Tag: Capitalism

Destroying the Link between Capitalism and Wealth

George Noga
If  capitalism and liberty lose the culture war, it will be because Americans have lost the link that brought us our unprecedented cornucopia of  wealth.
Destroying the Link between Capitalism and Wealth
By: George Noga – March 11, 2018

      This is the second and final post seeking to answer the question: Does capitalism sow the seeds of its own destruction? The first part is on our website: www.mllg.us. This question first was posed 100 years ago by economist Joseph Schumpeter. We will conclude by comparing Schumpeter’s predictions with where America stands today.

       We are engaged in a great culture war for the preservation of capitalism along with wealth and liberty, which are symbiotically linked to capitalism. If we have capitalism, we ipso facto have liberty and wealth. Without capitalism we become poorer and less free, while under socialism we are impoverished and tyrannized; think Venezuela.

     How bad is the anti-capitalist mentality? One poll showed 4 out of 10 US adults preferred socialism to capitalism. A YouGov poll asked if respondents had a favorable view of capitalism or socialism. With Democrats, it was tied at 42%; millennials chose socialism 43% to 32%. In a Gallup poll, 47% of respondents reported they would vote for a qualified socialist for president; 69% of those ages 18-29 said they would. Of  millennials, 58% would rather live under socialism than capitalism. In a Politico poll, Democrat voters in every age group, gender and race said they liked socialism.

     Unsurprisingly, few people, especially millennials, understand what capitalism, socialism or communism really is. Large majorities conflate European social welfare states with socialism. They particularly believe Sweden is the model of a successful socialist country. Read our October 15, 2017 post “Socialism and Sweden” on our website; it shows Sweden as a free-market capitalist country. Liberals and millennials it seems are not only brainwashed but ignorant. Perhaps they can spend their next vacation in Venezuela, Cuba or North Korea to see real socialism at work.

Let’s revisit Schumpeter’s prediction, which contained five sequential points.

  1.  Capitalism will create great wealth. This has come true to an extent few dreamed.
  2.  More people will be educated. Again true, in America education is universal.
  3.  Professors and teachers will promote anti-capitalist ideas. BINGO!
  4.  People will vote for social welfare states. Already true  as shown by polling.
  5.  Capitalism’s success brings about its own destruction. This hangs in the balance.
     Schumpeter feared the demise of capitalism, along with wealth and liberty, would usher in a new dark age and we may have to wait centuries for the reemergence of capitalism and liberty. If Schumpeter’s final prediction comes true, we will drag the entire planet into a lengthy and unspeakable Orwellian torpor where men lead lives of quiet desperation, where war is peace, bad is good, immoral is moral and big brother always is watching. Nowhere is it written that liberty will survive.
My March 18th post is mega special; hint: it is my 75th birthday!

Why Intellectuals Hate Capitalism

George Noga
Does capitalism really sow the seeds of its own destruction? 
Why Intellectuals Hate Capitalism
By: George Noga – March 4, 2018

       This is the first of two posts seeking to answer the above question about capitalism and self destruction. This question has a nexus to our three February posts (available at www.mllg.us) about the debt crisis. Both stem from the consequences of the stunning success of capitalism in creating enormous wealth for all. This first post explains why intellectuals and progressives loathe capitalism and love socialism.

       A century ago economist Joseph Schumpeter wrote that capitalism would self destruct: “I do not think capitalism can survive. Its demise will not be due to economic failure; instead, its very success undermines the institutions which protect it and creates conditions in which it can’t survive.” He theorized: (1) capitalism would enable more people to become educated; (2) they would be taught anti-capitalist dogma by professors now free to promote their ideas rather than to work; (3) people thusly (mis)educated would vote for liberal welfare states leading to the end of capitalism.

       Vituperation from socialist professors has infected college students and wafted into the general population. There are six main reasons liberals hate capitalism.

1. Capitalism evolved organically. No intellectual wrote a capitalist manifesto; Adam Smith merely explained what happened naturally. Capitalism just happens; it doesn’t require professors to theorize. No one is capable of controlling capitalism, whereas socialism requires controllers, i.e. intellectuals who know what is best for everyone.

2. Capitalism is egalitarian. An uneducated, uncouth bloke can make a fortune by say recognizing the market for used auto parts and buying and stripping junk cars. He gets rich because he provided a valuable service to consumers. In contrast, the intellectual is unrecognized and unrewarded. Successful capitalists repulse elites.

