Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Recommended Article By Meanwell: What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen

Hi Meanwell Dogood,
Your friend, Meanwell, has recommended this article entitled 'What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen' to you.

Here is his/her remark:
Now I am beginning to understand how a liberal thinks: a liberal deals only in the things he can see. He doesn't understand what he can't see. For instance, if you tax an individual, and give that money to someone through an entitlement program, the liberal sees the benefit to the person getting the money, but he fails to see what could have happened to that money had it remained in the hands of the taxpayer. Perhaps the taxpayer would have used that money to start a business, which would require him to hire an employeee, which may have been the very same person receiving the entitlement. This is the trouble with Obama and his policies. WOW!! I wish HE would "understand"......

What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen
Posted By Frederic Bastiat On June 1, 2001 (3:00 am) In Featured

This excerpt is from the first chapter of Selected Essays on Political Economy, translated by Seymour Cain and edited by George B. de Huszar, published by the Foundation for Economic Education.

In the economic sphere an act, a habit, an institution, a law produces not only one effect, but a series of effects. Of these effects, the first alone is immediate; it appears simultaneously with its cause; it is seen. The other effects emerge only subsequently; they are not seen; we are fortunate if we foresee them.[1]

There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen.

Yet this difference is tremendous; for it almost always happens that when the immediate consequence is favorable, the later consequences are disastrous, and vice versa. Whence it follows that the bad economist pursues a small present good that will be followed by a great evil to come, while the good economist pursues a great good to come, at the risk of a small present evil.

The same thing, of course, is true of health and morals. Often, the sweeter the first fruit of a habit, the more bitter are its later fruits: for example, debauchery, sloth, prodigality. When a man is impressed by the effect that is seen and has not yet learned to discern the effects that are not seen, he indulges in deplorable habits, not only through natural inclination, but deliberately.

This explains man’s necessarily painful evolution. Ignorance surrounds him at his cradle; therefore, he regulates his acts according to their first consequences, the only ones that, in his infancy, he can see. It is only after a long time that he learns to take account of the others. Two very different masters teach him this lesson: experience and foresight. Experience teaches efficaciously but brutally. It instructs us in all the effects of an act by making us feel them, and we cannot fail to learn eventually, from having been burned ourselves, that fire burns. I should prefer, in so far as possible, to replace this rude teacher with one more gentle: foresight. For that reason I shall investigate the consequences of several economic phenomena, contrasting those that are seen with those that are not seen.

The Broken Window

Have you ever been witness to the fury of that solid citizen, James Goodfellow,[2] when his incorrigible son has happened to break a pane of glass? If you have been present at this spectacle, certainly you must also have observed that the onlookers, even if there are as many as thirty of them, seem with one accord to offer the unfortunate owner the selfsame consolation: "It’s an ill wind that blows nobody some good. Such accidents keep industry going. Everybody has to make a living. What would become of the glaziers if no one ever broke a window?"

Now, this formula of condolence contains a whole theory that it is a good idea for us to expose, flagrante delicto, in this very simple case, since it is exactly the same as that which, unfortunately, underlies most of our economic institutions.

Suppose that it will cost six francs to repair the damage. If you mean that the accident gives six francs’ worth of encouragement to the aforesaid industry, I agree. I do not contest it in any way; your reasoning is correct. The glazier will come, do his job, receive six francs, congratulate himself, and bless in his heart the careless child. That is what is seen.

But if, by way of deduction, you conclude, as happens only too often, that it is good to break windows, that it helps to circulate money, that it results in encouraging industry in general, I am obliged to cry out: That will never do! Your theory stops at what is seen. It does not take account of what is not seen.

It is not seen that, since our citizen has spent six francs for one thing, he will not be able to spend them for another. It is not seen that if he had not had a windowpane to replace, he would have replaced, for example, his worn-out shoes or added another book to his library. In brief, he would have put his six francs to some use or other for which he will not now have them.

Let us next consider industry in general. The window having been broken, the glass industry gets six francs’ worth of encouragement; that is what is seen.

If the window had not been broken, the shoe industry (or some other) would have received six francs’ worth of encouragement; that is what is not seen.

And if we were to take into consideration what is not seen, because it is a negative factor, as well as what is seen, because it is a positive factor, we should understand that there is no benefit to industry in general or to national employment as a whole, whether windows are broken or not broken.

Now let us consider James Goodfellow.

On the first hypothesis, that of the broken window, he spends six francs and has, neither more nor less than before, the enjoyment of one window.

On the second, that in which the accident did not happen, he would have spent six francs for new shoes and would have had the enjoyment of a pair of shoes as well as of a window.

