Trump’s Indictment And Parallel Systems

Posted on March 31, 2023 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, now the elite have proven they don’t even care about the appearance of law, why should we take it seriously either? When the judges, prosecutors and lawyers hold law in contempt, exploiting it as a means for the strong to oppress the weak, the weak have no obligation to oblige. Other than the ever present threat of punishment, law is a thing to be avoided. Be like water. Where the government stomps a jack boot in the way, simply flow around it. The way to do that is to set up parallel systems. Let the tyrants play their games as we build the systems to go around their oppression. If we have a parallel society in place, their CBDCs, surveillance and manipulations will fall on air, because we will not be there. We will be using our own systems, organically built from the ground up, not theirs.

One thing any police officer knows is the public’s perception is the public’s reality. If a beat cop knows this then don’t you suppose the elite at the top of the legal hierarchy does as well? They know they are discrediting the rule of law. That may be their intent. Who can say? We do know they are either evil or stupid. The classic binary option. Neither of which is a glowing recommendation of them. Nevertheless, the elite are creating the public perception, that law is only a means for the strong to oppress the weak. They have to also know that the moment the masses make the leap, they will hold law in as much contempt as the elite… who write, administer and adjudicate it. Once everyone holds the law in absolute contempt, law will become superfluous.

The courts have gone to extreme lengths to discredit themselves. In this they are following a well trod path laid down by the rest of the expert class. In their rush to implement the administrative state, they have bulldozed the Constitution and precedent. Look at the lack of a trial that Alex Jones got, the double trials it took to get the Whitmer patsies back on the hook, and the eight hundred days of pretrial detention of the progressive faction’s political prisoners. Some say a democrat will stand and exclaim, arresting Trump to keep him off the ballot, is wrong. No democrat would dare though… because the ostracism is so effective. Their ostracism would be immediate, terrible and permanent. This is the end game, and no traitors to the movement will be tolerated, by the intolerant.

People who cannot be trusted… cannot be trusted, no matter how many times they claim to be the most trustworthy people who ever lived. In fact, that very assertion is a clue that someone is a liar. Claiming to be absolutely truthful is a Machiavellian manipulation, right out of The Prince. A little trick of the mind is that we tend to project our foibles on others. That is why a thief is paranoid about being stolen from, a liar thinks everyone is lying and a swindler thinks everyone is as worthless as himself. These are part of what is called the dark triad personality disorders. Untrustworthy, manipulative and heartless characterize these people. I ask you, don’t the actions of the elite today epitomize the dark personality disorder? Showing themselves to be psychopaths, Machiavellian and narcissists… very progressive!

When the system turns on the people, the people need to turn their backs on the system. Instead of getting angry, just don’t use it, go around it. I suspect one of the goals of attacking the rule of law, from their positions as prosecutors, judges and bureaucrats, is violence. If someone acts out, the elite will have their excuse to crack down on us, with God knows what force. Violence from pro Americans will be treated worse than the “insurrectionists,” who traitorously sought a redress of grievances. The answer is to be like water. If you step in a stream, you don’t stop the flow, your foot merely gets wet. If we are as water, with parallel systems in place, we will be as a bog, when they try to step on our face, and the only thing that will happen, is their foot will get waterlogged.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Unlimited Stupidity Versus Limited Stupidity

Posted on March 29, 2023 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me… stupidity will be the end of us all. The stupid among us are dangerous enough, but the stupid with power now, they are a cut above. They have the ability to start nuclear wars, obliterate an economy with taxes, regulations and spending, as well as create deadly viruses in laboratories for us to delight in. The stupidity of the elite surpasses a drunkard, a dare devil and the three stooges, combined. I can imagine Fauci using a hammer to go after a bat in a room full of people. Then thinking the people he brained were idiots to get in the way. Yes, stupidity is a mortal threat, not only to you and I, but our entire species. Because the stupidest people to have ever lived have near total power, to enact their stupidity on a global scale… there is no way that could go wrong.

As a people we have gone to great lengths to limit the dangers of local stupidity. Safety equipment in our cars protect us from stupidity while driving. There are helmet laws, seat belt laws and air bag regulations, all designed to protect us from our own stupidity. Because experience has taught us that stupidity is a constant threat while driving. We accept limitations on our rights to keep us safe at work as well. That is why we allow laws and regulations that are contrary to the spirit of our Constitution. To protect us from the consequences of local stupidity. The odd thing, or perhaps not odd at all, is that the elites who are most keen to regulate us into safety, from our own stupidity, are also the last to allow their own stupidity to be limited at all. In fact, their intolerance of correction is legendary.

