When was the last time you saw someone who was really proud to be a Capitalist? You know, head held high, chest out, cigar smoking, make all the damn money you can, buy the biggest Cadillac they got, own all the real estate in nine counties kind of proud to be a Capitalist. These guys are few and far between now-a-days.

Mostly, we're stuck with the hang your head, give the damn labor unions anything they want, crawl all the way to Washington, shake, snivel, pee on your shoes and ask the idiot Socialist^W Democrats for a hand out, kind of lily livered scum that runs some of our largest and most important corporations today. It is a sad state of affairs my friend.

John Wayne would have lined 'em all up and shot 'em, with one bullet too, so as not to waste good gun powder.

I just thank my lucky stars that I've had the privilege to know a number of men who were unabashed Capitalists when I was growing up. They taught me one helluva lot about life and how to get through it without whimpering and whining and moaning and wondering who was going to help me do something.

One of my favorite of these men was my great-uncle. I always called him 'Unc'. Unc had a big white 1958 Cadillac, a Stetson hat, handmade Mexican boots and a great big, hand rolled Cuban cigar in his mouth. Unc was 100% dyed in the wool, honest to God, Texas oilfield wildcatter^W. He made his fortune betting his last dollar on oil wells in places that other drillers and wildcatters would run crying from.

Unc wasn't always rich and he damned sure didn't come from a family with money, he was born in a house with a dirt floor. He quit school after the third grade and he spent years working as an entertainer in a traveling medicine show^W just to make ends meet.

When Unc got out of the Navy at the end of WWII he bought a bus ticket and a bologna sandwich and headed back to Texas. When he finally got there, he had 35 cents to his name, no place to live, and no job. He walked into the back door of a west Texas truck stop cafe and started washing the pile of dishes that was stacked up there. The owner of the truck stop came in and said, 'Who are you and what the hell are you doing here?'. Unc never took his hands out of the sink, he just smiled and said, ' Well sir, I'm your new dishwasher and as soon as your cook quits, I want that job too!'.

A few weeks later, Unc started buying fresh produce on the way to his job as a cook at that truck stop and selling the produce to his boss and to other local stores. Pretty soon, he bought himself a used truck and it wasn't long before he had a full time business hauling fresh produce to restaurants and stores in several counties.

By 1959 Unc owned the largest oil field trucking company west of the Mississippi river. He owned a number of producing oil wells and he owned 3000 acres of prime west Texas ranch land. Unc's businesses employed a lot of people and fed a lot of families, mine included. He wasn't easy to work for, but by God, he was fair.

Unc would say things to me like, "The one thing that sets America apart from everyone else on this planet is the fact that we believe in free enterprise." or maybe,  "Don't you ever forget it boy, Capitalism grinds the corn that feeds the world."

Money cannot buy the kind of education I got from my great-uncle. I learned things like "if you want something, then get up off your butt and earn it. Don't nobody owe you a damn thing." Do you understand just how important that is for a kid to know?

Today, America is a socialist nation. We got where we are today because too damned many folks think that somebody owes them something or that everyone should be equal.  Our country was founded on the premise that everyone is created equal and that everyone should have an equal chance, not that everyone should 'be equal'.

The Socialists in this country have been completely successful in creating an environment that has taught generation after generation of our people that indeed, government is here to serve them and to provide for them all the way from the cradle to the grave. I'm sure Unc is turning over in his well worn grave about now.

I don't know about  you, but I think it's high time we turned this train around. We need to re-educate our population as to what made this country great. We need to run every damned socialist minded politician we can find completely out of this country of ours. Tar and feather^W 'em and ride 'em out on a rail. There's plenty of socialist countries out there that they can go play in if they're so a-mind.  Then we need to allow every last one of the folks who expect the government to give them a dollar to sit square on their butts and starve. If they want a job, we should gladly help them get one and treat them as fair as we would expect to be treated ourselves. After all, that's what America's founding fathers intended.

If you're a true Capitalist, if you believe in the virtues of the free enterprise system, hold your head up high when you walk down the street. Denounce Socialism^W for the hogs wallow it is, and if a damned Socialist tells you that your wrong, tell 'em to go straight to hell. Unc, is on your side, you can count on it.

