not enough" stuff. How can people understand there is not enough silence when they are so inundated with TV, internet, and ipod noise twenty four hours a day?

I submit that this concept of "too much" is really what our current economic situation is all about. We have too much of everything unimportant, more than we could ever digest, and the natural state of equilibrium is regurgitating the excess. The system has puked up Bear Stearns, Lehman, and Merrill Lynch. The Stimulus Bill enacted by congress yesterday is now trying to soak up the puke with freshly printed dollars, which may eventually neutralize the smell, but not the sickness.

Fifty Seven: Too Much, Too Many

There is too much of almost everything.
Too many cell phones.
Too much internet.
Too much food.
Too much room in too many houses caused by too much easy money.
Too many cars.
Way too much Obama (he may have some good ideas, but he really needs to hang back and let things play out before he starts reinventing the world).
Too many "breaking news" stories on too many news outlets.
Too many Starbucks.
Too many lawyers.
Too much advertising pushing too many goods and services.
Too many prescription drugs.
Too many banks.
Too many health insurance providers.
Too many Goldman Sachs guys involved with running too many bail out plans for companies enabled by too many Goldman Sachs invented dodgy financial schemes.
Too much media of all kinds, which has only become too much noise.
Too much government, with too many bureaucrats, enforcing too many regulations, enacted by way too many professional politicians.
Too many computers.
Too many blogs.