The stupidity of our elites today is unlimited. It used to be, when they followed our Constitution, and were subject to democracy… but now that the Constitution is merely chiffon lingerie, covering naked tyranny, and democracy has been tamed with mail in fraud, that limit is gone. The elite are free to implement any stupid idea that pops into their pretty little heads. Without free speech, no one can point out the stupidity, without consequences, they will never learn and lacking hearts, they could care less. One thing the stupid have in common is, they think they are the smartest people to have ever lived. Moreover, they have no fear they could fail, creating disaster for mankind… because they are too smart, moral and wise… to fail again. Unlimited stupidity leads to unlimited disasters.

Why is it we limit the potential damage of local stupidity with regulations, mechanisms and common sense, but not the stupidity of the elite? Because the elite write the law, and they, being self centered egoists, will only rule in their immediate best interests. As the elite are passing seat belt laws to make us safe, they are cutting the equivalent Constitutional restraints from the government. Personally, I think the damage that could be done by a drunk careening down a highway, cannot match that of an expert experimenting with viruses, who releases ebola in Zaire. Ten thousand people suffering that horrible death because of a lab leak, that was covered up, is an act of magnificent stupidity. So limiting the stupidity of the elite, it would appear, gives more safety bang for the buck.

Wouldn’t it be a logical step then, to demand the stupidity of the elite be controlled with limited government, freedom of speech and criminal punishments for violating the Constitution? Since we spend billions to stay safe from local stupidity, and even give up our innate rights to government for it, why wouldn’t we spend less than a tenth the money for a million times the safety? That would be a good deal in anyone’s book. The road block, obviously, are the elite themselves. The elite are far too stupid to have the humility to accept advice. They believe themselves better than us, morally and intellectually, proven by their station. The elite, being too stupid to recognize their stupidity, means it is up to us to impose limitations on them. For their own sake and the sake of the human race.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Heroes, Villains and Victims

Posted on March 26, 2023 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, human history is a recount of inhumanity being the norm, while humanity is an aberration. In a sane human hearted society however, humanity would be the norm, while inhumanity would be the aberration. Why should we care? Because our lives, fortunes and posterity are involved. Under a paradigm of inhumanity, the worse possible outcomes can be expected for the majority of people. Only those with leverage can escape the chaos. The rest are thrust into a world of crime, fear and oppression. Under a regime of humanity however, people can walk the streets on a warm summer night after partaking of a beer, and perchance stopping at a neighbor’s home, to chat with the family on their front porch. Which version of society would you choose for yourself and your kids?

Human heartedness is a Confucian term, meaning a wise person, with love in the heart for their fellow human beings, and a longing for the world to be as good as it can be. The definition also includes the golden rule. At least in my understanding of the ancient Chinese term… jen. So that is the way I use it. In a human hearted society prosperity is hard to avoid. The lack of stealing, fraud and oppression, allow people to rise to their natural station. Rather than suppressing the politically disfavored and elevating the politically favored. As our society does. Merit would replace political favor as the driving force of advancement. Those lacking merit but with gobs of political favor however, are the ones who decide, and meritocracy is not the optimal choice of an inept egoist.

History is a story of mankind. In that story we are the heroes, villains and victims. A person born to aristocracy might be the worst oppressor, but when born to peasant parents, becomes a firebrand revolutionary. That same person could be a hero or villain, a victim or bystander. You or I are no different. We are who we are, not totally because of our genetics, but also because of our upbringing. In a human hearted, humane, culture and society, more people are likely to grow up as heroes than villains. Because being a hero will be the norm. Just as being a villain is the norm today. History is merely the tale of past human lives. Be they heroes, villains or victims. Our place of birth is largely out of our control… our place of dying however, is mostly up to us.

Given our druthers, most of us would choose a human hearted society to raise our children in, those without children and with an adventurous attitude however, might prefer our society. Where every form of distraction is available, chaos fills our lives as crime does our streets. The life of a drug addict is exciting, the experience of a prostitute expansive as the view of a swindler is myopic. How could there be a more exciting life than living day to day, not knowing if today will be the day you die of an overdose, if your dealer will beat you for the money you owe, or maybe, you will spend the day in complete bliss, face down in the sewer on a trip to Mars. Moreover, in an inhuman society such as ours, everyone must become a swindler, else be the victim, because if your not in the game, your a mark.

