How Debt Happens.

Next time you are asked to vote on a bond measure for some greater good, drop everything and spend 10 minutes to read the article from the LATimes here.  It is shocking how easy it is (has been) to raise money via the bond measure route in California.  Voters go into the booth and read these propositions that are made to sound (no matter whatever the project) absolutely essential and easily paid for by just issuing some bonds the costs of which will be spread over many years and millions of tax payers.  But as is apparent from this excellent investigative reporting, the truth is when people spend other people's money, they are careless and indifferent to costs.  This is truly a condemnation of the runaway public sector and business sector nexus, not unlike that of the military and industrial relationship Eisenhower warned us of as he was stepping down as POTUS in 1960.  Taxpayers are on the hook for the debacle outlined in this article until way into the 2050s, and the amount is not chicken feed.  The residential homeowner of a property valued at $400,000 is and will be for 40 years paying a surtax of slightly over $&00 per year for all this waste (and some good) reported here.

Christie Phenomenon

Chris Christie of New Jersey has cut a wide swath through the political landscape this year by taking on the public service unions, in particular the teachers union.  He has done this through a series of town hall meetings in NJ in which he uses blunt talk and sarcasm like a scalpel to skewer his opponents.  His popularity has been rising and he is talked about as a presidential candidate frequently.  Here we have a NYTimes piece on the governor that demonstrates the confusion of the liberal media when it comes to dealing with issues that they are uncomfortable with, like runaway unions and huge deficits.  What's refreshing about this guy is, although a politician, he does not give in to the constant pandering to special interests we see among liberal pols and too often conservatives as well.  He seems to be saying let's just get this problem solved and move on and if you don't like the way I'm proposing to do this, let yourself be heard at the polls next time around.  This attitude reflects what many feel is the approach the founders had in mind that we should be governed by citizen politicians not professional ones who make the job a career.  No question careerists are always looking for individuals but especially groups to pander to in their non stop vote seeking.  It's a divide and conquer philosophy of governing which the liberals, as professional politicians, have long subscribed to and even perfected.  Ruin has a way of changing things, however, and we are in deep trouble these days.

Roosevelt -- Good Prez or not

Clearly Conrad Black here believes FDR to be one of the greatest presidents.  He pooh poohs some of the recent books, like one I'm currently reading, "New Deal or Raw Deal"  by Burton Folsom, that challenge the conventional wisdom that FDR's policies saved capitalism, etc, etc.  More on this later.

The Meaning of the Wisconsin Debacle

To fully understand the events in Wisconsin today, one has to understand the roots of the problem of runaway public union benefits over time.  The crises did not happen over night, and is not wholly the result of the latest recession.  Truth is, as Steve Malanga tells us in this in depth explanation in the Autumn of 2005 issue of the indispensable City Journal, over 5 years ago, things were out of control even back then and have obviously only gotten worse.  In the modern economy, unions eventually destroy all industries and businesses once they come to dominate.  The classic example is the auto industry decimated by union rules and excessive pay for many years and now just a shell of its former self. In the public arena it all started once  unions got their tentacles into governments at all levels after they were allowed to collective bargain by the vote seeking, union friendly Kennedy Administration of the early 1960's. The result is what is now unfolding in Wisconsin and around the country.  Governments at all levels are broke, can't raise taxes anymore, and are in the process of imploding.  Overtaxed workers in the private sector, those who pay for the lush salaries and benefits of the government workers, have had it and are finally pushing back with a vengeance.  It was just a matter of time before the unions destroyed the public sector.  That time has finally arrived.  Here, in the words of a union representative speaking to a meeting of NEA members and union workers, is their unvarnished philosophy.  Since it's clear from the views expressed here that collective bargaining is the Holy Grail of their movement, the reason for the militancy of their stand in Wisconsin and elsewhere becomes obvious.

This column by Jonah Goldberg provides a succinct history of how and why public unions were enabled to bargain collectively.  A very big mistake that we've been paying a big price for many years.