Until next time,

W. W. McNeill

Last week on Fox & Friends, I watched an interview with Governor Charlie Crist of Florida.  He is spoken of by the pundits as one of the rising stars of the Republican Party.  If  his views represent the best and brightest for the Republican Party, then it's time to officially kiss the Republican Party goodbye!   Mr. Crist does not believe that the Republicans have strayed from conservatism.  He also says that the party needs to do a better job of getting the message out that it is an "inclusive party"......inclusive of identifiable groups such as latinos, blacks, etc.

If this is the message of the Republican leadership, we need new leadership!  Quite frankly, I don't want any "identifiable groups", whether they be Latinos, Blacks, Asians, or Whites, in my Republican Party!  The only group I want in my Republican party is Americans.  If Charlie Crist thinks that the party needs to craft a message to appeal to any group other than the group we call (whether Latinos, Blacks, Asians, or Whites), he is truly part of the destructive force at work in our country.

I believe that most Americans have the sames desires for themselves and their families.  A strong economy, including good jobs, real opportunity to start businesses, governments that spend responsibly, leadership that can be supported.  If you address a letter to a member of the House of Representatives or the Senate, proper etiquette requires "Honorable" to precede the member's name.  Frankly, I have found very little  honor coming from any of the branches of our government. 

How do we fix this lack of honorable leadership?  It is really very simple.  In fact, we already have the business plan created for us.  Sure, we might have to dust it off and remove the cobwebs, but the United States Constitution and an infusion of pure capitalism is all this country needs!  If our governmental leadership does not believe in the Constitution and capitalism........it's time to point fingers and throw the bums out!   

This all happened back in 1948. I was a young (26 year old) Chevrolet (GM) dealer in a small town (population 650) in Michigan. At that time General Motors was a vibrant, successful company in a very enviable position.

1. Their market share was almost exactly 50%.
2. Their return on equity was over 20%
3. They had unlimited power over their dealers. Having a GM franchise, including my own, was a guarantee of being profitable. GM canceled dealers at will and automatically whenever the owner died. They appointed whomever they wanted as the new dealer. In the best locations this was often a retiring GM management executive.

GM had two major problems.

1. The government had made it clear that if GM exceeded 50% of the market it would be broken up as a monopoly. The government did not trust GM and GM had many enemies among the liberal members of congress.

2. The UAW and the auto manufacturers hated each other. The UAW had a lot of power and the government favored them over the manufacturers.

Back to my situation; The Chevrolet marketing department, under a sales manager, oversaw the dealers. The department was organized into five large regions, each with a regional manager. The regions, in turn, were divided into a number of zones, each with a zone manager. Each of the zones had a number of "factory reps." Each of the reps was responsible for a number of dealers.

My small dealership was in the Detroit Zone which was in the Chicago Region. Occasionally all the dealers in our Zone, small and large, went to a sales meeting in Detroit. Among other things, at my early age, I remember being reminded about how fortunate we were to be Chevrolet Dealers. We had the 2nd most valuable franchise in the United States. We were told that the only franchise more valuable than a Chevrolet Dealership was one to bottle Coca Cola. I believe that was true.

Normally my only contact with GM was with my factory rep who visited me on a regular basis. He was a nice young man, not much older than me. And we got along quite well. One of his jobs was to make sure that I was fulfilling my responsibilities to GM as decided by GM.

On one visit my rep told me that I needed to buy a film projector to show films of the new models when they were announced. I explained that for a dealership in a village as small as mine it was not practical to operate the projector. He said he understood, but his job was to make certain that 100% of the dealers in his area bought a projector.

We both knew I could never use it. I asked him what would happen if I did not buy a projector. I vividly remember his words and the way that he said them. They were "I can't make you buy one, but I can sure make you wish that you had." I knew that he was right and I became the proud owner of a new film projector. This was indicative of the attitude throughout GM so I knew that I did not want to spend my entire life in that situation. I sold the dealership shortly afterward.

Given their situation it is not hard to understand GM's behavior. They could meet their 50% of market share without even trying. In fact the opposite was true. They were not allowed to try. They no longer could compete as most other businesses need to compete.

Think of a dominant sports team that was not allowed to win more that half of its games or they would be broken up. Whom would the owner and manager put on the team and how hard would they push the team to perform? How could that team remain ready for new, first class competitors?

Meanwhile, every few years the UAW union would decide which one of the three large auto companies to negotiate with to get more salary and benefits for the workers. Quite often they would go on strike against that company for as long as necessary. Whatever new benefits the union won from that company would almost automatically be granted by the other two companies. They knew the union would strike against them until they met the same or more demands.

The companies had no reason to stand up to the union and suffer a long strike. GM, the market leader was also the price leader. They could set prices as high as necessary. There was no effective competition and the government appreciated any new benefits the workers were able to attain. In fact GM had to set prices high enough to allow the other two companies to stay in business. Otherwise GM would exceed their allowable 50% market share.

Everyone, including the union, understood the situation and they were all happy with it. Everyone was doing fine and no one foresaw the competition from foreign auto manufacturers. Initially the few pitiful attempts of the foreign companies were meaningless. American buyers were not interested in the small, underpowered cars that were exported. They might be OK for Europe or Asia but they didn't sell many in the U.S.

The market for small cars in the U.S. was not worth pursuing for U.S. auto companies. This was not just their opinion, it was the truth. Who among us, at that time, foresaw that foreign companies could design and manufacture large cars too? And who expected that the market for small cars would grow as it did? And who realized that the auto companies had painted themselves in a corner with the UAW so that they could never economically compete against the foreign companies. I certainly did not and I don't think any of you reading this did either.

So, added to this are a few other new problems for U.S. auto companies:

1. Costs to ship automobiles by boat dropped dramatically. It is cheaper to ship a car to Los Angeles from Japan than from Detroit.

2. Tariffs on importing cars from Europe and Asia have dropped. From Mexico and Canada they have disappeared.

3. Foreign companies have learned how to cheaply assemble their cars in America out of foreign parts, income tax free. They shift their profits abroad by making sure the U.S. assembly plants just break even. They also get all kinds of freebies from our local governments for locating their assembly plants in their localities. They are not burdened with pensions and health benefits for retirees.

4. Unlike the U.S., the foreign governments, their auto companies and their auto workers have cooperated to make sure their products are efficiently produced and can undersell equivalent U.S. products.

5. China looms with its automobiles and possibly India, getting ready to undersell Korea, Japan and Europe, as well as us.

Where are we? What can we do? What is going to happen? Who is to blame?

1. The three U.S. companies are almost broke and are hemorrhaging what little capital they still have. Under the present circumstances giving them more capital will only slightly delay their demise. With their current union contracts and obligations to their retirees, they have no future for themselves or any potential buyers. Chrysler found that out the hard way.

2. Rationally the government, the companies and the unions should sit down together (as they do in Germany and Japan) and determine what they each need to do to keep the companies alive at the least cost to our country and then do it. Unfortunately there is no chance of that happening here. Other than that we can give them more taxpayer money as is proposed.

3. The money the government gives them will be welcomed by the union workers and retirees, the management employees, the suppliers and their employees and the localities where the workers are employed.

4. When that money is gone, we will be right back where we are now.

Who is to blame depends on many things and many preconceived notions:

1. It could be the poor decisions made by company managements who painted themselves into this corner. I think they reacted as you and I would have under the circumstances.

2. It could be the unions who found a way to earn more than foreign workers or other U.S. trades doing equivalent work. They painted the companies into the corner. Who can blame them?

3. It could be the foreigners who cooperated and worked together to produce better products at lower costs. You can't criticize that.

4. It could be that workers in other countries were needier or hungrier and willing to work harder for less pay. That could be expected.

5. It could be karma. Who could know that shipping costs and tariffs would go so low? Such things happen.

6. Perhaps it was our government and the law of unintended consequences. Who could know that keeping a vibrant company from competing so they would not become a monopoly could lead to the destruction of our most important industry? I certainly didn't know how bad it would end. I did not understand it at the time. I now believe our government was the snowball that started the avalanche that happened. Certainly it was not intentional.

7. Blaming the current GM management is certainly not productive and probably not fair. They weren't even born back then. Expecting them to solve the problem without going bankrupt is wishful thinking. It's too late.

8. Unless we radically change, the Chinese will make sure that even worse things are ahead for our automobile industries, if that is possible.