The future will have a history as well… probably. In that history, or story of mankind, it is possible we could change the paradigm, from one of inhumanity, to one of humanity. We had no control where we were born, but we can decide where we die. In the inhuman one we were born into, or a human hearted society? For that to happen, we must choose to be heroes. We cannot allow ourselves to be victims, there are already plenty of those. A hero doesn’t stand by watching inhumanity then lament it. He or she speaks up, votes down, and acts. Especially today, when we can write and call our representatives and senators. If enough of us do, and choose to become heroes, we can get our druthers. To live and raise children in a human hearted society, or if we are too lazy… an inhuman one.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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The Millstones Make It Hard To Stay Afloat

Posted on March 24, 2023 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, we are being ground between the twin millstones of inflation and recession. The one ruins the currency, the other erodes our prosperity. Not an optimal path to societal wealth. Then again, one only takes a path that goes where they want to go. Since societal wealth is clearly not the goal of the elite, they must have another goal. Otherwise the elite would not have created inflation by shutting down supply, while stimulating demand to create inflation, and regulating our economy into recession. Both doctrines are entirely an innovation of the elite. So here we are, inflation eroding the purchasing power of our money and recession threatening to take it away anyway. Meanwhile, the elite could fix it in an hour, but that would weaken the elite’s power.

Inflation is always an imbalance of supply and demand. It can be created by printing currency as was the case in Wiemar Germany, Czechoslovakia and Argentina. A currency is effectively a commodity. Its value is dependent on demand divided by the quantity available. Like any other commodity. If the demand then is less than the quantity available, it becomes less valuable. There is inflation. If demand exceeds the amount available then money becomes more valuable. There is deflation. There are two sides to the coin however. Supply is also a factor. If the supply of a thing goes up, over matching the demand for it, its value decreases. Just as if the supply is cut, so demand exceeds supply, then its value increases and so does the price. Creating inflation outside money printing. Our leaders have done both.

Collapsing markets destroy wealth as assuredly as fire destroys paper. The role of recession in a free market economy is to shake out poor investments, slay zombie companies and clean the way for more efficient allotment of capital. When government protects cronies, rent seekers and zombies, that protection comes at a cost. The effect of recession is not “creative destruction” but merely destruction. Which allows so much dead flesh to build up in the corpus economic, that it cannot but become terribly infected, and perhaps even die. The crony companies become zombies. Who then shamble around the economy, killing the young startups, that would have provided the next generation of innovations. Just as the rent seekers become ever more powerful and voracious.

Both inflation and recession lead inevitably to societal poverty. If you need to shrink a pie to get more of it for yourself, doesn’t that mean others are not only going to get less, but they are going to get much less, if they get any at all? The other way could be to grow the pie so your piece will grow with the whole. The path taken by the elite is to shrink the pie to get ever more of it. It doesn’t take a genius to know that a shrinking economic pie is synonymous with growing societal poverty. Clearly then, societal poverty is something the elite are willing, for the rest of us to pay, so they can have more. How does shrinking the pie make the elite richer? Because inflation grows the value of commodities, enriching the elite, while recession crushes the little guy, impovrishing us.

Inflation and supply shortages are all because of the elite. The last two recessions have been characterized by the federal reserve stepping in to protect the bad actors and propping up their cronies. This has led to the US economy becoming based more and more on rent seeking and not on actual productive activity. Even as the federal reserve is squeezing demand from the private economy, with increasing interest rates, that interest rate also drives up the cost of the national debt, so that merely servicing that debt is sufficient to maintain inflation. Let alone the unimaginable increases in federal spending this year alone. Then there are the regulations. No one does business in the US anymore, the regulatory costs are just too high, because of the elite’s plan to shrink the pie, to get more of it.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Momentous Changes Are Underway

Posted on March 22, 2023 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, the world is imploding with imminent moment. Political allegiances are shifting, economies are collapsing and world demographics are in flux. Even the terms of politics themselves are undergoing evolution. We are witnessing a sea change that in real time seems slow, but in retrospect, will appear instantaneous. We live in momentous times. Elitist theory says that no collapse is sudden, it is always preceded by a slow build up of stupidity. Even when a war destroys a state, it was not the war that was the cause, it was all the bad decisions of the elite that led up to the lost war. War is just the apex of a mountain of mistakes. The worldwide political gyrations we are witness to is the same. The sudden changes coming will be the result of all the bad decisions of our elites.

