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Many months ago, I had a post that introduced something called the Groovy Curve. The Groovy Curve shows the relationship between government coercion and a citizen’s security and quality of life. When government coercion is nonexistent, a citizen’s security and quality of life are miserable. As government coercion grows to protect the peace and promote the general welfare, a citizen’s security and quality of life improve dramatically. But eventually, government coercion reaches a tipping point. More government coercion doesn’t advance a citizen’s security and quality of life. More government coercion actually starts to make things worse. And if government coercion continues to grow unabated, our citizen will find him- or herself exactly where he or she was when government coercion was nonexistent: his or her security and quality of life will once again be miserable.
The Groovy Curve post also introduced two concepts that are essential to liberty:
- Paycheck freedom: Paycheck freedom simply means you have complete dominion over 75 percent or more of your income. No one can tell you how to spend that portion of your income. When the combined tax bite from all levels of government—federal, state, and local—exceeds 25 percent, however, paycheck freedom has been lost. Here are the various stages of that unfortunate predicament:
- Paycheck abuse: The combined tax bite from all levels of government is between 25 and 40 percent.
- Paycheck serfdom: The combined tax bite from all levels of government is between 40 and 70 percent.
- Paycheck slavery: The combined tax bite from all levels of government is 70 percent or greater.
- Endowment freedom: Endowment freedom simply means you have an equal opportunity to try in whatever competitive endeavor you choose to test your mettle. In other words, your ability to compete isn’t torpedoed by any arbitrary and capricious laws. You have competition equality—you and your competitors face the same rules and are judged by the same standards. When arbitrary and capricious laws tilt the playing toward the politically powerful, however, endowment freedom has been lost. Here are the various stages of that unfortunate predicament:
- Endowment abuse: This is when anti-competition-equality laws are occupation based (entrenchocracy). Professionals and trades-people hobble their competition by getting the government to pass needlessly onerous occupation-licensing laws. Fewer people thus enter these pampered professions and trades and those who have managed to enter them can now charge more for their services.
- Endowment serfdom: This is when anti-competition-equality laws become more sinister. They’re not just occupation based; they’re now trait based as well (crowocracy). People with one particular immutable trait (e.g., white skin, male genitals, Hispanic surname, etc.) hobble their competition by getting the government to pass “equity” laws. People with the pampered immutable trait are now guaranteed a certain percentage of some coveted good (e.g., admission to Ivy League colleges, government contracts, civil-service jobs, etc.). Finally, endowment serfdom also includes crony capitalism and crony socialism (democratic socialism). This is when Big Business and Big Bureaucracy get the government to hobble their competition by giving them preferential tax treatment or by making sure the consumer is forced to buy an excessive amount of their goods or services. A great example of crony capitalism is the military-industrial complex. A great example of crony socialism is the education-industrial complex.
- Endowment slavery: This is when anti-competition-equality laws are at their most sinister. Occupation-based and trait-based anti-competition-equality laws are out the window. All anti-competition-equality laws and practices are now entirely politically based. And they’re legion— they permeate every aspect of society. Anyone who isn’t in the party that controls the government serves at the pleasure of that party. The party owns you. It decides what occupation you may toil in and what business you may start. It also decides how far your talent and drive will take you. If it likes you, you will find yourself with a fair amount of endowment freedom. If it dislikes you, it will ruin you socially, professionally, and financially. You’ll be relegated to some low-paying, low-status job. And if it really dislikes you, it will disappear you or ship your butt to a “reeducation” camp.
Now let’s look at where our beloved Democrats and Republicans fall on the Groovy Curve.
The Democratic Party is without a doubt the party of robbery-centric government. The least robbery-centric Democrat out there is firmly devoted to democratic socialism. He or she is thus perfectly okay with a mild imposition of paycheck serfdom and endowment serfdom. But, sadly, milk-toast Democrats are few in number. The vast majority of Democrats today are either devoted to fascism with bigotry or communism with bigotry. In other words, your typical Democrat today fully embraces paycheck slavery and endowment slavery—and fully embraces second-class citizenship for the groups he or she doesn’t like (e.g., whites, males, straights, conservatives, Christians, etc.). The only point of contention between totalitarian Democrats is who should own the means of production. Fascist-with-bigotry Democrats think state ownership of the means of production is unnecessary. Why go through the hassle of owning and running every business in the land when you can sit back and tax the crap out of business profits and supervise the crap out of company CEOs? You get the same control using the administrative state, and you still have a ready foil―those greedy capitalists—to distract the great unwashed whenever they get uppity and begin to question the quality of their lives. Communist-with-bigotry Democrats, on the other hand, want the hassle of owning and running every business in the land.
Now let’s consider the Republican Party.
When I was a young man, I was very naive regarding the Republican Party. Nah, scratch that previous sentence. I wasn’t naive regarding the Republican Party. I was an asshole regarding the Republican Party. I actually believed the Republicans were the good guys and its leadership was fiercely devoted to the cause of liberty.
