"Won't You Stay, Just a Little Bit Longer"

Sitting here on the Founder’s Porch, I raise my metaphorical glass of ice-cold, frothy beer and drink a toast. I lament the departure of a close friend of these United States: capitalism. At least for now, we have really done ourselves in. The boys on the hill have put the economic system that brought us unimaginable wealth, stability, and prosperity in the penalty box indefinitely. Unruly deficits, shoddy economics, wasteful spending, and malignant government all cultivated by the economic policies of the Obama administration and congress are the giants we face. I’m not going to beat you over the head with arguments for why capitalism is good (weighty and sharp as they are). Rather, allow me to show you how the horrifying misery of its alternative.

The plans of Pres. Obama and congress are a $787 billion hoodwink. This bill will stimulate many things: the welfare junkies getting doped on easy handouts. Pres. Obama’s policies will spark the exodus of American financial and executive talent to a place they can make more than $500k—perhaps the NBA, where valuable skills (proper English notwithstanding) are well compensated. The bill will perk up new interest in irresponsible borrowing and lending now there are assurances of “Asset Recovery” if the milk gets sour. It will surely stimulate the egos of profligate politicians coddling themselves over what a good job they did while trying not a drool at the same time—a difficult feat for the likes of Reid and Pelosi.

And lest we forget, the initial cost of the stimulus, bailouts, asset recoveries, etc. are of course just what we will pay up front. These policies will cost billions more in lost development, mal-investment, inflation, and further financial losses. The fundamental problem is that when government spending does not produce anything. Under market conditions capital is purchased by entrepreneurs, they invest, hire managers and workers, they work to use the capital to make something that people will buy. The raw capital is taken from one state and refined, combined, etc. to create something of more value. Government spending does not create any net increase in value. There is no capital conversion into more valuable goods. So when the government takes oh say…$787 billion of raw capital out of the economy and re-injects it, there is a huge waste. There’s the loss on what that money could have built. We all miss out on the development, job creation, and benefits of new commerce.

Economically, there has been a heritage of arguing for “stimulus” but this new bill ignores them. John Maynard Keynes, the authority in the field of government interventionist economics argued that increasing spending and running deficits would “jump start” the economy. It is a fiscal policy theory that politicians are more than willing to try when there are contractions in the economy. The theory which should be the backbone for the most recent binge in spending from D.C. is entirely contingent on increasing spending temporarily during a contraction and slashing spending during growth. The funny part about the “stimulus” is that most of the spending is a permanent increase in budget. It defies the very economic theory that supports it existence. This point is meant simply to demonstrate that the “stimulus” is not an economic bill at all: it’s a subversive and destructive bill meant to consolidate government power and left-wing social agendas. It's meant to give more leverage to the government. Now they can tell all their little pets who were once self-sufficient citizens, "if you don't vote for me again, I'll take away your welfare, social security, medicare, asset recovery plan, (insert favorite government waste here)".

The waste in this bill is despicable. One might mistake the capital building for a butcher shop with the way they are cranking out the sausage. You know the saying, “you don’t want to be around while they make the sausage”? Well, the boys on the hill are certainly taking all the choicest cuts of pork for this bill. Frankly, I don’t know what’s stimulating about $1.2 billion for “youth activities”, $850 million for Amtrak which runs astronomical deficits, or $500 million for building and repairing National Institutes of Health facilities in Bethesda, Maryland. Check out this list here, it’s not all the ridiculous stuff in the bill but it comes from CNN.com, not known for being a bastion of conservative politics.

We’ve kissed capitalism good bye. It was good to us and we bite the hand that feeds. I’m sure there are many who won’t miss it for the moment. There are likely many who are glad to see it gone. For now, I look to the vindication thinkers like myself will feel when interest rates rise, inflation stifles us, production stalls, and burdensome taxes break the backs of American workers. I for one have a quiet and somber refrain murmuring in my mind. Here's to capitialism: “won’t you stay, just a little bit longer”.