The terms themselves are in need of a buff. Elitism used to mean capitalism, but now it means fascism at best, communism at worst. Meanwhile, populism used to mean socialism, but a better definition now would be small business capitalism… or should. Until we rectify terms, we are subject to manipulation. He is a populist! She is an elitist! What does that mean? The same thing? Both definitions are subject dependent, not objectively understood, and so they have devolved to demagoguery. We need to resurrect them and apply proper and objective meanings to them. Else create a new word to denote those who favor limited government, free markets and sovereign people. We already have two words denoting those who favor unlimited government, socialism and peasants… elitists and populists.

History is rife with examples of governments falling in vice and rising in virtue. Indeed, that is the normal paradigm. Being replayed so many times, it has become that which we know, that we don’t know we know. Governments are created to solve some problem, they either do or they don’t. If they don’t they are changed for another. If they do, they exist for awhile, until the elite realize they are self policing, and exploits the law as a means to steal. Then that government falls and is replaced by another. Is there any government, since the ancient city of Ur, that didn’t follow this arc? So why should our government be any different? Our elites inherited a well designed system that had functioned for two centuries, and with their corruption, egoism and lets face it, naked stupidity… have created chaos.

Post modernist minds are so open their brains have fallen out. The progressive post modernist faction is as stupid as they are arrogant, with the absurdities they are required to believe, enforced by the ostracism. They have become the half witted egoist emperors who lack vestments. No wonder there is a sea change in political allegiances. Those who claimed to represent the downtrodden, are throwing them under the bus… to pave the way. The small businessman used to have no problem with corporations, because they are supposedly both capitalists. Now that corporations have become fascists, the mutual admiration small businesses and corporations had for one another, has mutated into hatred. The socialists have turned against the masses and the elitists have turned against capitalism.

This change will have long term effects on humanity. If we get the system back to constitutional government, limited as much as possible, then get the courts to follow the Constitution and law… return to our societal myth, then the future will be brighter than a supernova. If we continue down this path to global totalitarianism, then the future will be a global hellscape of suffering, want and oppression. This change has been a long time coming. The elite are like ship worms. Their etching of justice works slow and hidden at first, until failure comes all at once. We are at the all at once cusp. The thing about living in momentous times, is one has the ability to make momentous changes, in the lot of Mankind. Surely, this is an opportunity we will seize, and not let fall, to stupid egoistic half witted elites?

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Above The Law

Posted on March 20, 2023 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, those who are above the law are always claiming, “No one is above the law!” Even as the democrats were violating law after law, they were going after Trump, even creating a false document to justify a special council investigation. Without consequence to them. Shouting, no one is above the law, all the while. When clearly, they are. If only the democrats could get Trump on something they are proven guilty of, he would be toast. When the powerful lament the weak must be punished, outside of precedent, law and sanity, they are exposing their own malevolence, arrogance and lack of self awareness. No one is above the law… except those who use that verbiage.

Arbitrary rule can never be law, it is something else, something sinister. It masquerades as law but is a perversion of it. Bastiat talked about this trend in his book, The Law. the thrust is, the powerful will pervert law into its opposite for their own benefit. Instead of preventing theft, the law steals, instead of preventing fraud, the law is fraudulent and instead of holding all equal, the law holds some are more equal. Such “law” is merely arbitrary rule for the benefit of those who rule. Law, as it was understood since man emerged form a cave, has been to stop theft, fraud and hold all equal. In order to insure the well ordering, operation and maintenance of society at large.

Machiavelli said a wise prince lies constantly while claiming to be the most honest person who ever lived. He went on that people believe their ears and not their eyes. So if a despot never tells the truth, but claims to be honest, people will believe their ears that he is honest and when confronted by their eyes with his lies, they will default to their ears and discount the obvious lies as a misstatement, mistake or their eyes lying. This allows a wise prince to manipulate people to his will. The tactic has worked amazingly well for the progressive faction. If you look, it is hard to find an whole truth in anything that comes out of our leaders today. They lie constantly to us while exploit criminal law for perjury traps.

Misdirection is best practiced by Magicians, used car salesmen and despots. Misdirection compliments lies, in their ability to manipulate us into self harm… for the benefit of the powerful. You know, those who are above the law. When someone who is obviously above the law is using law to crush the weak, that is their favorite phrase. This outsider has the audacity to stand up to us elite and so we are perverting law to make an example of him. The elite are as far above the law as the sun is to the ground. Otherwise Eric Holder would have been subject to the same treatment as Roger Stone, Kevin Clinsmith to Scooter Libby and Hillary Clinton’s actual campaign finance crimes to Trump’s frames.