Now, if James Goodfellow is part of society, we must conclude that society, considering its labors and its enjoyments, has lost the value of the broken window.

From which, by generalizing, we arrive at this unexpected conclusion: "Society loses the value of objects unnecessarily destroyed," and at this aphorism, which will make the hair of the protectionists stand on end: "To break, to destroy, to dissipate is not to encourage national employment," or more briefly: "Destruction is not profitable."

What will the Moniteur industriel[3] say to this, or the disciples of the estimable M. de Saint-Chamans,[4] who has calculated with such precision what industry would gain from the burning of Paris, because of the houses that would have to be rebuilt?

I am sorry to upset his ingenious calculations, especially since their spirit has passed into our legislation. But I beg him to begin them again, entering what is not seen in the ledger beside what is seen.

The reader must apply himself to observe that there are not only two people, but three, in the little drama that I have presented. The one, James Goodfellow, represents the consumer, reduced by destruction to one enjoyment instead of two. The other, under the figure of the glazier, shows us the producer whose industry the accident encourages. The third is the shoemaker (or any other manufacturer) whose industry is correspondingly discouraged by the same cause. It is this third person who is always in the shadow, and who, personifying what is not seen, is an essential element of the problem. It is he who makes us understand how absurd it is to see a profit in destruction. It is he who will soon teach us that it is equally absurd to see a profit in trade restriction, which is, after all, nothing more nor less than partial destruction. So, if you get to the bottom of all the arguments advanced in favor of restrictionist measures, you will find only a paraphrase of th at common cliché: "What would become of the glaziers if no one ever broke any windows?"



Notes

  1. This pamphlet, published in July 1850, is the last that Bastiat wrote. It had been promised to the public for more than a year. Its publication had been delayed because the author had lost the manuscript when he moved his household from the rue de Choiseul to the rue d’Alger. After a long and fruitless search, he decided to rewrite his work entirely, and chose as the principal basis of his demonstrations some speeches recently delivered in the National Assembly. When this task was finished, he reproached himself with having been too serious, threw the second manuscript into the fire, and wrote the one which we reprint.—Editor.
  2. In French, Jacques Bonhomme, used like "John Bull" in English to represent the practical, responsible, unassuming average man.—Translator.
  3. Newspaper of the Committee for the Defense of Domestic Industry, a protectionist organization.—Translator.
  4. Auguste, Vicomte de Saint-Chamans (1777-1861), Deputy and Councillor of State under the Restoration, protectionist and upholder of the balance of trade. His celebrated stand on the "obstacle" here quoted by Bastiat comes from his Nouvel essai sur la richesse des nations, 1824. This work was later (1852) incorporated in his Traité d’économie politique.—Translator.

Article taken from The Freeman Ideas On Liberty - http://www.thefreemanonline.org/
URL to article: http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/what-is-seen-and-what-is-not-seen-2/

Friday, January 15, 2010

Obama to write a front page article for Newsweek on Haiti

Does anyone else find this distasteful and totally inappropriate? Is this really the best way for the President to spend his time? Granted, helping out the people of Haiti in their time of great need is something we should do. In fact, we are already doing so WITHOUT THE HELP OF THE GOVERNMENT!! Just as in the tsunami disaster a few years ago, millions of Americans dug deep in their pockets, and helped those who needed it. It's what we do as Americans.

The only purpose this article would serve (besides further inflating Obama's massive ego) would be to show everyone that Obama is the kind of guy who reacts quickly to crisis. I am sure we will see numerous comparisons to Hurricane Katrina in the coming days, with various liberal slobs on the air lamenting why Bush didn't react as decisively as the Anointed One has with Haiti. It is going to be pathetic. Get ready.

Also, there has been a lot of talk about what Rush Limbaugh has said about this crisis. Rather than react to that, I'd rather quote Obama's left-hand man, Rahm Emanuel: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before. This is an opportunity".

For a President who absolutely lives for 'opportunity', what more could you ask for?

1.20.2013......the end of an error.......

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

McCall To Retire

This will prove to be an interesting political season now that McCall is leaving. I wonder what the true motivation is for this move? Imean, he's been a politician for a very long time. Has the closet full of skeletons become so full he can no longer close the door? Or maybe he sees the political winds changing, and is getting out while the gettin's good?

No matter the case, it will be nice to see a new face representing the district. Maybe we'll be lucky enough to get someone with a background of real-life work experiences, and not just a resume that's chock full of politics, behind the scenes glad-handing, and back room shenanigans. How about a representative who has even run a business, who knows what it's like to cut paychecks for people, or has the experience of selling and marketing a product ? What a refreshing change of pace that would be!!

http://blogs.mcall.com/capitol_ideas/2010/01/breaking-mccall-to-retire.html