~ “I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: as government expands, liberty contracts.” Ronald Reagan.
Philip Bump authored an article for WaPo titled, A high school teacher helps clarify ‘socialism’ for Donald Trump (and you). Read this description of Capitalism, Socialism, Communism by a political writer for the Washington Compost, a high school teacher and a college professor.
The writer assumes that Donald Trump didn’t know the difference between a Socialist and a Communist when he called Bernie Sanders a Socialist slash Communist and then condescendingly says they are often confused.
That’s quite a presumption. It’s doubtful Trump is confused. The Socialists, Democratic Socialists and Communists have banded together in this country and there no longer much of a difference.
What Trump means is Sanders calls himself a Socialist but he’s really a Communist. He has a different approach but that is what he is[…]
While Greece is now dominating the debt default stage, the real tragedy is playing out much closer to home, with the downward spiral of Puerto Rico. As in Greece, the Puerto Rican economy has been destroyed by its participation in an unrealistic monetary system that it does not control and the failure of domestic politicians to confront their own insolvency. But the damage done to the Puerto Rican economy by the United States has been far more debilitating than whatever damage the European Union has inflicted on Greece. In fact, the lessons we should be learning in Puerto Rico, most notably how socialistic labor and tax policies can devastate an economy, should serve as a wake up call to those advocating prescribing the same for the mainland.
The U.S. has bombed the territory of Puerto Rico with five supposedly well-meaning, but economically devastating policies. It has:
Exempted the Island’s government debt from all U.S. taxes in the Jones-Shaforth Act.
Eliminated U.S. tax breaks for private sector investment with the expiration of section 936 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.
Required the nation to abide by a restrictive trade arrangement.
Made the Island subject to the U.S. minimum wage.
Enabled Puerto Rico to offer generous welfare benefits relative to income.
While passage of such politically popular laws seems benign on the surface (and have allowed politicians to claim that their efforts have helped the poorest Puerto Ricans), in reality they have deepened the poverty of the very people the laws were supposedly designed to help. The lessons here are so obvious that only the most ardent supporters of government economic control can fail to comprehend them.
Tax-Free Debt
By exempting U.S. citizens from taxes on interest paid on Puerto Rican sovereign debt, Washington sought to help the Puerto Rican economy by making it easier and cheaper for the Island’s government to borrow from the mainland. As a result, Puerto Rican government bonds became a staple holding of many U.S. municipal bond funds. As with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds a decade ago, many investors believed that these Puerto Rican bonds had an implied U.S. government guarantee. This meant that the Puerto Rican government could borrow for far less than it could have without such a belief. However, this subsidy did not grow the Puerto Rican economy, but simply the size of the government, which had the perverse effect of stifling private sector growth.
In contrast to the tax-free income earned by Americans who buy Puerto Rican government bonds, those with the bad sense to lend to Puerto Rican businesses were taxed on the interest payments that they received. Businesses could have used the funds for actual capital investment (that could have increased the Island’s productivity), but instead the money flowed to the Government which used it to buy votes with generous public sector benefits that did nothing to grow the Island’s economy or put it in a better position to repay. That problem was left for future taxpayers who no politician seeking votes in the present cared about….
Permission to republish granted by Euro Pacific-Peter Schiff. Creative Commons License.
Hard to believe that as nations continue to suffocate from the failed policies of socialism and social engineering, demands for more of the same continue to rise.
Listen live Wednesday July 22 at 9:00 AM EasternMike Hewitt (News Talk 1090 WKBZ-AM) interviews Terresa Monroe-Hamilton, author of The Pope Offers the Masses the Opium of Marxism.Do US Catholics love America enough to actively reject Pope Francis’ Liberation Theology before his historic visit to America this fall?The speech by Francis to a joint session of Congress could be akin to listening to Reverend Jeremiah Wright preaching social justice and condemning “G-d Damn America.”
Listen in and start this important conversation at church next Sunday!
NOTE: The purpose of this is post is not to give McDonald’s free advertising. However, since it will piss off jackass Communists calling 24/7 for the demise of capitalism/free enterprise on their Smartphones, IPads and I-Phones, I have decided to have my say.
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McD’s has a new commercial ad that is raking the nerves of the usual suspects. The ad, which aired during Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards program, consists of McD signs posted throughout the years containing a myriad of messages.
The messages consist of tributes to returning service members, birth announcements and acknowledgement of specific events that may have at one time touched all Americans.
