Economic Humor

These jokes about the current economy recently showed up in my Inbox.

As bad as the economy is getting, laughter at least is still free. 

The economy is so bad that I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

The economy is so bad that when I ordered a burger at McDonald’s, the kid behind the counter asked, “Can you afford fries with that?”

The economy is so bad that CEO’s are now playing miniature golf.

The economy is so bad, if the bank returns your check marked “insufficient funds, you call them and ask if they meant you or them.

The economy is so bad, Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM and Chrysler.

The economy is so bad, parents in Beverly Hills have fired their nannies and learned their children’s names.

The economy is so bad, a truckload of Americans were caught sneaking into Mexico.

The economy is so bad, people in Africa are sending money to America.

The economy is so bad, Motel Six won’t leave the light on anymore.

The economy is so bad, Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 senators.

What about you?  Got any good jokes about the bad economy?

Do the American Taxpayers Really Need to Fund Terrorism?

The Obama administration paid for Dawud Walid of CAIR (The Council of American Islamic Relations), an anti-American Islamist group, to travel to Mali to represent America to the Malians.  Quoting Daniel Pipes and Sharon Chadha on CAIR:

The Department of Homeland Security refuses to deal with it. Senator Charles Schumer (Democrat, New York) describes it as an organization “which we know has ties to terrorism.” Senator Dick Durbin (Democrat, Illinois) observes that CAIR is “unusual in its extreme rhetoric and its associations with groups that are suspect.” Steven Pomerantz, the FBI’s former chief of counter-terrorism, notes that “CAIR, its leaders, and its activities effectively give aid to international terrorist groups.” The family of John P. O’Neill, Sr., the former FBI counter-terrorism chief who perished at the World Trade Center, named CAIR in a lawsuit as having “been part of the criminal conspiracy of radical Islamic terrorism” responsible for the September 11 atrocities. Counter-terrorism expert Steven Emerson calls it “a radical fundamentalist front group for Hamas.”

The Obama administration is also using taxpayer dollars to send Feisal Abdul Rauf, the nutcase who wants to build a mosque overlooking ground zero, on a tour of the middle east — to represent America. This is a guy who wants to implement Sharia law in the United States, who blames America for 9/11, and who supports the terrorist group Hamas — and the Obama administration feels that he’s the kind of guy we want representing us in the middle east.

It seems obvious that using terrorist supporters to represent the United States is a bad idea. If we want to represent America abroad we should send great Americans like Caspar Weinberger, Richard Perle, Ari Fleischer, or Paul Wolfowitz.

In addition, it seems to me that paying religious leaders to represent their religions violates the separation of church and state which is a cherished part of the United States Constitution.  Obama doesn’t seem to have much interest in the Constitution, but we should.

We may not be able to defeat Islamic terrorism — but do we have to fund it?  Is that really how the American people want their precious tax dollars spent?

Doing Business Internationally

The WorldBank’s Doing Business Rankings are a useful tool for the citizens of 183 nations to judge the efficiency and effectiveness of their governments.

Looking at the list, the most striking thing is how clear it is that the nations with governments which do not interfere with business enjoy the most economic success.  Singapore, New Zealand, The United States, and Canada top the list.   All of these countries provide very good standards of living for their citizens — because the government does less meddling with business.

On the other end of the list, the nations with governments which most meddle with business are  dirt poor.

Think about this next time you vote.  Are you voting for more government interference or less?  Are you voting for prosperity for your children, or  will your vote doom them to poverty?

Dismantling America

Thomas Sowell wrote an article for RealClearPolitics last year titled Dismantling America.  The article is informally written, but I cannot help but think of it as a very early draft for the next American Declaration of Independence.

The first American Declaration of Independence reads:

… when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Jefferson then goes on to list many of King George’s abuses and usurpations.  Let us not forget that King George was not an absolute monarch; he was a very limited monarch with defined powers.  In much the same way as King George, King Obama the First has created a long train of abuses and usurpations — and continues to do so.

For obvious reasons, Sowell does not dwell on the natural consequences of Obama’s march towards absolute tyranny.  Instead, Sowell focuses this early effort on listing some of Obama’s repeated injuries and usurpations.  I strongly encourage you to review the list that Sowell has prepared and to continue his work by recording entries of your own.

Children Dying in Prison

Americans are adjusting alarmingly well to constant increases in government power and resulting decreases in their own rights and freedoms. One group of Americans, however, is far ahead of all other groups in terms of lost freedoms — that group is our children.