When someone claims, no one is above the law, when they are obviously above the law, they are using misdirection, Machiavellian manipulation and are practicing arbitrary rule. While the FBI had not one but two Biden lap tops filled with incriminating evidence, and a diary… they went after Trump. In 2016, the DOJ charged one partner in a lobbying firm with not registering as a foreign agent, but not the other. The one a democrat the other a republican, which one do you think was charged, and which one was above the law? They were Podesta and Manafort. Unequal application of the law is not law, it is using law as a political weapon. only the lowest immoral scum does such a thing.

 

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Enlightenmentism

Posted on March 19, 2023 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, it is time to go beyond modernism, and post modernism, to Enlightenmentism. Modernism is the advance of the Enlightenment, the idea that all knowledge can be learned and understood through the scientific method. Post modernism seeks to move beyond that principle, to a more ancient idea, that knowledge is irrelevant because all relationships are a power dynamic. The one is based on the power of knowledge… the other is based on power to harm, both falling short of the mark. Enlightenmentism includes modernism’s scientific method, but tempers its myopic intolerance of the supernatural, with a humbler view, that some things are beyond us. The world includes things that we can’t even imagine, and without the humility to acknowledge it, they are forever unknowable.

Modernism is an empowering philosophy. It literally has brought us to the Moon. The scientific method has allowed us to plumb the depths of the natural world. That astounding advance in knowledge didn’t come free however. It came with the baggage of arrogance. Our experts epitomize egoism. They know it all and so need not listen to another point of view. That would not only be a waste of time but insulting. Since they already know it all, they have no need for God, they killed him and replaced him with a human deity… Themselves. They are the gods we have sought since time immemorial, or so they believe. That is why the absurdity of atheism has become such a powerfully negative force in the world today. Atheism comes from a lack of humility… arising from arrogance, hubris and egoism.

Post Modernism is a philosophy about power. It has taken the egoism of the modernists and turned it up to a thousand. The post modernist has a totalitarian philosophy. Which, they believe, is far more efficient. No need to think, just believe a proved lie and voila, they are purified. The post modernist is told what to believe, what to think and what to do. Since post modernism is about power, not reality, humanity or even rationality, any errant thought or word will lead to their ostracism. This keeps the zealots in line. While post modernism, by its very name, implies it goes beyond modernism, it is in fact, a step back. It is a return to the Rights of kings, the philosophy of the sophists and rhetoricians. It posits that power is all that counts. Science will naturally decline under a post modernist paradigm.

Enlightenmentism connects knowledge with humility. It takes the scientific method from modernism, combines it with the humility to realize we are not gods, and thus becomes something greater than them added together. They multiply each other. Imagine how far the scientific method could advance our knowledge, if “scientists” had a bit of humility, and paradigm shifts could happen more regularly, with less egoistic friction and emotional baggage. Paradigms would fall like rain. Because the single biggest blockage to human advancement is our own egos. Our arrogance holds us back. Plus, the ostracism has been quite effective at protecting paradigms. So perhaps it is time to give up the blockage, and merge onto the knowledge super highway? Enlightenmentism would be that autobahn.

We all know the universe is more than just material. We feel it in our hearts, minds… and souls. To deny a thing we know to be true, because it cannot be measured, boxed or recorded, is myopic. Worse, it is prideful. Both modernism and post modernism lack humility. They believe themselves capable of being gods. The one through knowledge and the other through power, but we are not and will never be gods… until we gain the humility of God. You may imagine God to be the opposite of humble, being the creator of heaven and Earth, but I think he is the epitome of humility. Because humility is independent of accomplishment. So, no matter the scientific accomplishments of the modernists, or the power attained by the post modernist, their lack of humility will perpetually hold them back.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Who Supports Who?

Posted on March 17, 2023 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems absurd to me… when someone says the government supports the economy. It’s like saying the roof of a house supports the foundation. It’s confusing the role of government with the role of businesses. Everything has a purpose. The private sector, the public sector and the government itself all have roles to play in structuring society. Confusing their respective functions are never the ideal place to start a conversation. Far from supporting the economy, government sucks its lifeblood. Like a leech. Take away the leech and the host will go on, better than before, remove the host and the leech starves. Government is no different. It cannot survive without a host. Therefore, it is absurd to say that the government supports the economy, when it is the economy that supports the government.