ADDED: Here we have yet another perspective on the problem with collective bargaining and the cost of government.  As pointed out here the average government employee's compensation is now double that of the private sector.

ADDED: And here is a piece by Paul Greenberg in which he quotes the work of a U of Arkansas economist who does the math and shows how the public service employees in Wisconsin now receive fringe benefits valued at 75% of their wages as compared to 25% in the private sector.  Is there any reason why the Governor Walker wouldn't try to limit collective bargaining to just wages?

ADDED:  Back to Steve Malanga who points out here how unions successfully circumvented local town councils and school board oversight and budget controls by getting the state legislatures to pass arbitration laws favorable to unionized workforce.

Mr Blow of the NYTimes tells us how it is -- or should be, or something

Op-Ed columnist Charles M. Blow of the NYTimes inadvertently opens Pandora's Box with this his column "Empire at the End of Decadence". Blow tells us we are in decline as a country compared to other advanced countries because we rank poorly in nine sundry measurable categories: math scores, income inequality, democracy, well-being, prison population, life expectancy, level of democracy, science scores, and levels of unemployment.  He offers no reasons for this state of decadence we have fallen into but he does take a swipe at Republicans for trying to reign in our out-of-control federal budget alleging the cuts would "devastate" the poor and most vulnerable.  I guess the intent of his column is to tell us the United States is far from an exceptional country and that we really ought to shape up.  Again, no suggestions how to do this.

Let's open this Pandora's Box of Blow's and task the question, how did  the US earn the rating of
"worst of the worst" compared to other advanced countries in the categories of income inequality, science and math scores, prison population, and level of unemployment? We can point to the condition of the white, African-American and hispanic underclass in our country as the primary cause of those bad ratings.  We know conclusively that children perform better in school and have less disciplinary problems than when they come from two parent families.  And yet, 70 percent of all black children now are born out of wedlock and are raised in single parent families. Clearly we can solve several of those poor ratings categories by getting at the root causes of this shameful statistic alone.  Of course pointing out the statistic of single parent households by race brings down the wrath of race hustlers and victim mongers the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton who find it more rewarding financially not to solve this black underperforming problem. The Pigford class action settlement suit by the government on over 100,000 black farmers out of a total of at most 33,000 black farmers in all the land is an example of how profitable the race hustling business can be.   And as for producing a well documented study of the destruction of the black family after the passage of LBJ's Great Society legislation in the 60's, Senator Moynihan was pilloried,  blasphemed and shunned as a racist despite the fact he was a New Dealer steeped in the liberal tradition.

Black apologists blame racism dating back to slavery for the poor performance of their own underclass.  But this excuse just doesn't hold water when one considers the economic success enjoyed by Asians, specifically the Chinese who came to the country in the late 19th century as de facto slaves working for peanuts building the railroad system throughout the United States.  Or the Vietnamese who came to this country after their abandonment in the 1960's by the United States Congress and who hrough hard work and discipline found a way to succeed brilliantly in our open and welcoming society.  Or the Irish,  or the Jews who faced rejection in the workplace, in housing and in all the venues of "polite" society.  None of these people had the benefit, or curse, depending on one's point of view, of affirmative action, and other government programs that give preferential treatment to one class over another for the reason of perceived wrongs by society in the past.

Fortunately the prognosis for the blacks is quite encouraging when one looks at the success of African-Americans in the entertainment and sports fields.  There we see a disproportionate number of blacks compared to other races, making it to the top of those performance driven professions.  We can be sure that without the artificial crutches, bailouts and incentive-sapping government programs blacks can compete and succeed in fields that require hard work and discipline.  The "something for nothing" work ethic usually results in mostly failure.  And looking for excuses makes it easy to put off getting down to work.  What's more improvement of the performance of blacks would probably pu us at the very top of the ratings in those categories where we are now "worst of the worst".

Mel Torme and George Shearing

What a pair of in synch geniuses in the musical world.