Not only are Americas children born into debt slavery, but in return for this taxation they are given almost no legal rights or protections. Every American child now carries $41,713 in debt the moment they are born, and yet they do not have the same rights to liberty as the adults who saddled them with that debt.

An American child can be taken out of his home and incarcerated in a government facility against his will, without a trial and without even being criminally charged.

One young girl I know was complaining at school about her stepmother. A teacher overheard her say that she wanted to kill her stepmother. The school brought in the police and the young girl was taken to county jail. It cost $70k to bail get her out of jail and back with her family.

Incarceration can be very difficult on a child, but there are much worse things. Children are routinely restrained in manners which cause them to stop breathing. Read the list of Deaths in Residential Youth Facilities/Programs maintained by the Coalition Against Institutionalized Child Abuse and just try not to care about this issue. I bet you can’t.

Read about little seven year old Angie Arndt who was restrained for more than an hour for the crime of gurgling milk and who was then retrained again until she died. As shocking as that is, it is even more shocking to learn that the vast majority of these deaths do not result in criminal prosecution. The person responsible for Angie’s death was sentenced to just sixty days in jail.

Read about the case of 14yr old Matthew Goodman, who was held in restraints for sixteen months until he eventually succumbed to pneumonia and blood poisoning.

This is how our government treats the weakest and most vulnerable among us. I am reminded of the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller:

“THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.

THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.

THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

Our children cannot speak up for themselves.  We must speak up for them.

Causes of the Great Depression

When we think of the Great Depression, it is so easy to think that business caused it and the government corrected it. However, the truth about the Great Depression is that it was the government that allowed it to continue for much longer than it needed. Because of policies enacted by President Hoover and then Roosevelt’s New Deal policies, the Great Depression, which should have only lasted for a couple of years, lasted for far longer. The big question is: what individual policies caused it?

Monetary Contraction

Because of a one-third drop in the money supply from 1929 to 1933 and then bank failures in the early 1930s, many people suddenly were afraid of an economic crisis. That drop in the money supply was caused because of an error by the Federal Reserve. The bank failures, though, was caused because of a bank’s inability to diversify their portfolio and branch out.

Tax Hikes

During the 1920s—otherwise known as the Roaring 20s—we had an economic boom. But, what people don’t notice is that there were also incredibly low income taxes. The income tax dropped from 73 to 25 percent. In 1932, President Hoover signed the Revenue Act of 1932. This was a massive increase of the income tax from 25 to 68 percent. When money is taken out of the hands of the consumer, they are unable to buy goods which means that businesses don’t get revenue.

When Roosevelt entered office, he increased the individual and corporate tax even more. The highest rate reached up to 79 percent. Add on the fact that states were suddenly starting to add an income tax as well and suddenly, the incentive to work and invest died away. When entrepreneurism was so desperately needed, there was no money to invest in the economy of the country.

Trade Restrictions

As trading became easier and ships became more powerful around the world, the United States began to increase the amount of trade they sent overseas. In an effort to promote American goods being sold in America, Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley trade law. This raised the import tax up to 59 percent. When this happened, the governments of other countries raised the import tax on goods that came from America. In other words, we lost out on a huge business because we became too protective.

High Prices

The National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 created codes that were meant to reduce competition between businesses. Specifically, it was a law that told businesses to cut output and keep prices and wages high. Any businesses person that tried to lower prices was fined, harassed and sometimes even arrested. This was meant to keep big business strong.

The next thing that they did was create the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933. This meant that extra crops were destroyed to ensure that the prices didn’t plummet. While people starved, food was destroyed. Welcome to America.

Employment Costs High

Many New Deal policies made it even more expensive to hire employees. The NIRA codes required high wages. Businesses had to keep high wages on employees and that meant that they were unable to hire more employees. As businesses were unable to make enough revenue because there were not enough people working to make money, they were forced to keep wages high. That did nothing but further perpetuate the problem.

Conclusion

It is so easy to think that government is the save all when it comes to the economy. By creating “jobs” and creating public works programs, President Roosevelt got us out of the Depression. At least, that’s what we’re taught in school. The truth is so far from that myth. In actuality, the policies of Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt allowed a simple recession to turn into the Great Depression.

When the government tries to do what business is best at, things only get worse for the economy. Yeah, it made sense politically. Yes, people “felt” good because there was this mysterious Social Security Act. But, the problem was, this did nothing for the economy. It just made things worse for the country. When a recession hits—such as the one we’re trying to recover from—it is important that government intervention can only perpetuate a recession. If we want to get out of it, let the businesses and let entrepreneurs take control.