FREE WHITEWATER

Monthly Archives: June 2010

City, Economy, Free Markets, Government Spending, Planning, Uncategorized

America’s War Between Free Enterprise and Government Control

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There’s an essay in the Washington Post, that wonders if we face America’s new culture war: Free enterprise vs. government control. Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, considers the topic and concludes that we do face such a cultural clash.

First, Brooks considers the irreconcilable systems of free enterprise and state control:

This is not the culture war of the 1990s. It is not a fight over guns, gays or abortion.

Those old battles have been eclipsed by a new struggle between two competing visions of the country’s future. In one, America will continue to be an exceptional nation organized around the principles of free enterprise — limited government, a reliance on entrepreneurship and rewards determined by market forces. In the other, America will move toward European-style statism grounded in expanding bureaucracies, a managed economy and large-scale income redistribution. These visions are not reconcilable. We must choose.

It is not at all clear which side will prevail. The forces of big government are entrenched and enjoy the full arsenal of the administration’s money and influence. Our leaders in Washington, aided by the unprecedented economic crisis of recent years and the panic it induced, have seized the moment to introduce breathtaking expansions of state power in huge swaths of the economy, from the health-care takeover to the financial regulatory bill that the Senate approved Thursday. If these forces continue to prevail, America will cease to be a free enterprise nation.

I call this a culture war because free enterprise has been integral to American culture from the beginning, and it still lies at the core of our history and character. “A wise and frugal government,” Thomas Jefferson declared in his first inaugural address in 1801, “which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”

He later warned: “To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.” In other words, beware government’s economic control, and woe betide the redistributors.

Now, as then, entrepreneurship can flourish only in a culture where individuals are willing to innovate and exert leadership; where people enjoy the rewards and face the consequences of their decisions; and where we can gamble the security of the status quo for a chance of future success.

Most Americans, a large majority, support the free enterprise system. Advocates of this system have hard work ahead, though, as a financial crisis brought about through wrong-headed regulation has become an excuse to impose still more regulation. The challenge to a productive and prosperous America is considerable:

The 70 percent majority [favoring free enterprise], meanwhile, believes that ingenuity and hard work should be rewarded. We admire creative entrepreneurs and disdain rule-making bureaucrats. We know that income inequality by itself is not what makes people unhappy, and that only earned success can make them happy.

We must do more to show that while we use the language of commerce and business, we believe in human flourishing and contentment. We must articulate moral principles that set forth our fundamental values, and we must be prepared to defend them.

I have no doubt — none at all — that free market principles are morally and prudently superior to state control. This is a culture war that, in the end, cannot be lost. Planning and spending schemes are destined to fall behind private initiatives.

Even in small-town Whitewater, our latest multi-million dollar project is innovative only in crafting brazen and empty claims for historic accomplishment, limitless possibilities, a cure for the common cold, etc. Projects like that, funded with taxpayers’ earnings and municipal debt, are destined to be remembered only as over-hyped failures.

There is no better time to be, happily committed, to the free-enterprise side of this culture war.

Libertarians

Life with the Pauls, a Libertarian Family

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There’s a story at the New York Times website about the Pauls, a libertarian family that’s typical of many libertarian families except in the political prominence of father and son. See, For Paul Family, Libertarian Ethos Began at Home.

Here are descriptions of family life in the household:

In keeping with their position as the First Family of Libertarianism, the Pauls of Lake Jackson, Tex., did not have many rules around their home.

“Behave yourself and be polite” is how Representative Ron Paul describes his regulatory philosophy about rearing five children. Mr. Paul, a Republican, and his wife of 53 years, Carol, never believed in assigned chores or mandates.

They did not give out allowances, which they viewed as a parental version of a government handout. They did not believe in strict curfews; Mr. Paul says that unintended consequences – like speeding home to beat the clock – can result from excessive meddling from a central authority.

While Mr. Paul’s laissez-faire views produced a family of likeminded thinkers – “We’re all on board,” says the oldest son, Ronnie Paul – they inspired the middle child, Rand, to follow his father’s career path, first into medicine and now politics. If he prevails in November after winning the Republican nomination for a Senate seat in Kentucky last month, he and his father would form a two-man libertarian dynasty.