3. Professors are rewarded by bureaucrats, not markets. They succeed by pleasing their statist employers, not by pleasing students (customers) or by attracting new students. Capitalism does not reward them based on their exalted education and good intentions. They prefer regulation to the chaos of the marketplace. They believe their pet theories should override the free decisions of individuals, if necessary by using the police power of the state. Their peers all are anti-market and they must go along to succeed.

“Capitalism is: To each according to his accomplishments.” 

4. Consumers are sovereign; intellectuals have no special status. The common man holds all the power; his decisions to buy (or not to buy) determine what is produced and makes suppliers rich (or poor). Wealth is achieved only by serving consumers.

5. Capitalism brooks no excuses for shortcomings. Capitalist success is based strictly on one’s ability to provide value to his fellow man. Capitalism is to each according to his accomplishments; those who fail are found wanting by their fellow men.

6. Intellectuals desire control over others. They fail to understand why the unwashed, poor ignorant rubes in flyover land believe they know what is best for them and for their families. Intellectuals see themselves as heroic emancipators, crushing greedy capitalists, saving helpless victims and reaping the just approbation of all mankind.

      America’s immense, broadly shared wealth comes with pernicious consequences.  Any society rich enough to have millions of pet insurance policies with acupuncture, chiropractic and mental health benefits is a society that arguably has lost its critical connection between wealth and capitalism. More on this next week along with our conclusion about Schumpeter’s prediction of capitalism’s self destruction.

Our March 11th post is the second and final part dealing with Schumpeter.

Red October – The God That Failed

George Noga
Communism fails because it is opposed to and irreconcilable with human nature.
Red October – The God That Failed
By: George Noga – October 29, 2017
       Humans have sought to create temporal paradises since the Garden of Eden. In literature, dreams of heaven on earth date to Homer’s Odyssey (Elysium) in the 12th century, BC. There have been numerous attempts to create Utopias, including colonists in Jamestown, Pilgrims in Plymouth and the 1789 French Revolution. Communism’s turn came 100 years ago this month when they took over the government of Russia.
      In all human history, attempts to create Utopia have led only to death, destruction and misery; the communists alone killed over 100 million. Never has any communist, socialist or collectivist scheme worked for any group larger than a family, clan or tribe. Despite this grisly record, many – ever in search of  Zion – continue to believe. What can possibly explain the beliefs of such people – including those who feel the Bern?
      Their belief is not based on evidence but on a longing for a moral basis in their lives. They are in search of a religion – but one without God. Politics is their new faith but they are anti-democratic because they already have all the answers. They long for equality but the equality that leads to conformity and despotism. They compare the ideal of communism with the practice of capitalism but never the results of each. They want to be judged by their intentions, never by their actions. They embrace platitudes from cans. They are oblivious to history and believe they will get it right next time.
    Capitalism stands in sharp contrast to communism. Just since 1970, worldwide poverty has fallen 80%. In arguably the greatest achievement in human history, billions of people have escaped poverty. Was this miracle due to the UN, World Bank, IMF, NGOs, government or socialism? No; it was due entirely to capitalism. Yet 70% of people surveyed believe hunger and poverty have gotten worse and only 40% of young Americans have a favorable view of capitalism. Socialism impoverishes people (Venezuela) while capitalism makes them wealthy; yet, people cling to illusions.
       Communism, socialism and collectivism are lies. They promise Xanadu,Valhalla and Elysium; they give you North Korea, the USSR, and Cambodia. They promise comradeship; they give you totalitarianism. They promise progress; they give you stagnation. They promise hope; they give you lives of quiet desperation. They promise Sweden; they give you Venezuela. They promise a new social order; they give you a smorgasbord of social pathologies. They promise truth; they give you Pravda.
     They promise liberty; they give you walls with razor wire and minefields. They promise equality; they give you equal poverty. They promise a clean environment; they give you a toxic wasteland. They promise technology; they give you Chernobyl. They promise a classless society; they give you political elites living in decadent luxury. They promise freedom and justice; they give you Gulags and the Stasi.
       They promise peace; they give you war. They promise Apple, Google and Disney; they give you lines, shortages and shoddy goods. They promise hope; they give you nihilism. They promise Mercedes; they give you Trabant. They promise Eden; they give you hell on earth. They promise Singapore; they give you Cuba. They promise abundance; they give you rationing. They promise Utopia; they give you dystopia.
       The enduring lesson of communism is that it never has worked and never can work because it is opposed to and irreconcilable with human nature. It always fails, not because it is implemented poorly but, because it is done faithfully. Although socialism, progressivism and liberalism may be less virulent forms of communism, the end result always is the same – economic stagnation, human misery and loss of liberty.
     Communism (and all other collectivist schemes) always makes high-minded and exalted promises but delivers nothing but a phantasmagoria of terror, slaughter and poverty. In the end, it is nothing but lies. It is the God that failed!
This concludes our Red October series; our next post is November 5th. 

