Corporatism and its BFF, Nationalization

May I first recommend the blog of Ted Kavadas concerning the current economic state: EconomicGreenfield at http://economicgreenfield.blogspot.com/2011/04/disturbing-charts-update-4.html.  The following statements I made in response particularly to a comment by "OCINC" in which he/she stated, among other things, "The richest have all (~95%) abandoned the concept and ideals of being fiscal stewards and loyal to the cause. Those days should be brought to an end immediately."  Please read the entire post for context.

MY COMMENT 4/17/2011 7:25 PM:

@OCINC: On the contrary, the founders would have not interfered with business nearly to the extent we have today, because they wisely realized that it is business doing well, producing goods and services, satisfying a demand, and therefore hiring people which drives the economy.

The Federal Reserve is neither federal nor a reserve; rather, it is a private bank to which, unconstitutionally, was delegated the Congressional task of issuing currency- this it does by loaning the US its money and charging the government (read: TAXPAYERS) interest on every penny.  The IRS is, likewise, an illegal entity, being the major logistical arm of the Federal Reserve Bank, collecting an unconstitutional tax.  The purpose and scope of the Treasury Dept of the executive branch is debatable, but the fact that it is inept in the extreme is not.

What you speak of concerning the corruption which exists in big corporations is real and is dangerous; this is called "corporatism" (as opposed to capitalism).  Corporatism is when large companies use their money for political purposes, usually at the expense of the taxpaying citizenry, and always regardless of the legal and ethical issues.  Sometimes this corporatism originates within the company- Enron being one example of how corporatism allowed it to escape the usual scrutiny which may have prevented its collapse- and sometimes from within the government- banks being coerced by federal law to issue mortgages to people who had not the means to pay them back, resulting in multiple bank failures and the giant economic mess we are in today.

Nevertheless, government too big for its britches + greedy corporations = the great recession of 2008-2009, 2010, 2011, ad nauseum.

What concerns me most about your comment, @OCINC, is your twice-used phrase, "fiscal stewards and loyal to the cause."  To what "cause" are you referring?  And how do you elevate businesses to the level of "stewardship," denying the citizen of his responsibility?

We do not place our trust in any entity except ourselves and our God if we believe in one.  The tenor of your phraseology suggests that businesses are supposed to be the benefactors of our society and can only do so with government oversight.  Sorry, @OCINC, that experiment has been tried and has failed time and time again.  Sadly, the farther down that path our country goes, the less economic growth, prosperity and freedom we will have.

We the people, according to the design enscribed by our founders, are supposed to enjoy such liberty which does not deny another entity his liberty and which does not exact a cost on another entity without recompense.  To protect these inalienable rights, we elect representatives to govern within that limited scope.

My, how far we have fallen.

The Deadly Spin of the health insurance industry

The Deadly Spin of the powerful and politically-connected health insurance industry

Last night I read the introduction to a new book by a decades-long health insurance industry PR executive, Wendell Potter, called Deadly Spin (subtitle: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans).  The author is, he acknowledges, left-leaning in his views that the government should oversee the equal distribution of health care, where I am right-leaning and therefore in philosophical disagreement.  Having said that, I am moved by the author’s deep conviction that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, engineered largely by the powerful health insurance lobby, must be exposed for the sham that it is; I am furthermore intrigued that many of the observations and evaluations stated plainly in this text are exactly the same things I’ve been saying and writing for months and years.

12/7/2010 excerpt of my reading of the book’s introduction:

Many health care reform advocates naïvely thought that with Obama in the White House and Democrats in control of Congress—and with the health insurance industry claiming to be on the side of the angels this time—the stars had finally aligned for comprehensive health care reform that would lead, with the stroke of the president’s pen, to universal coverage.   They thought that achieving the goal of every Democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt—which every other developed country on the planet had achieved years ago—was all but inevitable.

It was because of this misplaced confidence, based to no small extent on the health insurance industry’s PR offensive, that I decided I had to speak out.

I warned members of Congress—in a series of appearances before House and Senate committees—that if the bill Congress ultimately passed included many of the so-called solutions insurers were “bringing to the table,” and if it did not include a public insurance option to compete with private insurers, it might as well be called the “Health Insurance Industry Profit Protection and Enhancement Act.”