Among the McD signs is the acknowledgment of the September 11th Islamic terrorist attacks on U. S. soil which states, “We Remember 9/11.”
What’s wrong with that? The sign is an acknowledgment not an offering of Big Macs.
In a statement from McDonald’s USA, the brand said they are “happy” that, “the powerful Signs commercial has sparked commentary from consumers.” The company said the advertisement is achieving a larger campaign goal, “to listen more and have a deeper conversation with customers.”
‘I thought the ad was awesome. It’s clear that all the billboards were real. It was demonstrating that McDonald’s is Americana,’ said Steve McKee, president of McKee Wallwork + Company Advertising, an ad agency based in Albuquerque….
But others felt that the ad, which aired prominently during NFL playoff games Sunday afternoon as well as the Golden Globes award telecast Sunday night, was insensitive….
Since the first McDonald’s signs went up, local owners have been using them to say a lot more than just Billions Served. Over the years, in good times and in bad, you might have noticed the sign at your local McDonald’s bearing a message from the heart. Whatever the message, there’s a story behind every one that captures a moment in time and reflects the lives of the community it serves. Click on the images below to read the stories behind the signs. More sign stories…
There is not one McDonald’s ad in existence that would lead me drop everything and run out for a Big Mac or Chicken Nuggets (black coffee, maybe). Just kidding.
I believe that McDonald’s is merely acknowledging the obvious down to the employee getting married next month or who gave birth last week but then I heart capitalism and free enterprise.
Keeping it real, how many of us while traveling cross-country enjoy reading the messages displayed on the McD signs. While some may find the signs/commercial endearing, others feel differently. Among them are the usual suspects who for lack of a better word find all things McDonald’s intolerable. It is the latter group of which I refer.
Enter social media and those who had plenty to say about the commercial ad from both sides of the fence. About those outraged and spitting venom, it must have been the tributes welcoming home our service members that set off the Commie revolutionaries[i]. (See tweets at bottom of post.)
The haters do not give a damn about the people working for McDonald’s, Walmart, Target or any other entity and they could care less what they are fighting for will result in people losing their jobs.
Their faux outrage is nothing more than an opportunity to rip McDonald’s and so they did.
Finally, while McD is accused of being tone deaf, no one is more tone deaf than the Marxist idiots who attack the enterprise while marching through the streets of Manhattan in subfreezing temps demanding a “living wage” and who without hesitation will make a B-line to McDonald’s for a hot chocolate or latte at first sight.
I stand corrected, that is not being tone deaf that is being a hypocrite.
@McDonalds Awesome McDonald’s ad? It’s pathetic! Profiting from tragedy and death is sick and gross manipulation. #sad — Nick Cavitt (@cavittation) January 12, 2015
The McDonald’s commercial that wants us to thank them for changing their signs during national tragedies is more tasteless than the McRib.
@McDonalds sorry, show your humanity by paying you workers more, not by showing maybe ten signs out of about a few thousand. — Tiffany Fannin (@bluevol1976) January 12, 2015
This new “signs” McDonald’s commercial is tacky and really shows the company will do anything to make a buck by latching on to tragedy. — Corey Bettencourt (@CoreyRoland) January 13, 2015
“We were sad on 9/11, too. So buy burgers from us.”– McDonald’s
[i] What is next a prime time press conference from Barack Obama attacking McD’s? But first, what is the outburst from revolutionaries who spend their college break in McD’s really about? (See the first tweet.)
President Barack Obama plans to make income inequality a focus of his January 28 State of the Union address, but Dr. Ben Carson thinks he should contrast economic theories instead.
Obama should use his address to Congress to educate people on the difference between capitalism and communism,” and then ask them which system would they like,” Carson said Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto.”
The public’s response would likely be “eye-opening” to Obama, Carson said.
The question is: in the messy mixture of government controls and remnants of capitalism, which element caused the Great Depression and the recent financial crisis?
By raising that question, we uncover the fundamental: the meaning of capitalism and the meaning of government controls. Capitalism means freedom. Government means force.
Suddenly, the whole issue comes into focus: Obama is saying that freedom leads to poverty and force leads to wealth. He’s saying: “Look, we tried leaving you free to live your own life, and that didn’t work. You have to be forced, you have to have your earnings seized by the state, you have to work under our directions–under penalty of fines or imprisonment. You don’t deserve to be free.
“The goal of Socialism is Communism.” – Vladimir Lenin (and Marx)
Mike Hewitt (