Private firms create wealth. Government squanders it. There can be no more basic truth than that. Government only takes, from those who earned it, and spends it on the politically favored. At the top of that list are the politicians, then their bootlicks, and then the rent seekers. Finally, a few crumbs fall from the table into the mouths of those on the dole. If not for the wealth created by private businesses, government would starve, as assuredly as a leech denied a host. The reality is, governments, all of them, waste money. They waste it on naming stuff after themselves, luxury, and enhancing their power. Little is spent to improve the lot of mankind. Money is power and no one knows this better than government officials. So that is all they spend our money on. Enhancing their power over us.

An argument could be made, government shares a symbiotic relationship with the private sector, but let’s face it, government is parasitic. It may or may not be needed, nevertheless, it exists by sucking the lifeblood from the private economy. In a symbiotic relationship both the host and the symbiote give and take. It is a win win. In a parasite host relationship, on the other hand, it is a win lose. The parasite’s profit comes at cost to the host with nothing given in return. Law could be cited as an example of how government gives back, and it would be a good one, where law is not arbitrary, coining the currency is another valid role of government in the relationship, if government maintained zero inflation, and obviously there is protecting the nation from other nations, but for the warmongering.

Ideally, the foundation holds up the edifice while the roof keeps rain off, but no matter how stout the roof, and how light the foundation, the roof will not support it. Socialism, communism and corporatism are attempts to build a national structure where the roof supports the foundation. In those systems the government has gone crazy. The parasite calls itself the host and declares the host cannot survive without it. The once seven foot three hundred pound weightlifter, who is now a sixty pound rack of bones, notwithstanding. No, the reality is, the foundation supports the roof, as a host supports the parasite, but a parasite cannot support a host, as a roof cannot support a foundation. Even if government was symbiotic, it could not be the host, it is dependent… not independent.

Words and their definitions matter. Communication is impossible when we confuse the definitions of words. In the case of government and economy, confusing the two is a sure path to societal disarray. At best we could claim an ideal government to be symbiotic with the economy, society and people. Usually however, it gets out of control, like candida, and becomes an infection. A parasite. That parasite gets mesmerized by its power and goes nuts. Thinking it is the host, and the host is dependent on it, which is upside down and backwards. How can a host consume from a parasite that eats from it? That is eating yourself. Governments then that have gone mad, and think the host is dependent on them, will not last long, even if they started out as a seven foot three hundred pound weightlifter.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Rent Seeking As An Economic Model

Posted on March 15, 2023 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, once an economy is based almost entirely on rent seeking, that economy must soon collapse, along with the nation. Rent seeking is a zero sum game and so an economy based on it will produce nothing, it only consumes… itself. Eventually, that lack of production will deliver inflation, currency collapse and economic ruin. Making rent seeking a poor long term strategy to gain national wealth. Rent seeking is quite profitable in the short term though… for the rent seekers. It is very costly to everyone else. There are many examples of rent seeking economies and not one is economically stable. In fact, those nations that have economies that are characterized as rent seeking, are called, “Third World.” They are rife with corruption, crime and cronies.

Sub Sahara Africa and Marxist South America are filled with countries that have embraced the rent seeking economic model. Some will arise out of it for a short time but always fall back into the cesspool of rent seeking sooner or later. Because the culture of the elite in those nations is utterly corrupt. Countries like Argentina, despite it’s abundance of natural resources and hard working people, is hobbled economically by the absolute corruption of the elite. Argentina goes through a spate of hyperinflation every decade or so. Not due to it’s being in the southern hemisphere but because of it’s rent seeking economy. Zimbabwe is an example in Africa. Every country that has rent seeking as its primary economic activity is poor, oppressed and corrupt.

Rent seeking not only feeds from government corruption, but feeds government corruption, making the whole affair a symbiotic relationship. Moreover, to continue the analogy, together, rent seeking and government corruption form a slime mold. A structure that supports and protects both. The rent seeker gets profit for nothing. There is no easier way to get rich than that, and people, like water and electricity, take the easiest path to ground. Rent seeking is only possible where the government has created barriers or when government fails in its duty to keep the peace. In both circumstances, the fault is of the elite in charge. Either they are inept and allow violence, intimidation and coercion, else they are corrupt and abet it. Nevertheless, once established, a slime mold is nearly impossible to eradicate.