Father and son are described as each other’s political sounding boards, confidants and support systems. “Dad and Rand spent hours having great philosophical discussions about issues,” said Joy Paul Leblanc, the youngest sibling….

Friends of the family describe a traditional household with early American decor and the frequent aroma of Mrs. Paul’s chocolate chip cookies, if not fish sticks. They have lived since July 4, 1968, in the same middle-class enclave of Lake Jackson, where the streets are named for trees, flowers and fauna (the Pauls live on Blossom). They owned a series of collies (Julie, Kippy and Cricket) and a Maltese (Liberty), and the kids were expected, though not required, to feed the pooches, make their own beds, clear their own dishes from the table and not talk back to their elders.

Much of that description would apply to libertarian families without ambitions for political office. If you’ve grown up in a ‘movement’ family, including families that leaned libertarian before the term ‘libertarian’ was coined, you probably find much of this description familiar. I’ve never, ever met a libertarian family in this country that wasn’t proudly American, and also cosmopolitan in a commitment to peaceful relations and trade with friendly countries.

I note, however, that not everyone is born into a libertarian household. Some, unfortunately, experience mistreatment at the hands of government, and become libertarian after experiencing that mistreatment. (Radley Balko contends that people like that find libertarianism as a consequence of something that “happens to them.”) See, Libertarianism as an Experience. Others were born into a household like the Pauls, drift away for a bit, and return forever committed to libertarian views.

For those who grew up as the Pauls did, though, I think there’s a typical gratitude for an upbringing that’s both happy and principled.

Freedom of Speech

Is Anti-Blogging Rhetoric Proof of Blogs’ Success?

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There’s a story at Politics Daily, entitled, “Anti-Blogger Rhetoric: A Sign of What the Blogosphere Is Doing Right,” that sees opposition to blogging as a sign of blogging’s success.

Matt Lewis writes that

If success breeds contempt, then bloggers are finally making it big.

Consider this study in contrasts: During his first White House news conference last year, President Barack Obama called on a liberal blogger, Sam Stein, and CNN recently hired conservative blogger Erick Erickson to provide on-air commentary. On the other hand, despite such inroads, “bloggers” in general have increasingly become scapegoats and bogeymen for the mainstream press and politicians.

For example, while praising print media last year, Obama juxtaposed the traditional media with the New Media by voicing reservations about the ethics of blogging: “I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding,” he said.

I don’t think that being the criticism is usually proof of success, although it is evidence of notoriety. If one sees success as merely notoriety, then criticism is probably proof. This is a play on the old chestnut that “if one isn’t being criticized, then one’s not doing one’s job right.” I don’t believe that at all. Most jobs can be done well without any criticism at all. (It’s a chestnut Whitewater city manager Kevin Brunner once used.) Critical notoriety is proof of a kind of notoriety, and that’s all. It’s a measure of awareness, not skill or effectiveness.

President Obama is also wrong to think — very wrong, really — that blogging is somehow an introduction of opinion that didn’t exist with traditional media beforehand. (Walworth County Administrator David Bretl took a similar position in a recent community column. See, It seems like opinions get more ink, bigger play in today’s newspapers. Bretl, however, clearly understands America’s historical antecedents to blogging.)

On the contrary, blogging gets much of its impetus as a counterbalance to the bias and opinion of mainstream publicans that falsely contend they’re ‘objective,’ ‘unbiased,’ etc. Many papers shed their objectively long ago, and publish now as water-carriers for politicians and bureaucrats. That’s especially true in a place like Whitewater, where the Gazettes are the last real newspapers — as journalism — in the immediate area.

Blogging’s not really new. It’s just a new form of pamphleteering that was part of our earliest political tradition on this continent.

Good blogging on politics considers the public statements, documents, and actions of government, through its politicians, bureaucrats, and hovering special interests. That’s a job that newspapers were once proud to consider part of journalism, but a task that many have abandoned for fawning stories about public officials.

