MONDAY, MARCH 30, 2009
Hotel Conversations: What are they Revealing?
When you sit in a hotel restaurant you hear many different conversations. When you sit in a hotel restaurant in Washington DC the conversations are more focused. Last week while in Washington, I heard several conversations between business people having breakfast or an after dinner drink in the bar. The discussions went something like this. Business person #1 (BP1) to BP2, “Why are you here this week?” BP2, “I’m visiting several Congressmen regarding funding for the ABC weapon system. I want them to know that this system represents 83,000 jobs. These are jobs America can’t stand to lose right now.” BP1, “I know what you mean. I’m here to talk to my State’s Senators about getting money for improving our agricultural canal system. Our farmers are hurting and these projects would help them and create more jobs in rural areas.”
Over and over, although the details may change, the subject is getting money from the Government for some special interest project. The list of ‘deserving’ causes runs the alphabet from Agriculture and Banking to Yacht builders and Zoos. The justification of the day is creating jobs, the result is money taken from one group and given to another.
The real cost is never discussed. Yet, the cost will be paid and it will be much dearer than most imagine. The multi trillion-dollar deficits and trillion-dollar Federal Reserve injections into the banking system will cause huge disruptions to the capital markets, businesses, and individuals. Beyond that they are destroying the accumulated wealth of the nation. Wealth that required 300 years of work and saving is being liquidated in order to maintain the power of Government and the Banking system. The savings of the all the generations who prospered under free-markets, individual liberty, and limited Government are being sacrificed at the altar of the State.
A free and independent people cannot co-exist with unlimited Government. As President Garfield stated, "Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce." I would add that such Government is also “absolute master of all its citizens.”
The threat is upon us. Will we rise against it or submit to its shackles?