2 Years in a South American Socialist Utopia and Why Socialism Cannot Create a Thriving Economy out of the Best Economy Ever Built
Socialism 101 Preface: I was an eye witness who lived among the poor. I saw first-hand the Russian allied Peruvian dictator Juan Velasco ruin his country, turning it into a trash heap of despair and squalor. Living in Peru for two years during the volatile swings from free market to socialism, and now back left me with little doubt as to the absurdity that any new comer with a "remake" of the modern European style, Leninist, Marxist, or Maoist ideas of social utopia can succeed.
Life in General Velasco's Peru 1972-1974 As a wide-eyed young American eager to do my spiritual/humanitarian best for the people I went to serve among I learned several things. The list goes something like this:
1. I learned Americans were'nt poor under our worst conditions.*
2. People really do die from preventable sickness and disease.
3. People really do starve, and struggle on $1.00 a day under hyper-inflation.
4. Capitalists offer a "hand up" not merely a "hand out" but lose their hands.
5. Socialists take the capitalists businesses and re-distribute the property.
6. Re-distributed "rich" man's companies fail when nationalized due to stupidity and lack of incentive.
7. Educated businessmen leave the country they love because of economic bias. People they once employed go jobless.
8. Joblessness soars. Life is one big "black market" of selling anything to survive.
9. Cops carry machine guns. Easier to hit rioters that way.
10. People who get arrested often dissapear.
11. 15 days a month without meat or protein except for the last chicken egg, sucks.
12. Hot showers are a modern marvel enjoyed far far away.
13. Shaving cream @ $12.00 a can (1974) stinks. So does shaving w/soapy cold water.
14. Running for your life from thugs, thieves, and desperate people stinks.
15. When the government can't tax more people they simply blame evil capitalists.
16. People live in fear and wish the socialists would go back where they came from.
17. Right wing dictators eventually kill or jail the left wing dictators.
* Poverty comparison to millions I witnessed living "dirt poor" without sewers, running water, with thatched or mud walls, no roofs, food and clothing, emergency care, dirt floors, and so on.
A WHOLE LOT MORE I never wrote home to Mom about... Coming soon.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
TRUE CAPITAL, CHARACTER & Joe the Plumber
“I've never been able to understand why a Republican contributor is a 'fat cat' and a Democratic contributor of the same amount of money is a 'public-spirited philanthropist'.” --President Ronald Reagan
The Final 2008 Presidential Debate: Last night I stayed awake for most the Presidential debate. I was wide awake during all comments about “Joe the plumber.” I have to say that Joe the aspiring business owner from Ohio stole the show and, of course I connected with it, because I have been an “average Joe.”
Obama’s blunder: Senator Obama may have lost the election because of just an average Joe, and now must regret talking to the plumber from Ohio. Answering a question that he was interested in “spreading” Joe’s “wealth around” if he made over $250,000 a year was like revealing he was going to play "Robbing" Hood on the middle class job creator. Days ago paying higher taxes was called “…time to be patriotic” by another “Joe;” Senator Biden, Obama running mate.
America’s Joe from Ohio uncovered the hidden truth about Obama and Biden’s redistribution of wealth plan and showed how out of touch they are with small business owners, and what constitutes wealth in middle America. He asked a simple question about taxes and found out that his “dreams of wealth” could not be achieved unless he “spread” his gains around; courtesy of the Obama Administration hopefuls. With all the costs of doing business, including payroll contributions, worker’s comp insurance premiums, liability insurance premiums, expansion capital, etc. $250,000 is HARD EARNED, and can be lost overnight without extreme business oversight and diligence.
I KNOW JOES' DREAM: I was a small builder that started a construction business with $900 dollars severance from a Police Dept. in May 1984 with a need to care for a young family, and a desire to make something of myself. I was constantly struggling to do all the work I could physically do to keep control of quality and dollars in our pocket. It was extremely difficult. If I had known what I was in for, especially with regards to six day work weeks, 12 hours a day for twelve years, and then losing nearly one million in California real estate and other business value during a deep real estate recession of 1991-1995, I wouldn’t have had the heart.
But it was MY dream... AND we had a great life. Hard work didn’t hurt me at all, and we enjoyed the “fruit of our labors” during the Reagan tax-cut years. I had proved I could start with under $1,000, and simply started over once again in 1994.
