Friday, December 14, 2012

Compound Interest



Compound Interest
Charlie Earl

When does 24.2 equal ten? Well…it is 2.42 times larger, so how can the two values be equal? It is the magic of compounding. If you had spent $10 for an item in 1982, and the price of that item compounded at 3% per year until today, that same item would cost you $24.20. The item I’m referring to is actually the relative cost of smaller government as envisioned by members and leaders of the Republican Party. Democrats have consistently sought to break the fiscal bank by initiating and funding worthless programs and policies….let’s say something along the line of a 4% compounded annual increase. Republicans on the other hand….being the self-proclaimed, self-appointed party of smaller government and fiscal responsibility have compromised us into the current morass. It’s true that on a relative scale of “responsibility,” the GOP has proven to be slightly less damaging than the Democrats, but it is an issue of time not dollars. In other words….the Republican strategy has stretched out the time for our fiscal collapse, whereas the Democrat/progressive/socialist mob would have gotten us there more quickly.  

Government at all levels is bigger and more costly. Our liberty and rights have been dramatically diminished thus violating the laws of God and men (the Constitution). Both parties have been complicit in this nefarious path. Both parties have been instrumental in our slide into a bankrupt police state. Both parties and their willing stooges have conspired to destroy the American dream for this generation and all future ones. Both parties shall be condemned at the Final Judgment. However…..parties are comprised of people and “parties” will not stand before the Throne of God. People will. Individual persons will. When a party is dead, it has no moment of accountability similar to that of its individual members. Who will answer? Who will pay?

Yes, I admit, that like some of you I was vapidly somnolent while waiting for my guardian elephants to pull our fiscal and freedom chestnuts out of the raging inferno. The massive blaze was large enough, however, that I saw the light. The Democrats’ driving mantra of “the ends justify the means” uses corrupt and immoral means to achieve nefarious and suicidal ends. The “big lie” is the primary tool in the Democrat box of underhanded devices. The GOP, on the other hand, engages in the “little lie” with alarming frequency. Republicans lie to themselves and each other while ignoring the reality of the Party’s march toward oppressive huge government. The party leaders enable the Democrats’ schemes and share the benefits of increased power and influence. Meanwhile….the slower-growth compound interest of deficits, debt and despotism is engulfing all of us.

Despite its lack of a national footprint, the Libertarian Party, too, shares in the sepsis of our national identity. By focusing on tangential issues such as the legalization or decriminalizing of pot, the prospect of gay marriage and other such constitutionally irrelevant issues, the LP has successfully marginalized itself outside the body politic. The aforementioned topics may be personally important to some Americans, but they are insignificant when measured against the overriding dismantling of our constitutional government and the fiscal devastation that currently faces us. The party has been around for more than thirty years, but because of a failure to promote the purity of personal liberty and the sanity of fiscal responsibility, it has become the resting place for every crackpot who has a personal bitch with the government and the other parties. Libertarians, it you wish to be one of the big ones, you must advance the big ideas and allow the people to ascertain how liberty and fiscal responsibility affect them personally. The LP problem is that its appeal has been based on too simple interest.

Compounding is the problem, and our difficulties have been compounded and made more complex because we allowed it, we encouraged it and now we are unable to prevent it. “There ought to be a law” has replaced “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as our pre-eminent national identity. We screwed up, and I fear that reclaiming our heritage may be the costliest fight in our history. When our Founders declared our independence, the government was an ocean away with other problems on its plate. Today… now…the offending government is in our house. I’m exhausted and fed up with political parties that debate the nonsensical and the marginal. I’m sick of citizens who are distracted by the shiny objects of minor disagreement when there are just two issues: individual liberty and constitutional government. Nothing else matters because if those two principles continue to be abused, we are doomed. 

Charlie Earl

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