Seeking Simple Solutions

The idea that we need any new laws, or new executive bureaucracies to great a better-ordered and better managed society is nuts.  Jonah Goldberg points out a classic case this weekend by advocating for the elimination of witholding taxes.

Witholding taxes place an intermediary between the citizen and our government.  Mandatory company-provided healthcare laws, which began long before ObamaCare hit the scene, accomplish the same: placing an intermediary between the people and the healthcare provider.

Solution: Start a movement to elect representatives to Congress who will focus on removing laws from the federal register, with the primary mission of simplifying the relationship between the people and their government.

Slogan: No new laws.

The Immigration Problem

The Immigration Debate rages across the land.  Rubio = Amnesty.  Rush = Why?  Conservatives: Enforcement first!  Left: Come out of the Shadows...

As with so many seemingly intractable problems, the solution begins by properly identifying the problem.  So what is the problem?

The Problem: Too many people live in fear, in darkness, under the heavy and dank cloud of socialism, or worse under tyranny.  They look around the globe to find a better place than their homeland.  America.  The shining city on a hill.  The beacon of freedom in the world.  The downtrodden make the attempt to come here...

...and we have an "immigration problem."

The Answer: Reaffirm the truths of our founding, that the optimal organization for human society is one where the people feel the personal urge to bring their innate talents to bear to the utmost of their ability and desire.  Liberty.  Opportunity.

Reach across the borders into the countries that oppress their people.  Find the freedom-seeking souls there.  Encourage them.  Support them.  Show them how we accomplished our founding.  Help them see that they can throw off the bonds of tyranny and oppression.

There is no wall tall enough or thick enough to block the light of America from leaking, beaming, streaming across our borders, across the miles, over the oceans.  More to the point, why should we try?

As long as America is the only place on the planet where man has the chance of real liberty and the opportunity to succeed or fail based on his own talents and ingenuity America will have an immigration problem.  Cut off the immigration problem at its source.

Spread freedom and democracy.

Security of Status Quo, Bought and Paid For

The political model for the left is to encourage the fear the economic elite feel of the underclass, ensuring plenty of funding for their campaigns, money used to fund for the effort to rally the underclass to vote the politicos into office.

Spoken or unspoken, the promises are:

• Elite: Your wealth will be secure, and as an offshoot, so will your status in society and security of life and property.  You are buying protection by donating your money to my campaign.
• Underclass: Your access to the funds deposited to the government coffers via taxes on other people will be secure, and in fact will increase, if you commit your vote to me.  You are buying access to someone else's money and there is no cost to you.

Both promises can be fulfilled for some length of time, which is what makes the campaign successful.  The politico has a great likelihood of success, in political power and economic value, in the near-term, which is all any politico can reasonably be expected to consider.

By the time the promises fail... when the government starts to drain economic resources from the Elite, when the funds distributed to the Underclass start to dwindle, when the Underclass rises up in violence against he Elite that they have been convinced are not sharing enough... the politico is out of office and/or so securely ensconced that they cannot be harmed.  Or won't be harmed until we see thing go full Atlas Shrugged.

We see a small taste of this setup in the Fiscal Cliff deal agreed to this week.  Rush Limbaugh pointed out today on his program that taxes are going to increase for the income wealthy (those dependent on a paycheck for their wealth growth) but taxes are not impacted (or only negligibly) for the Asset Wealthy... or those in the Elite whose income sources from investments.

It is so unfortunate to see this playing out in America.

Perhaps, though, that is for the best?  What if America is the only country that could beat these demons, securing freedom for a greater portion of the globe?  Perhaps we are intended to fight this battle because we are the only ones that could possibly win it?

What is My Company's Business?

As I read this thorough article in the WSJ yesterday describing steps taken as Companies Prepare for New Health-Care Law, a simple thought kept ringing through my mind:

"What is the primary purpose of my business?"

I guarantee you the answer to that question is not "I am in business to respond to every change in the healthcare requirements dreamed up and imposed upon me by the federal government."

Obamacare quite simply strikes me as an illegal seizure of a company's productivity.  For that matter, all of the mandates to provide healthcare through the work place do the same.  When provided as a voluntary benefit by a company it is an effort to compete in the marketplace for talented employees.

If I were running my own business I would be be quite peeved to wake up on 01/01/2014 and find out I have a lot of new work to do, assigned by the government, just for the privilege of keeping my doors open.

Simple = Success.

Let Go of My Light Bulb!

Sigh.  Another in what I'm sure will be a long series of posts of a similar vein.  What gets into people's minds that permits them to take away the things that belong to other people?  Give me back my free choice for light bulbs, please.

But they will not.  75W light bulbs, soon to go the way of the Dodo...

Government Dependency = Failure

The New Year apparently brings about a new rate card for doctors who bill services thru to Medicare... the healthcare entitlement for the elder set... according to Forbes.

“For those physicians who are forced into the untenable position of limiting their involvement with the Medicare program because it threatens the viability of their practices, we urge that patients be notified promptly so that they, too, can explore other options to seek health care and medical treatment,” the AMA added. “The Medicare program has become unreliable and its instability undermines efforts by physicians to implement new health care delivery models that stand to improve value for seniors and other beneficiaries through better care coordination, chronic disease management, and keeping patients healthy."

So what do seniors do for healthcare as their doctors pull out of Medicare?  They pay for their services directly... they show up in emergency rooms as uninsured patients... or they avoid treatment.  Terrible set of choices.

Since we as a population have accepted that senior healthcare is a legitimate realm for the government to participate in, there will be calls for a political solution.  That political solution will resolve, eventually, to forcing the doctors to participate in the program at risk of losing their liberty.

When patients choose dependency, they also choose the risk that the party they are dependent on will pull the rug out from under them.

When doctors choose to participate in the dependency program, they risk that the government will remove their ability to participate by their own free will in the future.

Choose independence.

The Nature of Politics

This weekend I took time to watch the 1st State of the Union address that Reagan made to the joint session of Congress in February of 1981. An amazing step back into time... for me, I likely followed much of that speech as an 7 year old, as something happening in the background in my parent's lives. I was very aware of Reagan... his presidency was timed to my awakening to political life. And I have always held him in the highest regard, still do.

Watching this speech now helps demonstrate the complexity of leadership, especially political leadership. You have to pander to the base a bit. You have to dodge specifics a bit. And then you get to wrap it all up in grand political thought. That grandness of thought arrives, in this speech, in the last 5-7 minutes, and oh, is it worth it.

"The taxing power of the government must be used to provide revenue for legitimate government purposes. It must not be used to regulate the economy or bring about social change."

The grandness of speech is so necessary. I'm seeing it in the conversations the CEO of my current company is having with us now, as we transit a period of serious change in the organization. How to execute against that is the hard part, and is where we all become so human. We fail some, we succeed some. People will chose to see portions of both, and decide that we are a liar or a savior... so as to position themselves for social acceptance or to promote the next political victory.

So how does one go about executing the change? That is the question I'm studying now.

Enjoy:

 

Benghazi Question...

If the embassy was asking for more security... if the ambassador himself was asking for more security... it's reasonable to assume he knew there was a threat. In any normal situation, common sense would convince this man to be anywhere but Benghazi on 9/11. Here's the question: What did Amb. Chris Stevens know that made him put his life and the life of other embassy staff at risk? Why was he in Benghazi on 9/11? What was so important that he would risk his life? I don't think it could possibly be as simple as an assignment. There is something else going on...