A NEW DREAM: There were no handouts, welfare payments, or government interventions when I was in a hospital bed, just back from near-death after the second life-saving blood transfusion in as many years. It was May 1997. I got a call from a literary agent. We had no income, no health insurance, and no job. I had chosen to “start over” in spite of it all. I had a “dream” to write. That dream then and now included making a fine income, and building wealth from my new self-employed risk taking. I had three tubes coming out of my body when I was told I would make a $250,000 “Advance” for The Last Valentine, my first of seven novels. It was hard work and risky to get from bankrupt “bad news” to the hospital bed “good news” where I recieved the welcome phone call. But I had a dream, and have once again benefited from a land that didn’t “spread my wealth around” but allowed me to dream big enough to grow a new business.
THE POINT: “Spreading wealth around” needs to be a private choice and not a “social” experiment run by a government. The character it takes to be self-employed, take no paydays for sometimes months at a time, and build something from just an idea can’t be appreciated by the non-participating “receiver” of my hard earned “wealth.” In fact without hard work the “welfare” recipients put on my payroll by a government mandating my charity expect to not be asked to contribute to my dream and business vitality. Class envy is enevitable when the government decides who should prosper and how and it cannot produce wealth. Such socialism cannot solve budget deficits, cannot provide new value or help someone develop the personal characteristic that fosters profit for a truly wealthy economy and personal life. Taxing wealth cannot produce more of it.
WHAT WORKS: Work works. Hard work, freedom to earn and work at whatever we chose without the fetters of government will solve the present economic crisis.
Capital, Values and CHARACTER: At the end of the day, it’s all about the essence of capital: value and character. The greatest “capital” created in any economy is the personal capital of the American man or woman with a dream. Incentives to better ourselves and personal lifestyles contribute to wealth. The dream begins it, hard work continues it, and the realization of profit takes it to a new level.
THANKS JOE! Your question clarified what America is all about in spite of our politicians inability to do so.
James www.jmpratt.com & www.powerthink.com
The Final 2008 Presidential Debate: Last night I stayed awake for most the Presidential debate. I was wide awake during all comments about “Joe the plumber.” I have to say that Joe the aspiring business owner from Ohio stole the show and, of course I connected with it, because I have been an “average Joe.”
Obama’s blunder: Senator Obama may have lost the election because of just an average Joe, and now must regret talking to the plumber from Ohio. Answering a question that he was interested in “spreading” Joe’s “wealth around” if he made over $250,000 a year was like revealing he was going to play "Robbing" Hood on the middle class job creator. Days ago paying higher taxes was called “…time to be patriotic” by another “Joe;” Senator Biden, Obama running mate.
America’s Joe from Ohio uncovered the hidden truth about Obama and Biden’s redistribution of wealth plan and showed how out of touch they are with small business owners, and what constitutes wealth in middle America. He asked a simple question about taxes and found out that his “dreams of wealth” could not be achieved unless he “spread” his gains around; courtesy of the Obama Administration hopefuls. With all the costs of doing business, including payroll contributions, worker’s comp insurance premiums, liability insurance premiums, expansion capital, etc. $250,000 is HARD EARNED, and can be lost overnight without extreme business oversight and diligence.
I KNOW JOES' DREAM: I was a small builder that started a construction business with $900 dollars severance from a Police Dept. in May 1984 with a need to care for a young family, and a desire to make something of myself. I was constantly struggling to do all the work I could physically do to keep control of quality and dollars in our pocket. It was extremely difficult. If I had known what I was in for, especially with regards to six day work weeks, 12 hours a day for twelve years, and then losing nearly one million in California real estate and other business value during a deep real estate recession of 1991-1995, I wouldn’t have had the heart.
But it was MY dream... AND we had a great life. Hard work didn’t hurt me at all, and we enjoyed the “fruit of our labors” during the Reagan tax-cut years. I had proved I could start with under $1,000, and simply started over once again in 1994.
A NEW DREAM: There were no handouts, welfare payments, or government interventions when I was in a hospital bed, just back from near-death after the second life-saving blood transfusion in as many years. It was May 1997. I got a call from a literary agent. We had no income, no health insurance, and no job. I had chosen to “start over” in spite of it all. I had a “dream” to write. That dream then and now included making a fine income, and building wealth from my new self-employed risk taking. I had three tubes coming out of my body when I was told I would make a $250,000 “Advance” for The Last Valentine, my first of seven novels. It was hard work and risky to get from bankrupt “bad news” to the hospital bed “good news” where I recieved the welcome phone call. But I had a dream, and have once again benefited from a land that didn’t “spread my wealth around” but allowed me to dream big enough to grow a new business.
