Heather has her own blog, UltimateOutcasts.com.  Heather posts relatively rarely, but there are some great posts. Here, Mama Capitalist Exposee, is one most will find an excellent read. Here is how she begins.

Question: Can you spot the difference between a productive American Mom and this cow?

Me neither. (from here)

What is Mama Capitalist Exposee about? The post provides Heather‘s personal experiences with our capitalist system.

After reading Mama Capitalist Exposee, I decided to explore Heather‘s views on Capitalism. How does Heather define capitalism?

Capitalism is a manipulated system designed to move money from one hand to another (cleverly, both hands shifting the money can be yours if you really know your capitalism). Learn enough about it and money can flow more easily in your direction. Do not learn about it and suffer the consequences. (from here)

Fortunately for Heather, her experiences seemed to have been largely positive. Nonetheless, she has a dismal view of our Capitalist system.

With so many changes in our financial policy in the last 20 years, an entire generation of Mothers have been entangled in a convoluted economic system. It’s one that purports to breed innovation (love it!) while at same time allowing those with the most money to crush their competitors (dislike it!). This is a confusing system not taught in school and one we are not meant to easily understand. (from here)

In fact, Heather has her own Utopian plan for replacing our current system with one based upon motherhood.

How do you really show your love of America? By making more Americans!

Did you know if we paid 32 Million educated, working American women $25,000.00 to have a baby next year it would cost $800 Billion dollars?

That is the same amount as last year’s “stimulus”. I believe that is also how much gets lost in the sofa cushions over at the Pentagon each year.

If you think American Moms are a better investment than the Pentagon’s sofa cushions keep reading.

Consider The Great American Mom Stimulus: A 5-year experiment to see what happens when we pay working women to have babies based on their employment and education history. (continued here)

Tempted to laugh? Don’t. Instead, consider your own life challenges. Consider your own daydreams — your own moments when you wished the world revolved around you.

We do not live in Paradise. When God cursed the ground for our sake (Genesis 3), we lost Paradise. Now we live in a competitive world, and we struggle. Often, we find that struggle painful.

What is Capitalism? Capitalism is merely an economic theory. We have never entirely put Capitalism into practice. Thus, large sectors of our economy, much of that which Heather complains about, is run by our government. Consider a few examples.

• If moms do not understand our economic system, isn’t that a reflection upon our government-run education system?
• Because they should be easier to run, small businesses should generally be the most competitive. So why is so much of our economy tied up in big corporations? In many enterprises, economy of scale provides a great advantage. Consider the automotive assembly line. That assembly line is costly, but a large production run spreads that cost over a larger number of cars. Nonetheless, the advantages of economy of scale hardly provides a complete explanation.  There is another advantage that large companies can purchase, government favoritism. We generally call this Crony Capitalism.

To work effectively, Capitalism requires a government-run regulatory structure. Ideally, that structure should exist to ensure that business transactions are honest and open, that participants in business contracts keep their word. In addition, we need government to ensure that businesses do not shunt their costs — such as pollution — onto innocent parties. Unfortunately, just as we can abuse our right to conduct business, we can also abuse our right to conduct government. Therefore, our Capitalist system is an admixture that includes unhealthy doses of both Crony Capitalism and Socialism.

Thus, we get the irony of SuperCapitalism (explained here by the Liberal economist who coined the term). Below Heather explains.

Supercapitalism is basically the concept that corrupted capitalists are financially punishing workers and financially rewarding non-workers. In all fairness, what I have learned has largely been through chance but I have seen Supercapitalism at work and can confirm it’s much easier to make money with money than it is as an American worker. (from here)

And what is the irony? In their efforts to create their own perfect world, the Utopian dreamers of one generation create the problems the next generation of Utopian dreamers find ready-made for their complaints.

H/T to Thinking in Christ via this post, Worth Reading: Election Edition.

Don’t Trust Your Instincts

By John Stossel (Archive) · Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Simple answers are so satisfying: Green jobs will fix the economy. Stimulus will create jobs. Charity helps people more than commerce. Everyone should vote.

