The Little Red Hen (Modern Version)

I saw this today and thought that our readers might find this entertaining.

Once upon a time, there was a little red hen who scratched about the barnyard until she uncovered some grains of wheat.

She called her neighbors and said, “If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?”

“Not I,” said the cow.
“Not I,” said the duck.
“Not I,” said the pig.
“Not I,” said the goose.

“Then I will,” said the little red hen, and she did.

The wheat grew tall and ripened into golden grain. “Who will help me reap my wheat?” asked the little red hen.

“Not I,” said the duck.
“Out of my classification,” said the pig.
“I’d lose my seniority,” said the cow.
“I’d lose my unemployment compensation,” said the goose.

“Then I will,” said the little red hen, and she did.

At last it came time to bake the bread. “Who will help me bake the bread?” asked the little red hen.

“That would be overtime for me,” said the cow.
“I’d lose my welfare benefits,” said the duck.
“I’m a dropout and never learned how,” said the pig.
“If I’m to be the only helper, that’s discrimination,” said the goose.

“Then I will,” said the little red hen.

She baked five loaves and held them up for her neighbors to see. They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share.

But the little red hen said, “No, I can eat the five loaves.”

“Excess profits!” cried the cow.
“Capitalist leech!” screamed the duck.
“I demand equal rights!” yelled the goose.
And the pig just grunted.

And they painted “unfair” picket signs and marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities.

When the government agent came, he said to the little red hen, “You must not be greedy.”

“But I earned the bread,” said the little red hen.

“Exactly,” said the agent. “That is the wonderful free enterprise system. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide their product with the idle.”

And they lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, “I am grateful. I am grateful.”

But her neighbors wondered why she never again baked any more bread.

Insanity on Capitol Hill

With the nation deepening in economic turmoil a virus seems to have gotten loose on capitol hill. This virus seems to turn the minds and backbones of men and women alike, into a gelatinous mass. They then stop thinking and rush to get something done, rather than stopping to think if they ought to be doing anything at all.

We stand at a crossroads, the future of our country is looking more bleak every day. Our lawmakers seem more ready to do the things that will bring them greater popularity, rather than take a hard look and make hard or unpopular decisions that would be in the best interest of our country.

Now that we have every lawmaker in Washington DC squabbling over the billions of dollars that they want to print for us, our state leaders are discussing all the great ways that they can spend the money that comes to them. What a great opportunity for our state leaders to really “LEAD” and turn down the money. Follow true economic principles and somebody take a stand before this beast destroys what little we have left. Call your state representatives and ask them to stand against this doling out of your children’s future today.

The problem was not created because of and will not be fixed with MONEY. We must take a stand for principle or we will reap the unfortunate rewards of economic slavery.

Frédéric Bastiat – A French Founding Father

Claude Frédéric Bastiat was born in 1801, in France. As he grew he experienced many of the hardships that come with Wars and Governement Economic intervention. Being an exporter by trade, he was able to see their effects first hand. Coming of age during the Napoleonic wars, and then living through another of France’s revolutions, he was seasoned with understanding of what an oppressive and overwhelming government can do to the people. He wrote many works and shared many speaches, seaking for a freeing of the economy and the people, rather than forcing them to live under monarchical or socialistic forces. He could be declared to be the Thomas Jefferson of France, well read, well written and easy to understand. We could all learn a great deal by reading some of his great although brief works like The Law.

“Try to imagine a regulation of labor imposed by force that is not a violation of liberty; a transfer of wealth imposed by force that is not a violation of property. If you cannot reconcile these contradictions, then you must conclude that the law cannot organize labor and industry without organizing injustice.” – from The Law

Palmer Says Bush Feeding Market Instability

ROUND ROCK, TX — Stephen Palmer said Friday that the government’s financial rescue plan was aggressive enough and big enough to plunge America into a depression and rob citizens of their hard-earned savings, but it may take time to fully kick in as the government props up unstable policies and institutions. “We can solve this crisis and we will — by getting rid of the Federal Reserve,” he said in brief remarks from his home.

Palmer spoke as leaders of the world’s top economies gathered in Washington to figure out how they could leverage the panic to confiscate more illegitimate power.

