Crisis Creation

If you have been on this Earth for any significant time, you have probably and painfully learned that there is a difference between thoughtful consideration and procrastination. Dithering does not qualify as deliberation. Certainly prudence demands that we examine our options to determine which one will yield the most favorable outcome. Undoubtedly you are familiar with the term, “paralysis by analysis,” wherein over-examination of a difficult decision leads to a failure to act or respond. These scenarios are common for most of us, and we recognize the pitfalls that arise because of our inability to respond. These are some of the rules of life, but in certain quarters the rules are suspended. Take career politicians for example.

Most professional politicians suffer from an aversion to critical decision making. As you know, on an issue that is prominent and divided, the politician risks annoying or infuriating a large portion of his constituents no matter how she or he may vote. As a result, many crises in our affairs of state arise because of the career politicians’ refusal to deal with an issue promptly and forthrightly.  Issues become problems that beget crises that cause nervous handwringing and intense arm twisting. Generally, the politician succumbs to expediency and meekly follows the leadership to a minimalist response to the moment to escape the volcanic wrath of the electorate. Thus, the “can” of concern is kicked further down the road only to rise again at a later time with consequences far greater.

Abscessed characters and absences of integrity are too common among the careerist political class. The most self-centered among them weigh every decision on the scales of electoral expediency. In some respects the self-serving types are preferable to the indecisive cowards because their positions are so predictable. Whatever vote or pledge has the greatest potential for maintaining or advancing the politician’s career is the one that is taken or cast. The concept of a principled vote or position is alien to the class of politician who is consumed by opportunism. It is the expedient politician who has helped to elevate his class on a par with used car salesmen and snake oil peddlers in the popular views of the people.

Another factor besides the personalities and preferences of the politicians for the sense of crisis that seems pervasive is the sheer size of government…at all levels. Their consistent expansion and overreaching for the past century has resulted in bloated monstrosities that are ineffective and impossible to manage. Factor in the overlap and redundancy elements of many governments, and we often find ourselves in crisis mode because of competing bureaucracies or sectors of interest that are unaddressed because the various bureaucracies remain stuck in “turf-protection” gear. Large sluggish enterprises are inefficient and ineffective. Large public sector institutions are much worse than their private sector cohorts because it is nearly impossible to dismiss incompetent or lazy workers. So the massive organizational structure of government is a primary contributor to the frequency of crises in our public discourse.  Government agencies often overreach and frequently under perform. Either of those response modes could germinate a crisis.

Closely associated with the unrestrained growth of government is its insatiable need for operating funds. With Big Brother and Nanny State gobbling more control of our lives and our commerce, the financial requirements escalate. So, it seems there is a constant crisis for funding…at all levels of government. Their incestuous relationships and complex network of grants and mandates place an increasing financial burden on the taxpayers. When the bureaucrats and political class decide that additional funding is required, they claim that a crisis is imminent, and the funds are vital for averting a catastrophe.

There are two aspects of crisis that may not have so large of a domestic human component in the chain of causation..…attack by foreign entities and a natural or commercial disaster. Time and again our government’s response to a provocation or natural disruption has been too little, too late. Often when lives were saved, it was the heroic actions of individuals---some from the public sector and others just ordinary citizens—whose actions were the most helpful and effective. We may never know what involvement government had in the generating of the crises, if any, because of foreign policy, the inadequate construction and repair of levees, unrealistic environmental restrictions that limit the building of water-breaks and dams. The point is that people, local people, respond more quickly and effectively in many cases than does the government-controlled response agency. Does the memory of thousands of unused FEMA trailers for the Gulf Coast ring a bell? Many of those trailers were sources of breathing problems because the gaseous releases from the interiors….typical.

In every crisis for the nation, governments play an instrumental role. Sometimes government’s failure to act initiates the problem or makes it worse. On other occasions government’s response is inadequate or inappropriate and may exacerbate the problem. Finally some issues may be precipitated by government so as to assume more power and control over the population. In summary, big government and crisis appear to be synonymous. Friends, we have a crisis, and as Rahm Emanuel advises “we should not let a crisis go to waste.” Continue putting the heat on them, jump on your pony, Patriot, and let’s get control of this monstrosity.