Bloggers are not reporters or journalists, and few would wish to be. I don’t think for a minute that I’m like a reporter, and I don’t aspire to that role, for example. Blogging is, in part, the restoration of lawful analysis and commentary that sycophantic newspapers, servile to public officials, no longer feel the need to offer. Whether that meets with approval or disapproval matters less than the simple exercise of a right, in fulfillment of a role, that’s traditionally, proudly American.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 6-7-10

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Good morning, Whitewater

Today’s forecast calls for a day of isolated showers, with a high of seventy-one degrees.

The City of Whitewater has a busy day ahead, with three municipal meetings scheduled. From 10 a.m. to noon, there will be a meeting of the Whitewater-University Tech Park Board. The meeting’s agenda is available online, and includes items 5 (Update on Executive Director search), 6 (Leasing of space in Innovation Center), 7 (Strategic Plan for Tech Park/Innovation Center), and 8 (Decision on Solar Power). The sparse agenda, and odd prioritization, reflects the nature of the whole undertaking.

Later, at 4 p.m., there will be a Parks & Recreation Board meeting. At 5 p.m., the Landmarks Commission will meet. Here’s the Landmarks Commission agenda:

Agenda of Whitewater Landmarks Commission
Monday, June 7, 2010 – 5:00 PM
City Manager Conference Room
312 Whitewater St., Whitewater, WI 53190

I. Call to order & roll call

II. Approval of agenda and possible rearrangement

III. Approval of minutes of May 5, 2010 meeting

IV. Set date of next meeting Wednesday, July 7, 2010, at 5 PM

Old Business

V. Update on Train Depot renovation (Lashley)

VI. Update of possible moving or demolition of James and Ella Rockefeller House at 837 South Janesville Road (Scott)

VII. Certified Local Government Reports (Scott)

VIII. Discuss storage of original Birge Fountain figures

IX. Action on Landmark Commission Bylaws (McDonell)

X. Report from Friends of the Mounds
1. Mound survey and path
2. Whitewater Historic Preservation Day Tours

XI. Report from Joint Indian Mound Task Force, Park & Rec. Board and Landmarks Meeting Monday, May 10, 2010

XII. Discuss feedback from Historical Preservation Day Tours, library display, publicity, map brochure, etc.
1. Ideas(?) to implement
2. Thank you list
3. Ideas (?) for next year

New Business

XIII. Discuss possible removal of Skindingsrude Building, 413 West Main St., with parish representatives.

XIV. Discuss possible projects and events for 2010
1. Local Landmark Designations
A. Leon Pescheret House
B. Vivian Henderson’s House
2. Historic Districts

XV. Future Agenda Items
1. Congregational Church Clock Tower
2. Whitewater Historical Survey Recommendations
3. Leaflets and Educational Materials
4. Report on the New Provisions of Chap. 17 (Scott)
A. Discuss establishing criteria for designation
B. List of possible items

XVI. Adjournment.

At some schools in our school district, it’s Civil War Day.

There’s a story in the Journal Sentinel about the large number of Wisconsin legislators who’ve announced retirement:

Wisconsin is on track to have as many new lawmakers elected this fall as it has had in 10 years, with some of its longest-serving members handing back power that they have held for decades.

Twenty-one of the Legislature’s 132 members are leaving the body entirely, and another two Assembly lawmakers, Rep. Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa) and Rep. Rich Zipperer (R-City of Pewaukee), are giving up their current posts to run for the state Senate, opening the way for new Assembly candidates.

That means the Legislature has a chance to gain fresh faces and energy, but will lose experience in the bargain.

I’d favor fresh faces over experience of the kind we’ve had.

There’s also an unusual story, entitled, “Teen werewolves usher in a new generation of The Beast of Bray Road,” about teenagers who adopt the style and manner of a so-called teen werewolf culture. I don’t know what to make of it, and have never seen an example of it, other than what the video embedded below offers.

For more on the ‘Beast of Bray Road,’ here’s a quick introduction.