Mr. Palmer noted that major Western countries were working together in an attempt to undermine every positive step we’ve taken toward creating just and equitable civilizations since 1776, including ignoring their respective Constitutions.

“Through these efforts, the world is sending an unmistakable signal. We’re in this together and we’ll be oppressed by our governments together,” Palmer said.

Palmer said how he understood how Americans could be concerned about their economic future. “That anxiety can feed anxiety and that can make it hard to see all that’s being done to worsen the problem and strip us of more freedom,” he said.

But despite a relentless sell-off that has seen the Dow Jones industrials plunge 20 percent in the past seven trading days, Palmer said, “We are a prosperous nation with immense resources and a wide range of tools at our disposal — all of which can be employed when we get President Bush, Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve out of the way.”

Mr. Palmer said the new $700 billion tyranny plan that President Bush signed into law a week ago authorizes the Treasury Department to socialize financial institutions at the whims of one man.

It wasn’t the first time Mr. Palmer has declared that the government stop distorting the market by controlling interest rates and the money supply, although it has also been mentioned by several other prominent economists and experts.

Since the bailout package was signed into law, the conversation about how it will be used has shifted from how taxpayers are lining the pockets of corporate executives to how they are supporting an overblown government.

Nationalization of the U.S. banking industry was once unthinkable, but in a stagnant pond of public apathy, anything is possible.

The government is authorized under the law to “screw taxpayers.”

These include the couple in South Dakota making $45,000 a year and trying desperately to put their two sons through college, but not Wall Street executives making $5 million per year and struggling with the overwhelming decision of how they should spend their money.

It is Mr. Palmer’s position that the Bush administration’s authority extends to whatever it feel like doing, since Congress doesn’t have the guts, nor the knowledge, to check it on any front.

“The plan they are executing is aggressive. It is the wrong plan. It will take time to have its full impact. It is flexible enough to get even more tyrannical as the executive branch amasses more power. And it is big enough to work, the definition of ‘work’ being to collapse the economy,” Palmer said.

He also noted that the Federal Reserve has injected hundreds of billions of green pieces of paper into the system — with little to no oversight and with nothing backing it. Other central banks have cooperated to help speed up the rate of inflation and erode the savings of every American.

“The federal government has a comprehensive strategy to lull the people into temporary security at the cost of freedom,” Palmer said.

While he sought to reassure Americans that the situation is not hopeless and that we should continue doing all we can, Palmer also acknowledged that this was one of the most egregious acts of tyranny in our nation’s history.

Palmer said his online community, The Cause of Liberty, has launched initiatives that are “helping common Americans to reclaim their responsibilities as citizens and to restore the American Republic.”

He also noted “rigorous discipline” must be enacted by the People to make sure that the government doesn’t “take advantage of the crisis to illegitimately erode our freedoms.”

“Over the past few days,” Palmer continued, “we have witnessed a totally predictable drop in the stock market, much of it driven by the stupidity and power-mongering of the government and the Federal Reserve. This has been a deeply unsettling period for the American people.”

A little touch of humor to lighten your economic day, and still discuss this troubling topic.

Original Post on Cause of Liberty.com: click here to visit.

Keynesian Economics

Keynesian Economics and it's role in our government. [ 8:21 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Podcast Video [ 8:21 ] Download

Keynesian economic theories are used by the US governement to determine how and when to spend money, or “stimulate” the economy. Although many (if not all) of these theories have been disproved, the government still uses them as justification for it’s fiscal irresponsibility. In our podcast we give a brief overview of these theories and their effects on the market.

Socialism’s Deadly Embrace

If you want to cook a frog, you cannot simply drop it into a pot of boiling water. If the water is too hot it will jump out to escape the pain. But if you place the frog in cool water, and then heat the water slowly, before the frog knows what is happening it has been boiled alive.

The only difference between the given scenarios is that the first was a very sudden change in temperature which the frog instantly recognized and resisted. The second was a very gradual change in which the water ultimately reached the same temperature as the first scenario, but because of the gradual heating the frog grew accustomed to the increased heat and was not alerted to its perilous state until it was to late.

