Van Jones – Transforming the American Dream into the American Nightmare (Pt 4 of 5)

Do you want liberty in order to own your own life, or do you want liberty so as to enable you to loot the lives of others? Do you suppose that there is a difference in the meaning of liberty being used there? Ya think? It isn't enough to simply nod your head whenever you see and hear a word like 'liberty' sprinkled about; it is important to look at how it is being used, in order to understand what it is that those using it, really mean by it.

And make no mistake, your liberty depends upon it.

The essence of the American Dream is to have the liberty to live your own life, but the aim of Van Jones’ ‘Contract for the American Dream’ is quite different; his dream is to realize the collective American Nightmare of using the power of the state to take over the lives of others, to loot what one people spend their lives in producing, in order to ease the lives of another more numerous group... 'spreading their wealth around' because they have the power to do it.

This is the very stuff that nightmares are made of.

Thieves to the left of us... Over the last few posts we've worked our way through the first three paragraphs of the preamble to Jones' contract, and in the fourth paragraph, we find the exact viewpoint of thieves, being voiced as serious policy. Look at his words, think what they must mean in practice, and face up to what that meaning says about those who actually meant it.	We believe: AMERICA IS NOT BROKE America is rich – still the wealthiest nation ever. But too many at the top are grabbing the gains. No person or corporation should be allowed to take from America while giving little or nothing back. The super-rich who got tax breaks and bailouts should now pay full taxes – and help create jobs here, not overseas. Those who do well in America should do well by America.”
Every thief knows in his gut, that he lives as a parasite on those who produce what they steal. Two things allow them to live this way, the first is that they don't care; they want to get away with it, and since their primary philosophical assumption (dim as it may be, they do have them) is that what they want to be, must be and should be, they figure they ought to be able to get away with it. The second, following logically from the first, is that they assume that those they are stealing from, will always have something left for them to steal, and that there will always be someone left standing to steal it from. The proregressive left lives in denial of Margaret Thatcher's observation, "They [socialists] always run out of other people's money. It's quite a characteristic of them" , they simply will not entertain the idea that the parasite can ever harm the host, let alone kill it - and they cannot - if they ever acknowledged the possibility of that, they would quickly find themselves having to disavow everything they ever wanted to believe - and that ain't gonna happen. Take a careful look at this paragraph, particularly this line: "We believe: AMERICA IS NOT BROKE America is rich – still the wealthiest nation ever" , it isn't simply a statement about the financial health of America, it is a claim that there is more money still to be found, it is a claim that it isn't all gone yet. It is difficult to translate that statement in any other way than as an exchange between Mugger #1 and Mugger #2: "I'll bet they didn't put all their cash in their wallet, quick! check their socks! Let's turn them over and shake them down!" Beyond the crude criminality of that mindset, the confession of economic ignorance is stunning; if they weren't so despicable, I'd feel embarrassed for them. And then there is the next line "But too many at the top are grabbing the gains." Really? 'grabbing the gains'? This is pure undistilled Marxism, pure and simple, the belief that brute physical labor is the source of all wealth, and that those who have more money than you, or those in management, or finance, are parasites upon the physical efforts of the 'working man'. It's a shame that they ignore Thatcher's dictum, because the rest of it would be a useful lesson to them as well, and an excellent caution for us too, "They always run out of other people's money. It's quite a characteristic of them. They then start to nationalise everything, and people just do not like more and more nationalisation, and they're now trying to control everything by other means. They're progressively reducing the choice available to ordinary people." They do not have a clue where wealth comes from, and so the attempts they make to produce some to spread around, destroys it instead. Eating the Golden Goose If you want to see where wealth actually comes from, try looking at a nation that has little more technology than brute physical labor, look at Haiti, Somalia, or most of Africa, THAT is all the wealth which can be generated in a society that can produce nothing more than what can be produced through brute physical labor. If you want iPods, SUV's and Plasma TV's, you're going to need something more than muscle, and a whole lot more of those who understand how to employ your muscles in order to generate the real wealth which mere muscle can never achieve, and prior to the rise of the free market and individual rights protected by the rule of law, wealth as we know it today, never was achieved, and never could be. Real wealth, the wealth we know of today where even the poor have roofs over their heads and cellphones in their pockets, such wealth is generated through the mind only. And the minds capable of generating such wealth can and will only do so in a society where they can be secure in what they create. But even then, if you look at the BETA MAX, or the rise and fall of G.M., or of Detroit itself for that matter, you'll see that simple smarts isn't enough; you also need an understanding of the market, understanding of the best, most economically efficient methods of production, and the character and prudence to understand that quality must be held higher than simple efficiency - Detroit of the 1970's is an example of what happens when efficiency is allowed to reign over quality. You won't find iPods, SUV's or Plasma TV's being either produced, or as common products in Haiti, Somalia, or most of Africa, etc, because you won't find that knowledge and understanding in brute physical force alone, and those societies allow for nothing else than brute physical power. And even more important than know-how and good sense, in order to produce any and all of the products and benefits of modern society, more important that intelligence, planning and free market economics, you need a people who can be trusted to respect the property of their fellows, and to respect the rule of law. Without that... look to Haiti, Somalia, Africa, or tragically, mother England herself these days. Unless a nation be one with a deep respect for each person's right to their