Once rent seeking becomes invisible because it is so prevalent, it is only a matter of time before it becomes the primary economic activity. Because, whenever there are huge profits to be made, economic actors will swarm to that activity until it is perfect competition. The gold rush for example. Once rent seeking becomes easy and opportunities plentiful, why drudge away creating something of value to others, when simply intimidating them out of money is easier and more profitable? Soon, no one will build anything, only create barriers, remove barriers or exploit the weaknesses of others. An economy that produces nothing of value is one that eats itself. Unlike an Ouroboros however, rent seeking has a limited lifespan, because eventually the nation runs out of itself to eat.

Incentives matter, if rent seeking is easier than earning, then people will gravitate to rent seeking as their primary means of making a living. Like the gold rush, self interested human beings will rush to rent seeking. We are after all subject to natural law. The moment government opens the door to rent seeking, that door will be thrust open by the rush of people seeking an easy living. Productive economic activity will be replaced by rent seeking, and eventually the nation will fail… once it runs out of itself to eat. Ask yourself, “Is rent seeking obvious or hidden?” If it is hidden, as it is in the US, then it is pervasive. So endemic that we don’t notice it, as someone who lives in a sewer doesn’t notice the odor. If you look, do you see evidence of rife rent seeking? Has the slime grown too strong already?

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Regulations Create Crony Capitalism

Posted on March 14, 2023 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, far from facilitating commerce, regulations are a huge drag on the economy. Not only do regulations produce friction and crush competition, they create incentives to rent seeking. The elite, who benefit from those regulations, claim free markets need to be chained. Else they are not free, nor will they function. Ignoring history, which is fine, since history is not taught in school anymore. Instead of benefiting society, regulations benefit the elite at cost to society. We pay the bills in higher costs for everything, more taxes and less freedom. There are literally thousands of well paid bureaucrats, whose job it is to write regulations, about anything they can think of. Eventually, nothing will be allowed without permission from the government. Then rent seeking will be the entire economy.

Regulations, are sold as a way to limit the negative outcomes of capitalism, help with its smooth operation and mitigate the effect of externalities. If that was the case, a case could be made for them, but that is not the case. Regulations are made by bureaucrats, who are political actors. For all the bluster about them being public servants, they see the public as their servants. Since regulations are written by nameless, faceless people, hidden in cubicles, unaccountable and unanswerable to anyone, but their political lords… they are written with an eye to benefit the politically favored at the cost to the politically disfavored. That is simply the way it is. Our feelings notwithstanding. Instead of limiting externalities then, regulation is a tool to rent seeking, for the politically favored.

Rent seeking, or crony capitalism, happens when a person or firm profits by getting around government imposed problems. The classic story is of a king, who sees commerce going down a river in his land, so he puts a chain across it and collects tolls. The tolls are rent seeking. If people get together and haul supplies around the chained river, to get around the toll, they are also rent seeking. Any and all activities that need to be done, because of the chained river, are rent seeking. Because they replace capitalism’s win win… with crony capitalism’s win lose. There is no benefit to the activity other than to get around the chain. Regulations amount to that chain. They create blockages that must be cleared by lawyers, creating lucrative make work, for the politically favored.

By that definition of rent seeking then, most lawyers, tax accountants, as well as organized crime, engage in rent seeking. Their profit provides no benefit to the people paying or to society at large. They are parasites enabled by government over reach. Even a trust attorney is a rent seeker. The laws involving creating a trust for your loved ones, is such a benefit, it must be closed to all but the most wealthy by regulations. How much extra does it cost to buy property today because of the ever increasing regulatory burden? In Vermont, there was a road that had been designed and litigated over for four decades. Finally all the permits were signed. The machinery was on site and construction was about to begin, and a lawyer filed a lawsuit, so after spending billions, the road was abandoned.

Imagine if all those billions that are now wasted paying rent seekers, because of regulations, was spent on things that would benefit mankind? The lot of man would rise like a cork released at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Today the regulatory environment is why industry has fled the US. The most productive workers in the world were stabbed in the back by their own bureaucrats. Why would anyone build a manufacturing plant here, when the cost of the rent seeking will run into the billions? For that money somewhere else, the plant could not only be built, but run for the first five years! Regulations are in fact a swindle that is being played on us. They are friction to the economy, they create rent seeking and they prevent competition. Regulations only benefit cronies.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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