The Boiling Pot – Totalitarianism

This example parallels the encroachment of totalitarianism in the United States. During the cold war there was a vicious example of totalitarianism in the world. The communist governments openly opposed our free-market economy and our close adherence to the principles of self-reliance and individual liberty. There was a general consensus in the US about communism; that it was an enemy of those principles.  And as such, we were easily excited to action whenever there was a communist threat (perceived or real) at home or abroad.

This closely parallels the first instance in the frog example. Today, if a communistic threat were identified, Americans would jump up in opposition. But the reality is we are not likely to be dropped into the turbulent, boiling waters of communism, and be stripped of our liberties in a single blow.

Slowly Warming

But what of the slowly warming frog? Since the advent of the Great Depression we have had the water of socialism slowly warming us and getting us accustomed to the feeling, it’s painful effects increasing over time. The steps taken by Washington during the Great Depression were allowed because of the economic pain that the nation was feeling, and have slowly intensified each decade through additional programs and subsidies. The arguments justifying socialistic encroachment are always aimed at “helping” those who are suffering, but the net result is always bondage and slavery. The pain that is supposed to be averted through socialistic legislation is only temporarily averted at best, and greatly intensified at worst.

These calculated steps have been increased over time until we have been been forced to swallow the late, great “Wall Street Bail-Out Bill”. Many people saw the evil serpent of socialism hiding inside this bill with all it’s many revisions, and urged their representatives to vote against it. But our representatives did not heed our call, instead they spurned the will of the American people and chose to give in to the hype and supposed “expert” council.  We were told that not bailing out wall street would lead to a total meltdown in the market similar to the Great Depression.

You Break It, We’ll Buy It

Now that We The People are the proud owners of this 700 billion dollar debt which Washington orchestrated, what should our reaction be? Will we call for our legislators to revoke the legislation, or will we simply throw up our hands believing there is nothing we can do about it? Will we continue to soak in the turbulently boiling waters of Socialism even longer, preparing us for the final death blow?

It is important to realize that Communists are simply Socialists in a hurry, they prefer bloody, violent transfers of power to give them totalitarian control.  Socialists, on the other hand, attempt to accomplish the same ends through incremental transfers of control to the government through legislative processes. With either route the end result is the same, the power to legally exercise arbitrary control and abuse over the citizens.

What Will It Take?

If we sit idly by and allow this process to continue the citizens of the United States will soon loose all of the freedoms they now enjoy.  This loss happens because we aren’t aware that our rights are being taken from us through continual socialistic abuses.  Many of us don’t realize we’re being boiled!

What must happen in order for you to choose to stand against this perversion of our constitutional principles?  Are you willing to work to restore this great Republic to its former strength and glory?

May we have the strength to break this deathly embrace before it makes a meal of the rest of our liberty.

No Bail-Out

We along with many of you are, I am sure, ecstatic about the US Congress voting down the market Bail-Out bill. This action could have produced many far reaching negative effects that we have not seen the likes of since the great depression.

Proponents of this bail-out bill imply that not passing the bill will provide for a greater banking crisis and a frozen credit market, making it impossible for small businesses to function.

Does the very logic not make your stomach nauseous? The thought that the majority of small businesses are only running on credit to fuel their success seems like a very frightening predicament indeed. We have drifted so far from the place that we started over 200 years ago, Hard Work, Saving, Wise and Prudent investment, making the most of what you had in the world and finding ways to create the most value with what you had at your disposal. This process created some of the greatest minds and influence that the world has ever seen.

Now it seems that a great majority of business owners are plagued by that very disease that created this great mess in the first place. The excessive use and abuse of credit and manipulation of the market to keep the rate artificially low, making it cheap and readily available. This situation unfortunately will always lead to malinvestment, and degradation of the market. As we clearly see evidenced.

So while Washington seems more than ready to point the finger at the market, or those predatory lenders, etc… Let us remember that the ones that they seem not able to point a finger at, themselves and the Federal Reserve, are those that are at the core of this problem, and without making changes specifically to the regulation or elimination of the Fed. This problem will just continue to rear its ugly head again and again until we learn our lesson and cut off it’s head.

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