1/27/10 my post, in reply to another post, on the “Grassfire Nation” Facebook page:

In the case of the current health care "reform" legislation, it would no longer be my choice of whether to have health insurance and from what company (not that there's a big choice now!), nor will I have the responsibility to be self sufficient.

My solution includes getting the insurance companies and big pharma out of the back room negotiations, for starters; tort reform; interstate commerce for health insurance; broader options in coverage (for instance, why should I have to deal with insurance every time I go in for a checkup when I really only need help for accidents, chronic illness, and hospitalization- one should choose the coverage and therefore how much to pay in premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket); and more ability for charitable organizations to help individuals.

10/13/09 my letter to US Representative Driehaus (OH):

Q: What's wrong with current attempts at "health care reform?"

A: The fact that health INSURANCE and health CARE are being addressed as if they are one in the same.  TWO DIFF THINGS!  Insurance reform needed BADLY, and separately from the issue of universal health care.

1/14/09 excerpt of my essay for health care class:

I’ve heard the saying that it is a shame that the richest nation on earth cannot take care of its own people.  In theory I agree with that statement.  Any attempts to eliminate this particular scourge need to be made using sound healthcare and business principles, outside of government control or design,  and without any motive other than providing the citizens (read again: CITIZENS) of this nation with the best basic healthcare that exists.  (12/7/10: I wrote this before I knew the intimate involvement of the insurance industry, but my statement implies excluding any kind of bureaucracy and without the primary motive of profit or anything aside from the well-being of patients.)

The Eternal Wisdom of Frederick Douglass

The Eternal Wisdom of Frederick Douglass

by Tara L Daves on Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 10:43pm

Instead of looking to such men as the "reverend" Al Sharpton, Malcolm X, and Barack Hussein Obama, why don't we step back a bit in time, to one of the wisest men of any color to ever walk the planet?

Regarding the hope that the government will provide better/faster/cheaper health care equally to all people: "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

Regarding those who dare to question the constitutionality of the recently-passed "health care" law: "If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle."

And, I would add, this also applies to those who want coverage without earning or paying for it; to paraphrase the apostle Paul, "you don't work, you don't eat."

Regarding the fantasy that government can (or should) fix things: "In regard to the colored people, there is always more that is benevolent, I perceive, than just, manifested towards us. What I ask for the negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice. The American people have always been anxious to know what they shall do with us... I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! ... And if the negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! ... your interference is doing him positive injury."

Regarding the current state of tyranny in our nation: "Find out just what the people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."

Regarding the tea party/9-12/constitutional patriot movement: "To make a contented slave it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken the moral and mental vision and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason."

Also regarding the tea party/9-12/constitutional patriot movement: "Be not discouraged. There is a future for you. . . . The resistance encountered now predicates hope. . . . Only as we rise . . . do we encounter opposition."

Regarding those who falsely witness (i.e., LIE) concerning the tea party/9-12/constitutional patriot movement: "They cannot degrade Frederick Douglass. The soul that is within me no man can degrade. I am not the one that is being degraded on account of this treatment, but those who are inflicting it upon me"

Regarding the delusion of financial "stimulus" being effective at recovering our economy: "The white man's happiness cannot be purchased by the black man's misery." (Rephrase as, "The nation's prosperity cannot be purchased by the people's taxation," with sincere apologies to Mr. Douglass!)

Regarding the utter disregard for the truth (i.e., LIES) rampant in the current administration: "Truth is proper and beautiful in all times and in all places."

Regarding the shock that the socialist government machine will get in the next few elections: "You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man."

Finally, the doozy, which needs no introduction: "He who is whipped oftenest, is whipped easiest."

Quotes from: http://www.gaia.com/quotes/Frederick_Douglass

My thanks to Joe Fitzgerald, author of the column "President Obama cares little for we the people" in the Boston Herald, who quoted Frederick Douglass and therefore led me to this idea: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view/20100327president_obama_cares_little_for_we_the_people/

Many thanks also to Mychal Massie, chairman of Project 21, for linking the above article on Facebook- another wisdom-filled man whom I have quoted elsewhere once or twice.