In 1883, Andy Jackson becomes the first U.S. president to ride on a train.
Also on June 6, in 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a federal law banning marijuana. Justice Clarence Thomas’s dissent on this case becomes an instant classic
[E]very individual spontaneously tries to find the place and the trade in which he can best increase National gain, if laws do not prevent him from doing so.
Every man seeks his own gain. This inclination is so natural and necessary that all Communities in the world are founded upon it. Otherwise Laws, punishments and rewards would not exist and mankind would soon perish altogether. The work that has the greatest value is always best paid, and what is best paid is most sought after.
As long as I can produce 6 Daler worth of goods a day in one trade, I do not willingly change to another that brings in 4. In the former case the Nation’s gain and mine was one-third more than in the latter.
It is thus undoubtedly a loss to the Nation when somebody is forced or is encouraged by public rewards to work in a trade other than the one in which he earns the highest profit; for this does not happen without such inducements, just as a merchant does not sell his Wares for less than what is offered him.
If he whose work someone has been forced to do gains as much as the worker has lost, it is not National gain; but if he gains more, only the difference is the gain of the Nation, but obtained through the oppression of its citizens.
Politics used to be less socially divisive.
That’s the gist of a new study by the Pew Research Center, as explained by Dan Balz at the Washington Post. By “almost every measure,” Pew claims to have found that the gaps between Republicans and Democrats “have increased over the past 2 years, and in some cases now seem to represent almost unbridgeable divisions.”
Americans may bemoan partisan gridlock in Washington, but they need only look at the report to understand the root of the problem. Polarization in Washington is not just politicians behaving badly. It reflects what is happening around the country. Partisanship has grown dramatically and shows no sign of abating. . . .
Not exactly shocking news, eh? Over what are we divided? Balz states the obvious: “Some of the most significant differences . . . were on core issues of the 2012 campaign: the role and scope of government and the social safety net.”
Why more division now than in the past?
Because in the past government was smaller. As more and more people become sated with the level of government we have, they start objecting to increases in its size and scope. There have always been folks who want more government. Now their number effectively dwindles. In the “good old days,” there was a “consensus” — a larger percentage — for more government.
Well, we got that “more government.” And fewer and fewer folks like what they see.
Unlike when I was a kid, today the protest against government growth has the teeth of large numbers. So of course “mainstream” discourse has become divisive. It will remain so until the numbers of pro-government-growth-at-all-costs folks dwindle into insignificance.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Margaret Thatcher
The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.
Harriett Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” begins its ten-month serialization in the National Era, an abolitionist publication, on this date in 1851.
Also on June 5, Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith is born (1723); British economist John Maynard Kenes was also born on this date (1883), June 5 deaths include American authors Stephen Crane (1900), author of “The Red Badge of Courage,” and O. Henry, America’s most influential short story writer, ten years later.
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Send in the Clones
As scientists spend grant money attempting to bring into modern times the extinct Woolly Mammoth, conscientious citizens should be concerned about a more pressing matter: cloning our few good leaders before they go extinct. Ron Paul in particular.
The mammoth is a hard thing to clone: DNA breaks down over time.
Leadership requires candidates of good character combined with the right ideas.
The ideas are the DNA. Ron Paul’s have been nicely identified by Nassim Taleb as “The Big Four”: opposition to (1) deficits and metastatic government, (2) Federal Reserve flirting with hyperinflation, (3) self-feeding militarism, and (4) bailouts that undermine economic resilience (“what is fragile should break early and not too late”).
Such notions have been available to Americans since the Founding.
But folks with the right character?
That’s more difficult, because each of us is embedded in the institutions we grow up in, and accepting those institutions is natural. This isn’t a problem for leadership to maintain the current system. It is, however, a bit of a snag for producing leaders to help greatly alter the system. The rewards for bucking the system are less immediate than for supporting it.
Ron Paul has been running for the presidency largely to promote real, substantial change. His son, Rand Paul, has taken his ideas and added some successful and politic twists.
There are other, younger leaders emerging in the Ron Paul mode. A few are discussed in the current book, Ron Paul’s Revolution, by Brian Doherty.
But consider: Maybe we don’t want to “send in the clones” — maybe you want to take up the mission. Don’t dismiss the idea out of hand.
Or laugh in a friend’s face if he or she indicates interest, a calling.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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F.A. Hayek, 1956
[T]he most important change which extensive government control produces is a psychological change, an alteration of the character of the people. This is necessarily a slow affair, a process which extends not over a few years but perhaps one or two generations. The important point is that the political ideals of a people and its attitude toward authority are as much the effect as the cause of the political institutions under which it lives. This means that . . . even a strong tradition of political liberty is no safeguard if the danger is precisely that new institutions and policies will gradually undermine and destroy that spirit.
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June 4, 1896
Henry Ford puts his first “quadricycle” through a test run on June 4, 1896. Ford would go on to transform transportation by applying the principles of the assembly line to automobile production, which would transform American life . . . and the world.
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A Tale of Two States
Tuesday is Election Day for Wisconsin’s gubernatorial recall, pitting Republican Gov. Scott Walker against Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in a rematch of their 2010 contest, won by Walker. Polls show Walker leading, and likely to become the first “recalled” governor to ultimately defeat his recall and retain his office.
In fact, after all the massive protests and the recall campaign, Walker’s popularity has increased.
Why?
Mr. Walker has done what he said he would. He hasn’t raised taxes. He staked out his position on ending collective bargaining for most public employees as well as requiring them to pay something toward healthcare and pension benefits, and, against a flurry of opposition, stuck to his guns.
Now the Badger State’s unemployment rate is down below the national average and economic prospects are up.
For a very different story, look south, to Illinois.
Gov. Patrick Quinn supports initiative, referendum and recall, but gets demerits for his response to the current economic difficulties. In 2010, Illinois raised the state income tax by 66 percent. But the $7 billion in extra revenue has done little to solve the state’s chief budget woe — Illinois was $8 billion in the hole when the income tax was hiked, and somehow faces that same $8 billion shortfall today.
So, just a week ago, lawmakers slapped a $1-per-pack tax on cigarettes.
If a state could tax itself out of trouble, Illinois would be a near paradise today.
Walker took on the government employee unions; Quinn took on the taxpayers. That’s why Wisconsin — including their embattled governor — is on the upswing and Illinois is not.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Herbert Spencer, The Data of Ethics
The essential trait in the moral consciousness, is the control of some feeling or feelings by some other feeling or feelings.