THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 284, October 30, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
VOTING FOR THE WEALTH CREATION AMERICA NEEDS:
PERSPECTIVES ON KEEPING THE AMERICAN DREAM ALIVE
By John Clema
AMERICAN POLITICS & REGULATORY POLICY TODAY: LIBERAL LEFTIST STATISM, RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM, &
THE MYRIAD OF REGULATORY ROADBLOCKS TO WEALTH CREATION IN THE U.S.A. -- EXPANDING GOVERNMENT CONTROL
& DIRECTION OF THE ECONOMY HOBBLING AMERICA'S ONCE VIBRANT FREE MARKET -- SOARING ENERGY, FOOD, &
PRODUCT PRICES IMPACTING ADVERSELY ON THE ECONOMIC WELL-BEING OF AMERICAN FAMILIES -- POLITICIANS,
IDEOLOGUES, & THE DRIVE TO "REDISTRIBUTE THE WEALTH" -- A TAX & WELFARE SYSTEM THAT TAKES MONEY FROM
THE PRODUCTIVE & GIVES IT TO THE NONPRODUCTIVE -- WHAT CAN BE DONE TO TURN THIS SITUATION AROUND -- THE
2008 PRESIDENTIAL & CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS PROVIDE AMERICAN VOTERS WITH THE OPPORTUNITY TO INITIATE A
CHANGE IN DIRECTION, CHANGE FOR THE BETTER OR CHANGE THE WORSE
FULL STORY:
Forty years ago, the United States of America was a superpower, a country both revered and feared. Today, its own
citizens and politicians, and people around the world, question America’s well-being, resolve, and belief in itself.
I suspect the change has been gradual, the result of subtle shifts – imperceptible to average citizens, who are too close
to the situation to see the big picture.
Perhaps attitudes would be different if everyone could take a step back and, through the filter of history, look at what
made America the great nation it once was, and compare that with our country today. People would insist that we
rethink our current direction and plans.
My philosophies and opinions were shaped in America’s Heartland, where I grew up. But, for the last forty years, my
professional journey kept me overseas. I heard and discussed other countries’ perceptions of America and, now that
I’ve returned – intent on investing in my homeland – I see these changes. I’ve become a stranger in a strange land.
Washington wants foreign money to come back to America – and America badly needs the economic boost. Yet, the
roadblocks to wealth creation are myriad.
I’ve spent the last several months nosing about in coffee shops, bookstores, bars, and malls throughout the West and
Midwest. I’ve conversed with Americans from diverse ethnicities and ideologies. I’ve watched the television news
intently and followed the election process.
With the view of an outsider and the concern of a citizen, I am shocked at what I’ve learned. I fear the whole country is
going the way of California.
California has a plethora of wealth-creating resources, yet it is hopelessly in debt. It develops little that is new. It
depends on other states for electricity and motor fuels, though it is blessed with resources to provide both.
Despite the costs this imposes on small businesses and poor families, it refuses to budge on the policies that got it into
this mess.
In the old days, we were taught the principles of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. We understood the basic
premise that there are two kinds of work: productive and nonproductive. New wealth comes from productive work.
Nonproductive work depends on that new wealth.
Mining ores and energy creates new wealth. Selling, shipping and processing Earth’s bounties are part of that effort, and
thus also create new wealth and jobs. So does manufacturing, and the sale and transport of finished products.
Agriculture, forest products, and fishing do likewise.
All other jobs depend on this productive, wealth-creating sector. Government jobs that help regulate are necessary, but
unproductive in a fundamental economic sense. The problem comes when the two are out of balance.
America used to be a “can do” nation, where individuals were encouraged to create wealth. We became the wealthiest,
most creative and innovative nation on Earth.
Today, government regulators have erected such mammoth roadblocks that we have countless nonproductive jobs whose
sole task is saying, “Do not.” The balance has shifted to the nonproductive side. Wealth creation is stifled.
The negative effects this imposes on our nation’s economy has brought us where we are.
Government has become too big, too unhelpful. It has too much power over citizens. Encouraged by false and inaccurate
news stories, activist campaigns and pseudo-documentaries, like Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, bureaucrats
regulate, litigate, excoriate, and tax into oblivion vast supplies of essential resources.
They force us to import substitutes, sending American wealth and jobs overseas.
Companies and individuals who want to create basic wealth are stigmatized as polluters, and forced to prove the
impossible: that they can find and develop natural resources without impacting the land.
Wind and solar power and ethanol have huge impacts on habitats. Yet, they are exempted from comprehensive
environmental studies and other rules. They require vast quantities of steel, concrete, water, and other materials. But
producing many of those materials in America is forbidden, so they, too, are imported, and the overseas environmental
impacts are ignored.
America’s once vibrant free market is hobbled. Government control is expanding.
Overseas, people see this as a ploy to get unproven, uneconomic “alternative energy” systems operating at the expense
of existing, effective systems. They see government tax, subsidy, and regulatory authority used to prop up politically
popular schemes, at the expense of our nation’s energy reliability, economic vitality, competitiveness and jobs.
Energy, food, and product prices soar. Still more nonproductive regulatory jobs not only do not create new wealth; they
hinder production and stifle revenue generation.
Far too many politicians and bureaucrats want to take from those who have prospered, and “spread the wealth around.”
They print more money and IOUs, rather than encouraging production.
Troubled by America’s dominance on the world stage, they aim to knock us down a peg, and revel in our economic crisis
– refusing to recognize that a failing U.S. economy hurts our poor and downtrodden the most, and impacts poor families
in poor countries even more.
Can anything be done to turn it around? Fellow citizens, you have a choice this election.
How you vote will determine how much more of your hard-earned money is taken from you and given to the
nonproductive. Your vote will determine how much more our nation’s overall wealth declines. It will determine whether
politicians will “spread your wealth around,” or grow America’s economic pie – and ensure that more people have a shot
at success, by reducing unnecessary roadblocks, taxes, costs, and lawsuits that stifle progress, opportunity, and
prosperity.
I am watching and waiting – keeping my wealth in my pockets. I would love to invest here in the land I love. But it may be
better for me, America, and the global community, if I take it back to where it came from. The next few days will help me
decide.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
American Politics, Political Competition, & the Control of
Public Policy: Elections, Political Parties, Political Factions,
Ideologies, & Special Interest Groups
American Government & the U.S. Presidency:
Presidential Politics & National Leadership
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
The American Political & Cultural Left:
Liberals, Statists, Socialists, Marxists, & Other Leftists:
The Democratic Party, Academia, & the Mainstream Media
Liberalism Versus Conservatism in American Politics
-------------------------
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY & POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES:
COMPETING SYSTEMS OF POLITICAL THOUGHT
Conservatism
Traditional Conservatism: Questions & Answers
Conservatism: Attitudes, Types, & Present Status
Constitutional Conservatism: American & British
Liberalism
Classical Liberalism: Intellectual Foundations
Classical Liberalism: Conservative Liberalism
Manchester Liberalism & Social Darwinism
Modern Social "Liberalism": Statist "Liberalism"
Radical & Totalitarian Ideologies
Radicalism, Utopianism, & Totalitarianism
John Clema is a geologic consultant with extensive worldwide experience, particularly in Southeast Asia and Australia. He
discovered several major mineral deposits, is the first white man to enter the Star Mountains of Papua New Guinea, and
was made an honorary member of an aboriginal tribe in that area.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity