Protesting vs Looting

In 1963 the late Reverend Martin Luther King organized a march on Washington DC, where he made his "I have a Dream" speech, to foster change in the United States. Louis Farrakhan organized a march on Washington DC in 1995, the so called Million Man March, to also elicit personal pride and change in the country.

Some say nothing much has happened to change things in this country since then.

I can see why marching on Washington isn't doing much to change things. Our Constitutional Government, by design, is geared for measured change. So it stands to reason that frustration can occur when groups, hungry for acceptance, decide it's better to take a shortcut.

But why, instead of marching to City Hall, The State House or head to Washington, do today's protesters head straight to the Mercantile Districts?

If a march on Washington isn't going to do it for you, I can't see the political advantage of tearing into an Apple Store or a Macy's Department Store. All I can get from this is that, rather than this being about the careless murder of a man by the callous police, it's about getting free stuff for yourself. In fact, it's ALL about YOU, isn't it?

Here in the city of Boston, last evenings "Protesters" marched right past the State House, where the State Legislature meets and where the Governor has his offices and headed instead down the street to nearby Downtown Crossing, where there are department stores, jewelry shops and other businesses big and small.

Why pick there to do your protesting?

Across the street from the State House is the famous Boston Common, which has been a traditional place to hold protests and rallies. The British garrison stationed on the Common, back when Boston was locked down and closed off by the British Empire following the Tea Party, watched Samuel Adams ride by on his way to the 2nd Continental Congress in Philadelphia to urge independence for the Colonies.

But this place too, was overlooked for the expression of the personal moral outrage felt by those marchers who only wanted to show their solidarity with the spirit of George Floyd, I'm sure. The city common is just not a suitable place to fully communicate their view on race relations in these United States circa 2020.

No, they have to go to the Shops!

This is where they can best be heard.

We just can't understand what it's like to be them! We can't walk in their shoes because we don't know, won't know, CAN'T possibly EVER know what it's like to be where they are at this very moment in their unrelenting grief.

Which at the moment is standing outside the window of the Shop & Save with a brick in their hand and a firebomb in their backpack.

"NOBODY knows how we FEEL!" they scream. "You racist, leave us alone to protest the only way we can to express our feelings."

"After all, they're only stores and shops, they're not people. They have insurance! So whats wrong with tearing them up? "

I've heard this lately from media people and Liberal politicians and it's unbelievable the lack of support for the people who risked their savings and put in the time to start a small business. Whole families depend on the income of many of these places and they all work there. With the taxes they pay, this is what they get? After being arbitrarily shut down and thrown out of work for 3 whole months, this is what they get?

Contrary to popular belief, it is the Small Businesses that drive employment in this country. Businesses that employ under 100 people employ the most people in the U.S. and not the big corporations. And between the bizarre shutting down of "non-essential" businesses and now the direct burning and looting attacks directed, not at the seats of government but at them, small business in this country is suddenly very much on the ropes.

This isn't an accident. This is by design to make sure the small businessman, a vulnerable pillar of our economy, is injured beyond repair. This is the double-whammy of being denied revenue combined with a guarantee of increased overhead because their insurance premiums will be going up, that is, if they're insured at all which many are not. It's not free money.

And once they're gone, who will risk taking their place?

Our local governors and mayors better wake up and drop the political game to stop this now.

This is not a protest and these are not protesters.

Time for the Governors to quit dragging their feet and open up the States already.

Let's get back to work!

Venezuelan Citizenry Losing Moral High Ground

This is the trick of the Socialist System: Make the slaves love their slavery

Make them embrace their servitude and instill the fear that they can’t function on their own without the heavy hand of government. This is where the people of Venezuela are right now. There are many who still understand how their country is supposed to work but they are outnumbered by those who just blindly WANT and will run to the hand that will GIVE it do them. Enter El Presedente Maduro or should I say "Robin Hood".

It is disturbing to read the quotes from the “bargain hunters” queuing up at the Daka electronics chain recently seized by Venezuelan government troops to hear them say they have no love for the government BUT are still all too willing to take a cheap Television basically at the retail electronics chain's and their 500 employee's expense.

There is a lesson to be learned in all of this.

The Venezuelan people have shortages of the most basic products of human sustenance: Chicken, rice, coffee, sugar, cornflour, cooking oil, milk and yes, even the most important paper in any business or home; toilet tissue, and yet will queue up and purchase at a "discount" a Television when Mr. Maduro sends his goon squad to set up an organized looting of a Venezuelan electronics chain. 

People can rationalize anything.