Well, all those instinctive solutions are wrong. As Friedrich Hayek pointed out in “The Fatal Conceit,” it’s a problem that in our complex, extended economy, we rely on instincts developed during our ancestors’ existence in small bands. In those old days, everyone knew everyone else, so affairs could be micromanaged. Today, we live in a global economy where strangers deal with each other. The rules need to be different.

Hayek said: “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.” (continued here)

Because we are sinful human beings living in a sin-filled world, until the Second Coming we will never put an end to political chicanery. Nonetheless, we are suppose to try, but the latest news suggests little progress.

House Republican freshmen are expressing frustration with a deal negotiated by their leadership to extend a payroll-tax cut for two months, leaving House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) ending the year the same way he began: delivering on a must-pass measure without the backing of a big part of his caucus.

Since the weekend, the House Republican leader had refused to accept a two-month payroll-tax cut extension that cleared the Senate, 89-10. He gave in on Thursday, hours after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) joined other Republicans in urging the House GOP leadership to pass a short-term measure. Increasingly isolated, the House speaker agreed to pass the two-month extension on Friday morning by unanimous consent, a fast-track procedural maneuver that guarantees passage unless lawmakers book plane tickets and fly back to Washington in time to object.

“Given the late hour of notification, there’s no way I can make it,” said Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R., Kansas). “I’m disappointed. That’s not the process by which I thought we would consider things like this,” he said, adding “this is the kind of stuff that people hate about Washington.” (continued here)

Think of all the Congressmen with that great excuse.

What is this crappy bill about? What this so-called tax cut cuts is funding for Social Security. The bill also extends jobless  jobless benefits and averts a sharp drop in payments to doctors who see Medicare patients–with higher fees for obtaining new mortgages. How much you want to bet that these sneaky people will make the fees — the taxes –  for obtaining new mortgages permanent and the so-called tax cut temporary?

Imagine if a politician told you that you could get a “tax cut” by not funding your 401K. Well, that is what the con artists we elected call a tax cut, not funding the Ponzi scheme retirement plan they created.

Do you wonder why they do always do this sort of stuff just as everyone else goes on vacation? These people are shameless. They are unworthy of the high office to which we elected them. We should be ashamed of ourselves for putting them there.

Here is the CNN Money version, What the payroll tax deal would do.

The week ended with great sounding headlines.

• Stocks close out their best week since 2009; US unemployment rate falls and Merkel talks tough
• Stock markets weaken at end of positive week
• US stocks enjoy bumper week
• US Stocks Finish Flat To End Weekly Surge; DJIA Sheds Less Than A Point
• Asian Stocks Have Biggest Week in Four Years on China Ratio Cut

And what drove all these wonderful gains?

The Federal Reserve managed to provide bank stocks a much needed shot in the arm through its decision to team up with several other central banks to substantially alleviate the symptoms of the rapidly spreading “European debt flu” among investors.

The Fed released a statement Wednesday detailing its joint effort with the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, and the Swiss National Bank to ensure that there is sufficient liquidity in the global financial system. ^[1] (continued here)

Thus, government, not private industry, created a seven percent gain in the Dow Jones.
Is this truly good news? When governments assume and concentrate within just a few baskets the responsibility for risks that rightfully should be spread across a great many businesses in the private sector that is good news? Instead of inept politicians trying to run banks, shouldn’t professional bankers with a personal stake in the business run their own private banks?

As it is, we have a house of cards created by government interference. In addition to the housing bubble (see REVIEWING THE FINANCIAL COLLAPSE), socialist governments in Europe have borrowed huge sums.  Here (Country Comparison :: Public debt as of 2010) the CIA World Factbook lists by country the relative percentage of public debt to GDP. Zimbabwe, Japan, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Greece lead the list. Zimbabwe and Saint Kitts and Nevis are economic basket cases. Japan has a huge public debt (see Japan’s Dubious Debt Milestone: A Quadrillion), but it finances 95% of its debt internally. So it is Greece, with much of its debt held by foreign bankers and governments that has made so many so nervous (see European sovereign debt crisis).  