Red October – Humor Exposes Reality of Communism

George Noga
An emergency meeting of the USSR politburo was called to discuss pantyhose.
Red October – Humor Exposes Reality of Communism
By: George Noga – October 22, 2017
      It is possible to learn as much or more through anecdotes and humor as through rigorous economic analysis. This is especially true of communism. Following is a collection of my favorite commie stories. They reveal all you ever need to know.
      Gorbachev once presided over a special politburo meeting to address a pantyhose crisis. Pantyhose had disappeared from the USSR; even wives of politburo members could not get them and their complaints forced an emergency pantyhose politburo meeting. Imagine a US cabinet meeting devoted solely to underwear production.
     The Soviets had a broken window crisis. The problem was traced to glass factories where production quotas were based on square footage of glass. The glass commissars exceeded their quotas by producing vast quantities of ultra thin glass. To correct this, the head commies changed the quota from square footage to weight. The outcome is as predictable as it is farcical; the glass commissars switched to producing equally unuseable ultra thick glass. This is but a microcosm of what happens when there are no markets. It also proves the capitalist principle that people respond to incentives.
     One day the chief Soviet economist burst into the office of the head commie exclaiming “Congratulations comrade, we have conquered the entire world except for New Zealand.” The General Secretary was happy but perplexed; he asked, “Surely we are more powerful than New Zealand; why have we not conquered it as well?” The economist replied, “We must keep one place in the world where there are real prices.“
     Communist East Germany had the most advanced computer technology in the Soviet block. Their computer scientists were told extreme security was necessary because they were so far ahead of the west. After the Berlin Wall fell, the top commie computer scientist visited West Berlin where he was flabbergasted to find far more advanced computers for sale to the public at ridiculously low prices. The secrecy was imposed not because commie computers were so good, but because they were so bad.
       In the 1980s my friends were visiting Moscow. One day while walking around, they noticed it was lunch time and looked for a place to eat. They found a cafeteria and got in line. Despite waiting forever, the line did not move. My friend went to see what was going on. He found a sign that read: Cafeteria closed for employees’ lunch.
        I conclude with an icon of communism, the Trabant – the best car produced by commies. It had a two-stroke, two-cylinder engine and went from zero to 60 in the same day. It had 26 horsepower and a top speed of 60 mph. The gas gauge was a dipstick and oil had to be mixed in with the gas in precisely the correct proportion. Since it had no fuel pump, the gas tank was located atop the engine for gravity flow. Despite all this, the waiting time from order to delivery was 12-15 years.
      Contrast the East German manufactured Trabant with cars manufactured in West Germany: Mercedes, VW, Audi and BMW. Communism produced Trabants with a 12- year wait; capitalism produced Mercedes and BMWs available immediately and with a stunning array of options. The difference between communism and capitalism really is this obvious – – they promise you a Mercedes-Benz but they give you a Trabant!
     The final posting in our Red October series on October 29th is entitled “The God That Failed“. It is one of the most powerful posts of all time; don’t miss it!

The Legacy of Fidel Castro

George Noga
A preview of this blog for 2017 and also Fidel Castro’s Legacy for Cuba
The Legacy of Fidel Castro
2017 Preview of the MLLG Blog
By: George Noga – January 8, 2017

    Before we get to Cuba, I must attend to some MLLG business. I hope you enjoyed the new MLLG blog throughout the past year. We are continuing the blog in 2017; hence, I now must ask for contributions from readers to help with our costs which are not inconsequential. I hope that this will be the only time I make such a request.

    All support goes 100% for expenses; any help, even a small amount, is appreciated. Please mail your check to MLLG at: P. O. Box 916381, Longwood, FL 32791-6381. To save time and money, I no longer maintain a separate MLLG legal entity; therefore your check, to be negotiable, must be made payable to “George Noga“. Thanks to all of you for reading, forwarding to others and for all your support since we began in 2007.

