Prosperity

Material wealth is definitely a blessing and a curse. We who live in America are the wealthiest people as a whole on the face of the earth, and we who live now are the wealthiest generation of Americans ever. America has the richest "poor" people in the world (the link is to a study by the Heritage Foundation). That is to say, those who are classified as poor or who consider themselves poor are much better off than the "poor" of any other nation on the planet.

Our society has come so far over the past generation in terms of quality of living. Here is a tremendous description of that - from Carpe Diem Blog: Young Americans: Luckiest Generation in History.

We should be grateful for all that we have, no matter how much or how little we have. Too often we take what we have for granted and only focus on what we don't have and what others do have; and by doing that we make ourselves miserable, we become overly materialistic, we end up focusing on ourselves too much, we make impulsive short-term decisions that make ourselves worse off, and we develop greed and envy towards others and the possessions of others.

Stop, take inventory of what you have in your life. Look at where you are and focus on doing good. The wonderful thing about capitalism is that it rewards those who help the greatest numbers of people.

#6

The Heritage Foundation and the WSJ publish an annual report called the Index of Economic Freedom.

They have the United States listed as #6 out of all countries ranked according to their levels of economic freedom. The main problems we have in the US are very apparent -

1. Our high tax rates
   
2. Our extremely large federal, state, and local governments
3. And our increasingly corrupt politicians and business professionals

The problem is that the current trend is moving in favor of all of these things and not away = less economic freedom = less overall freedom = less opportunity, higher unemployment, more real poverty, and greater burdens on the citizens.

Millions of people in our country and around the world are depending on America to get this right. All we can do is keep trying!

Climate

I would like to pose a few leading questions:

How far should we go to protect our planet?
What measures should we take to protect earth?
Should we stop driving our vehicles that create so much pollution?
Which businesses are destroying the environment in the name of profit?
What are you doing to decrease your carbon footprint?
Who is promoting the lifestyle that will lead to catastrophic natural disasters?

Now, what are your answers to these questions? Remember, I said they would be leading questions. Now let's look at where these types of questions lead us...

• “The greatest thing anyone in Britain could do to help the future of the planet would be to have one less child.” John Guillebaud - May 6, 2007 Second Article
  
• Couples who have more than two children are being “irresponsible” by creating an unbearable burden on the environment; curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming. - Jonathon Porritt, Great Britain's Sustainable Development Commission
• "changes in lifestyle would help to combat climate change. 'That's what I want to emphasise: we really have to bring about reductions in every sector of the economy.'" - Dr Pachauri, chair of UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
• "Australians must pay more for petrol, food and energy or ultimately face a rising death toll . . ." - Professor Ross Garnaut
• U.S. oil and natural gas producing companies should not receive federal subsidies in the form of tax breaks because their businesses contribute to global warming - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithneron March 4, 2009 (I will comment elsewhere on the deeper idiocy of this statement)
• Madison, WI City Code:

1. Limit waterfront development in the name of water sustainability
2. Require two trees to be planted if one is removed from your property
3. Limit the “number/density of fast food outlets and drive-through windows” in the name of public health
4. Discourage individual parking options to promote public transportation usage

Even though slippery slope is not a valid logical argument, it is a reasonable argument once it has already happened. It is already happening. You do not have to look very hard to find these kinds of statements because they are made every day.

We are slowly being regulated into slavery. I know that sounds extreme, but look at where we are going. First it was our toilets, our light bulbs, and our cars; next it will be the rest of our homes and businesses; then it will be the food we eat; and finally how we live and what we do in every single aspect of our lives.

How long will this process take here in America? Well that depends on you and me. What are you doing to fight back against the tides of tyranny? I plead with you to educate yourself and influence as many people as you can.

Must Read:
Environmentalism as a Religion

Revenue

I want to very quickly explain something about government revenue. Almost all of the money government uses comes from what we do every single day. - See usgovernmentrevenue.com - Your labor, efforts, investments, and so forth are partially confiscated by government.

The more money that federal, state, and local governments take out of the economy the slower it will grow or in our current situation, the faster it will shrink. What happens in principle is you get less of anything you tax. So, if you tax income you get less income; if you tax business you get less business, etc.

Likewise, if you tax something less you will get more of it. Too few people understand this simple concept, and you have a responsibility to inform your family and your neighbors of true principles that will help them -- THIS IS ONE THAT YOU NEED TO TEACH THEM!

When an economy has more income, more business, and more investment, that economy will grow. That is what happened in the early 1980's. We lowered taxes for everyone and we came back from the mess that Jimmy Carter got us into.

This concept is discussed with quantitative figures in a well written article by Louis Woodhill from the Club for Growth.

Spending

The questions of how government raises money and why, how they spend it and on what, have been on my mind for some time. Once upon a time in The United States of America these questions were answered by our Constitution. Last Saturday I bought The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, which is a wonderful guide to understanding the founding of our great nation. By studying the Constitution we really learn what makes this country great.

Spending Clause
"The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States..."(Article I, Section 8, Clause 1).

We find that early on in the nation's history there were differing view points on the implications of the spending clause.

• Madison's view was that this limited Congress to only being able to spend if it furthered ends that were spelled out elsewhere in the Constitution; Jefferson agreed with this idea.
• Hamilton's view was that the clause imposed virtually no restrictions on what Congress could deem as the "general Welfare" of the country.
• A third view, later espoused by Monroe, was that spending by Congress is to be unrestricted as long as it is "general" and benefits the nation as a whole and not only a specific locale or region or group of people.
  

Transition
Early Congressional actions show that Hamilton's view was rejected. And administrations throughout most of the first half of the 19th century rejected the broad interpretation also. The limits on Congressional spending have been slowly eroding ever since, most notably with FDR. And that brings us to our current situation:

• National Debt - $10.9 Trillion
• Deficit for FY 2008 - $454.7 Billion
• Deficit for first 4 months FY 2008 - $88.9 Billion
  
• Deficit for first 4 months FY 2009 - $569 Billion

And what is the solution to controlling, reducing, or eliminating these current deficits? Raise more taxes. IF THAT IS NOT THE MOST ASININE IDEA!!! What do us "average folk" do when we get into debt? We spend LESS. Instead, two weeks ago we signed into law the $787 Billion "stimulus (wasteful spending) bill," soon we'll have a $410 Billion spending bill to cover government operations for the rest of the fiscal year, and to top it all off last week the President rolled out his $4 TRILLION budget for FY 2010!

This is insanity, it clearly violates the principles of the Constitution, and it will bankrupt the next generation if we do not do something to get these irresponsible, arrogant ideologues out of power SOON!

$1 Billion = $1,000 Million = $1,000,000,000
$1 Trillion = $1,000,000 Million = $1,000,000,000,000


[The Heritage Guide to the Constitution Regnery Publishing, Inc. (2005) ppg. 93-96]