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Monday, January 13, 2014

Where I am Coming From

As I post to this blog today, I want to try and “jell” some of the many thoughts on the several and varied economic, social, and political viewpoints which I have expressed in previous postings, beginning by saying, I certainly am not, God forbid, a Communist, and neither am I a Socialist. Let us get this behind us. History has shown us that both, in and of themselves, are self-destructing and an absolute failure in execution, so you can forget that. On the other hand, as events unfold in these times, neither do I believe in laissez-faire capitalism (Albeit from a different perspective, I discussed capitalism and socialism in some detail in my posting of November 11th, last year. If you haven’t had a chance to read it as yet, you may want to scroll down to the bottom of this page and click on “Older Posts”. Continue to do this until the November 11th subject of “Capitalism, Socialism, and Healthcare” appears).

The principals of capitalism are motivated solely by self-interests which can be a good thing if properly executed. Again, as I have said many times, the purpose of a business is to provide a product or service to its customers, the people whom it serves. That is its purpose, its only purpose, and should be its primary focus. The confusion is that most businesses think their primary purpose is to make a profit which is not so. Profit is absolutely necessary for a business to remain in business, but that is not its primary purpose. Making a profit is every bit as important as paying salaries; but, again, profit is just an expense just like rent, insurance, or the electric light bill. Profit is the expense incurred in the use of the money invested by its investors in the business. You may argue that profit is the purpose of investing–the investor; but, it is not the purpose of the business in which it, the investment, is invested. If the business does not take care of its primary purpose, provision of a product or service to its customers, it will not succeed and the investment will be lost. This may seem like splitting hairs; but it is reality. Anything else will ultimately result in a loss for most everybody all the way around. If you can’t see the truth of what I am saying in the events leading up to the financial crisis of 2008, I sincerely suggest you review the process again and look real hard. It’s where your heart, your primary focus, is that is of prime importance to success of a business.

A very dear friend, upon reading some of my postings to this blog, said to me before church Sunday, “You must be a Democrat”, to which I replied, to his utter surprise, “NOT”; and, even after being a registered Republican for many years, neither am I a Republican. If nothing else, the administration of Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Bush cured me of that. So what am I? I could take the easy way out and declare myself to be an independent (That would be closer to the truth than Republican or Democrat), but I won’t. I’ll just tell you. First, above all else, my foremost loyalty is to God–I consider myself to be a Christian, as difficult as that is at times. I believe God gave this world, this land, and all the resources therein to all of us, to all mankind–not to just a relative handful of the elite, and certainly not to a corporatocracy.  Secondly, I am an American, a loyal citizen, my constructive criticism of its governance notwithstanding–a right guaranteed to you and me by our Constitution, the law of the land. I want to see the elimination of our Shadow Government by the Corporatocracy and Power Elite and the restoration of our country to that of a Democratic Republic governed by the people.  

Given what I have just said, I believe our economic systems, our government, and our laws, should support the common good and well being, of all the people. Not only does this mean life, liberty, equal opportunity, and justice for all; but, also, it means the social well-being of our people as well–from the bottom to the top and back again, a strong and secure nation for all the people. After all, a country or nation is no better than the sum total of its people. God tells us that as we do for the least of these, we do for Him (paraphrased). This would probably put me in the category of a populist. What I loathe is lying, cheating, stealing, fraud and deception, sloth, laziness, and the abuse of power. These kinds of behavior permeate all levels of our society from top to bottom–from the rich to the poor. There are those among us who consider these traits to be those of only the poor, but they neglect the sins and weaknesses of the rich. Believe me when I tell you that the poor among us do not have a monopoly on these things.

Now you know. After all this time, I have “come out”. These are my values. Your comments are welcome.

Ronald Miller

mtss86@comcast.net

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