    I am excited about upcoming posts. Next week we present a postmortem of the 2016 election; this is followed by a special edition on Inauguration Day (January 20) which is a not-to-be-missed retrospective of the Obama presidency. Other upcoming topics include: Kitty Genovese and the Democrats, nullification, the war on blacks, the ninth amendment, more on climate change and MLLG commencement addresses for both high school and college. With the election now over, 2017 will contain more posts about economic, tax, human interest, environmental and cultural issues.

Fidel Castro’s Legacy

   In 1959 revolutions took place in two countries, both on small, subtropical islands governed by dictators. Both countries were mountainous, less than 25% arable and both relied on sugar exports. Also in both cases, there were giant hostile mainland nations just a few miles away that cut off all diplomatic and economic relations and threatened military invasion. However, one of the nations was much more prosperous than the other one and well ahead in terms of health, education and income.

    One of the two nations was Cuba and in 1959 it was the more prosperous. Today its economy has failed; its per capita GDP is $5,500, but the take home pay of most Cubans is $30 per month. It remains a brutal dictatorship filled with political prisons that practice torture. Its GDP per capita ranks 137 in the world and its freedom index ranks 171. One-third of all pregnancies are aborted and it is a nihilistic society.

    Even Cuba’s vaunted health care system is a failure. Cuban doctors botched Fidel’s treatment in 2006; specialists from Spain flew in to save his life. Infant mortality, once claimed to be ultra low, is based on lies. Cuban data are based on forced abortions for any pregnancy considered risky and they do not count infant deaths from underweight births. Cuba’s infant mortality is worse than elsewhere in Latin America. Most Cuban doctors are sent abroad to earn hard currency to keep the regime from utter failure.

    You may be surprised that the second country referred to is Taiwan. Dirt poor and under military dictatorship in 1959, it became a vibrant democracy and a capitalist economic tiger. Today Taiwan’s economy ranks 21 in the world with per capita GDP of $40,000. It ranks 26 on the index of human freedom. Cuba was ahead of Taiwan in 1959 in nearly every metric of human and economic well being. The juxtaposition of Cuba and Taiwan between 1959 and today reveals the true human and economic disaster that is the eternal legacy of Fidel Castro to the remaining people of Cuba.

    Castro and Che may continue to adorn tee shirts of clueless youth. Useful idiots, in and out of the media, may offer encomia, but the people of Cuba, when the regime inevitably falls, will render final judgment. Castro statues will be felled, murals defaced and the truth outed – that Fidel was a hypocritical, despotic, murderous megalomaniac who inflicted incalculable poverty and suffering on the people of Cuba.

Our next post January 15th presents a postmortem on the 2016 election.

Let’s Celebrate Capitalism

George Noga
Capital Day – a new American holiday – should be on the Sunday before Labor Day
Let’s Celebrate Capitalism
By: George Noga – August 28, 2016

    Even in the Stone Age, capital made labor more productive. A paleolithic fisherman worked all day to spear enough fish to survive. He intuited that a net could make him much more productive but he had no capital. He slept less, working extra hours each day, until he accumulated enough fish (his capital) to survive the many days required to build the net. Our newbie capitalist then generated a surplus of fish to trade for other goods or to make more nets. His capital investment enhanced the well-being of his entire band. In the 21st century this still holds true – capital enhances labor.

     Poor countries today are underdeveloped due to insufficient capital investment for a variety of reasons. Many are impoverished by obeisance to anti-capitalist ideologies. Others are destitute because they repel capital by not respecting property rights and the rule of law. Some lack educated work forces needed to properly operate capital equipment. Yet others remain poor because of confiscatory taxation and mind-numbing regulation. Many poor nations suffer from many or all of the above conditions. Even Europe and the USA could be far better off by lowering taxes, reducing regulations, eliminating uncertainty, ending creeping socialism and fully embracing capitalism.

    Capitalists, like our paleolithic fisherman, are responsible for the rise of humanity from isolated hunter-gatherer-fishermen up to and including modern man. They enhanced the IQ of the human race by increasing human interaction and cross cultural contacts in early trading centers – where intrepid traders (mostly from the deepest end of the gene pool) left far more behind than their trading goods. There was however one dark side to this. Seeing the wealth created by early entrepreneurs, early politicians created various means to destroy wealth – a pattern that also still holds true today.

    Traders, entrepreneurs, creators, innovators – capitalists all – have spawned enormous wealth, reduced poverty, increased life expectancy and boosted IQ. They are truly the heroes of the world. Who has done more to benefit the common man – Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs, Sam Walton or any king, president or commissar?