Comment:   cearlwriting@hotmail.com      or      www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Safety First

The Nanny State cares about you. The Nanny State wants you to live life without facing any adverse situations….well, without facing difficulties that have not been caused by government. You see, when life throws you curve balls, those are bad. When government throws you bean balls, those are called “shared sacrifices.” The Nanny State is committed to protecting you from every type of imaginable or potential harm…except for the damages inflicted by the government. Even when I personally resent the Nanny State’s annoying meddling in my life, I could, at some level, understand the insatiable desire by the government to control so many facets of my life if they were not ideologically and agenda driven constraints. Many of the limitations and regulations do not make sense from an economic or a safety point of view, but do satisfy some misbegotten ideological purpose.

A glaring example that we have previously discussed on these pages is the banning of the incandescent light bulb in favor of the compact fluorescent variety. For the moment the House has suspended the implementation of the policy, but government never gives in, never gives up. The insanity of an ideological unproven “global warming” scare leading Congress and the EPA to ban a tried and true technology and replace it with a toxic-laden substitute illustrates the folly of much government regulation—particularly the ideological-driven rules. The collectivist attitude is blatantly apparent in this regulatory fiasco….preserve the planet from a theoretical future of global warming, but put individuals at risk with more expensive deadly products.

When any child loses his or her life, it is a tragic circumstance. According to the Product Safety Commission, in the last ten years 32 children have been mortally injured by baby cribs with sliding adjustable sides. With the publishing of the data the PSC has arbitrarily determined that ALL parents are too stupid or lack discernment to choose a crib for their children that is not so risky. So, they have banned the sliding-side infant crib, and forbade reselling of older models at garage sales and thrift shops. We are waiting for a definitive rule that bans “giving” the lethal cribs from one family member to another as has been the historical norm. While 32 deaths are regrettable and heart-breaking, the banning of the crib can, to some degree, affect nearly all of the 308 million residents of the nation.

Unlike the infant crib regulatory ban, RU-486, the “morning after pill,” is ideologically and politically correct. The statists promote unrestrained abortion, and resist any attempt to curtail the deadly industry. It is apparent that ideology trumps safety when the impact of RU-486 is examined. According to analyst David Alton of Great Britain, roughly 5-8% of RU-486 users experience severe complications…including death. So, the obvious question is “why are sliding-side baby cribs banned because of their dangerous potential when RU-486 has a much higher level of malfunctioning?” Clearly the answer is that Big Government and the Nanny State are driven by ideological considerations. Aborted children and their deceased mothers are an acceptable risk to preserve the right to destroy children at will according to the government’s priorities.

As the government and the multiplicity of agencies, bureaus and departments roam the country looking for ways to make my life better and safer, the unspoken factor is that every little regulation that makes my life safer also limits my freedom. Many would argue that the comprehensive examination conducted by the TSA at our airports is necessary to protect us from nefarious characters. We know, however, that their “so-called” random extensive observations have no basis in reality other than mere statistical happenstance. Profiling is forbidden because it may be deemed as discriminatory whereas groping small children and little old ladies in wheelchairs is considered acceptable. Once again, the Nanny State’s efforts to enhance our safety do little to make us safer and do restrict our personal liberty.

Finally, this observation does not involve product safety or the efficacy of pharmaceuticals. I wonder how can a government that is so concerned with the potential safety of every citizen when they interact with the private sector, be so nonchalant about high-level bombing using aircraft and drones? The resultant collateral damage from those sorties exceeds the losses by far from some of the issues they seek to regulate. Does our federal government practice gross discrimination by assuming that Libyan civilians or Afghanis are not as valuable as U.S. residents? Or is it that Nanny State’s real concern is for the power to control us? Our actual safety and well-being are secondary considerations. Every little regulatory element places another nail in our boxes. The motto of the new order is “safety first, liberty never, state forever.” Enjoy your safe trip toward tyranny, because it will be nearly impossible to come back.

