Some numbers do have consequences.

News, thoughts and discussions …

The barkeeper on Shrub and economy problems.

The barkeeper on a poll bounce.

Billmon on a politician accidentally telling the truth.

The Boss has an OpEd in the NYT: Chords for Change

…
Like many others, in the aftermath of 9/11, I felt the country’s unity. I don’t remember anything quite like it. I supported the decision to enter Afghanistan and I hoped that the seriousness of the times would bring forth strength, humility and wisdom in our leaders. Instead, we dived headlong into an unnecessary war in Iraq, offering up the lives of our young men and women under circumstances that are now discredited. We ran record deficits, while simultaneously cutting and squeezing services like afterschool programs. We granted tax cuts to the richest 1 percent (corporate bigwigs, well-to-do guitar players), increasing the division of wealth that threatens to destroy our social contract with one another and render mute the promise of “one nation indivisible.”

It is through the truthful exercising of the best of human qualities – respect for others, honesty about ourselves, faith in our ideals – that we come to life in God’s eyes. It is how our soul, as a nation and as individuals, is revealed. Our American government has strayed too far from American values. It is time to move forward. The country we carry in our hearts is waiting.

The bartender in search of the VP.

Oil expected to hit $50 US
Calgary Sun

Cont. reading: It´s the Oil Price, Stupit

A fresh one …

The bartender on coincidental terror alarms. Here is virtual space to comment.

In Little Town people love to eat rabbit stew. Unfortunately rabbits are rare. In bad weather the hunters can not go hunting. In some years there are even hardly any rabbits to hunt. To eat rabbits is expensive. Only a few people can afford rabbit stew.

On Mellow Island people are poor, but some have great ideas. They fence off some land and start to foster rabbits on the new pasture. They butcher the grown up rabbits, freeze them and then scull them over the waters to Little Town.

People in Little Town are happy now. Some haul the rabbits off the boats, some cart them to town. New taverns open up and cater rabbits in tasty meals. Rabbits are cheaper now and can be bought all the year round.

Everybody is happy – the poor of Mellow Island, the people from Little Town – maybe even the rabbits. Only the hunters are grumbling. They walk in to the mayor and complain. “Those rabbits from Mellow Island are too cheap. We don´t want to go hunting for such low prices. They are cheating on us.” And they put a little oil on the mayor’s palm.

The mayor likes the hunters and understands. He issues a new decree:

“Rabbits from Mellow Island are too cheap! From now on, everyone who pays one shilling for a Mellow Island frozen rabbit also has to administer one shilling to our poor hunters. These are honest men like me and we have to promote their valuable trade.”

The price for rabbits doubles. Only a few people can afford rabbit stew now. The taverns stop serving rabbit meals, some close shop. No frozen rabbits are offloaded at the shore anymore. The cart pushers start looking for new occupations. People on Mellow Island are poor again. Only the hunters are happy. And the mayor washes his hands.

A young rabbit – Part of the storyline – The hunters – The tavern owners and cart pushers – The mayors findings one and two – The unhappy people from Mellow Island one, two and three – Who gets the extra money – Some (libertarian) economic background

The barkeeper comments on the parties election strategies.

Cont. reading: Health Care Moral Question

The Whiskey Bar bartender on Kerrys speech

This thread is open.

The barkeeper about The Kerry Movie.

The barkeeper on a fine kind of compassionate conservatism.

Billmon sets Three laws.

Barfly Colman made a suggestion for a follow up on the discussions on Billmons Minimum Wages piece.

“It seems to me that [discussing what aims an economy should have] is seldom if ever approached these days: everything is cast in terms of the free market and how wonderful it is.”

The need for such a discussion is fundamental to our societies. But when was the last time you did hear a politican openly recognizing it this clearly:

The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. … The most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society.
James Madison in The Federalist, No. 10 cited in An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution, Charles A. Beard, 1913

Madison sees the first objective of the government as the protection of the distinct interests of those who hold and those who are without.

The second part has been lost somewhere. Nowhere but in younger constitutions one finds remnants of the compromise that has been so fiercely fighted for throughout the last two centuries.

Article 14 [Property, Inheritance, Expropriation]…
(2) Property imposes duties. Its use should also serve the public weal. …
Article 15 [Socialization]
Land, natural resources, and means of production can, for the purpose of socialization, be transferred to public ownership or other forms of collective enterprise by a statute regulating the nature and extent of compensation. …
Current Cuban German Basic Law

Societies develop on compromises. These need discussion and arguments form both sides of the aisle. We do know that the right side is strong these days. The speakers list of the DNC convention may represent some middleground. But the communists have vanished – even as scapegoats.

As Colman says – the basic discussion on the aims of the economy, on redistribution of wealth, on the service of the public weal, seems gone. Thereby the economical compromises throughout the world have tilted to the right side – nationally and internationally. The government misses the objective Madisons sets out.

As Madison recognizes, the free market of ´those who hold´ is only one side of the spectrum. What should be the modern version of the compromises? And what is needed on the left side to achieve them?

“Promises Promises” reflects the barkeeper about Edwards speech.

Links to a transcript of Edwards speech and a real stream video from CSPAN.