Power

The following is a continuation of a stimulating dialog with Emily Goldberg, LSLA Secretary, with several edits and additions for clarity:

Emily, I have a higher opinion of mankind. Government and the political process has a way of creating a nation of sheep. A properly tuned LP message focused on the strength of our turf, the private sector and benefits of the free market, will free our nation of sheep.

True, some market leaders gain their nefarious stature through government preferences, bailouts, and so on. We all know who they are. Warren ‘More Bailouts’ Buffet, the ‘Oracle of Omaha’, for one. What a shame that a former astute stock market analyst hero of mine from my home town succumbed to the free lunch temptations of the dark side of progressive economics and politics.

For the sake of transparency, Bill Redpath (long-time LNC At Large and former LNC Chair), my wife Re, and I recently had a group picture taken at Buttet’s Gorats Restaurant in Omaha in front of a life-size image of Warren, a credit to Buffet’s earlier financial accomplishments of hero proportions. I sincerely hope that the significant good side of Warren will see the light.

Unfortunately, as evidenced by Buffet’s Berkshire-Hathaway firm, a large segment of the corporate world is in bed with government. Kudos to corporate leaders who resist that temptation, not to mention all our small business and entrepreneur heroes and heroines who reflect the best of our Libertarian principles.

Emily, expanding on our earlier conversation about heroes, have you thought about the differentiating factor between dubious political heroes and private-sector champions? Could it be the nature of their diverse accomplishments? We all know and admire the achievements of free-market heroes that benefit mankind and raise our standard of living. Politicians, on the other hand, are sadly respected for their aggrandizement in acquiring power over others (the rest of us). From my perspective, power-seekers and power over others is what we Libertarians are supposed to be fighting against.

But political power exists only as long as politicians are in office. Once out of office, their power ceases and the glamour of their power over others rapidly evaporates. Maintaining voter respect for their political power over others is what drives politicians to do whatever is necessary to get reelected, including but not limited to the evils of political correctness, corruption, and cronyism. Politics invariably brings out the worst in us.

Many if not most politicians could care less about the future impact of their corruption and cronyism actions as long as they get reelected in the here and now to maintain their illusory hero status. In economic terms, their focus on short-term power status, available only if they get reelected, represents a high time preference rate. See time preference rate comments in tomes by Hans Hermann Hoppe, including ‘A Short History of Man, Progress and Decline’ and ‘Democracy – the God that Failed’. To summarize, the high time preference rate of politicians is epitomized by their behavior, living for the moment with little interest in saving and investing for the future. After all, it is not their money they are spending at the expense of our freedoms, it is our hard-earned money they so thoughtlessly throw around just to garner votes.

We know that the success of free markets is due to just the opposite, the low time preference rate of saving and investing for the future to maximize not only long-term profits but more important, the benefits to customers and all of mankind that is the overriding motivation for most entrepreneurs and business start-up heroes.

To make a long story short, my abhorrence for power-seeking politics and the cronyism and political correctness required to get elected is why I bypass the political process food fight for power over others and the temporary illusion of hero worship derived from power over others available only while in office. I look to the private sector for the real heroes, the non-politician producers and leaders by example, the motor of the world, who are directly responsible for our well-being and standard of living.

May our Libertarian candidates and political efforts be a reflection of the awesome motivations and achievements of our private-sector free-market heroes. Do you think such a message just might win more elections by differentiating us from duopoly politicians, and, more important, accelerate our quest for freedom, nothing more, nothing less, for all people?

Thoughts?

D. Pratt Tseramed, December 14, 2019