THE POINT: “Spreading wealth around” needs to be a private choice and not a “social” experiment run by a government. The character it takes to be self-employed, take no paydays for sometimes months at a time, and build something from just an idea can’t be appreciated by the non-participating “receiver” of my hard earned “wealth.” In fact without hard work the “welfare” recipients put on my payroll by a government mandating my charity expect to not be asked to contribute to my dream and business vitality. Class envy is enevitable when the government decides who should prosper and how and it cannot produce wealth. Such socialism cannot solve budget deficits, cannot provide new value or help someone develop the personal characteristic that fosters profit for a truly wealthy economy and personal life. Taxing wealth cannot produce more of it.
WHAT WORKS: Work works. Hard work, freedom to earn and work at whatever we chose without the fetters of government will solve the present economic crisis.
Capital, Values and CHARACTER: At the end of the day, it’s all about the essence of capital: value and character. The greatest “capital” created in any economy is the personal capital of the American man or woman with a dream. Incentives to better ourselves and personal lifestyles contribute to wealth. The dream begins it, hard work continues it, and the realization of profit takes it to a new level.
THANKS JOE! Your question clarified what America is all about in spite of our politicians inability to do so.
James www.jmpratt.com & www.powerthink.com
Sunday, October 12, 2008
NOTHING COMES FROM NOTHING; The Universal Bankruptcy
The Latin axiom: "Ex Nilhilo Nihil Fit" applies to our current crisis. I'll explain:
CONSUMPTION: All my contacts and friends linked to the financial community agree; we are in for a long cleanup after the meal, because the meal has been a fifty year gorging on credit unlike any period known in human history.
THE MEAL: It's been a long and enjoyable ride since the post WWII families showed us the way of the future; the prosperity and suburban middle class homes, new cars, backyard swimming pools, and entitlements to a higher level of living never enjoyed by the "average American."
I'm not knocking it. My memories of the blue-collar neighborhood I grew up in are wonderful. People worked hard. Few had credit cards in those days; the 1950's and 1960's. They remembered the effects of the Great Depression, debt, and vowed to "own things" when they bought them. All of us worked, mowed lawns, got paper routes, did something to train us in the American work ethic; that "nothing comes from nothing."
Where I'm going, you already are: Wally and the "Beave" demonstrated to the world the ideal American life with June and Ward Cleaver offering us a window into a family world where values counted. No one forgot values, even though the families in Father Knows Best, Dennis the Menace, Leave it to Beaver, The Nelsons, seemed to have it pretty good.
VALUES in a nutshell: Morality was the rule that guided having something of value. If you could afford it, and you could own it (no encumbrances) then you deserved it. It would have been thought immoral (social responsible sort of way) to offer the "Beave" a credit card at 17 or 18 years old when he graduated from High School. It would have been, socially speaking, "bankrupt" for banks to offer strings of credit cards to just about anyone who asked, because the "ability to pay" for things you can't "own" outright was still fresh in the minds of the American, and indeed the world psyche.
"Value" is defined as something of worth and implies clear possession; clear ownership and "title."
EN-TITLE-MENT: Splurging on the desert of credit card consuming, Americans have mortgaged everything. Few "own" anything they use. Even groceries are often purchased on "credit." And the government, banks, stores, and industry have encouraged "ownership" - having possession of "value" - without traditional definitions being applied. "Debt" and "Credit Scores" became our God in whom we trusted. ALL Americans, we have been sold, deserved more "stuff." "Entitled" mentality took fifty years to become "normal," yet having clear "title" always meant REAL VALUE to prior generations. We became a people drunken with "entitlement" to "have" and "get" and strangely believing we "owned" stuff without owning it.
FIFTY YEARS: I've lived long enough to know the difference between "Father Knows Best" values and "government will provide" entitlement values. We are bankrupt as a society, wanting, and crying, and whining that we never have "enough." That we don't have "what the other guy has" therefore it isn't "fair."
I could go on...but you have seen the movie, because you are part of it. My wife and I own very little. We do not live in it, drive it, eat it, wear it, or show it off unless we "paid" for it.