When the solution to this problem is relatively obvious, why do our leaders keep compounding the problem by wasting and borrowing more and more money? The answer is power and wealth. When politicians can leverage huge sums of taxpayer monies however they wish, they gain tremendous influence and power. Merely with the insider information they gain access to, for example, they can easily become personally wealthy. Perhaps that is why it is not illegal for Congressmen and their staffs to trade stock based on nonpublic information they gather on Capitol Hill (see Senate panel weighs congressional insider-trading ban).

So what about that question? Why do men submit themselves to enslavement? When we are at the mercy of powerful thieves, we find that those thieves abuse us less when the own us. After all, don’t we all treat that which we own with greater respect?

The world banking system is run by socialists for socialists.

This may seem like an absurd statement, but some investigation into the roots of the world banking system, who founded it, who ran it, who runs it, its effects, and a comparison with socialist theory make it virtually undeniable that the activities of the worlds’ banks are deliberately giving rise to pre-socialist conditions.

Namely, this is being done by penetrating autarkik regimes with World Bank and IMF development loans and financing forced “democratization” through warfare if necessary; ramping up unsustainable debt with fiat currency issuance and debt monetization; and setting up a debt dependency chain that leads from the furthest reaches of Africa to the halls of the top supranational bodies.

Socialism, as Marx described it, does not, and can never exist in practice. It is a world without private property, and a damn fine one at that. At least to hear socialists tell it. But if the government owns all the capital, taxes the life out of you, and can throw you in jail and seize your property if you don’t comply with whatever demands it cooks up, what do you call it? Some might call it “fascism,” which is accurate enough. But that’s just an intermediary stage on the way to socialism. It’s the rotten, corrupt situation before the fall. And we are being set up for a fall. The geniuses running the world’s economies cannot all be Sling Blade stupid. (Continued here)

The geniuses running the world’s economies cannot all be Sling Blade stupid? Why not? Think for a minute what the statement implies.

• Geniuses run the world’s economies.
• The “geniuses” are at fault.

Geniuses run the world’s economies?

The world’s economy is run by multitudes of people, and most of us are not particularly smart. However, because we conduct so many economic transactions on any given day, no genius or group of geniuses could ever hope to manage them all. So only in the most tyrannical states do so-called geniuses run the economy, and such tyrannical states must eventually collapse. rogueoperator, of course, understands the danger of such tyranny and fears such strangulation. What he seems to have a little trouble grasping is why the geniuses cannot see the stupidity of Socialism.

Even though rogueoperator undoubtedly writes to educate his readers, he misunderestimates our stupidity. Here is an example of how stupid we are. Consider how government charters corporations and how we buy stock in those corporations. What is one of the latest gimmicks? Have you heard of the Exchange-Traded Fund – ETF? ETFs allow us to trade in the stock market without incurring the management fees required by mutual funds. In addition, ETFs allow us to diversify our investments. Sounds great! Right?

Unfortunately, our society incurs a great deal of risk due to “investment” schemes like ETFs. When we buy stock, we buy a share in a company. When we become part owner of a company, we have the responsibility to run that company. Unfortunately, with a diversified investment like the ETF, we acquire a small interest in lots of companies. What ordinary investor can exercise his small ownership interest in a bunch of companies? None of us. So we don’t.

Effectively, our government has chartered numerous corporations, allowed people to invest in these companies, but it has done virtually nothing to ensure that the stockholders who own these companies actually do anything to responsibly regulate the management of the companies it chartered. That’s a recipe for undermining responsible Capitalism.

 The “geniuses” are at fault?

We all suffer moral failings, and it is our moral failings that make us fools. Intelligence does not guarantee wisdom; it merely encourages pride. We learn wisdom from wise people, by studying the Bible, and from experience — particularly bad experiences.

Our present time is distant from the last great economic disaster, the Great Depression. Our secular government runs our schools. Our schools teach little about the Bible, make a hash of economics and history, and do not know what to say about the requirements of good citizenship. So instead of picking leaders who will protect our rights, we too often choose politicians who promise to give us whatever we want. We pick scoundrels. Are these scoundrels conspiring geniuses? No. Nonetheless, because we have chosen such people, we are ripe for tyrannical Socialism.