Get Ready to Learn (recieved in e-mail today)

[Seeya]

From:A Patriot (changed to protect their e-mail)
Sent: Sunday, May 6, 2012 10:32 PM
Subject: Get ready to Learn........ : )


OK, so I pointed to this article (on a Tea Party web site) - about a recent event where Paul Ryan challenged some Liberal Catholics.

I sent them to look at this article, where I believe Paul Ryan did a GREAT job of explaining a Conservative Catholic perspective:

McGurn: Paul Ryan's Cross to Bear - WSJ.com

Then, half hour ago, somebody called ROC responded with THIS: (Enjoy!):
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Mr. Ryan's critics are not practicing Christianity when they call for the government to care for the poor. I challenge anyone to show me where Christ said give to Caesar so that Caesar may help the poor. Christian teaching says that we are to help the poor despite Caesar not through Caesar.
The reason Christianity does not rely on Caesar is that government has nothing to give to anyone that it has not first taken by physical force or by force of law from someone else.

Governments Consume
Governments don’t produce wealth. If this were not true, why do governments collect taxes? Why don’t they just pay their bills out of the wealth that they have produced? The fact is that all governments, from the very first, consume wealth. Everything that the government does, even if necessary or important, is consumption.
Prior to the 18th century, all Governments acquired wealth by invasion, conquest, enslaving the conquered, various forms of subjection (serf, vassal, coolie, etc.) and by taxing.
Then some genius philosophers came along and said that men should not be subjects but should be free. That they, not the government, should benefit from their labor. That government power should be limited to that which only the government can do such as protect them from enemies abroad and miscreants at home. That the government should be supported by tariffs and if taxing became necessary, all should be taxed equally. They eschewed democracy and created a Constitutional Republic.
Then in 1913 the Republic was turned into a Democracy, a form of government that our Founding Fathers considered suicidal.

Equal taxation died with the 16th Amendment allowing an income tax. When first proposed, we were told that only the incomes of the wealthiest 1% would be taxed and that the rate would be from 1% to 7%. It has been as high as 90%.
The 17th Amendment attacked State sovereignty by changing senators from appointment by State Legislatures to election by popular vote. This led to more power being concentrated in Washington.
And, finally, the Federal Reserve Act was passed which, with other changes, allowed the printing of fiat money. As we print more money, the dollar loses its credibility. In time, like the Soviet ruble, it will have no exchange rate and no value on international money markets.
Today we are 16 trillion dollars in debt and counting. National wealth production is on a descending trajectory. With increased government activity, wealth consumption is on an ascending trajectory.
Since we no longer teach the basics of economics (we teach a lot of advanced gobbledygook that few understand and is forgotten as soon as finals are over) few people understand how wealth is created. They demand that the government create jobs not understanding that any jobs created by the government just consume more wealth. They believe that we can create wealth with a service economy. They don’t understand that wealth consists of transferable assets. Where do you find services listed on a balance sheet?
Wealth can only be created in the private sector. People growing, building and making things that others will give up time and energy to acquire. Private sector jobs are what we need not jobs created by Washington.
Washington is so busy trying to tell us how to live that they are failing at one of the things that they are supposed to do, as stated above, protect us from miscreants at home. Despite repeated warnings, since 2000 by Harry Markopolos, Washington failed to act to stop Bernie Madoff.
But they are quick to tell us what to grow by consuming wealth in order to provide subsidies to farmers to grow corn for ethanol which resulted in increased costs for food. Then cotton farmers planted corn instead of cotton so as to profit from the subsidies. This resulted in cotton production moving to South America. For those of you that are slow learners, growing cotton produces wealth, subsidizing corn consumes wealth. And ethanol from corn consumes more energy than it produces.
The con artists in Washington tell us that they will pay for their hand outs (including those to farmers and businesses) by taxing big business and the wealthy. They get away with this lie because, due to economic ignorance, we don’t understand that businesses don’t pay taxes the purchasers of their goods and services pay the taxes for them, even when the buyer earns less than $250,000 or is poor. And taxing the wealthy doesn’t work, because they don’t become wealthy by being stupid. When income tax rates on the wealthy reached 90% it became cheaper to pay lawyers and accountants fees than to pay the taxes. If you lower taxes it becomes cheaper to pay the tax than to avoid it. This results in more revenue.
So, they say, we’ll just pass more and more laws to prevent them from avoiding the tax. Well, Washington expanding or creating agencies to enforce these laws just consumes more wealth increasing our debt. And, the more laws you have the more of a police state you become.
That’s why our founder’s made a distinction between “Natural law” and “Man Made” law. Natural law can be thought of as cultural. Freedom is possible when the culture informs the law. When the law informs the culture, you have tyranny. The road to power and tyranny is paved with Man Made law. That’s the road that we’re on. The question is: How do we get off this road?
American History education has been corrupted. Political "right fights" have replaced philosophical inquiry. Sophistry and rhetoric have turned us into the Tower of Babble where little is understood and emotion informs our decisions. We are Rome and I fear for my country.

[buckey01]

The progressives have been working towards the destruction of the Republic for a century. The American people no longer know enough about their history, government or economic system to understand what they have lost. I'm not sure that this country and the real "american dream" can be saved. We have become a selfish and envious people. More than 50% of Americans believe that they deserve the good life at the expense of others. Unfortinately they are Obama voters.

[fstroupe]

Unfortinately they are Obama voters.

The only disagreement I have with your statement is that I believe that they are much more than 50% and that they include not only all Obama voters, but also many that voted for others, and most that didn't vote at all.

I want in my heart to believe there is a chance, however small, that we could save our nation. But I don't think that there are enough people that believe that our country is in real trouble to make it happen.