The Logical Sceptic

Obama - Familiar Rhetoric, Failed Record

2012-01-26T11:21:00.000+02:00

Ron Paul answers CNN Southern Republican Debate Ron Paul Highlights 1/19/2012

2012-01-20T11:55:00.002+02:00

MSNBC exposes Ron Paul on First Class Flights

2012-01-18T17:25:00.001+02:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Fox News Interview

2012-01-16T13:54:00.002+02:00

Ron Paul Robbed by Fraud at Iowa Caucus?

2012-01-16T13:26:00.002+02:00

Phil Donahue On Piers Morgan Discussing Ron Paul

2012-01-16T13:06:00.003+02:00

Ron Paul's Position on Israel

2012-01-16T12:55:00.002+02:00

RON PAUL Surge Or Tsunami?!

2012-01-16T12:49:00.002+02:00

The ENTIRE Planet is Endorsing Ron Paul For President in 2012

2012-01-16T12:34:00.001+02:00

Ron Paul warns of coming New World Order (15/09/11)

2012-01-16T10:20:00.001+02:00

Ron Paul warns of the coming New World Order. He doesn't actually say nwo but when he quotes the Bible "Bashing their swords into plowshares", that is a verse that is thought to warn of what is to happen to the coming world. This is when the antichrist will come into power in the Bible. We must vote him in the Republican Primary to help stop or at least postpone what the Central Banks and Bankers are trying to do to our Country (USA) and World.

When Mitt Romney Came To Town

2012-01-16T04:33:00.003+02:00

The Story of Broke Response

2012-01-14T19:18:00.002+02:00

Ron Paul's Speech After New Hampshire Primary

2012-01-12T11:57:00.000+02:00

Ron Paul - War Propaganda

2012-01-09T12:42:00.001+02:00

Andrew Napolitano - Return To Sound Money

2012-01-08T18:28:00.002+02:00

Cartoon Warning From 50 yrs Ago

2012-01-08T16:42:00.001+02:00

What If "They" Are Lying to Us about Ron Paul?

2012-01-08T16:18:00.001+02:00

Vote Ron Paul

2012-01-06T15:17:00.002+02:00

Ron Paul 2002 Prophesies

2012-01-06T04:22:00.002+02:00

History of Iran and US Intervention

2012-01-04T13:17:00.003+02:00

Failed Attacks on Ron Paul by Fox News

2012-01-03T05:24:00.003+02:00

Ron Paul's Words of Warning From 1983 to 2008

2011-12-31T18:18:00.000+02:00

Bill Maher: "Ron Paul the only sane man at the CNBC debate"

2011-12-31T18:01:00.001+02:00

The Best interview ever with Dr. Ron Paul

2011-12-31T17:50:00.003+02:00

Ron Paul will win Iowa,unless they hijack the election

2011-12-31T17:46:00.002+02:00

Media Caught Lying, Ron Paul is a winner!! - Media Bias

2011-12-31T12:50:00.002+02:00

Who is Ron Paul in 15 minutes?... Mr. Consistent...

2011-12-31T08:10:00.002+02:00

Adherence to the Oath

2011-12-31T06:37:00.003+02:00

The Compassion of Dr. Ron Paul

2011-12-31T06:22:00.003+02:00

Neil Cavuto Defends Ron Paul on Fox News

2011-12-28T12:59:00.001+02:00

CNN: People In Iowa Are Rallying Around Someone Who Represents real change

2011-12-28T12:34:00.002+02:00

CNBC learns not to 'mess with' Ron Paul

2011-12-28T11:34:00.006+02:00

Larry King interview... with Ron Paul supposedly never aired.

2011-12-28T11:34:00.002+02:00

Thomas Sowell - Words The Money Of Fools

2011-12-27T16:37:00.002+02:00

Ron Paul educates some liberals

2011-12-27T14:41:00.003+02:00

Ron Paul on Trash TV, 1988

2011-12-26T20:13:00.000+02:00

Ron Paul is like Martin Luther King

2011-12-25T12:57:00.005+02:00

Is Ron Paul Racist?

2011-12-25T12:57:00.001+02:00

Who Created Prosperity? Bureaucrats Or Individuals?

2011-12-20T18:30:00.003+02:00

By Svetlana Kunin
Published Dec 19, 2011

I am not sure what is more puzzling: President Obama's speech in Osawatomie, Kan., on Dec. 6, or the enthusiastic reviews in the mainstream media, such as "Obama attacks Republican economic theory: 'It's never worked,'" by Ann Kornblut in the Washington Post.

