June 20, 2011
Monday

Oh goodie... another unhinged rant from David Hanger! It's such a target-rich environment one hardly knows where to begin.

In a writing style most charitably described as incoherent, Hanger spent 4,662 words (thank you, Bill Gates, for that nifty word count tool in Microsoft Word!) to inform us ignorant rubes that RICH. PEOPLE. SUCK.

Not a single stereotypical villain evades his withering gaze: speculators, profiteers, Wall Street, (that's code for those evil Jews, for those of you playing at home). This jaw-dropper, in particular, stands out: The rich, in short, are destroying the government by starving it to death.

I could barely contain my laughter at that whopper. Really, Hanger? I understand that being busy holding your breath, crapping your diapers and throwing temper tantrums has perhaps kept you from noticing, but the government is hardly starving. You might want to google National Debt Clock, and get back to us. We ll wait. Us working class folks, however, *are* about to starve, thanks to the economically illiterate Marxist-in-Chief and his cabinet. Trivia of the day for you, Hanger: a whopping 8% of Obama's cabinet have PRIVATE SECTOR EXPERIENCE. That s the lowest percentage for ANY PRESIDENT EVER. The remainder are so-called academics. To paraphrase economist Thomas Sowell, it s hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong--like ivory tower academics.

By the shear law of averages, Hanger did make a cogent bservation: big corporations and rich folks DO INDEED use government for their own purposes. Wall Street is not an example of the free market; it is, rather, the poster child for crony capitalism.

Unfortunately, Hanger draws the wrong conclusion from the truth he has accidentally stumbled upon. His solution, like the rest of his fellow progressives, is--wait for it--MORE GOVERNMENT! Has it ever occurred to you, Hanger, that maybe BIG GOVERNMENT is the problem? The more the federal government grows and consolidates its power, the more incentive it gives the wealthy, the powerful and the politically-connected to manipulate and distort the system to their own advantage. The smaller government is (think "Night Watchman State," as the founders had in mind), and the less powerful, the fewer incentives (and opportunity) for corruption and mischief. A truly FREE MARKET is the worst nightmare of Big Business.

Hanger might want to start reading more Milton Friedman, and less Karl Marx.

Cheers!

Richard Easbey
Ketchikan, AK