Fortunately, the rinky-dink highway department that employed me for 21 years was part of a municipality that was dominated by the Republican Party. This means I got to see firsthand what the Republican Party really cared about. And I saw little evidence that it cared about liberty and was keenly interested in doing away with robbery-centric government at the local level (it loved crony capitalism and socialism). Nor did I see much evidence that it was dedicated to being a great steward of taxpayer dollars. In fact, I saw much evidence to the contrary. The needs of the taxpayers were always a distant second to the needs of the Republican Party. And the Republican Party’s contempt for the taxpayer was best exemplified by something I call the monetization of decision-making. Virtually any decision that could be sold was sold. Promotions, bonuses, and plum assignments were routinely awarded, not based on merit, but on who donated the most to the Republican Party. Needless to say, this business model didn’t bode well for the taxpayers. It engendered a lot of resentment, sloth, and feigned incompetency among the rank-and-file workers who weren’t politically inclined. The taxpayers thus ended up paying a lot of money for some pretty crummy service.
My firsthand experience with the Republican Party was only at the local level. And it was only from 1986 to 2007. It’s quite possible the Republican Party is a different animal on the state and national level. And it’s quite possible that the character of the Republican Party has changed dramatically for the better since 2007. But I just don’t see it. When it comes to advancing the cause of liberty, I firmly believe the Republican Party “ain’t worth a warm bucket of spit.” Your everyday Republican is perfectly okay with paycheck abuse and endowment abuse. And most Republicans have made peace with paycheck serfdom and endowment serfdom. That’s why they did nothing to stop the Left from turning public education into an indoctrination mill that glorifies robbery-centric government and anti-white, anti-male bigotry. That’s why they did nothing to stop the Left from weaponizing immigration and flooding the country with future voters who are far more likely to vote for democratic socialism than for libocracy (i.e., the property-centric form of government that delivers the most security and best quality of life the governed can hope to have). And that’s why they’re doing nothing now to stop Big Tech and Big Social Media from decreeing there is only one true narrative and that one true narrative is the narrative that equates robbery-centric government with sunshine and lollipops and property-centric government with darkness and toadstool sandwiches.
Both the Democrats and the Republicans are the enemy of liberty. They all believe that robbery-centric government is morally just, and they all believe that sacrificing your inalienable rights to reward their respective donor classes and voting bases with welfare and privilege is necessary “for the greater good.” And they get away with their assault on liberty by blinding you with tribalism.
To show what I mean, I went to the YouTube channels of two leading “news” outfits on the day I wrote this post and grabbed the first five videos that pertained to politics. Here’s what I found:
MSNBC News YouTube Clips on May 25, 2023
Rep. Maxwell Frost calls on Biden to give a ‘primetime address’ on the state of debt ceiling talks
Trump on the issues in 2016 and now: How his positions have become more extreme
Brandon Wolf: Target and other ally companies should ‘stand firm’ in wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation
Nebraska Senator Megan Hunt on trans health care restrictions: ‘I am going to stay here and fight’
Christian nationalists have hijacked the GOP and my faith community, says Wyoming Republican
Fox News YouTube Clips on May 25, 2023
Media, Karine Jean-Pierre repeat false claim about book ban
Rep. Dan Crenshaw: The Democrats are backed into a corner
ABC should apologize for Joy Behar’s remarks: Arroyo
This is not what Dr. King would have wanted: Michael Shellenberger
Alvin Bragg ripped for ‘senseless prosecution’ of Marine veteran
Have you ever seen anything so pathetic? No effort to present news in the context of liberty. No effort to judge politicians by how well they chip away at robbery-centric government and move us closer to libocracy. It’s all tribalism, all the time. Our side is great and their side sucks. Liberty be damned.
Final Thoughts
Okay, groovy freedomist, that’s all I got. What say you? I say both Republicans and Democrats are the enemy of liberty. Do you agree or disagree? Peace.
I remember the scene in Blazing Saddles where the governor says, “we gotta save our phony baloney jobs.” I figure that’s the best way to understand politicians of either polarity. They’ll say anything they think you want to hear, but they’ll DO whatever secures their phony baloney jobs even if it means protecting child molesters and selling out to Arab goat herds and/or Communist Chinese.
LOL! Best movie line on politics ever. Here’s a link to it:
Harrumphing with the Governor
We need to find a way to take politics out of government. This has to start with term limits at every level so people don’t get entrenched in the bureaucracy. That needs to include a lifetime cap so someone doesn’t jump from one elected position to another and never earns a living in the private sector. We also need to streamline government so the same area (such as education) isn’t funded and corrupted at many different levels. Keep it as local as possible. Military expenditures should have a cap on the profits a company makes on these products. Social security needs to be changed so people only collect on their own records and not have people who haven’t worked or minimally worked get higher benefits than hard working people just because they married well. Government mandates like getting rid of fossil fuels have to first be totally implemented at all government facilities and by all elected officials before they apply to the general public. Require those mandates consider the end to end costs and environmental impact. EVs might have a place for those who want them but it shouldn’t be forced on anyone. I don’t see John Kerry addressing the environmental and economic harm that starts with mining for lithium, cobalt, etc. and then disposing of those products years later. All I see is the hypocrisy of him flying all over in his fossil fuel jet when a Zoom call should suffice. Afterall, this technology “worked” for millions of students during the pandemic.
I love the way your mind works, Pat. I’m not a term-limits guy, but here’s one for you. If we have four consecutive years of deficit spending, any congressperson who was a member of Congress for those four years would be fired and barred from ever holding elective office again at any level. I would also give each congressperson a five-million-dollar bonus for every fiscal year there’s a budget surplus. My incentive-based form of governing would quickly stop all the current nonsense. If we use our brains, we can out-lobby the lobbyists.