IBD Exclusive Series:
Perspectives of a Russian Immigrant

Talking about his grandparents and Americans of the past generations the president said:
"They believed in an America where hard work paid off, responsibility was rewarded and anyone could make it if they tried — no matter who you were, where you came from, or how you started out. ... These values gave rise to the largest middle class and the strongest economy the world has ever known."

Past generations were right. When I immigrated to the U.S. in 1980, my family personally experienced the real opportunities that the country provided us.

Obama continued:

"For most Americans, the basic bargain that made this country great has eroded. ... In 2008, the house of cards collapsed. We all know the story by now: Mortgages sold to people who couldn't afford them or sometimes even understand them.

"Banks and investors allowed to keep packaging the risk and selling it off. Huge bets — and huge bonuses — made with other people's money on the line. Regulators who were supposed to warn us about the dangers of all this, but looked the other way or didn't have the authority to look at all."
Why were mortgages sold to people who couldn't afford them? Why had regulators "looked the other way?"

The president explained:

"It combined the breathtaking greed of a few with irresponsibility across the system. ... Now, in the midst of this debate, there are some who seem to be suffering from a kind of collective amnesia."
Today, in the words of the president, "Children might not have a chance to climb out of that situation and back into the middle class, no matter how hard they work."

In her ravishing reaction to the president's speech, Kornblut writes, "Obama deployed the language of right and wrong, fairness and unfairness, in a lengthy address that aides said he largely wrote himself."
Who put obstacles in the way of American children? Who broke the process, which was instrumental in the creation of the most prosperous middle class "where hard work paid off, responsibility was rewarded, and anyone could make it if they tried"?

Maybe progressive elites are suffering from collective amnesia.

Government interference into bank mortgage practices was the primary cause of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. The Carter administration initiated the process, the Clinton administration amplified the practices and the "compassionate conservative" Bush administration further enabled and witnessed the practice to its crushing end.

More federal government interference into schools resulted in a worsening quality of education. Before the federal Department of Education was created by President Carter in 1980, American schools were ranked among the best in the world. Today U.S. scores are behind those of most other developed nations.

The government's War on Poverty did not eliminate poverty, but it did create more social issues. For many people, dependence on government handouts resulted in the loss of ability to search for the personal talents and aspirations.

Obama complains that "huge advances in technology have allowed businesses to do more with less," adding that "if you're someone whose job can be done cheaper by a computer or someone in another country, you don't have a lot of leverage with your employer when it comes to asking for better wages and benefits — especially since fewer Americans today are part of a union."

At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution at the end of 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, labor unions explicitly objected to and vandalized new technology for the fear of losing jobs. Unions, in order to protect their interests, consistently hinder progress and competition.

"Finally," the president said, "a strong middle class can only exist in an economy where everyone plays by the same rules, from Wall Street to Main Street."

Perhaps Obama forgot about the fact that members of the government are excluded from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare)? Or that Congress is exempt from insider trading laws? Why did Obama revoke vouchers for disadvantaged children in Washington, D.C., so that they can't attend the same school his children attend?

In his speech Obama warned: "At stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home and secure their retirement."

Kornblut writes:

"Although the unemployment rate has been a constant shadow hanging over Obama's presidency, the mechanics of job growth had only a small part in the speech, which dwelled as much on the need for infrastructure investments, better education and a tax code that Obama said 'must reflect our values.'"
This poses the question: Whose values? There is nothing new or innovative in rhetoric about investments into infrastructure and education, and "fair" taxation. In 1920 Vladimir Lenin, the first leader of the Socialist Society, declared: "Communism is Soviet power plus electrification of the whole country."

Of course, in America we are talking about different infrastructure projects, but the idea is the same. The slogan, "Study, Study, Study — as bestowed by the great Lenin!" was found hanging in each school in the USSR.

The question of a fair approach to taxation in totalitarian socialism can be simple. What is the minimal cost of living? The socialist answer can be found in the old Soviet joke: "The minimal cost of living is the minimum needed for people to live on, so that the government can be comfortable."

Whether talented or mediocre, proletariat or professionals, all were equally poor, while top government officials had special housing, stores and medical facilities allocated just for them. Education does not lead to a prosperous society if people are not free to pursue their interests.

The USSR lasted from 1917 to 1987. Despite the Russian population being very well-educated and everyone paying whatever government found to be "fair share" of their salaries, by 1987 the centrally managed economy was collapsing.

So what is it that drove American progress if, in the words of Obama, the free market "doesn't work. It's never worked"? Was America's standard of living achieved due to individuals using their own capacities, in their own pursuits for happiness or success, unhindered by government control? Or was it thanks to government bureaucrats drawing up plans and managing the economy?

