Dear Readers:
In order to improve the quality of my blogs, I have moved to WordPress. Additionally, I have broadened the scope of this blog. It will now be named after my entrepreneurial education company: Entrescape. The new URL is http://entrescape.wordpress.com
My more politically/philosophically oriented blog, Common Sense Liberty, may be found at http://commonsenseliberty.wordpress.com
Thanks for your involvement so far. I believe the new site will be better for you and for me.
Best,
Terry
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
The Thief in the Living Room
I like television. My wife and I love to watch programs on history, science, and yes, sometimes I watch COPS. Is that a waste of time?
Whether it's COPS or a more elevating documentary, I have chosen to do something that will probably not improve my material, mental, or spiritual well-being substantially. Well, maybe science or history shows. At least they make me intellectually richer.
Everyone needs a break now and then, and I am certainly not begrudging anyone his/her rest time. Yet I have observed a multitude of people whose time in front of the TV is astounding. Hour after hour, they soak up images and sounds that one can only describe as chaotic and mindless.
It is not the time in front of the TV that is the culprit so much, but the things we are not doing while we watch. These same people seem to be the ones who complain about their income and lack of time. When I suggest they spend a few hours a week building a business, I invariably hear, "I don't have time!"
Oh, really? If you want to build a business but don't think you have time, just add up the number of hours you watch TV. And be honest. Write it down for one week. That's right--every second, including those times you watch while eating, talking with the kids, or doing a crossword puzzle.
My guess is that you will find out just how much of a thief you have in the living room. Now, what are you going to do? For heaven's sake, don't swear off TV. You know perfectly well you won't quit completely. I am not even sure that is a good idea. Just pick a few hours when you watch something less than uplifting. Maybe it's COPS, maybe it's sports, or maybe it's American Idol. Decide whether your life is better spending time with them or time building your future.
Whether it's COPS or a more elevating documentary, I have chosen to do something that will probably not improve my material, mental, or spiritual well-being substantially. Well, maybe science or history shows. At least they make me intellectually richer.
Everyone needs a break now and then, and I am certainly not begrudging anyone his/her rest time. Yet I have observed a multitude of people whose time in front of the TV is astounding. Hour after hour, they soak up images and sounds that one can only describe as chaotic and mindless.
It is not the time in front of the TV that is the culprit so much, but the things we are not doing while we watch. These same people seem to be the ones who complain about their income and lack of time. When I suggest they spend a few hours a week building a business, I invariably hear, "I don't have time!"
Oh, really? If you want to build a business but don't think you have time, just add up the number of hours you watch TV. And be honest. Write it down for one week. That's right--every second, including those times you watch while eating, talking with the kids, or doing a crossword puzzle.
My guess is that you will find out just how much of a thief you have in the living room. Now, what are you going to do? For heaven's sake, don't swear off TV. You know perfectly well you won't quit completely. I am not even sure that is a good idea. Just pick a few hours when you watch something less than uplifting. Maybe it's COPS, maybe it's sports, or maybe it's American Idol. Decide whether your life is better spending time with them or time building your future.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Health Care and Your Right to Life
Never underestimate the foolishness of anyone in a hurry. Get 535 people in a hurry at the same time, and it's Katie Bar the Door. That is what is happening to our health care in this country.
We all want to know we can go to the doctor when we need to. We also want to be able to extend our lives by undergoing a surgical procedure or taking medicine. The problem is, we still want it to cost what it did when a doctor could carry all his/her tools in a black leather bag.
The miraculous advance of medicine allows us to improve and extend our lives in ways we could not have imagined a few years ago. Instead of medicine being something that is practiced between an individual and one doctor, it is now practiced between an individual and the thousands of people whose skills are brought to bear on complex diseases. Think about an MRI machine and the almost unimaginable amount of knowledge that had to be brought together in one place for it to work.
In other words, we should expect that health care will cost more than it once did, just as a car with air conditioning and leather seats costs more than the vinyl benched oven-on-wheels we used to drive. Unfortunately, instead of letting bright and industrious people work on solutions to the problem of high health care costs, we have a government hard at work to destroy it.
Government will meddle and tinker, tinker and meddle, until they give us the equivalent of Social Security and Medicare. Hopelessly over-promised, national health care will, sooner rather than later, go broke.
What then?
They will ration care. Of course, no one will call it rationing. Instead, they will find yet another way to put lipstick on a pig and parade it around like a supermodel. Yet even in the midst of this, there is hope. As the public system crumbles, the irrepressible creative instincts of young men and women will be brought to bear on the practice of medicine. Bright people who want to use their talents to help others will find ways to offer care to the sick when they need it, not months down Waiting List Road.
