As IF Times

link Davos elites to seek reforms of outdated capitalism.

An interesting postulate, if only there were some evidence of it.  While it’s popular for the socialist crowd to bemoan the structural inequities of the capitalist system, in fact, there hasn’t truly been a capitalist system in place in any nation for many generations.  Certainly not in Europe, where in most countries, the predominant train of governing regimes moved from historically entrenched monarchies,  directly to socialism with only the  briefest whistle-stop at the capitalist station.  What they consider capitalism in Europe is akin to equating Dominos to Italian food.

It was historically natural for people to whine and complain that the King or the Queen (as the case may have been), weren’t treating the peasants well.  Under monarchies, upward social mobility was pretty limited.  You were either born royal, or married into it.  Even having money wasn’t a guarantee of social mobility.  Therefore, the majority of the population lived at the favour of the ruling class, receiving whatever crumbs the rulers deigned to confer.  This same mentality carries over to present day wherein people whine and complain about those in charge, demanding more of this or less of that.

The model for America was rather different, at least in the beginning.  People who were tired of others telling them what they could or couldn’t do decided to start their own country, a meritocracy based nation free of the constraints of entrenched and corrupt governance.  The problems arose many many years later when, along with great wealth creation, came the disease of entitlement.  Instead of a healthy focus on creating wealth and prosperity, the malaise of an entitlement to wealth and prosperity mentality began to spread.

Which brings us to today.  According to reports, fully 40% of Americans pay no federal income tax.  According to http://ntu.org/tax-basics/who-pays-income-taxes.html , over 70% of federal income taxes are paid by only the top 10 percentile of taxpayers.  Even worse, apparently there are 70 federal welfare programs in place now to address “poverty” in the U.S., according to The Heritage Foundation.  Hardly a true capitalist system.

Meanwhile in Europe, the ability to fund months of holidays for workers, retirement benefits starting at 50, social welfare to accommodate everyone who asks, is coming up against the harsh wall of reality.  States such as Greece, Portugal, Italy and on and on are unable to fund these entitlements.  Somehow, the blame is laid at the doorstep of capitalism, when in fact socialism is the disease that afflicts all nations.  It’s brilliant sleight of hand that those who benefited the most from crony capitalism, which is in fact socialism, are crying crocodile tears about the failure of capitalism.  This is the same logic as decrying the existence of laws since the jails are so full of people.  It is the same as refuting the idea of universal education because some people are still illiterate.

We don’t  know who these so called ‘elites’ in the Cristal and caviar crowd are and how they came to be spokesmen for anyone, but it’s a good idea to be skeptical when the ones trying to sell you on the evils of wealth are the ones that have the most of it.  Next, Hugh Hefner complaining about promiscuity.

link EU Blasts Unacceptable Airport Chaos – WSJ.com.

Something unusual happens, a political response is the tonic.  This seems to be the natural order of things in our enlightened times.  Somehow over the past couple of generations, people have been brainwashed to expect that someone, somewhere will take care of all the vicissitudes of life. How did this come about? Despite all the planning and forecasting tools available to us and in direct affront to so called experts, things don’t always work out.  In the not so eloquent prose of traders, shit happens.  That’s why there’s such a thing as the insurance business. 

The recent “once in a lifetime” snowstorm in Europe, but especially London, stranded many travellers at airports and trainstations due to ‘unpreparedness’ by the authorities.  The U.K. papers are filled with editorials of outrage over the lack of planning for this “once in a lifetime event”.  Really?  Do people actually think that governments have the ability to anticipate and prepare for every contingency that may affect people? Or should they? In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the left side of the political spectrum let loose with searing accusations that somehow George Bush was at fault for the misery that accompanied the flooding of the City of New Orleans.  This, despite the fact that the city is built below sea level and the levees had been iffy for years.  Does this make sense to rational people? It certainly makes sense in our politically charged litigious society. 

Finger pointing is the legacy of modern civilization. Typically, an accusation is made with the index finger, then the accused responds with the requisite middle one and we’re off to the lawyers’ offices.  If the scale of aggrievance is big enough,  it’s off to the legislatures.  We’ve become a society of cry babies.  It’s always someone else’s fault when something unfortunate befalls us.  If we’re lucky enough, there’s a law somewhere which covers the event and some compensatory damages are collectible.  If not, someone will make a law. 

This is the siren song of socialism and collectivism.  The belief is spread that a benign and omniscient government will take care of all your needs.  While to some, this may carry some warm and fuzzy appeal, to most, it should be a shrieking alarm to run hard in the other direction.  Eerily, I can think of at least one  experience which may predict where an omnipotent government takes us.  That would be in the field of animal husbandry, chicken and cattle farming.  All the needs are cared for including food, shelter and breeding  in a perfectly controlled environment.  The residents are homogeneous and pliant.  Predictably, you don’t hear of many chickens or cows going off to live successful, fruitful lives.  Extrapolate this to our society and we will see that this mindset breeds stupidity and brings to a halt any advance in human evolution. 

Pied pipers who purport to solve all that ails should be treated with deference and made to feel secure in their acceptance by people.  Then, when their guard is down, they should be jumped, shackled in chains, attached to an anchor and summarily tossed into the East River.  Only by culling those pious political posers does society have a chance of surviving.

link Accept reforms or “we will fall off the cliff” warns Raúl Castro — MercoPress.

Something’s wrong with this picture.  The next generation of the Castro Regime makes a candid admission on the shortcomings of socialism, at least as practised in the iconic Cuba.  Over the years and even recently, no less than learned statesmen such as Sean Penn and Michael Moore have trumpeted the achievements of the Castro led communist regime.  Odd then that now, the stark realities are being addressed by the next Castro.  Even more odd is that you don’t get much coverage of this news story in the popular media.  Logically, this implies that Cuba will move towards more of a market based economy where entitlements to the people by the state will shrink.  Steps are being taken to pare people from the government payrolls:

“…The dismissed workers are being encouraged to go into business for themselves, and Granma (the official newspaper) said the central bank may offer micro-credits to new entrepreneurs as the island faces its worst economic slump since the former Soviet Union ended support in the 1990s…”

Translation: “we’re out of pesos and you are on your own”.

On this side of the communist curtain, we are seeing ‘demonstrations’, often violent ones, by ‘students’ ostensibly complaining about rollbacks in entitlements that in some cases don’t even affect them.  The realization is leaking out; the burden of payouts and pensions promised to a large segment of society will come under scrutiny and will suffer cuts in the years to come in order to stave off insolvency.  Income just isn’t keeping up with outgo.   This is happening in Greece and in France.  The U.K.’s announcement that they will cut welfare pay to those refusing jobs as well as increase student tuitions have given excuse to break windows and vandalize businesses, the standard protest tactic.   More significantly, this unrest will likely happen very soon here in North America.  Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey is beginning the process of rolling back pension entitlements, teachers’ pay and expensive infrastructure projects. 

Just the other day, a story circulated that the number of federal workers earning more than $150,000 has doubled since January 2009. Apparently, it’s gone up tenfold in five years.  As many know, salaries for government workers increase regularly as if they were entitlements regardless of the underlying state of the economy….which they are!  They may want to spend some of that money to buy a Cuban newspaper to get a glimpse of the future.  When the cuts begin to fall upon those expecting infinite entitlements, the marching, the yelling and the window smashing will begin.  People may want to get into the glass business in anticipation.  Or start the flotilla to Cuba.

Updated link November 14:  http://www.canadianencyclopedia.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0013415