American progressives remind me of the top echelon of Soviet Communists: so confident in their condescension to people outside their circle, so in love with their rhetoric about fairness and the welfare of the masses, and so indifferent to the real fate of individual human beings.

• Kunin lived in the Soviet Union until 1980, working as a civil engineer. She is now a retired software developer living in Connecticut. The other articles she has written for IBD can be found at IBDeditorials.com.

Fixing Britain

2011-12-19T13:44:00.000+02:00

In the Inaugural LSBF HRH Prince Michael of Kent Business Lecture, Lord Digby Jones addresses the essential reform urgently needed for the UK's competitiveness in the globalised 21st century economy.

The Collapse of The American Dream Explained in Animation

2011-12-18T08:49:00.001+02:00

Ron Paul Answering Brilliantly

2011-12-08T04:23:00.002+02:00

Candidates@Google: Ron Paul

2011-12-07T20:11:00.000+02:00

Dennis Prager - The Left's Values

2011-11-27T16:04:00.001+02:00

Milton Friedman - Solutions to Market Failures

2011-11-25T17:38:00.000+02:00

John Stossel On Obama's First Year In Office

2011-11-25T16:31:00.001+02:00

John Stossel - Free to Choose

2011-11-25T16:26:00.002+02:00

John Stossel - Government's Energy Star

2011-11-25T15:57:00.001+02:00

John Stossel - Alternative Energy Subsidies

2011-11-25T15:47:00.001+02:00

John Stossel - Delusions of Energy Independence

2011-11-25T15:43:00.001+02:00

Thomas Sowell on Milton Friedman

2011-11-25T15:18:00.000+02:00

John Stossel - Failed Education Monopoly

2011-11-25T15:10:00.001+02:00

John Stossel - Big Lies about American Business

2011-11-25T15:06:00.001+02:00

So You Think Money is the Root of All Evil?

2011-11-25T15:05:00.000+02:00

John Stossel - Green Jobs

2011-11-25T15:03:00.001+02:00

John Stossel - Blinded With Science

2011-11-25T14:37:00.004+02:00

John Stossel - A Right to Collective Bargaining

2011-11-25T14:37:00.001+02:00

John Stossel - Green Fantasies

2011-11-25T14:35:00.003+02:00

John Stossel - Does Free Trade Exploit the Poor?

2011-11-25T14:35:00.002+02:00

John Stossel - Influence of Milton Friedman

2011-11-25T14:33:00.000+02:00

John Stossel - Recipe for Prosperity

2011-11-25T14:30:00.001+02:00

John Stossel - Alleviating World Poverty

2011-11-25T14:29:00.001+02:00

John Stossel - Infrastructure Spending

2011-11-25T14:25:00.001+02:00

John Stossel - The Money Hole

2011-11-25T12:31:00.001+02:00

Ron Paul Interview On DeFace The Nation

2011-11-21T03:40:00.001+02:00

Why Leftists, Communists, & Anti-Semites Support Occupy Wall St

2011-11-10T21:11:00.000+02:00

Tom Woods: Final 15 - Nullify Now!

2011-11-02T09:04:00.001+02:00

Peter Schiff on Huckabee

2011-11-02T09:02:00.003+02:00

Ron Paul hour long interview 10/28/11

2011-11-02T09:02:00.001+02:00

Thomas Sowell - That Top 1%

2011-11-01T14:32:00.001+02:00

Thomas Woods on Child Labor

2011-11-01T03:45:00.000+02:00

Dr. Thomas Sowell on Child Labour

2011-11-01T03:43:00.000+02:00

THERE WAS A CERTAIN IRONY in a recent news story about the government cracking down on Sears because the department store chain was accused of having hired some workers who were not quite old enough to be working, according to the child labor laws.

Richard Sears, who founded the company, was younger than these workers when he began working. So was Aaron Montgomery Ward. An even younger worker was James Cash Penney, Jr., founder of the chain of stores bearing his name.

When J. C. Penney was an eight-year-old boy growing up on a family farm, his father told him that he was now old enough to buy his own clothes. Moreover, neither his parents nor his older siblings would tell him how to get the money. He had to figure that out for himself, as the older children had had to do before him. With a hole in his shoe, he had a special incentive to go find some work to do.

These department store magnates were not unique in starting to work at an early age. John Jacob Astor, who would eventually become the richest man in America, left home and began working at lowly jobs as a teenager. So did future Wall Street financier Jay Gould, future steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, future oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, future founder of the American automobile industry Henry Ford and future radio pioneer David Sarnoff, who created RCA and NBC.

What if our wonderfully compassionate and ever zealous social crusaders had been around then and had managed to put a stop to this child labor? Would these energetic young fellows have been diverted into midnight basketball or perhaps gone into the underground economy and possibly crime?