This is already happening in Canada. Technically, most private care in Canada is illegal. This means that citizens cannot go outside the system by using private doctors. Fortunately, this law is rarely enforced. As a result, a host of private practices have sprung up, giving those who can pay the option of bypassing the waiting lists and suboptimal medical choices represented by the public system.
If we in the U.S. move toward a universal health care system, do not expect our government to learn anything from Canada's recent lessons. Expect instead that they will attempt to outlaw private practice. They will do so because as the public system breaks down, more doctors will move out of it in favor of serving the needs of the sick privately.
This is where the health care battle line should be drawn. The right to preserve and enhance our life and our health is as fundamental as the right to self-defense or free speech. Being forced to die or live as a cripple because one's care is not "cost-effective" enough for public funding, and then being denied the right to seek a private physician's services is an assault on any sane person's notion of freedom.
Allowed to flourish, the creative power of the human mind will bring forth new cures, new medical services, and longer, more enjoyable lives for all. New insurance structures, medical care cooperatives, and charities will emerge, providing care for those who truly cannot afford care. Instead of fighting and scratching for a limited resource, we can all contribute to creating more.
It is beginning to look like some form of government-run health care is inevitable. It won't be pretty, but it will be survivable unless they outlaw private care. If they do, consider it the equivalent of censorship or illegal search and seizure. It's your right, don't let them take it.
We all want to know we can go to the doctor when we need to. We also want to be able to extend our lives by undergoing a surgical procedure or taking medicine. The problem is, we still want it to cost what it did when a doctor could carry all his/her tools in a black leather bag.
The miraculous advance of medicine allows us to improve and extend our lives in ways we could not have imagined a few years ago. Instead of medicine being something that is practiced between an individual and one doctor, it is now practiced between an individual and the thousands of people whose skills are brought to bear on complex diseases. Think about an MRI machine and the almost unimaginable amount of knowledge that had to be brought together in one place for it to work.
In other words, we should expect that health care will cost more than it once did, just as a car with air conditioning and leather seats costs more than the vinyl benched oven-on-wheels we used to drive. Unfortunately, instead of letting bright and industrious people work on solutions to the problem of high health care costs, we have a government hard at work to destroy it.
Government will meddle and tinker, tinker and meddle, until they give us the equivalent of Social Security and Medicare. Hopelessly over-promised, national health care will, sooner rather than later, go broke.
What then?
They will ration care. Of course, no one will call it rationing. Instead, they will find yet another way to put lipstick on a pig and parade it around like a supermodel. Yet even in the midst of this, there is hope. As the public system crumbles, the irrepressible creative instincts of young men and women will be brought to bear on the practice of medicine. Bright people who want to use their talents to help others will find ways to offer care to the sick when they need it, not months down Waiting List Road.
This is already happening in Canada. Technically, most private care in Canada is illegal. This means that citizens cannot go outside the system by using private doctors. Fortunately, this law is rarely enforced. As a result, a host of private practices have sprung up, giving those who can pay the option of bypassing the waiting lists and suboptimal medical choices represented by the public system.
If we in the U.S. move toward a universal health care system, do not expect our government to learn anything from Canada's recent lessons. Expect instead that they will attempt to outlaw private practice. They will do so because as the public system breaks down, more doctors will move out of it in favor of serving the needs of the sick privately.
This is where the health care battle line should be drawn. The right to preserve and enhance our life and our health is as fundamental as the right to self-defense or free speech. Being forced to die or live as a cripple because one's care is not "cost-effective" enough for public funding, and then being denied the right to seek a private physician's services is an assault on any sane person's notion of freedom.
Allowed to flourish, the creative power of the human mind will bring forth new cures, new medical services, and longer, more enjoyable lives for all. New insurance structures, medical care cooperatives, and charities will emerge, providing care for those who truly cannot afford care. Instead of fighting and scratching for a limited resource, we can all contribute to creating more.
It is beginning to look like some form of government-run health care is inevitable. It won't be pretty, but it will be survivable unless they outlaw private care. If they do, consider it the equivalent of censorship or illegal search and seizure. It's your right, don't let them take it.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Property: The Forgotten Freedom
I think of freedom in straightforward terms. Any individual should be free to do as he/she likes as long as it does not demonstrably impinge on the same rights in others. This idea is not new, of course, but it is largely misunderstood, especially with regard to property.
Were we all composed of pure spirit, with no need to feed, clothe, or shelter ourselves, property rights would be meaningless. Since we are mere flesh and blood, each individual needs to have control of certain things to survive. The reason is simple--most things we need are created, not found.
With the possible exception of air and sunshine, every material thing we need comes about because some individual, often in cooperation with others, has the ability, will, and desire to turn a beneficial idea into reality. Fortunately, the human race has also discovered that trading with others results in more material goods for oneself.