"Goodnight" to desert. Hello basic values of hard work, true value, and real ownership. It will be a tough road ahead as credit card living, and bankruptcy is the next "default" wave to hit the economic shores. But then "Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit, applies: Truely "nothing comes from nothing."
James Michael Pratt
www.jmpratt.com
CONSUMPTION: All my contacts and friends linked to the financial community agree; we are in for a long cleanup after the meal, because the meal has been a fifty year gorging on credit unlike any period known in human history.
THE MEAL: It's been a long and enjoyable ride since the post WWII families showed us the way of the future; the prosperity and suburban middle class homes, new cars, backyard swimming pools, and entitlements to a higher level of living never enjoyed by the "average American."
I'm not knocking it. My memories of the blue-collar neighborhood I grew up in are wonderful. People worked hard. Few had credit cards in those days; the 1950's and 1960's. They remembered the effects of the Great Depression, debt, and vowed to "own things" when they bought them. All of us worked, mowed lawns, got paper routes, did something to train us in the American work ethic; that "nothing comes from nothing."
Where I'm going, you already are: Wally and the "Beave" demonstrated to the world the ideal American life with June and Ward Cleaver offering us a window into a family world where values counted. No one forgot values, even though the families in Father Knows Best, Dennis the Menace, Leave it to Beaver, The Nelsons, seemed to have it pretty good.
VALUES in a nutshell: Morality was the rule that guided having something of value. If you could afford it, and you could own it (no encumbrances) then you deserved it. It would have been thought immoral (social responsible sort of way) to offer the "Beave" a credit card at 17 or 18 years old when he graduated from High School. It would have been, socially speaking, "bankrupt" for banks to offer strings of credit cards to just about anyone who asked, because the "ability to pay" for things you can't "own" outright was still fresh in the minds of the American, and indeed the world psyche.
"Value" is defined as something of worth and implies clear possession; clear ownership and "title."
EN-TITLE-MENT: Splurging on the desert of credit card consuming, Americans have mortgaged everything. Few "own" anything they use. Even groceries are often purchased on "credit." And the government, banks, stores, and industry have encouraged "ownership" - having possession of "value" - without traditional definitions being applied. "Debt" and "Credit Scores" became our God in whom we trusted. ALL Americans, we have been sold, deserved more "stuff." "Entitled" mentality took fifty years to become "normal," yet having clear "title" always meant REAL VALUE to prior generations. We became a people drunken with "entitlement" to "have" and "get" and strangely believing we "owned" stuff without owning it.
FIFTY YEARS: I've lived long enough to know the difference between "Father Knows Best" values and "government will provide" entitlement values. We are bankrupt as a society, wanting, and crying, and whining that we never have "enough." That we don't have "what the other guy has" therefore it isn't "fair."
I could go on...but you have seen the movie, because you are part of it. My wife and I own very little. We do not live in it, drive it, eat it, wear it, or show it off unless we "paid" for it.
"Goodnight" to desert. Hello basic values of hard work, true value, and real ownership. It will be a tough road ahead as credit card living, and bankruptcy is the next "default" wave to hit the economic shores. But then "Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit, applies: Truely "nothing comes from nothing."
James Michael Pratt
www.jmpratt.com
Friday, October 3, 2008
YOUR VOTE, 30 DAYS & CONGRESSIONAL "TRICK OR TREAT"
Halloween, Bailout, and the "October Surprise"
I gave up on Halloween costumes and "trick or treating" when my 1965 12 year-old brain told me it was "childish" to hit up homeowners on Christine Ave, Simi Valley, CA. for treats in exchange for playing no "tricks." Yet that is exactly what many supposed leaders of our country and financial institutions have done to stake-holders in the Amercian dream of home ownership for decades... dressed up and played the Halloween games with our future.
How appropriate: Given the momentous "Bailout" (they like the term "Rescue") actions of the present politicos I thought I would share the Wikipedia definition of the Halloween mantra used by children. Here it is:
The "trick" part of "trick or treat" is a threat to play a trick on the "homeowner or his property" if no treat is given. Trick-or-treating is one of the main traditions of Halloween.
It isn't difficult to understand how we got into an economic mess...
"Trick on the homeowner:" Congressional Democrats and Republicans have allowed the mortgage industry to create "entitlement" mentality to "home ownership" for nearly a generation. Documentation, and traditional qualifying requirements have been virtually suspended compared to past generations of borrowers. Mortgages; the "easy money," became "candy" or treats for "votes."
