Schadenfreude: n\ 'sha-d'h-Froi-da. Enjoyment obtained from the trouble of others. Interesting. H.L. Mencken defined Puritanism as the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy. Andy Kessler, investor, spins this Puritanism definition to now be "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be successful. Finally, do you remember the old joke about the Russian who isn't happy that he and his neighbor each have a cow? He isn't truly happy until his neighbor's cow dies.
Why can't the socialists let others be successful? Don't they understand that someone has to be the adult, that someone needs to make the money for them to redistribute? Apparently they do not read JAM Views, or they would understand that governments have no money; they only take from the producers and give to the looters.
So, now the socialists want to break up the successful companies, but at the same time they want the government to provide a Universal Income to every citizen. They are too uneducated to understand that these two objectives are mutually exclusive.
Columbia law professor Tim Wu recently stated, "We've let Facebook have their ride, they've made their money and they've been very successful" but it's time to "break things up a little bit." First of all, "he" and his academics haven't "let" Facebook do anything. Doesn't this ring of the previous Administration's proclamations that a rugged individualist never built anything, only the government can do this?
The collectivists now want Facebook to divest of Instagram and WhatsApp, Amazon to sell whole Foods, Google to get rid of DoubleClick, and Apple to spin off the App Store. This is no different than calls years ago to stop IBM and GE. Collectivists don't understand that innovation and free markets take care of rebalancing the equation, moving towards equilibrium naturally. Soon, great innovations in a multitude of smaller companies will make most of the above names irrelevant, just as IBM and GE are today.
But, in the interim stage, Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Samsung are spending $85 billion per year on research and development, which will multiply exponentially into products, services, and thousands of other startups which we cannot even envision today. Why break that up through foolish government mandates?
Next, Universal Income, a minimum paycheck to every citizen regardless of their personal production, is also gaining momentum as "a reasonable idea." Beyond the expected lunatics in the news today, this extra government paycheck has recently been supported by Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk. I'm sure you've noticed that once your net worth exceeds $1 billion, you must replace your capitalistic drive to succeed with a huge bucket of guilt for how you got there, at least when you are publicly addressing the media.
They all must have burned their copy of Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations," and already had dropped out of Stanford before taking the Behavioral Economics 101 course. In a shocking paradox, the startup incubator, Y-Combinator, is pushing the Basic Income Project which would provide an extra $1,000 per month for everyone, or instead a fixed percentage of the nation's GDP every year. They don't understand that there would not be any more GDP!
If you think this will never happen, just look to Italy whose left wing 5-Star Movement's legislators have just instituted reddito di cittadinanza, or citizen's income. Italian citizens will be required to do eight hours of community service per week and must accept one of their first three job offers (from whom?) to keep getting their checks. Analysts estimate that nearly 20% of Italy's economy is "off the books," so there should be a huge crowd qualifying for the additional check, about $11,000 extra per year. And, consistent with these brain-dead economics, any unspent monthly balances are clawed back so savings are impossible, and, of course, if you work more you lose the same amount from your government check. I swear I don't make this stuff up! It reminds me of how the Air Force Academy's roads were beautifully re-paved every year, whether they needed it or not, to ensure we did not lose our government allocation next year.
I urge all JAM Views readers not to scoff at these ideas which destroy innovation, motivation, and dreams realization. Social media, jealousy and lack of education can combine quickly into a terrible cocktail intoxicating 51% of the vote. These terrible human traits bubble over where you least expect them. Everyone "wants your stuff!" Send in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for your FBI file (trust me, there is one) and review their collection of financial documentation on your mortgages and car leases back further than you can remember, yourself. Ask yourself why they have all that information on you. Pay attention. Seek knowledge.
"Property is the fruit of labor - property is desirable - is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement in industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built." - Abraham Lincoln
* Many thanks to the WSJ, Forbes, & Fortune, & especially Andy Kessler for the above statistics and quotations.
** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.
** To access JAM Views directly please visit jeffreyamartinovich.blogspot.com
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