Who owns such wonderful things? In my view, the creator. From spear tip to computer chip, the rightful owner is the person who created it. If he/she contracted with others to create it, that contract defines who owns what fraction of its value.
Some people in society are more capable than others at producing certain things. No one wants to hear me sing opera or see me dance for Chippendale's. Yet I do not begrudge the vocalists or 20-somethings with six-pack abs their due. Neither should they begrudge me my ability to write a book or teach a class.
Inevitably, some people on the whole are able to create more value than others. They own more things as a result of their benefiting others more. They are better off than others because they are better to others. It is their ability that enables others to benefit from the things they cannot create themselves. The more benefit they provide, the more they prosper.
This is disturbing to those who are less willing or less capable. In the name of "fairness," they seek to take from the creators and give to those they deem more deserving. The most obvious example is the thief, motivated at a primal level to take by force what he/she either cannot or will not create.
Some people make a profession of taking from the creators and giving to others. They are called politicians. In addition to getting to pat themselves on the back for doing so much good for society, they get a generous cut themselves. Lacking the forthrightness of a thief, they mask their willingness to take from others by force in byzantine tax codes and arcane regulations.
What would our society look like if we were to refuse to allow either thieves or their governmental counterparts to take what each of us has created? Those disposed to believe in the fairy tale of a benevolent and fair government imagine hordes of the poor wandering the countryside, victims of arrogance and callousness of the elite. I see something quite different--the blossoming of a new human spirit.
When people are able to trade freely, they are able to tap their potential for creating value for others. Virtually all human beings have some capacity for doing so. In return, the less capable benefit from the more capable in two ways. First, goods and services are cheaper because capable people compete to provide them without fear of having a large portion confiscated by government. Second, the truly incapable, such as the severely handicapped, benefit from the benevolence of the wealthy. Humanity, for all its tendencies toward wanton cruelty and unjustified violence, has also shown a tremendous capacity for kindness and charity.
This Independence Day, we will all remember the precious rights our ancestors earned for us. Along with your ferocity in protecting your freedom of speech and religion, kindle a fierceness in protecting your property. You earned it, now fight to keep it.
Were we all composed of pure spirit, with no need to feed, clothe, or shelter ourselves, property rights would be meaningless. Since we are mere flesh and blood, each individual needs to have control of certain things to survive. The reason is simple--most things we need are created, not found.
With the possible exception of air and sunshine, every material thing we need comes about because some individual, often in cooperation with others, has the ability, will, and desire to turn a beneficial idea into reality. Fortunately, the human race has also discovered that trading with others results in more material goods for oneself.
Who owns such wonderful things? In my view, the creator. From spear tip to computer chip, the rightful owner is the person who created it. If he/she contracted with others to create it, that contract defines who owns what fraction of its value.
Some people in society are more capable than others at producing certain things. No one wants to hear me sing opera or see me dance for Chippendale's. Yet I do not begrudge the vocalists or 20-somethings with six-pack abs their due. Neither should they begrudge me my ability to write a book or teach a class.
Inevitably, some people on the whole are able to create more value than others. They own more things as a result of their benefiting others more. They are better off than others because they are better to others. It is their ability that enables others to benefit from the things they cannot create themselves. The more benefit they provide, the more they prosper.
This is disturbing to those who are less willing or less capable. In the name of "fairness," they seek to take from the creators and give to those they deem more deserving. The most obvious example is the thief, motivated at a primal level to take by force what he/she either cannot or will not create.
Some people make a profession of taking from the creators and giving to others. They are called politicians. In addition to getting to pat themselves on the back for doing so much good for society, they get a generous cut themselves. Lacking the forthrightness of a thief, they mask their willingness to take from others by force in byzantine tax codes and arcane regulations.
What would our society look like if we were to refuse to allow either thieves or their governmental counterparts to take what each of us has created? Those disposed to believe in the fairy tale of a benevolent and fair government imagine hordes of the poor wandering the countryside, victims of arrogance and callousness of the elite. I see something quite different--the blossoming of a new human spirit.
When people are able to trade freely, they are able to tap their potential for creating value for others. Virtually all human beings have some capacity for doing so. In return, the less capable benefit from the more capable in two ways. First, goods and services are cheaper because capable people compete to provide them without fear of having a large portion confiscated by government. Second, the truly incapable, such as the severely handicapped, benefit from the benevolence of the wealthy. Humanity, for all its tendencies toward wanton cruelty and unjustified violence, has also shown a tremendous capacity for kindness and charity.
This Independence Day, we will all remember the precious rights our ancestors earned for us. Along with your ferocity in protecting your freedom of speech and religion, kindle a fierceness in protecting your property. You earned it, now fight to keep it.
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