THE CANDY MAN: Both political parties are to blame; creating a sweet tooth public mentality that all people were "entitled" to home ownership regardless of classic and real ability to pay. Now we are on the verge of economic collapse. Banks sit on non-liquid assets. Banks require liquidity to run, lend, keep the engine of commerce alive. Congress created the problem, and now pat themselves on the back for fixing it? (See Sept. 27th Blog - Saving the Economy.)
New Candy Men with October Surprises? In thirty days we can choose between a war-hero seasoned Senator who claims to be a "maverick" or a freshman "community organizer" Senator who hopes we buy into an emotion filled platitude as a substitute to substance; "change we can believe in." Is this your average election year "October Surprise?" or just a coincidental convergence of justice finally catching up to theft, incompetence, and greed 30 days away from America's national election?
Under the Political Rug: When you need to "clean up in a hurry" you sweep the dirt under a rug. You suggest by doing so that you maintain a "clean house." The house isn't clean in Washington. And all parties running are pointing to fellow "House Members." Kind of comforting, huh?...
Not sure there are many "treats" out there, but I'm sure there are plenty of "tricks." Be careful. Be thoughtful. Judge character. Shed emotion and toss out reliance on empty "platitudes" of change. Look under the political rug for what has been swept and hidden there. These people running are experienced politicos and we may be choosing for a lesser of two evils during war and economic crisis. People who helped "create" the crisis are not going to bring "change."
Do the math. Do the homework. Your vote is required in 30 days. Obama or McCain, and other candidates will ask, "Trick or treat?"
God bless America... JMP
www.jmpratt.com
I gave up on Halloween costumes and "trick or treating" when my 1965 12 year-old brain told me it was "childish" to hit up homeowners on Christine Ave, Simi Valley, CA. for treats in exchange for playing no "tricks." Yet that is exactly what many supposed leaders of our country and financial institutions have done to stake-holders in the Amercian dream of home ownership for decades... dressed up and played the Halloween games with our future.
How appropriate: Given the momentous "Bailout" (they like the term "Rescue") actions of the present politicos I thought I would share the Wikipedia definition of the Halloween mantra used by children. Here it is:
The "trick" part of "trick or treat" is a threat to play a trick on the "homeowner or his property" if no treat is given. Trick-or-treating is one of the main traditions of Halloween.
It isn't difficult to understand how we got into an economic mess...
"Trick on the homeowner:" Congressional Democrats and Republicans have allowed the mortgage industry to create "entitlement" mentality to "home ownership" for nearly a generation. Documentation, and traditional qualifying requirements have been virtually suspended compared to past generations of borrowers. Mortgages; the "easy money," became "candy" or treats for "votes."
THE CANDY MAN: Both political parties are to blame; creating a sweet tooth public mentality that all people were "entitled" to home ownership regardless of classic and real ability to pay. Now we are on the verge of economic collapse. Banks sit on non-liquid assets. Banks require liquidity to run, lend, keep the engine of commerce alive. Congress created the problem, and now pat themselves on the back for fixing it? (See Sept. 27th Blog - Saving the Economy.)
New Candy Men with October Surprises? In thirty days we can choose between a war-hero seasoned Senator who claims to be a "maverick" or a freshman "community organizer" Senator who hopes we buy into an emotion filled platitude as a substitute to substance; "change we can believe in." Is this your average election year "October Surprise?" or just a coincidental convergence of justice finally catching up to theft, incompetence, and greed 30 days away from America's national election?
Under the Political Rug: When you need to "clean up in a hurry" you sweep the dirt under a rug. You suggest by doing so that you maintain a "clean house." The house isn't clean in Washington. And all parties running are pointing to fellow "House Members." Kind of comforting, huh?...
Not sure there are many "treats" out there, but I'm sure there are plenty of "tricks." Be careful. Be thoughtful. Judge character. Shed emotion and toss out reliance on empty "platitudes" of change. Look under the political rug for what has been swept and hidden there. These people running are experienced politicos and we may be choosing for a lesser of two evils during war and economic crisis. People who helped "create" the crisis are not going to bring "change."
Do the math. Do the homework. Your vote is required in 30 days. Obama or McCain, and other candidates will ask, "Trick or treat?"
God bless America... JMP
www.jmpratt.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
