I’ve been watching the September 12th, 2019, Democratic Debate. Here
are my thoughts so far:
1-On Gun Control) Those who want to take away
the guns will bump into something called the Second Amendment. The Founding
Fathers did not create the Second Amendment so Americans can go hunting or
protect themselves from a would-be thief or home invasion. The purpose of the
Second Amendment was so that the citizens had the means to overthrow the
government. That means until the people repeal the Second Amendment, people
will have assault rifles, and there will be assault rifle homicides as a
result. Chicago has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, yet it has
sky-high gun homicide rate. You won’t be able to regulate your way out of gun
violence.
2-On Health Care) Medicare for all is an
unaffordable, government and hospital bankrupting non-starter. The best bet is
incremental improvements to the Affordable Health Care Act, aka Obamacare.
3-On Immigration) The wall may slow some
people down, but it is not a foolproof solution if you want to solve illegal
immigration. Changing the laws of what happens after you get here illegally and
streamlining how you can get here legally is required to solve the immigration
problem. Keep one thing in mind regarding immigration; you cannot solve the
problems of everyone in the world by bringing them here.
4-On Climate Change) First keep in mind that a
prosperous country is far better equipped to deal with climate change than an
impoverished nation. A poor government will do whatever is necessary to scrape
by regardless of environmental consequences. Carbon credits are probably the
most sensible way to steer people and industry towards climate-friendly
behavior. Keep in mind, that if the system imposed to become carbon neutral is
so harmful or oppressive to the economy that it causes economic depression,
then that nation will revert to doing whatever is necessary to survive,
environmental consequences be damned.
5-On Endless War) We can withdraw our military from
Afghanistan and Iraq tomorrow if that is what the people want. However, three
types of people will fill the void when we leave. Those three types of people
are bad people, more bad people, and worse people. The people in charge will
deny women education, and 10-year-old girls will be forced to marry. Ultimately (and it
is only a matter of time) those wicked people will export their badness, and it
will come here. Wanting the war to stop, being tired of it, wishing it to stop,
praying for it to stop and leaving the Middle East, so it stops; will not stop
the bad people, it will not stop the war. The bad people have not surrendered,
the bad people want it to continue. It will only change where we wind up
fighting the bad people.
6-On China and the Trade War) Everyone says
they don’t like the tariffs and wants to negotiate with China without them.
We’ve been talking with China since Nixon. All that talk resulted in China
ripping us off to the tune of billions every year. I think the people of Hong
Kong knows the Chinese better than we do, and they know that talk alone will not
work. China will do whatever China wants to do regardless of American or
international opinions until they are forced in some way, shape, or form to do
otherwise. The tariffs are causing American businesses to move their supply
chains out of China. China is losing jobs as a result. When the Net Present
Value of economic losses due to declines in Chinese manufacturing and exports
starts to outweigh the NPV of economic gain from ripping off U.S. intellectual
property...then and only then will China sign a deal. With that said, all these
businesses that say they cannot move their supply chains out of China are
poppycock. Granted, the affected companies cannot do this overnight, but if
they were to start now, I guarantee they could find another location before the
trade war is even close to ending. This moving out of China also goes for
farmers who need to find new markets for their crops. There’s a whole big
hungry world out there that needs to eat.
I want to talk briefly about the three worst things:
- Democracy is the worst form of government except for
all the others.
- Capitalism and free markets are the worst way to
distribute wealth, except for all the others.
- Tariffs are the worst way to wage a trade war except
for all the others.
