Politicians rarely talk about economic freedom, but one New Mexico elected official who “gets it” is Rep. Dennis Kintigh of Roswell. His opinion piece from today’s Albuquerque Journal explains some of the ways in which New Mexico falls short and explains how tax and regulatory policies have negatively impacted our economy.
The article is worth the read, but it is imperative that New Mexico elects more public officials at all levels that understand the importance of economic freedom and the steps we need to take to achieve it and greater wealth.
DISORDERLY CONDUCT
Nations seem to move from order to disorder and back to order. The transitions may be rapid or slow. The processes are more or less violent.
It appears to me that , at present, the Republican Party of the USA has become an agency of disorder.
Good governments have found a balance between order and disorder. Too much order brings oppression of individual fulfillment. Too little order brings loss of a foundation for personal achievement.
Collapse of a society or nation may occur when there is too much order and oppressed people rebel against tyranny or when not enough people participate in a democracy. Order is then restored by force by stronger, better organized groups. A foreign power may also intervene and take control.
The Republican Party now represents disorder.
1. Regulation of the financial system is order. Deregulation is disorder.
2. Union representation is order. Unorganized workers is disorder.
3. Economically secure families is order. Hungry children in deprived neighborhoods is disorder.
4. Peace is order. War is disorder.
5. Environmental regulation is order. Pollution is disorder.
6. Treatment for drug abuse is order. The illegal drug trade is disorder.
7. A comprehensive immigration policy is order. Chaotic immigration policies is disorder.
8. Available health care insurance and health care is order. Millions without health care insurance is disorder.
The dominant message of the Republican Party now is to oppose efforts to restore a reasonable degree of order. Disorder does benefit those with more power and wealth, at least for a while. Republicans with a longer view know that increasing disorder will have tragic consequences.
The people who provided our US Constitution were well aware of the problem of disorder. They had just created disorder by rebelling against the British Empire. They saw the loss of lives and the disruption of social structure.
The right balance of order and disorder can happen in a liberal democracy. There can be innovation and free expression on a base of mutually agreed stability. Our Constitution and our better traditions show the way.
William B Pratt August 2012
You may want to stick to medicine, Doc…words have meaning and, much like ideas, concepts have shape, form and sources that are readily identifiable.
WITH LIES YOU MAY GET AHEAD IN THE WORLD – BUT YOU CAN NEVER GO BACK
Nations represent systems (i.e., an assemblage or combination of things or parts forming a complex or unitary whole), and systems can represent order (i.e., the arrangement or disposition of people or things in relation to each other according to a particular sequence, pattern, or method) or chaos (i.e., behavior that is so unpredictable as to appear random, owing to great sensitivity to small changes in conditions of equal chance, within and among existing systems). However, and perhaps paradoxically, chaos can be weighted, balanced and managed to become orderly within certain systems. This is the recognizable of genius of our Nation’s founders…they not only recognized the power of Adam Smith’s invisible hand (what we can certainly recognize as the metaphorical foundations of “game theory”) to create a manageable and incentive driven system, but to leverage and set lose the efficiency of the many to make individualized choices that could be aligned to the greater good of the whole. These same founders were bold enough to have fought for, created, converted to and tested such a system. And the results of their test; the only failure of this system is its overwhelming success, when its principles are maintained.
System conversions can be rapid or slow, integrated or parallel, but never-the-less, they are identifiable at their source. The process of system conversion can be orderly or chaotic, but it is ONLY those who hold authority and control over the system, and its potential conversion, who may decide this process (knowingly or unknowingly, capably or incapably).
It appears to the greater majority of those capable of understanding this system’s origins and purpose that, at present, the Republican Party of the USA has become the best fit, or chance, to disengage the integrated and destructive conversion mechanisms, which have been both gradually and, more recently, rapidly put into practice by those who have had almost complete authority and control over this Nation (i.e., as of 2008 – a Democrat President, with Democrat Majorities in both the House and the Senate, and the absolute ability to cram as much garbage into the system as might be desired to create an eventual and complete system failure).