If they had ended up in jail or on welfare or on drugs, the social crusaders would undoubtedly have come to their rescue with half-way houses or other programs that would have made them wards of the state. Meanwhile, the social crusaders would feel good about themselves because of all the benefits they were showering on the less fortunate with the taxpayers' money.

Do-gooders are not the only people with a vested interest in restrictive child labor laws. Labor unions have always supported and promoted laws that keep young people out of the work force, where they would otherwise compete for jobs with the unions' own members. Since these young people have to be warehoused someplace while they are kept idle, unions have also been big supporters of compulsory attendance laws that keep teenagers in school, even when they are learning nothing except irresponsibility and self-indulgent mischief-making.

The education establishment itself has of course been all in favor of keeping teenagers in school long past the point where it is accomplishing nothing, except providing jobs for teachers and administrators. Those jobs are not a small thing, as far as the National Education Association is concerned. And the NEA, with its millions of dollars in campaign contributions, is no small thing as far as the politicians are concerned.

At one time, child labor laws were used to stop youngsters whose ages had not yet reached double digits from working in exhausting and dangerous factories and mines. Today, they are used to keep big healthy teenagers from handling pieces of paper in air-conditioned offices.

Education is of course important. But, like many other things that are important, how much of it makes sense varies from person to person, as well as according to circumstances. Not everyone should continue on to get a Ph.D. and then receive a post-doctoral fellowship.

The point along the way at which it makes sense to stop cannot be determined by simply saying that education is a Good Thing or by calling people "drop-outs" when they decide that they have had enough before third parties want to turn them loose. Much of what is called education is glorified baby-sitting, producing little more than artificially extended adolescence.

The stringency of today's compulsory attendance laws and child labor laws prevents many young people from getting the kind of maturity that can only be found in work and in personal responsibility. If nothing else, many teenagers need to get out of their adolescent subculture and into an environment where they can draw upon the experience of adults around them, instead of absorbing the fads of similarly immature peers.

The Difference Between Liberal and Conservative

2011-10-30T15:37:00.001+02:00

Jim Rogers I do not trust any Bankers !!!!!!!

2011-10-30T08:07:00.001+02:00

Jim Rogers the US is Finished

2011-10-30T08:03:00.002+02:00

Jim Rogers the UK is Finished

2011-10-30T07:52:00.003+02:00

Peter Schiff's Predictions (2002-2009)

2011-10-30T07:44:00.001+02:00

John Stossel - Who Creates Jobs?

2011-10-28T14:08:00.001+02:00

John Stossel - The Job Killers

2011-10-28T13:46:00.000+02:00

John Stossel - 99% Economic Illiteracy

2011-10-28T13:44:00.000+02:00

What Has America Become?

2011-10-28T09:26:00.000+02:00

Ron Paul Enters A Den Of Vipers, Interview With Fox "All Stars"

2011-10-27T07:44:00.001+02:00

Student Loan Bubble Explained

2011-10-24T04:27:00.001+02:00

50 Year Old Cartoon Lesson

2011-10-20T18:39:00.001+02:00

Dylan Ratigan MSNBC Interviews Ron Paul "The most honest politician I deal with"

2011-10-18T09:24:00.001+02:00

Dylan Ratigan MSNBC "I'm Mad As Hell And I'm Not Gonna Take It Anymore" Moment

2011-10-17T18:40:00.003+02:00

Nigel Farage: Trapped Inside an Economic Prison

2011-10-13T15:52:00.001+02:00

Nigel Farage: Euro Insanity, Bailouts, Euro Collapsing

2011-10-13T15:38:00.002+02:00

Ron Paul Heroically Stands Up to Chris Matthews

2011-10-13T15:06:00.000+02:00

Why Ron Paul Must Be President

2011-10-13T14:51:00.000+02:00

Herman Cain vs. Ron Paul On Predicting The Economic Collapse

2011-10-13T14:36:00.000+02:00

Ron Paul Inverview with John Stosse

2011-10-10T07:03:00.001+02:00

Ron Paul Inverview with John Stosse

2011-10-10T07:03:00.000+02:00

Ron Paul Sponsor

2011-10-07T07:56:00.002+02:00

Ron Paul Message to Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-07T07:50:00.000+02:00

Jared Taylor Interview

2011-10-03T13:45:00.001+02:00

Obama Supporters "Occupy" DC

2011-10-03T12:23:00.001+02:00

Trader on the BBC says Eurozone Market will crash

2011-09-28T14:40:00.001+03:00

Israel Palestinian Conflict: The Truth About...

2011-09-24T19:52:00.001+03:00

Affirmative Action is Racist

2011-09-24T16:57:00.001+03:00