    If you doubt for a moment capitalists are the heroes of the world, look around you. Ponder with amazement the monuments they have bestowed on you. Gape in awe at the medical breakthroughs, consumer electronics, software, technology and the veritable cornucopia of everyday marvels. Average folks today live better than monarchs mere decades ago. World poverty has been halved in the past generation. Luxuries a short time ago are selling today at Wal-Mart or Costco for ridiculously low prices. Not a single one of these miracles was created by government.

    Not uncoincidentally, capitalists are the antithesis of all socialist and utopian schemes. Without entrepreneurs we would be like the former USSR, Cuba, Venezuela and all the other hell holes that elevate the state over people. The greatest metric to measure the progress of a civilization is the rate at which it creates new wealth. The more new millionaires, the better that society is innovating, creating jobs, efficiently allocating its resources and responding to the needs and wants of all its members.

    Labor Day is appropriate to honor work which is a noble activity. However, it must be expanded to honor capitalists who make labor more productive via their risk and investment. America is humanity’s ultimate capitalist bastion; let’s celebrate capitalism and the capitalists who had a dream and the will to see it through. The horn-of-plenty that is America today results from labor and capital – let’s honor them both!

The next post, scheduled for Labor Day, addresses public sector unions.

Inequality in America V – Putting it All Together

George Noga

Surprising answers to questions about inequality in America

By: George Noga – May 29, 2016

   Even socialists agree inequality from newly created wealth (even massive wealth a la Gates and Jobs) is an unalloyed benefit to society because it is the best metric for how well an economy is innovating, becoming more productive and responding to the needs of all people. Inherited wealth is mostly dissipated in a few generations, heavily taxed and often used charitably. Last, if Social Security and Medicare benefits were capitalized and included in wealth measurements, inequality would plunge markedly.   At the outset of this series, I promised to explore and to answer many questions about inequality in America based on facts and logic. Following are the answers.

    It is nigh impossible to get an accurate picture of inequality of income due to deeply flawed statistics based on AGI and household income, inconsistencies between income cohorts and flawed comparisons that don’t track the same people over time. One conclusion is certain. Accurate data would show much less inequality of income. Progressives oppose disparity in pay between CEOs and workers but are okay with similar clefts for athletes and movie stars. Steve Jobs took a nearly bankrupt Apple and created $750 billion of value; he made $2 billion, or 0.27%; was he overpaid?

    Data based on spending shows sharply less inequality; the lowest income cohort spends $2 for each $1 of income. There is no inequality based on taxation (including payroll taxes) as America has one of the most progressive tax systems in the world. Nor would a $15 minimum wage reduce inequality; less than 1% earn the minimum and their average household income is $50,000. Young, poor, minorities and the unskilled are harmed by minimum wage laws. The truly poor need jobs not a higher minimum wage. Progressives claim a moral imperative to increase the minimum wage knowing aforehand it creates unemployment. Where is the morality in that?

    The chasm between reality and rhetoric is wide. All measures of inequality, Gini, Theil and MLD, are markedly worse under Clinton compared to Reagan and under Obama versus Bush 43. Inequality is fueled by progressive policies including: (1) tepid economic growth; (2) higher taxation; (3) opposition to school choice; (4) energy policies; (5) ObamaCare; (6) opposition to trade; and (7) spending, debt and deficits. It is progressive dogma that creates inequality despite its self righteous rhetoric.

    All metrics show less inequality in Europe; however, we must ask if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Many Europeans lead lives of quiet desperation with no economic mobility and a permanently moribund economy; they even refuse to reproduce or to defend themselves. Europe produces no innovations in electronics, software, drugs or even pop culture. The former USSR would have scored favorably on measures of inequality as does Botswana; where everyone is poor, there is no inequality. The Gini coefficient for happiness in America is the highest in the world; that says it all!

    There are some things we should do to reduce inequality. Foremost is to stop corporate welfare as wealth created by government is illegitimate. Too big to fail needs to be eliminated as this is but another form of government largess. Capitalism must be based on both the carrot and the stick. Most Americans understand and accept inequality created by the marketplace; their beef is with government playing favorites.

    At its beating heart, inequality is mostly an imaginary problem. The vapid dogma of progressivism is incapable of solving real problems; therefore, it creates a series of phony problems for political maskirovka. As demonstrated in this series, progressives have created the very inequality they now hypocritically rail against. In sum, inequality in America is not a serious problem except when created by government.