In way of background, I have an Engineering degree (MIT and USNA) a Master's degree in International Economics and a Ph.D. in Management from UCLA. I have taught these subjects as an associate Professor for over 30 years at UCLA and other Universities. I was a Naval Officer in the Pacific during WWII. I am also an inventor with several patents and an entrepreneur, having started several successful companies operating worldwide. I have sold the companies to exchange listed firms and am now retired.

Isn't funny how things change over time.  In 1911, our government "saved us" from the evil, monstrous Standard Oil.  What did Standard Oil do wrong?  Standard Oil under the LEADERSHIP of John D. Rockefeller became one of the largest multinational corporations providing products that people and businesses wanted to buy, at prices that were ever declining, at efficiencies that market competitors could not match.  Our US government because of urging from less efficient competitors decided that Standard Oil was too big and they had to force a sort of failure.  So, under the authority of the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Supreme Court broke up Standard Oil into 34 different companies.

Fast forward to the late 1990's.  Enron, one of the world's largest and most respected energy companies in one of the most highly regulated sectors of our economy was cooking its books with the help of its accounting firm Aurthur Anderson.  Although most of Enron's business was legitimate, high level executives formed offshore accounting entities that permitted Enron, for awhile, to give the marketplace the appearance that this behemoth of a corporation was more profitable than it really was.  When the crimes were uncovered, those at fault were tried in court, sentenced, and either served time in jail or their lives were cut short probably from the stress of their actions.  The marketplace bought any valuable assets and flushed Enron out of existence.  Government, that place where the best and brightest play, created the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, one year after the Enron bankruptcy to protect us from evil corporations.

Fast forward to 2008.  We have now created Government Sponsored Enterprises (see Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac) and corporations like AIG that are just too big to fail.  We are told by the best and brightest in Washington DC that these failures of government intervention and corporate greed are just too big to fail.  How does government handle these failures of business?  ...well government convinces the masses that these businesses are too big to fail.  Government offices take billions (and we will see soon it is trillions) from the taxpayers and throw it at these failures.  Instead of letting the marketplace pick out valuable assets and flushing out the rest......instead of prosecuting those who have done wrong, the government simply throws our money at the failures.  Next, watch the auto industry!

When the dust settles on this chapter of American history, I believe we will find nothing more than crooked politicians lining their pockets, misguided political leaders pushing for their socialist utopia, and idiots who believe anything the two preceding groups tell them. 

The best argument for Capitalism is that it works.  It is the fairest most efficient system to distribute wealth and encourage or create growth in the economy.  The best way to argue the case for Capitalism is to work in favor of better government policies, educate our youth about the benefits of Capitalism and highlight its successes.  If we reduce our argument for Capitalism into an argument against Socialism, we diminish the power of our argument by allowing the opposition to define the front lines.  In The Fountainhead, Howard Roark did not choose to fight socialism.  He chose to live as a capitalist knowing that the system around him was flawed.  That is what the Capitalist Party should advocate in my opinion.  When people of like minds unite to live as capitalists, they work in support of something.  Capitalism depends upon creation not destruction.  Socialism is an irrelevant nuisance to the true spirit of capitalism and the strength of the individual.  Our fight is for the individual.  Our fight is to make the individual realize that "I" am the most important resource this country has.  If the Capitalist Party joins the fight of negativity against the government, against other beliefs, against our newly elected president, then it loses the power of its primary argument.  Capitalism needs democracy to exist.  Democracy means that sometimes people will choose unwisely, however, the choice belongs to each "I" in America.  Our job is to promote Capitalism and convert, convince, educate or enlighten individuals to become a majority, not attack the existing majority.  I and the right constitute a majority of one.  Choose to live as a Capitalist, not an anti-Socialist.

There has been a lot said about socialism these last few weeks. So what is socialism? The textbook definition of socialism is this, "the factors of production are controlled by the government in order to provide fairness and equality in the society." Notice the key words of who controls the factors of production, the government, and to provide what, fairness and equality.

 

Barack Obama scoffs at John McCain for suggesting he is a socialist or a Marxist. Now Barack knows that a socialist will never get elected as President of these United States, at least for now. But if it looks like a fish and smells like a fish and swims like a fish one can only deduce that it is a fish.

