EDITORIAL: As Virginia goes … – Washington Times

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, Version 4.0 Posted on by

EDITORIAL: As Virginia goes … – Washington Times.

Americans want change. It is not the change towards socialism that Pres. Obama delivered, and it is not change back to the Republicans of Bush and Gingrich, which by the way, is not 180 degrees away from Obama. 180 degrees from Obama is eliminating 90 percent of federal programs and returning government to citizens and states. 180 degrees would be a repeal of the 16th and 17 amendments. 180 degrees would mean income tax collection at the state level and apportioned payments by the states to the federal government for protection of our borders. There is nothing wrong with a social safety net for those who have disabilities or need help getting on their feet. It is just that this is not the Federal government’s responsibility.

Democracies and Republics are built from the bottom up, not the top down. Top-down governments never led to happiness or general prosperity.

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Is the United States a “Failing State”?

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failed-state-map1According to Max Weber, a state could be said to “succeed” if it maintains a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force within its borders. The key here is the word “legitimate.” To be legitimate, a state must must be seen by its citizens as protecting their interests, and being fair and just. With an approval rating of Congress of 18% can we consider the government legitimate? And, if not, is the United States a failing or failed state?

The Federal Health Care debate brings to the surface a number of problems that indicate how the United States is failing:
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Medicare Fraud Is the ByProduct of Bureaucracy

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Federal Health Care is the Easiest to Defraud
Tonight 60 Minutes reported on billions of dollars of Medicare fraud. Most people know that patients, doctors, and hospitals frequently overbill, but other government agencies, druglords, and private entrepreneurs have learned that bilking medicare out of money through false claims is safer, easier, and just as lucrative as selling cocaine.

Readers of my book will not be surprised. I spent several pages explaining why it is easier to defraud bureaucracies than face-to-face market transactions. The greater the centralization of healthcare, the more fraud can be expected. To the student of human nature, the idea that a federal healthcare system would be subject to less fraud and abuse is ludicrous.
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Government Ponzi Schemes, Part IV

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The Principle of Subsidiarity is Responsible Freedom
The principle of subsidiarity, or “the greatest responsibility to the lowest possible level” is a central principle of freedom, good governance, and the opposite of ponzi schemes that centralize power at the expense of freedom. The founding fathers implicity upheld this principle, as it follows from the Declaration of Independence. In my book Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, Version 4.0, I devote a chapter to this principle and how it became inverted and unstable.
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Government Ponzi Schemes, Part III

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What Will happen when Federal Entitlements Implode?
The main options I see are:

  1. Imposition of marshall law by a highly centralized and dictatorial federal government that will ration resources as it sees fit, or
  2. The abdictation of responsibility by the federal government and return of all welfare entitlements and associated taxes to the states, where this constitutionally belongs.

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Government Ponzi Schemes, Part I

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TrendEntitlementSpendingSocial Security and Medicare are Ponzi Schemes
The Social Security system and Medicare are ponzi schemes, no less than Bernard Madoff’s financial scheme was. The essential elements are the same:

You take a small amount of money from the first person, promising a greater amount in return. Then you charge a larger amount from the next person and pay off the first person with his greater return. Next you charge a third person a higher amount and pay off the second with a greater return. You do this until the last person in the chain is unable to pay and the bubble bursts.

A variation on the ponzi scheme above involves taking a small amount of money from the first person, promising a greater return. Then you charge the same amount to two people, and pay the first person his greater return. Next, you charge the same amount to four people and pay the second two their greater return. You do this until you run out of people, and then the bubble bursts.

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Why Would Someone Who Believes in Evolution Support Federal Health Care?

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evolutionA New Cure for Cancer?
Tonight 60 Minutes ran a story about John Kanzius, a man with leukemia, who out of desperation to cure himself from his disease, developed a treatment for the disease using radio waves. Although he eventually succumbed to the disease in February 2009, a cancer research doctor who worked with him on his novel treatment is now have success at killing 100 percent of malignant cells in pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, leukemia, and more.

This discovery, which could be one of the most important medical discoveries of our century, happened the way most human innovation occurs. An unlikely person with the right knowledge and skills is thrust into a challenging situation, and with unrelenting  initiative and sacrifice makes a discovery that might cure cancer in millions of future patients.
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Liberty in a Nation-State?

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The nation-state is a modern concept that arose with the breakdown of the Holy Roman Empire. I contributed an article on this topic to the New World Encyclopedia a couple of years ago because it is a concept that is related to much of the war and oppression in the world.

A “nation” refers to a national group of people, and national groups are connected by language, culture, and ethnicity. A “state” is a politically unified territory. When a national group controls a state, any minorities living in that state tend to be oppressed and treated as second-class citizens. The Holocaust in Germany is an example of the idea taken to the extreme, with Hitler’s attempt to create a pure nation-state. Continue reading →

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