Functional government maintains a balanced system so as to sustain the productive nature of order, and avoid the destructive nature of larger chaotic shifts. However, dysfunctional government creates the imbalances needed to create systemic failure(s). Such dysfunctions are not random or chaotic at all, but instead they are in fact forced and intentional. Educated people can only argue the good or bad of one vs. another based completely on their individual perspectives (i.e., good or bad from whose perspective?). Perspective for good or bad determination is completely dependent upon total weight and authority of those who hold such perspectives. And therein lies the true measure of this Nation’s historical strength…what is good or bad, and who should decide? Their answer was, the individual, in most personal matters, and by coming together as a voting group of specific individuals, as represented, in the more weightier matters of society as a whole. The perspective taken to argue for the “goodness” of a conversion of the current system, in order to adopt a new system in which only a small handful of bureaucrats, from one administration’s party, or the next, to make similar decisions for all, in all matters, is short-sighted at best. And, it is always worth considering that the power that is given to one administration will also be made available to the next.
Too much chaos sets the stage for the tyrannical oppression of the individual, as well as the collective. Too little chance for equal outcomes puts a complete halt to the evolution of any and all areas of societal growth. However, there can be no growth in the midst of a collapse of the system…engineered or otherwise. The more recent and ongoing collapse of national and international financial systems has occurred and is traceable to the direct and indirect interventions of government(s) and its brokers. The identifiable pathway quite obviously lies towards the re-arrangement of peoples and things in relation to each other according to a new sequence, pattern, and method that is NOT based on the power granted to government by the people, but rather to that where power would be based on that which might be granted to the people by their government. Under similar circumstances, a push towards global government (singular) would certainly provide the incentive to intervene and assume control.
There is a stronger arguement to be made for the Democrat Party moniker representing the means of system failure, through chaos, for a long time now.
1. Financial Systems with regulations that create the incentive towards pathways leading to positive outcomes for the greater whole, and growth, guide the smaller chaotic elements in much the same that various streams will guide waters to a well, or to a larger body of water. Regulations such as those found in the Community Reinvestment Act, overwhelm the well, generate added risks and poison to the water supply, and eventually empty the well entirely…and a falling tide lowers all boats.
2. Mob rule is NOT order. An organized mob can be just as destructive as an organized group of national, or international, bureaucrats. Coalesce the mod with the bureaucrats and collapse will soon follow.
3. Families motivated to obtain economic security will do so, even if it means immigrating to other, less oppressive, areas, and in doing so they create new economic opportunities for themselves, other families and more neighborhoods.
4. Pease is fragile. War is risky, expensive, and should not be contemplated or taken lightly.
5. Today’s environmental regulatory mechanisms are used for warfare against business and the individual. Pollution is not beyond the realm of political and intellectual dishonesty.
6. Treatment for drug abuse is a solution to a disorder that is created within modern societies. Modern illegal drug trade is an incentive driven response to match the demands of a dysfunctional society with the supplies that can be made available, relative to the risk of making them available. Stop the dysfunction (whatever the user is running from), halt the demand, and the supply becomes insignificant.
7. Immigration is based on the incentives and disincentives that are offered by societies. Incentives create the demand to immigrate and again, individual choices are made to match the total supply to the demand.
8. Insurance of any kind, without limitation, offsets the risk of society’s choices, and thereby generates “moral hazard” for society as a whole, and becomes ever more costly (e.g., Goldman Sachs held “insurance” on government imposed higher risk mortgage investments, and the greater incentive was for the investments to fail and the broker to collect the taxpayer-backed insurance). Again, insure the entire collective, overwhelm the system, collapse the system, and convert to a new system. Do your means really justify your ends for greater control over a broader population, Doctor?
Your dominant message is to twist the facts and transfer the blame for blatant Democrat representatives invested attempts, which are well documented. For example, mortgage expansion and real estate collapse did benefit Christopher Dodd and Countrywide, at least for a while.
Americans have awakened to the longer term view of the system conversion mechanisms, which have and continue to be used to destroy their country, and they understand that increasing the incidents and mechanisms of collapse will have tragic consequences for their children and grandchildren.
There’s no doubt but that:
“The people who provided our US Constitution were well aware of the problem of disorder. They had just created disorder by rebelling against the British Empire. They saw the loss of lives and the disruption of social structure.”
The right balance of order and disorder can happen within a properly incentive driven democratic republic. “There can be innovation and free expression on a base of mutually agreed stability. Our Constitution and our better traditions show the way.” ….and have been proven to work.
Gee, Dr. Pratt everything you describe as “order” is overwhelmingly socialism…. I think it is the Democrats who are pushing for socialism in the US. The problem is you run out of other people’s money to spend.