Buy Your Twinkies Now

"Modern 'public health' initiatives have moved well beyond what could reasonably be classified as public goods. Today government undertakes all sorts of policies in the name of public health that are aimed at regulating personal behavior."

Radley Balko

Libertarian Journalist

When the world "public" is used, it means gubment.

While the populace is the public, "public" policies and programs - public school, public health care, public welfare, public defender, public servant - you name it, all mean gubment.

Think carefully about which gubment programs are not, in the end, about control.

If it is "Constitutional" to force (mandate) everyone to "buy" health care, it is similarly, THEREFORE, "Constitutional" to force (mandate) everyone to buy Twinkies.  And if that is "Constitutional," it must also be true that the gubment has the "self evident" ability to force (mandate) that everyone NOT buy Twinkies.

How do they do that?  Taxes and edict!  It's okay in at least one city to date to buy three small sodas, but one cannot buy one big one.  Edict!  These edicts have come forth for a long time - smoking rules, trans-fats, coconut oil in popcorn, fried foods in hospitals, certain light bulbs - I'm probably missing a few.

Next sights are set on popcorn itself, milkshakes, vending machine candy, all fried foods, meal calorie counts and milk-coffee products.

Given enough time, the only thing left to eat will be soylent green.

But, keep in mind, we must, MUST I tell you, proliferate needles to addicts, condoms and birth control pills to children, and abortion on demand (even for minors whose parents must NOT be told).

As I said, it is NOT about public health.  It IS about control.

In case you haven't heard, there is the urban legend that Twinkies will last forever.  So, obviously, now is the time to stock up.  Buy, buy, buy!  The day is soon to come when you won't be able to!  Honestly, which would you rather eat - Twinkies or soylent green?  And don't believe those who say that longevity legend isn't true.  It simply has to be...

Mandate The Family Business!

"If somehow everyone was made to begin and manage their own business, statism would have no hold and socialism would die."

JayThe Home Inspector

And people should begin young!

I started my first business at 13!  In print shop at school I printed my own business cards - Jay's Lawn Care Services.  My business differed in that in addition to mowing I would edge!  Those are the days when edgers were glorified hand-held scissors!  And I could charge a little more because I did a little more!

At the same time I delivered the morning paper, got golf balls out of lakes and sold them back to the golfers and flipped hamburgers at Burger Chef.  To do that required that I ride my bike everywhere to get it done, but I did.  So, I have always been self employed!

IMAGINE any society where, in addition to their "regular" jobs, people were to also have their own businesses?

What if that was gubment mandate?! 

What incentive could the gubment use to induce such a practice?

SIMPLE!  LET PEOPLE DO IT TAX FREE!  LET THEM KEEP ALL THE MONEY THEY MAKE IN THEIR OWN BUSINESSES!  CREATE INCENTIVE BY NOURISHING AN ECONOMIC, FREE ENTERPRISE PETRI DISH AND WATCH WHAT GROWS!

Do you think that would ever happen?  I don't either, but IMAGINE it!

This could be the local TV news story:  "Dateline Washington:  today is Labor Day Monday and marks the 236th anniversary of Occupy My Street.  A truly grassroots movement beginning in colonial times, people all over our land have come to celebrate their own businesses by setting up tables and booths dotting every square inch of Lafayette Park across from the White House.  The entire Mall between the Capitol Building and Washington Monument is similarly populated!  Like a business expo, folks have come from all over to promote their goods and services, demonstrating their wares and taking orders.  At lunch time the sandwich ladies showed up selling their homemade sandwiches, scones and cupcakes by the hundreds!  (a quick interview with a smiling sandwich lady with a fist full of money)  And why not?  There are millions of people here!  These celebratory business expos are being held in many thousands of parks all over the country.  The rest of the year these enterprising Americans go quietly about their personal businesses.  For some this small business represents huge chunk of the family income!  But on this Monday, every year, they get together to demonstrate their free enterprise natures and show what it takes to manage a personal business and engage in voluntary exchange.  Doing so, and keeping 100% of their profits, generates billions of dollars annually available for discretionary spending, paying family bills and investment.  And doing so, obviously, keeps our economy well oiled and smoothly moving along.  I think I want a sandwich!  Back to you Iggie!"

You say I'm dreaming!  Yes, maybe I am!  BUT ...

I ask - would it be "greedy" of Americans to work in this fashion and keep what profits they earn?
I ask - would anyone so striving, and as they get better at succeeding, in their own free enterprise business be interested in the paltry "benefits" of gubment designed to keep them poor and dependent, even for generations?
I ask - would there be an entitlement mentality?  Would a political party derive any power from trying to create an entitlement mentality and thereby garner votes toward insuring that mentality's development and maintenance?
I ask - would people be setting up tents, trashing parks and living in filth to protest the "greed" of the American family business?
I ask - would the statists be able to take hold?  Would the wondrous promises of socialism ever have a chance?  COULD they?