The next post June 5th entitled “Hurricane Warning” is particularly pithy.

Titanic Myths Debunked

George Noga
Sinking Was 102 Years Ago Today
By George Noga – April 15, 2014
       Although Titanic sank 102 years ago today, many myths survive intact. Everyone knows the impact with the iceberg sank the ship, but that was not the cause of the death of 1,513 souls. Books and movies (including the DiCaprio film) lay blame on the greedy capitalism of White Star Lines for not having enough life boats. This is myth. Another myth is that first class passengers received preferential treatment resulting in a much higher survival rate than for lower class passengers. Finally, was male aggression truly responsible for throwing women and children under the bus – – err, boat?

Myth #1: Capitalism and Greed Caused the Loss of Life

       No one died when Titanic hit the iceberg; the deaths occurred much later when the ship sank. Historically, most have faulted White Star Lines for not having enough lifeboats – either because of their added cost or objections to their aesthetics. These accounts are either lazy, ignorant, dishonest or politically correct. The real cause was inept (is there another kind) government regulation by the British Board of Trade (“BOT”) that regulated shipping. The designer (Andrews), the builder (Carlisle) and White Star (Ismay) all deferred  to the BOT on the decision about the number of lifeboats. No one questioned the government; after all, they were the unchallenged responsible authority.

         The BOT had not updated its regulations in 20 years. Its regulations were promulgated at a time when 10,000 metric tonnes was the norm and 20 lifeboats were adequate. That Titanic was 46,328 tonnes did not seem to occur to government. Nothing much has changed in 102 years regarding government regulation – except that we perhaps understand its pathology much better – thanks in part to public choice economics which teaches us:

  • Once government becomes involved, common sense and personal responsibility disappear and everything focuses strictly on regulatory compliance.
  • Regulated entities (White Star) as well as the ship’s designer and builder are conditioned to comply with the diktats of rules and regulations and not with their goal or intent.
  • Government bureaucrats are lazy and inept. They prefer new regulations to updating existing ones. There is little glamour or political benefit in simply maintaining existing regulations.

Myth #2: First Class Passengers were accorded Preferential Treatment

       Most Titanic stories flog the class stratification issue; this is a myth as well. In fact, the difference between first class and third class survival rates was slight. Anyone with basic numeration skills and a modicum of analytic ability can quickly cut through the numbers. The relevant fact is that 74% of women survived and only 20% of men. However, 44% of first class passengers were women compared to 23% for third class. After making the appropriate adjustment to account for that difference, it is incandescently obvious the variation in first versus third class survival rates virtually disappears.
         Moreover, the slight remaining difference in class survival rates is attributable to third class passengers’ greater reluctance to leave the ship, to part with their baggage and difficulty related to their location aboard ship. When third class passengers reached the boat deck they received the same treatment as anyone else.

Myth #3: Male Aggression was a Key Factor in Male Survival

      The number of men who survived via the lifeboats usually is portrayed as evidence of male aggression and as coming at the expense of women and children. But the facts are stubborn. There was enough lifeboat capacity to save all women, children and 550 men. Remember, there were far more men than women on board. Indeed, if the crew had loaded one man for each woman and child, all women and children could have been saved. Furthermore, this would have resulted in loading the boats more rapidly, reducing the fear level, keeping families together and ultimately saving many more lives. Far from being villainous, male behavior resulted in far fewer men surviving than should have been the case.

Lessons of Titanic

       The Titanic’s loss of life was, first and foremost, a failure of government, not capitalism. It is far easier to place blame on prominent individuals such as the ship’s designer, builder and owner rather than on an amorphous, faceless gaggle of bureaucrats. The enduring lesson of Titanic, just as in most disasters, is not to place faith in government.
       Another lesson is not to repose trust in the media; 102 years later they still get the story all wrong. They continue to portray the loss of life as caused by capitalism, greed and hubris. They also continue to shamelessly flog class warfare and to bash males – all politically correct story lines.
       The death toll of 1,513 was tragic. Today however, government is creating disasters affecting hundreds of millions and perhaps billions of people. Government run amok is bankrupting our nation of 313 million and also much of Europe. Government fecklessness has placed the entire world at grave risk by appeasing aggression by Russia, Syria and Iran and encouraging tyrants everywhere. As always, the state sycophant media is  government’s handmaiden. The only thing that has changed in 102 years is that the grave harm government causes now affects exponentially more of us.