Here’s that video, from KENS 5 in Texas:

more >>

Public Meetings

Landmarks Commission

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Agenda of Whitewater Landmarks Commission Monday, June 7, 2010 – 5:00 PM
City Manager Conference Room 312 Whitewater St., Whitewater, WI 53190
I. Call to order & roll call
II. Approval of agenda and possible rearrangement
III. Approval of minutes of May 5, 2010 meeting
IV. Set date of next meeting Wednesday, July 7, 2010, at 5 PM
Old Business
V. Update on Train Depot renovation (Lashley)
VI. Update of possible moving or demolition of James and Ella Rockefeller House at 837 South Janesville Road (Scott)
VII. Certified Local Government Reports (Scott)
VIII. Discuss storage of original Birge Fountain figures
IX. Action on Landmark Commission Bylaws (McDonell)
X. Report from Friends of the Mounds 1. Mound survey and path 2. Whitewater Historic Preservation Day Tours
XI. Report from Joint Indian Mound Task Force, Park & Rec. Board and Landmarks Meeting Monday, May 10, 2010
XII. Discuss feedback from Historical Preservation Day Tours, library display, publicity, map brochure, etc.
1 Ideas(?) to implement
2 Thank you list
3 Ideas (?) for next year
New Business
XIII. Discuss possible removal of Skindingsrude Building, 413 West Main St., with parish representatives.
XIV. Discuss possible projects and events for 2010
1. Local Landmark Designations
XV.
A. Leon Pescheret House
B. Vivian Henderson’s House
2. Historic Districts
Future Agenda Items
1. Congregational Church Clock Tower
2. Whitewater Historical Survey Recommendations
3. Leaflets and Educational Materials
4. Report on the New Provisions of Chap. 17 (Scott)
A. Discuss establishing criteria for designation
B. List of possible items
XVI. Adjournment

Twitter

Recent Tweets, 5-30 to 6-5

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RT @nature_org: Looking for new bike gear? Check out some eco-friendly options! http://nature.ly/axOAgJ
10:12 AM Jun 4th via Seesmic

RT @reasonmag: The Silver Lining of Cash for Clunkers: Studies in Stupid Stimulus Spending http://ow.ly/1TeLn
6:31 PM Jun 2nd via Seesmic
nature_org

Check out some amazing wildlife in our latest Natural Light slideshow! http://nature.ly/a4kf4w
1:35 PM Jun 2nd via CoTweet
Retweeted by you and 3 others

RT @IJ: SpeechNow.org can Speak Now: Fed. Court Declares Contribution Limits Unconstitutional And Enjoins FEC: http://iam.ij.org/coZdLP
2:38 PM Jun 2nd via Seesmic

RT @IJ: VICTORY! A city council in Wis. dropped plans to acquire a 94-year-old man’s farm through eminent domain: http://iam.ij.org/9JaVXy
8:51 AM Jun 2nd via Seesmic

RT @CatoInstitute: New bill would limit annual increases in overall federal spending. About. Time. http://bit.ly/caV5Ah
4:12 PM Jun 1st via Seesmic

Yes, it is: RT @CatoInstitute: Crisis is the logical outcome of the welfare state. Exhibit A: Greece. Exhibit B: Canada http://bit.ly/8YLq5e
2:14 PM Jun 1st via Seesmic

@IJ: There is a country where you must register w/the gov’t before speaking about politics. That country is ours: http://iam.ij.org/bB1Xvf
11:46 AM Jun 1st via Seesmic

Uncategorized

Vending Machines as Subversive, Automated Commerce

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Radley Balko of reviews Christopher D. Salyers’s Vending Machines: Coined Consumerism in the latest issue of Reason magazine. Balko observes that the anonymity of using a vending machine can make those devices subversive of the conventional standards. I think he’s right. Here’s a bit of his essay:

In his quirky book Vending Machines: Coined Consumerism (Mark Batty), Christopher D. Salyers notes that upon his release from prison, [19th century publisher] Carlisle thought he could skirt laws banning controversial books by constructing a machine that “dropped a customer’s desired book after money was inserted and a dial positioned to a corresponding number.” Carlisle was rearrested anyway, but the liberating potential he saw in the anonymity of automated vending has certainly been validated.

