Dan Mitchell of The Cato Institute explains the reason for the incessant failure of Keynesianism:

Watch The Video Here

“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.“
- Benjamin Franklin

A person refusing participation in our system of self opportunity has the freedom to do so knowing full well the  inevitable consequences.  Failure to accept these consequences by demanding their “fair share” in the form of a handout makes these people moochers or, for all intents and purposes, Losers.   The recent cacophony of Losers has almost reached the level where Thomas Jefferson’s enraged corpse will reanimate and start strangling these non participants in an act of merciful Darwinism.  Being a failure is far different from being a Loser however.

On September 13, 1857 a failure was born.  As a teenager, following a four-year apprenticeship to a caramel candy maker, he attempted to start his own candy business in Philadelphia.  Despite six years of hard work, he failed.  His next two attempts in Chicago and New York failed as well. Undaunted, he returned to his home town and once again tried making a go of the caramel business. This time, it worked and, through his numerous failures, he became a very shrewd businessman.  Aware of the growing demand for chocolate, he soon started a new company using the profits from his caramel business. For years, he worked at perfecting a viable recipe for making milk chocolate — a process which up to then had been kept a closely guarded secret by the Swiss. Finally, through trial and error, he hit upon the right formula of milk, sugar and cocoa that enabled him to realize his dream of mass producing and distributing milk chocolate candy.

Towns in America aren’t named after people who ask for and expect Government handouts, or for people who say they can not or will not try.  Towns are named after people who have believed in the American dream and have tried, failed and eventually succeeded.  They are towns like Hershey, PA.

“Uncle Sam should have NO part in private business.  I’ll tell you how I know.  Unless Uncle Sam works for a circus, he isn’t dressed for a board meeting.”
- Glenn Beck

Jan is going to make a shirt for me from her shop that reads “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted For McCain”.  It will be appropriate to wear after Obamas “First 100 Days”.

I bought a made-to-order hoagie at WaWa on the way in to work this morning for breakfast and it was made incorrectly.  Exactly why will Obama and the government be sending this person $1000 of my hard earned money as a “tax refund” each year – read welfare – when he CANT EVEN GET MY DAM HOAGIE ORDER RIGHT!

Neither a Conservative or a Republic lost the Presidency last night – John McCain did.  As a Conservative, I know in my gut that there will always be Hank Reardens in this country but we desperately need a John Galt. When Conservatism is on the ballot and clearly defined such as Prop 8 in California which adds an amendment to the state constitution banning same sex marriage, it wins.

Candidate Hope-And-Change is now President-Elect Obama so the message of “change” now actually has to coalesce into actions.  They say the devil is in the details and I suspect most Americans will end up realizing this isn’t the change they wanted after the details are revealed.

“I won’t have to worry about putting gas in my car.  I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage” is a quote by Peggy Joseph, an Obama supporter.  Very inspiring.

The Liberal MSM – I’m sorry, thats redundant – is slathering up all the writing they can get their hands on pertaining to FDR and the “New Deal” as a UCLA study was released last week states that FDRs policies prolonged the Depression by 7 years.  The US had a GREAT Depression and the rest of the world had a Depression.  Please read The Forgotten Man to see what affect these policies will have on us today.

President-Elect Obama said during his speak in Grant Park last night: “Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.” Do I need to have my hearing checked or is he already talking about his second term.

Billy club wielding Black Panther Party “poll watchers” were arrested at a polling location in Philadelphia for voter intimidation.

Each president recites the following oath, in accordance with Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” These should be the most import words President-Elect Obama ever utters but based on his views of the Warren Court, this Oath will be a mere annoyance he will forget as quickly as possible.

When you wish upon a falling star, your dreams can come true. Unless it’s really a meteorite hurtling to the Earth which will destroy all life.  Then you’re pretty much hosed no matter what you wish for.  Unless it’s death by meteor.
- Anonymous

I have talked face to face with the godless communist leaders. It may surprise you to learn that I was host to Mr. Nikita Khrushchev for a half day when he visited the United States, not that I’m proud of it. I opposed his coming then, and I still feel it was a mistake to welcome this atheistic murderer as a state visitor. But, according to President Eisenhower, Khrushchev had expressed a desire to learn something of American Agriculture — and after seeing Russian agriculture I can understand why. As we talked face to face, he indicated that my grandchildren would live under communism. After assuring him that I expected to do all in my power to assure that his and all other grandchildren will live under freedom, he arrogantly declared in substance:

You Americans are so gullible. No, you won’t accept communism outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of socialism until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism. We won’t have to fight you. We’ll so weaken your economy until you’ll fall like overripe fruit into our hands.