 

Barack talks about government taking the money earned by the upper 20% of wage earners and businesses and giving money back to the middle and lower classes. That is the government controlling one factor of production: wealth. When he says that the Supreme Court did not go far enough in the civil rights by redistributing the wealth to equalize African Americans that is providing for fairness and equality. Those both are two major tenants of socialism.

 

Is Barack a socialist? Well, the easy answer is that he has socialistic ideas and tendencies. History has also proven that the economy never improves when the government raises taxes on anyone. Hoover tried it and deepened the Depression in the early 1930's. Roosevelt did it and lengthened the Depression probably by several years. Only America's entrance into World War II and the massive industrial output brought us out of the Depression. Those are historical facts that can be debated but have stood the test of time for the last 60 to 70 years. When you lower taxes more money gets invested and poured into the economy and that was proven by Ronald Reagan in the first two years of his Presidency.

 

The more money in the hands of the private sector grows the economy. The more money in the hands of the public sector, i.e. government, the worse the economy becomes. Barack, from historical and economical facts, is change this country cannot afford. Vote to keep a free market system without this tainting of socialism. It just won't work.

 

Johnny Franks

seechatt@yahoo.com

Can an American citizen ask a intelligent question of the political candidate, Barack Obama without fear of retribution?  Apparently not!  Meet the American Stasi Mr. Wurzelbacher.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Stasi, rent The Lives of Others.  The 2006 release tells the story of the East German government, fearful of any dissent used the Stasi (Secret Police) to monitor and destroy anyone who attempts to challenge their power.

In the days following the debate, The Columbus Dispatch reported this weekend, Wurzelbacher's file at the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles was accessed three times. The information requests came from accounts associated with the office of the state attorney general, the Toledo Police Department, and the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency. The attorney general's office has said, however, that the request did not come from their office, but from a "test account" used by their IT division and shared with other law enforcement agencies.

Keep up the fight Mr. Wurzelbacher!  Challenge those politicians whose philosophies are not part of the Capitalist American Way!

Of course the DOW has dropped another 448 points today.  Our market is recognizing that the state is interrupting the natural cleansing process of free market capitalism.  The pundits tell us that AIG is too big to fail.  I believe that AIG is too big of a failure, to be permitted to continue.  Government is slowly creeping into business.  We used to call it "Socialism".  Now the government tells us they are "saving" us!

In an effort to formally organize meetings across the country,  The Capitalist Party, Inc. has joined Meetup.com.  Go to www.Meetup.com to search for local meetings of The Capitalist Party, Inc.

Many of the problems we currently face as a country exemplify why we must return to the ideals upon which our country was founded. The national government has expanded its powers beyond those our founding fathers enumerated in the Constitution. Our nation's leaders, enchanted by the siren's song of social justice, believe they can solve our problems but their solutions merely create other more complicated problems. Our society has become addicted to government solutions that provide a temporary fix only to increase the long-term detrimental impact on our economy and the lives of our citizens. The current health care cost crisis is one example of government creating more problems while trying to solve others. Once government became involved by providing health care for citizens, it disturbed the economic balance by creating excess demand for health care. Now, the national government is entangled in budget-busting entitlement programs and a crisis in health care. Instead of learning from its mistakes, government continues proposing ill-conceived subsidies that will only pump-up demand even further and exacerbate current inefficiencies in the market. The real solution requires government to extricate itself from the market by giving individuals more control of their purchasing decisions. The government can use health savings accounts (HSAs) to restore purchasing power to consumers and begin removing itself from the market. The government should start by converting its programs to direct subsidies placed in HSAs. The recipient can then use the money in the HSA for health care, as needed, and save the remainder. Additional contributions can be made by the individuals with tax advantages for any growth (similar to the Roth IRA). The total amount of the initial direct subsidies should be limited to ensure savings for the government that can be used to reduce the existing deficit and/or debt. The government must then begin to back out of the system entirely by reducing its contributions to these accounts over a specified time period (ie. five years). Our leaders have to begin to realize that providing health care is not one of the original powers enumerated in the Constitution. Once government starts moving back toward providing its core services, the economy and the nation will begin the process of self-correction. The time has come for our leaders to keep their hands off and let a freer, capitalistic economy solve the health care cost problem.