For nearly a century before the Internet put the anonymous consumption of vices literally at the world’s fingertips, vending machines dispensed taboo wares, experiences, and entertainment free from the gaze of prying eyes. Salyers argues that the first vending machines in wide use were the snuff and tobacco boxes in 17th century English taverns, appropriate forerunners to the ubiquitous, plastic-handled cigarette dispensers that populated bars, bowling allies, and restaurants in the second half of the 20th century.

Be it the condom machine in the gas station bathroom, the coin-operated peep show, the pinball craze that prompted a moral panic in the 1940s, truant hoods spending afternoons in smoke-blanketed video game arcades in the 1980s, or the rebellious rock ’n’ roll dispensing jukebox, there has always been a subversive element to coin-operated commerce. Even the Norman Rockwell–celebrated Coca-Cola machine has gone rogue, as public health activists now fault soda and candy—and, in particular, the widespread availability of both through vending machines—for the fattening of American children.

School District

Private Alternatives as the Solution for Public Controversies

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There’s a story at the ABC News website, entitled, “Politics of Education: New Texas Social Sciences Curriculum Standards Fraught with Ideology, Critics Say,” about the new public education curriculum in Texas. Some voters are upset that the public curriculum is too conservative.

I’ll not weigh in on what’s too conservative, or too liberal, in public schools…at least, not today. What’s more telling is how a system that taxes people for a public curriculum, establishes itself as a mandatory standard, and makes private alternatives hard to fund with whatever money money people have left will always foster controversy.

The answer is to make private alternatives easier to establish. Once that happens, there will be more alternatives, from among like-minded groups. There will also be fewer ideological controversies between the left and right in the public schools.

Economy

U.S. Economy: May Employment Gain Trails Forecast (Update1) – Bloomberg.com

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I’ve contended that our economy, nationally and locally, remains week. The recent unemployment figures confirm that view. See, U.S. Economy: May Employment Gain Trails Forecast (Update1) – Bloomberg.com.

The details of the latest report reveal a grim picture:

American companies hired fewer workers in May than forecast and workers dropped out of the labor force, indicating government support is still needed to spur economic growth.

Private payrolls rose by 41,000, Labor Department figures showed today, trailing the 180,000 gain forecast by economists. Including government workers, employment rose by 431,000, boosted by a jump in hiring of temporary census workers….

“The labor market is extremely weak and has been in a mild recovery,” said Steven Wieting, managing director of economic and market analysis at Citigroup Global Markets Inc. in New York. “Policy makers need to be careful. No one should be taking stability for granted….”

Temporary census jobs accounted for 411,000 of the May increase in payrolls, leaving the ex-census figure at 20,000. The hiring of temporary workers to conduct the decennial population count probably peaked last month, economists said.

The unwinding of census employment may keep distorting the payroll figures for months as the government dismisses workers when the count is completed. For that reason, economists say private payrolls, which exclude government jobs, will be a better gauge of the state of the labor market for much of 2010.

The federal government squandered hundreds of billions on a stimulus that hasn’t reinvigorated our economy, and reliance on hiring hundreds of thousands of temporary census workers will only temporarily obscure our bleak employment scenario.

Locally, reliance on taxpayer-provided grant money and the issuance of taxpayer-financed municipal debt will offer no longterm boost to our economy. The only meaningful increase our community will see, for example, from a multi-million dollar Innovation Center is an increase in empty, press releases.

More significant, the federal government’s failed stimulus and red-ink budgets mean that the supply of federal pork will soon run out.

Uncategorized

Wisconsin Man Gets Probation for Stealing Dirty Diapers

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There’s much that’s unique about Wisconsin, but some of that is sad and odd. There’s no better example than that of a man who was convicted of stealing dirty diapers from someone’s home. Dillon Makuski was sentenced to thirty months’ probation and two hundred hours of community service.

A man who broke into someone’s home to steal diapers through a compulsion of some sort should be confined to a hospital for evaluation and treatment.

Afterward, and only afterward, upon release, that service should include working in a laundry.

Wisconsin Man Gets Probation for Stealing Dirty Diapers.