The Boiling Frog story is a perfect metaphor for the slow and steady chipping away of the cornerstone of our country; the founding documents.  The allure of “free stuff” seduces some people into believing that they can be cafeteria constitutionalists to pick and chose which sections can be marginalized by playing a game of mental gymnastics to rationalize their new interpretation.  If one wants to play a convoluted game of connect-the-dots, please go purchase a children’s puzzle book instead of playing with our Constitution.

“How do you tell a Communist?  Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.”
- Ronald Reagan

The engine of the Swedish system is a crushing aggregate tax burden on individuals and businesses with a top marginal income tax rate of 57%.  In this “workers paradise”, people can earn MORE than 365 paid days off a year.  These things combine to disincentivise work and demoralize the most productive of the population.  The best and the brightest get no reward for effort so only the bare minimum is given which reduces productivity, GDP and everyone’s standard of living.

Some fun facts about Sweden.

1. Sweden’s total tax burden consumes more the 50% of GDP a year vs. 18% in the U.S. with a top marginal income tax rate of 57%.  Sweden heavily taxes income, capital gains, property and has a VAT of 25%.
2. Sweden’s median household income at the end of the 1990s was $26,000 vs. $39,400 for the U.S.  If admitted as our nation’s 51st State, Sweden would be the poorest in the union.
3. Catholicism is the Swedish nation religion and most of it’s public schools are Catholic schools.  This forces the population to fund the Catholic religion whether they like it or not.
4. Sweden publishes a low unemployment number that is considered worthless.  The unemployed are put onto the Government payroll with do-nothing jobs, said to be “retired”, are on “sick leave”, are on welfare or considered “students” all of which is considered “employed” by the Swedish government.

As King Henry and the U.S. Treasury dole out 2.3 trillion (and counting) of your money like a deranged monkey flinging feces around its cage,  companies are lining up, hat in hand, to grab a piece of this pie whereby removing risk from the risk\reward equation.  As dangerous a precedence as this is, an even worse message is being sent to the American people that the Government can be a snuggly, warm goose down comforter that will protect the citizenry from any pain; financial and emotional.  If a majority of the U.S. population turn their backs on the founding principles of this country and embrace this notion, we will all certainly be, like Sweden, the poorer.

“We will not replace the US. It is not possible.”
- Goran Persson

“To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association – the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.”

“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”

“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”

“Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.”

“A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government.”

Any words from me would be superfluous.

“Property is the fruit of labor…property is desirable… a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.”
- Abraham Lincoln

Within the first two years, the Pilgrims almost starved to death.  Some were reduced to eating horses, dogs, cats and even rats.  In 1623, with much debate, the colonists moved from communal to private farming, with each colonist owning and working his own plot of land.  The results were dramatic with bumper crops being produced. In the fall of 1623, the Colony celebrated the first Thanksgiving.  But what went wrong in those first two years?

Even with their Puritan values, the colonists succumbed to what economists call today the tragedy of the commons but this phenomenon has been known since ancient Greece.  The Pilgrims became a bunch of freeloading malingerers who faked illness and stole from each other.

Actions can never be separated from consequences and, in this case, owning private property on which to farm connected actions with rewards.  It also established a free market because excess goods were available for sale and trade.

Unfortunately, the real lesson of Thanksgiving isn’t in any teachers lesson planner.  The only thing taught today to students is “Isn’t it so wonderfully to share?”  The reason the Pilgrims had food to share is the consequences of hard work, private property rights and an unencumbered free market system. The teaching of early American history seems to be an afterthought in most schools systems today based on our childrens appalling lack of knowledge in the area.  When it is taught, teachers make sure they weave a common thread through all lessons: smallpox blankets.

“That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it.
-Aristotle