own property, none of modernity is possible. Unless a nation has a deep respect for each persons right to their own property, no person can feel secure in either their property, or their life, or their liberty or in any chance at pursuing happiness at all. If you cannot have the confidence that what you earn, what you create, what you plan and strive for over the course of years, decades, even an entire life, if you can't be secure in the knowledge that all you struggled to acquire will remain yours and that what is yours will be defended as yours by your fellows - then there is no point in striving for it at all. Look at Haiti, Somalia, Africa... Detroit, East L.A., the rioter in England... it isn't a lack of wealth that is their problem, it is a lack of trust that wealth can be safe and secure in those areas, and without that, it will not accumulate and prosper. There is no point in utilizing your intelligence, your self restraint, your planning and effort, if at any moment thieves or rioters, or even worse, some demagogue might be able to stir up the mob of your fellow men and say "... too many at the top are grabbing the gains. No person or corporation should be allowed to take from America while giving little or nothing back." Those of you foolish enough to think that this demagogue Van Jones, is offering to bring generosity to your neighborhoods, offering to spread the wealth around, the fact is, what he is offering is a return to not only the limitations of what can be produced by brute physical labor, worse than that, he is bringing back the necessity to employing brute physical force to keep ahold of any and everything you have - or lose it all. And all of you should know better. Robbing Peter to Con Paul For those of you staring at our multiple trillion $ deficits and thinking that that there even could be enough wealth in this nation, held in the clutches of the evil rich no doubt, just waiting to be taxed away to pay for your way, for those of you sullenly soothing your greedy desires with thoughts of, "We believe: AMERICA IS NOT BROKE America is rich – still the wealthiest nation ever" I've got bad news for you. If somehow you had managed to seize it all, all of the wealth of all the rich, of all the corporations, of all the industries, sports, entertainment, etc, even if you shut down our three wars, and even foreign aid to boot... if you managed to seize all of that, it would only spread enough wealth around - to our creditors, not you - to last us for right about a year. Problem then, of course, like the greedy farmer who cut open the goose to get at the golden eggs - you'll have killed what it is that produces all the wealth you dream of seizing. Then what are you going to do? What do you expect to do then? What would you expect your smartie pants leaders to tell you then? As Mr. Goldfinger replied when 007 James Bond asked him 'Do you expect me to talk?' "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!" And that is exactly what will happen if these assaults upon the roots of liberty are allowed to be carried out. You, and those of us forced along for the ride with you, those of us who have come to depend upon our iPods, SUV's and Plasma TV's, those of us who have no understanding of how to get the food we need to eat beyond that of driving around the corner to the all night super market, we'd have little option left, but to die. Message in a bottle... Do you, those of you who figure themselves, like my relatives, to be the smart set, do you really think... (sigh)... what is the message you think is transmitted throughout society and the markets by statements such as this, "The super-rich who got tax breaks and bailouts should now pay full taxes ...”" What message is received by equating 'tax breaks' and 'bailouts'? Tying together the bureaucratic 'favor' of letting people keep somewhat more of their money, with the proregressive prescription of looting the public coffers to bail out their favored institutions while blaming it on others... placing the blame on those they are robbing... what is the message you think is being sent there? Would that encourage you to invest more wealth where it can more easily have govt hands hands put upon it? Really? And perhaps the award for the most brass of all should go to this one, "...– and help create jobs here, not overseas. Those who do well in America should do well by America." To help create jobs here, by telling those who have money, that by investing it they invite the attentions of those who would loot it from them? That is going to help create jobs instead of sending them overseas? But of course the real message they're trying to send here, is that it is greed that is sending jobs overseas. Rubbish. Do you have any idea what expenses are involved, what logistical nightmares, what graft is often required, when shipping a factory overseas to those areas which are in dire enough straits as to make it financially attractive to do so? Have you ever stopped to think what would make that a profitable decision? Do you really think that even the difference between union wages and third world wages, are enough to make that worthwhile? Take a closer look instead at the literally thousands of regulations which are avoided by going overseas; look at the codes of regulations that must be followed (as best as possible) from the EEOC, FTC, OSHA, FDA, SEC, EPA, IRS... Dodd-Frank, Sarbanes–Oxley... and those aren't a tenth of them all, and there are also the reams and reams more of local, county and state regulations, often duplicating or at odds with the federal regulations. These are measures which require thousands and thousands of hours from people who are in many cases making more, even far more, than minimum wage or union wage workers. And on top of that they are not only financial hardships, they often restrict or prevent businessmen from taking those actions which they believe would be the best for their business to take, but are unable to, because of one regulation or another - they have lost their liberty to make their own choices - they have lost the American Dream to the American Govt... why stay, for the bureaucrats?!. Add to all of that, the unions which most states force them to engage with and abide by... and you dare to blame businessmen's greed for sending jobs overseas? You greedy hypocrites, look in the mirror - you are the ones displaying the most base form of greed, not to acquire wealth, but to see that others lose theirs, not a greed for knowledge and position, but the far worse avarice of moral preening purchased at the profligate expense of intellectual wealth - that which is lost with the refusal to acknowledge history, facts and truth, erroding the roots of our society which can only exist through the rule of law and property rights. Do you really think that such a squandering of true wealth can go on and on without end? What are you smoking? Besides our future, that is.