What is money?

Everyone knows what money is... right? "It's just money" - but what does that mean? How about "Time is money" - well that's a little better. But, have you really thought what that means? Is money just a greenback? Is money some coins made of nickel and copper which have little value except by the promise of our government? What about gold and silver coins - does money need to be a precious metal? If gold is money, then why do governments coin it? More importantly, what does money really mean to us?

Money really is time - it is the simplest and most accurate of the common definitions, but it is so simple it is little understood despite its common usage. So, what truths does that simple equation hold for us? Money = Time. Money is most simply, the most convenient way for men to trade their time and labor. If we had no money, time and labor could only be traded in a most cumbersome way. A doctor could trade his time easily with another doctor, "work an hour for me and I will work an hour for you." A day laborer could trade his time easily with another day laborer in the same way, but how would a day laborer trade his time fairly with a doctor? The hour is the same, but the years of study and poverty that the doctor endured to become a doctor would not be compensated for, and thus the trade would be hopelessly unfair. Money allows us to effectively trade time and labor in cases like this. All of this knowledge is contained in our little common equation Time = Money.

So, with this in mind, ask yourself if it is moral for government to take our time, by force. By force you ask? Yes, by force. Does government ask you to pay taxes or do they force you? They force you under threat of imprisonment (another way to steal your time). So, every April 15th, you are faced with the choice of having to willingly give 20 - 56% of your time to the government in the form of a check to the IRS, or to give up even more time by imprisonment. If it were a criminal that gave you this choice, you might have the police to defend you, but when it's the government that gives you this choice, what can you do? Is this choice moral? Isn't it immoral to make a man act against his nature of survival?

To read more about these ideas, read Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations", and read the writings of Ayn Rand.

The Ant and the Grasshopper

Life Mimics Art

Maybe it's time that Aesop's fable about the ant and grasshopper is updated for modern times:

The ant works hard every day during the summer, building his house and storing food for the winter. The grasshopper, on the other hand, watches the ant with amusement and prefers to sing and dance, putting nothing away for the winter ahead.

When the winter comes, the grasshopper has nothing to eat and becomes desperate. he elects a president who promises that spreading the food around is good for everyone. The president demonizes the ant for being greedy and asks how he can live with himself when so many others have so little. An executive order is signed demanding that the ant turn over 50 percent of his food supply to the government. The grasshopper laughs and plays the rest of the winter, getting fat on the ant's assets. The ant is depressed and resentful.

The next summer the ant stops preparing his home and storing his food and instead joins the grasshopper, singing and dancing all day. Unfortunately, all o fthe other ants make the same decision. The next winter, with no one left to exploit, the grasshoppers and ants all die of cold and hunger.

From Glenn Beck "Broke" (2010)

Federal Government's Attack on Gold

Washington doesn't want you to be in control of your own money. They don't want you to buy gold - they'd rather you buy TIPS. Google Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities and see for yourself what a complete scam it is. So the logical move (if you're a diabolical progressive) is to put gold companies out of biz, or at least discredit them, then keep pushing the TIPS. It's kind of like a drug dealer killing the other dealers in the hood.

Congressman Weiner doesn't want you to buy gold, so he's going after the companies that sell gold - on the premise that you are too stupid to read - I mean - on the premise that these companies are not disclosing enough... um - I just checked out Goldline (A top rated BBB company) - seems pretty straight forward to me. So what's Weiner's problem? Maybe he thinks people are all just Homer Simpsons.

Germany's Summer of Recovery

So, in our "Summer of Recovery", while we are enduring the continued 10% unemployment, and worrying about a double dip recession, Germany has cut taxes, reduced regulation, cut pensions, union pay, and vacation time and has experienced nearly FULL EMPLOYMENT and 9% GROWTH in the last 6 months. I'd say THIS is a "teachable moment" - Keynsian Economics has failed yet again, and rather miserably!

Obama's Alger Hiss?

Obama's Buddies:

- Van Jones, Green Jobs Czar

- Cass Sunstein, Information Czar

- Eric Holder, Solicitor General

- John Holdren, Science Czar

- 10 Russian spies (one really sexy) - funny how we traded Russian spies so quickly...

- Mark Lloyd - FCC Diversity Czar

FDR's Buddies:

- Henry Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture, Commerce Secretary, Vise President

- Duncan Lee, Chief of Staff (OSS - predecessor to CIA) - and was spy for KGB!

- John Abt, General Counsel for WPA

- Lee Pressman - Counsel for New Deal AAA

- Nathan Witt - CPUSA, Ware group, New Deal AAA

- Alger Hiss - Russian Spy

- Victor Perlo - Communist Party Economist

-Henry Collins

- Nathan Silvermaster

Healthcare and Welfare

"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer." - Benjamin Franklin, August 14th 1766

We are a great and moral people - and we must resist the progressive assault on our souls. They would lure us to their Marxism by the carrot of our compassion for those less fortunate but we know this to be wrong and immoral.

Why Atheists need God

For almost 90 years, the United States has been the greatest power for good the world has ever seen. We have been the peace keepers, the decider of wars, the protector of democracy and freedom. The United States never receives its due credit - even in the handling of the native American Indians - while most invasive cultures have simply wiped out the indigenous population, the British colonies of the Americas were decidedly different - greatly due to their strong religious beliefs and puritan values. Although their goal was not entirely successful, they tried to preserve Indian culture by segmenting, instead of outright forced assimilation. This was a ground breaking concept which had never been tried before. The common misconception that the White Man's greed in dealing with the natives is simply not accurate. The native chiefs also showed great greed since they were bartering for things which they believed could not be traded or owned. Who is more at fault? The merchant who (mistakenly) believes he is selling a good that cannot be sold or the buyer who believes he is getting an exceptionally cheap price? Today we call that fraud. The important thing to take from this is not that the colonialists were innocent - as they were clearly not - but you must question the little pieces of information you have been allowed to learn because it has been so selectively filtered so as to change the facts. It is just as critical to understand that the main reason for the continued existence of the natives were due to the values of the colonists that settled the new world. That later misdeeds were committed should not diminish these facts.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."

Now, I'm not a religious or even church going man - however I do believe that my values have certainly been framed by a country founded and based on religious principles. Were I to be born and raised in any other environment, surely I would now be writing an entirely different blog post right now. (possibly by candle light instead of on a keyboard). In the Declaration of Independence, the wishes of our founding fathers could not be more clear. men... are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights... "by their Creator". So despite what Democrat Tom Harkin said in a speech in 2010, Rights are not Given by Congress. Rights are not given by any government. The entire foundation of this great nation is that Rights are so fundamental to our existence, and to our humanity that they cannot be granted, by any other man, or group of men, and in order for that to be valid, our rights can only be granted by our creator - God. This God is non-denominational - no one religion owns the concept of God, so it equally applies to Christians, as to Jews, and Protestants as well as Muslims and any and every other religion in the world. We have rights given by a higher power - not by any mere mortal, and with that means that no mere mortal may take them away. You've no doubt noticed the attack on religion in our culture today. Christmas has been under attack for years. Schools have ceased to mention "Christmas" on the calendar, in favor of "Holiday break". The 10 Commandments have been banned in front of courthouses. These are all meant to erode our protections offered by God - and to make us forget that it is God who gave us these unalienable rights - so that they may one day have the power to take them away.

Nobama Care Passes

Not since the British Navigation Acts have we been faced with such oppressive government control. Let this be a rallying cry for all Americans, Democrat and Republican, Conservative and Liberal. This is an outrage that cannot stand. As sure as 9/11 was an attack on our security, last night's vote was an assault on everything that America stands for and drastically erodes our freedom.