Speak to the king within the man...

As hard as I try, I can’t for the life of me remove our current economical conundrum from the forefront of my mind. Perhaps it is because this is the first of its kind that I have had a vested interest in. As a thirty-something, I was too busy growing my hair out in the early nineties to care about that downturn and I was much too young to even know of the mess we were in prior to Reaganomics. Having a wife and four little ones who rely on me for food, shelter and above all else, safety, sure sits heavy on my small shoulders. Perhaps this is why I am so un-nerved by everything. The future is way too gray to be anything but concerned. One thing that is certain is our nation is turning more and more socialistic every week. We are abandoning capitalism, which has been the basis of our rise to global dominance. Let me pontificate a bit on capitalism, why it is slipping away from us and why we should care.

Capitalism is the economic engine that drives entrepreneurism. It is what gives incentive for men and women to create, to invent, to risk, to invest, to work for something greater than them. Capitalism, by nature, is when the individual controls his or her own destiny through resource and ethic. It is the farmer owning his land and fighting tooth and nail to produce the best crop he can. By so doing he creates something better for society at a lower cost. Capitalism creates ingenuity which lowers the cost of production. That, in turn, creates competitive pricing which is enjoyed by the consumer. Another example is Little Creasers Pizza. They realized that by lowering the cost of a large pepperoni to 5 bucks, they could increase volume more than enough to offset the price cut and enjoy an increase in profits. And now the Lovin’s can run up the street on a Friday night and drop a five spot to feed our kids while we (the parents) go to Costa Vida for a yummie, slightly more expensive burrito. If we get sick of Little Ceasers Pizza, on Wednesday nights Hungry Howies offers a large pepperoni for 5 bucks also. Ah, the competitive market at work. This is capitalism. Without capitalism, you have Africa, a terribly stunted third world country. Without capitalism, you have France, the most disrespected, passive nation in all of Europe. And without capitalism, you have socialism. Socialism is just one small step away from communism. Remember Mussolini? He was a socialist.

So why rant about capitalism? Isn’t America rooted in capitalism? Yes….and no. Capitalism is what our economic system was founded on. It created the industrial revolution, and the dotcom era. It carried us through the Great Depression and made our country economically strong after WWII. It helped produce the greatest country on earth. But slowly and steadily, we are seeing socialism weave its way into our economy. Let me just say that I was hoping the government would pass the 700 billion dollar bailout. However, when you look at it without panic glasses, you’ll see that with the bailout will come mounds of government regulations on the banking industry (not to mention a ginormous tax burden for me and my posterity). After all, the government wants to prevent this credit crisis from happening again and now they have ownership where they shouldn't. When you have that kind of governement regulation, you have a socialist banking system. They have already begun talks of nationalizing banking. This is bad news. This is a great way to stunt the main source of capitol for any thriving business. Without the ability to borrow in order to invest in the future of your business, you lose, your business loses and consequently, the public loses. Why on earth should we let the government tell us how to lend money? That's like a surgeon telling a baker how to raise dough. It never works. Just ask the people of Africa. Let the people decide how to borrow money. Let the banks decide, through trial and error, how to lend money. When banks fail because of poor practices, let them learn from their mistakes. They will be stronger in the end and so will our banking system. Let the borrower learn what frugality means. Failure is the best form of training. We as a people can gain an awful lot of wisdom from this crisis just like our grandparents did from the great depression, but not if the government steps in and puts training wheels on our bikes so we don’t skin our knees again. How am I supposed to learn to jump my dang bike with training wheels on? I guess at least I can ride in a circle without the fear of getting a boo boo.

But I digress. Now, back to socialism. Socialism produces mediocrity. Why would one guy want to work harder than the guy next to him, who is getting paid just as much, but doing far less, especially when there is no monetary gain in doing so? Now here is the dangerous and downright scary part of this whole mess. When we become too socialist and thus turn out a mediocre commerce system, the worth of the American dollar will plummet. With a weak dollar you get massive inflation. A head of lettuce will cost 17 dollars. Ever heard of a peso? No difference. With a worthless dollar the trillions of dollars of our national debt that is owned by China and other countries via treasury funds and the like will be called on for repayment. China will no longer believe in our economy and will see little value in owning our debt. This is no different than a stock holder selling off when he realizes a company’s profits are headed for the toilet. The problem is how are we ever going to pay it off? THEY’LL RAISE INCOME TAXES. Ouch!!! We will have to pay up eventually. And I am thinking that won’t be pleasant.

Now, I hate politics. I hate the game more than most. But, Barack Obama will turn this country into a socialist nation before his first four years are up. He wants to regulate and over tax small business with income over 250K. He said in the last debate that something like 80 to 90 percent of small business’s fall below that mark. How dumb is that? Sure maybe the laundromat on the corner or the landscaper up the street, but any real business that produces substantially for our economy and carries a payroll most certainly tops 250K. This is socialism to the very core. I would bet that most of those entrepreneurs who start with an idea, have hopes of making more than 250. What incentive do they have now if they know they are going to be penalized in the form of ridiculous taxes for reaching that point? If this doesn’t promote mediocrity than I don’t know what else does. WE ARE NOT A MEDIOCRE NATION! This is only one of many reason not to vote for Mr. Obama. I don’t know enough to cast any more stones (except the partial birth abortion insanity that he is for, which deserves a bolder shot from a catapult), so I’ll stop there.

In closing let me just say that I am guilty of being an Olympic Patriot. I’m very patriotic every two years when the Olympics rolls around. But, I know enough to hate what is going on with our country, and I love my country enough to be worried. I’m not one to say we are headed for the end. But a socialist America would certainly be the beginning of it.