The answer to all those questions is not apparent.  It is, let's find the word -- axiomatic?  Blatantly obvious?  Manifest?  How about palpable?  Certainly any of those words apply.

The only way to combat the dregs of socialism is to GET TO WORK.

The only way to promote free enterprise is to create an environment in which people GET TO WORK.

Certainly they would pay the sandwich lady because there would be no free lunch...

The Salt Of The Earth

"Business is the salt of life."

Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

Voltaire was a civil libertarian.  He was in favor of freedom and advocated things like freedom of religion, freedom of personal expression, international free trade and, of all things, state politics free from the politics of the church!

What?  Separation of church and state?  And individual freedoms?

So what did he mean when he said business?  Busy ness?  Yes, in a way.

What is business?  When I studied economics in college I, smartly, had a business and economics dictionary!  Here is a good definition of business:

"An economic system in which goods and services are voluntarily exchanged for one another or money, on the basis of their perceived worth. Every business requires some form of investment and a sufficient number of customers to whom its output can be sold at profit on a consistent basis."  (This is from businessdictionary.com)

There are some key concepts there, with some implied:

1.  Voluntary exchange

2.  Perceived worth

3.  Risk (investment)

4.  A product or service that people want

5.  CONSISTENT profit

Without the last, the business will fail.  Certainly the object of business is to profit.  It's purpose is not to provide social opportunity, employee benefits, back political causes, fund clubs and teams, free give-a-ways, a Christmas party for everyone in Hawaii, or anything like that.  The business owner(s) can CHOOSE to do all of those things and more.  But they can only be done with profits!

But what does Voltaire mean identifying business with salt?

What is salt?  Certainly one of the tastes built into the human ability to distinguish taste, so it works great for seasoning food.  But salt is also used in preservation!

In Roman society, the gubment (the army) sometimes paid soldiers in salt.  The soldiers traded it in the market place for what they needed.  Hence the word SALary.  And Romans were fond of eating leafy vegetables seasoned with salt, and they called it a SALad, literally meaning "salted."

Looking at the list of five things up there associated with the definition of business might give a clue as to what Voltaire understood.  Business promotes freedom!  Business provides seasoning to the society!  Business PRESERVES those freedoms and that society as standards of living are improved through the introduction of goods, services and innovation!

Recently I heard interviews with people who were attending a particular convention.  They were asked about business profits and if those profits should be made illegal.  Yes, of course, profits should be outlawed they said!  There should be no profit!

These are people who clearly have no idea how an economy works.  They have no idea how a society (civilization really) is organized and maintained.  These are people who have never employed anyone and if they ever do it won't be for long.  These are people whose ideas, and the kind of society they promote, will end up in the trash bin of history.  These people are morons.

And if we vote for people like them we will all end up getting dragged down into the trash bin of history...

The New Largest Employer In The World

"Our nation is in deep trouble - morally, economically, and politically.  Practically everything in which the federal government has embroiled itself for the last several decades is in crisis - education, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, inflation and the dollar, welfare, government spending, the drug war, and, of course, foreign policy."

Jacob G. Hornberger
The Future of Freedom Foundation
Founder and President

And now, and now (!) pharmaceuticals and health "care!"

The largest employer in the world is the United States Department of Defense.  According to the BBC News Magazine, in March 2012, Defense employs 3.2 million people.  The world's fifth largest employer is the UK's National Health Service with 1.7 million.

That sounds different than it is.  The Defense Department represents about 1% of the US population.  The UK Health Service represents about 3%!

There are about 63,000,000 people in the UK.  And it takes 3% of the population to administer a program far less complex than the zillions of pages and bureaucracies created just at the beginning of the health "care" system in the US! 

Do you not think this program, like all bureaucracies, necessarily, will grow and become more complex?

If 3% is the needed number of people needed to administer such a system in the UK, and it takes 3% minimum to administer a similar system in the US, what's that, 10 million people employed?!  Do you think 3% is accurate?  Personally I think the percentage of the US population employed will be more than 3%.

And we are told our new wondrous system will be cheaper (affordable is the word used), more efficient, faster, and cover more people, with fewer doctors, than previously!  Many still think health care will be "free!"

DOES ANYBODY REALLY BELIEVE THAT? 
DOES ANYBODY REALLY BELIEVE THAT HEALTH CARE IN THE UNITED STATES WON'T BE A SYSTEM IN CRISIS?

Well, I don't!

LIKE JACOB HORNBERGER SAYS, THIS WILL BE THE LATEST IN A SERIES OF CRISES THE GUBMENT EMBROILS ITSELF IN.

I THINK HEALTH CARE WILL BE A "SYSTEM" THAT WILL EAT ITSELF ALIVE.  AND OUR NATION IN THE PROCESS. 

NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, CREATED BY GUBMENT AND BUREAUCRATIC THINKING TO DATE, IS MORE FOREIGN TO THE VERY IDEA OF THE FREEDOMS AND LIBERTIES ENGENDERED BY AMERICA, AS CONCEIVED BY OUR FOUNDING FATHERS.  ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.