Comment:   cearlwriting@hotmail.com     or     www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

You Bet Your Assets

We typically think of assets as hard goods….things, but we know that some assets may be intangible. For example, your savings in a bank or your portfolio are not tangible. They are sheets of paper or printouts that represent to some degree hard assets. Other assets are not typically included in one’s balance sheet such as education, talent, skills and ambition. I have included some other descriptors for assets that are not generally included on the net worth ledger of a nation.

When one examines the real value of a country, there are some classifications of assets that rarely are manifested on the plus side of the balance sheet. “Known potential” is the class of valuable resources that are, as yet, untapped, but do have a clearly defined and measured potential for contributing to the national economy. Oil deposits, gas pockets and coal veins are representative of some of the known potential that we have in the United States…on land and in the water. Within the National Park Service are thousands of acres of land that might be developed for agricultural production as well as for the exploitation of energy and mineral resources. Another known potential is the 15 million or more unemployed people in the United States whose labor and innovative skills could be much better used than they are at the present time.

“Unknown potential” refers to resources that have not yet been calculated but whose potential could be significant if the right technology or extraction methods were employed. Desalination of seawater is such a resource…not just for drinking, but for irrigation purposes. If such a technology were to become feasible on a large scale, many acres of semi-arid and desert lands could be used for food and fiber production. In addition to the technological challenges, the development of the system would have to be concerned with recapturing of spent water. So, the potential does indeed exist although the means for realizing its full value is not yet available. Wind and solar power are at a similar stage. While energy can be reaped from them, they lack storage capacity, cost effectiveness and reliability before they can be considered as bona fide sources. The potential is great, but more and better technology must be achieved before any of these potential sources can be consistently used.

Exploited assets are those resources that have been identified and reworked to create value. No resource, natural or human, has any real value unless it can be utilized to increase its inherent worth. Oil, for example, is merely a messy black liquid, but when refined it produces plastics, diesel fuel, gasoline and other by-products which function to fuel other industries as they create, construct or assemble items of value for the economy. Likewise, land has no intrinsic value unless it can produce food, fiber or provide other means of enhancing life. The exploited assets, therefore are those that are presently being used to increase value and economic activity.

Inaccessible assets are those that may exist in quantities great enough for meaningful use, but either for natural reasons, technological reasons or political reasons are not presently available. Vast quantities of geothermal power are trapped within the Earth, but we have not yet developed the means to exploit it on a grand scale because of natural barriers and technological deficiencies. Another inaccessible resource is children (at least in Western cultures). True, in some subsistence and emerging economies, children play an important role, but in most developed Western systems, the political consensus is that children are not considered integral members of the work force.

What is the purpose of this column? My goal is to illustrate that despite our current economic woes, we are a nation of vast resources. If our government would stop its punitive regulatory and taxation policies, many of our human and natural resources would be unleashed to produce products and increase the value of raw material. If government would cease its direct intervention and control of several vital deposits of exploitable resources, the private sector could transform them from potential to actual contributors to the nation’s economic activity. In addition, the development of many of our potential resources would increase the need for labor thus better utilizing the untapped human resources who are currently idle.

Government does not produce anything. All government activity is a drain on the economy … not a contributor. When government consumes 25% of the generated economy (GDP), funds become limited for economic activity that increases value. The two-edged stiletto wherein government places the knife firmly into the back of the nation is when government controls, regulates or limits resource development and when government consumes an inordinate portion of economic wealth. Our nation is not poor because we have a large cache of resources, but because of too-large government involvement, our economy is performing poorly. Government is non-productive and antithetical to generating value and wealth. Under our present economic circumstances, we cannot afford to have government control our wealth. Their consumption of the labor and productive power of the people places our potential for prosperity in peril. Government’s busy-body over regulating and rulemaking severely undermines the economic capacity of the nation. When Big Government is a player, the gap between prosperity and poverty looms large.

Comment:  cearlwriting@hotmail.com      or     www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com