Venezuela USED TO produce rice and USED TO produce coffee, good coffee too but since the government introduced price controls producers of these products dwindled and when the government eventually took over most of the fields, these products have all but disappeared in quantity that can feed a town never mind a nation. This is the same sort of process that led to the former Soviet Union’s disappointing 76 year crop “Drought”.

Yet the recent hordes that lined up as soon as the government solders jailed the Daka chain’s store managers and started selling the inventory at “fair” prices, all that is apparently forgotten and what the government has done is a GOOD THING. It has become obvious that the Venezuelan people either don’t know or don’t care and for this I have lost my sympathy for their situation since we here in the formerly industrialized Northeastern part of the United States face a similar situation in the future. They have made their choice and they are to suffer the consequences since there will be no one to help them. Socialism isn't about helping oneself unless you include "helping yourself" to the fruits of someone else's labor. But how long will that last?

I hope those TELEVISIONS last awhile since I have a feeling that this will be the last crack most of the Venezuelan people get at them. I find this more than ironic since Venezuela is also a country that can’t seem to keep the electricity running on a weekly basis, having frequent blackouts across the Provinces. The Venezuelan infrastructure is crumbling.

The Venezuelan economy has too much money chasing too few goods. This means that the Venezuelan government has created money in excess of production. That means inflation or rather "Inflación increíble!".

When a government taxes, regulates, price controls and downright seizes the assests of private busnesses, you essentially drive them and the businesses that produce the goods they sell out of business and production halts. The Venezuelan people may love the idea that they have money in their pockets but since the means of production has been confiscated, consumers can't purchase what isn't made. This is the lopsided economic model that Socialism produces and has never failed to reach: Inefficiencies, shortages and hardship.  

In a Free Market system manufacturers will increase supply to meet demand and bring a balance to a products availability and its pricing. This is what leads to new hiring and the growth of industry, production and wealth. Lacking this, Venezuela is a poor country.

But Venezuela does have oil. Venezuela has LOTS of oil. Problem is they can’t seem to get it outta the ground on their own yet they seem to hate the people that help them. They’ve seized oil platforms from private drillers but now those ungrateful people have pulled out of the country so there won’t be any more where that came from.

Taking things from Free Market enterprises does not serve as a long-term economic strategy.

But that's the basic Method of Operation for Socialist/Totalitarian regimes. They HAVE to take from the producers since these systems don't produce. Mr. Maduro’s government, like his predecessor Hugo Chavez, have to continue to seize private enterprises until there is nothing left to take. That's when the failure of these "Business Models" show their gapping flaws: They don't make any money.

And this is all come about because of Capitalism. That’s right. Or to be more exact the Free Market principle of Capitalism which raises many boats and allows for more than a single power structure. This has to go since it is in direct opposition to a Totalitarian power structure. We can’t have multiple groups with resources and means of self-fulfillment and quality of life. Totalitarians everywhere agree that the people must only come to them for sustenance.   

Yet the Invisible Hand of the Marketplace is still all around us, it is born into us right from the very beginning of our lives.  It motivates us to do things for ourselves and by ourselves we can serve others and ourselves at the same time. It raises all boats, or rather all boats that want to float, and rewards those who wish to work and who have a better idea, to reap the benefits of that work and those ideas.

No, it's not Utopia and it has never passed itself off as such. Not everybody makes it to the top of their profession but then again, everybody's idea of the Top is different. You'll at least be better off at the level you achieve then if you never went for it and if you go out to buy  a steak, sushi, chicken or rice, the chances are very good that you'll be able to put your hand right on them and that you can afford to buy them.

Without this Work/Reward dynamic, there are no new ideas, no new industry and no prosperity. If you want something, anything really, understand what it will take to achieve and are willing to do the work for it, you can get it. Better to have a chance on a level playing field and fail than to never get a chance in the first place. To lock oneself in a cycle of dependency is the greatest failure.

The Venezuelan people appear to not realize what an opportunity they have in their hands since they are not without the industrial spirit. They just don’t know who to blame for their current situation. Right now, it looks like THEMSELVES. After close to two decades of Socialist claptrap, it appears a majority will still pull the lever for President Maduro.

Oh, but Capitalists loot and exploit the people! They only work for profit and grow rich through the toil of the downtrodden. Why should the top people in the organization get paid more than the lower people? Why don’t they pay people “Living” wages? It is the Capitalists who have TVs and the people get nothing!

Ok, then feel free to move to Venezuela where they’ve managed to get rid of those evil Capitalists.

They’re doing so much better there.