Nasty Weather?

George Bush and his cronies did an astonishing amount of damage to the United States during his eight years in office. The democrats failed in their duty to check him. The reason, I feared, was the democrats had no interest in changing anything, they were just biding their time until they could do the same. In his first 100 days, Obama has done as much damage as all of George Bush eight years. Obama unfairly inherited the damage done during the boom times, and the correction would have been painful.

Now the correction has been delayed by the stimulus, but it will be far worse. Ross Perot once said when a truck is coming down the sidewalk, step out of the way. Yes, a truck should not be coming down the sidewalk. Very true. But still, step out of the way. What is coming our way should not, nor should it hit where it will.

Between the democrats and republicans USA has been terribly disfigured. Those who seek change are terribly frustrated. There are people who foolishly think they can fix things proposing violence. They will lose against the government. And I hope they do if they try, because if they win they will be far worse than anything we have now. That is just plain history.

The government will accelerate process of confiscation through taxes and regulation. Expect fed taxes to reach 90%, because we were there before. All the talk of high taxes killing business is nonsense because business people like me will simply arrange matters so what material needs and desires we want we'll get through trade and arrange maters through different allocations. Employees will stand in line for lower quality goods and services.

Expect regulations that provoke class struggle. When the city of Seattle wasted astonishing amounts of money installing public toilets it inevitably had to remove them. The last social service you want to offer for free is toilets. Nothing is abused worse. Civilized countries have a brisk business in free market toilets which have attendants that keep them spic and span and orderly. And usually these people work strictly for tips. In places like Hong Kong, it's a point of pride for a hotel lobby to have toilets as sharp as the bar. But I speak of civilized places. Back to Seattle.

The governor just passed a law requiring businesses with three or more employees to make toilets available to the public "unless there is a security concern." Now the law got passed because some multi-millionaire has a condition that requires quick access to a head. So the government had to "do something!" and it seized private property, in the form of a regulation.

(Our lawyer/governor agreed to the "unless there is a security issue" clause, which is a "lawyer full employment" point.)

Where markets would make life better, the government will keep making things worse until the pendulum swings back. We are in for nasty weather, but as Orson Welles noted the 400 years of the Italian renaissance there was war, insurrection, plague, religious conflict, intellectual confusion, political unrest and so on. At the same time we had great advances in science of Galileo, Bellarmine, the art of Michaelangelo and Titian, rebirth in architecture, double entry bookkeeping countless innovations and advancements! IN the same 400 years the Swiss had peace and stability, but the only thing the Swiss came up with in those 400 years was the cuckoo clock.

Give me a renaissance any time.

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