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JOE BIDEN AND INFLATION-MIDTERM REPORT

Many people have seen the purported President of the United States, Joe Biden, stumbling up the stairway to Air Force one, flopping over his own feet like a beached fish. The buffoonish clown representing the United States could not have more aptly demonstrated by any other metaphor the failure of his administration. Biden has also appeared at a microphone, leaning over it as if it was a private message, and in hushed tones, saying, “Pay them more.” He wanted employers to increase the pay of American workers. Not a bad idea, yet exhorting employers to simply pay more as if they were the Federal Government printing up whatever dollars they need, told a deeper story of ignorance and stupidity that, like the bumbling stairway Biden, symbolized the degradation of the office he represents.

 

The old adage, “Be careful what you wish for, you may get it,” comes into play today as inflation, defined as too much money chasing too few goods has risen to concerning levels. To be clear, economists do not say higher pay is bad for people or the economy if productivity increases proportionately to the rise in pay. Furthermore, a small amount of inflation occurs in a healthy, growing economy. While it is unlikely that anyone paid serious attention to Biden’s remark to raise pay, wages have taken off as the result of a worker shortage (sometimes referred to as a “workers strike”). The problem is that inflation has gone up faster than wages. Jay Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman believes the inflation the U.S. is experiencing is “transitory.” But the English word, which he uses frequently, is so complicated in economic terms he cannot tell us how long transitory is. Better not to predict than predict incorrectly, says the acolyte of American economics.

 

Biden, indeed, has been the cause of the increasing and persistent inflation the U.S. economy has experienced due to policy decisions that he, or whomever makes decisions from the White House, made. Stimulus payments have flooded the economy with more money than it can handle. Paying unprecedented unemployment compensation and adding an additional $300 per month on top of these payments added additional money and kept people out of the workforce. Why work when you don’t have to? Meanwhile, Biden continues to encourage the Federal Reserve to pump more money into the economy by buying $120 billion in mortgage-backed securities and treasury bills and bonds. It is all tantamount to giving massive intravenous transfusions of sugar into the arteries of a diabetic. The economy has become soaked with cash chasing a limited amount of goods and services.

 

At Joe Biden’s request, Congress recently passed a so-called infrastructure package in the amount of $1.2 trillion. This will add some to the inflation equation. The package term is over ten years, and won’t be a huge inflation pump to the economy because it’s stretched out provisions are over a term of ten years. There is a threat that Biden’s infrastructure package estimated at $4 trillion by credible sources will contribute additionally to inflationary pressures. Biden says the cost will be zero dollars. Even his propaganda arm, the Washington Post, gave him two Pinocchios (their sarcastic award for lies) for his claim. The value of these spending packages is questionable, but not the whole problem. Putting aside the underfunded Defense budget, Social Security and Medicare are under pressure. Politicians love to spend, especially if the consequences are spread over many years. Some will no longer be in office when the impact of these additional commitments hits the public. Be aware that you have been warned. If the infrastructure bill passes later this month, it is estimated that seven million jobs will be lost due to rising interest rates and other causes. The net result is likely to be stagflation.

 

One of the great drivers of inflation is the deliberate and successful effort by Biden to jack up the price of oil by denying permits to drill on public land. He has ignored the safe transfer of oil by cancelling the Keystone XL Pipeline whose purpose was the efficient transit of oil by pipeline. By cancelling the Pipeline and denying drilling permits elsewhere, Biden deliberately sabotaged the energy plan of Donald Trump that gave the U.S. energy independence. (Simultaneously he approved a pipeline from Russia to Germany. The latter pipeline now gives Russia valuable currency reserves, creates a European dependency on Russia, and undermines the possibility of U.S. gas sales to Germany.)

 

At a time when the world has a shortage of energy, the absence of U.S. oil to our own refineries puts pressure on prices in this country. The purpose of this is clear. It is to make windmills and solar cells more competitive with natural gas and oil, and also create an artificial demand for electric vehicles over internal combustion engine alternatives. A policy like this has not been specifically announced by Biden. The reason is simple: rising gas prices hurt the lowest income earners. The man from the party of compassion knows that he is creating pain. This leads him to lie about the cost of his plan—the Green New Deal.

 

This brings us to the other side of the equation, the supply of goods. For reasons that are not entirely clear, dock workers have not been able to download the vast amount of goods (currently estimated at a whopping one million containers) from the ships now backing up at west coast ports, namely Long Beach and other Los Angeles area port harbors. Additionally, truckers are in short supply and must run their loads through crowded Los Angeles freeways at a crawl. This process has been described as a system of systems. The idea that Biden will be cancelling Christmas, now fast approaching, due to the slow distribution of goods, has finally motivated Biden to do something that didn’t involve climate change. What is particularly disturbing is that Biden now claims he has been working on a solution with stakeholders. It has taken since June to arrive at an agreement to work 24/7 instead of the workers usual work hours. Whether this will solve the problem won’t be known until later. Currently, only one of the six ports in question is already working around the clock. There is no evidence the problem will be solved by Christmas 2021. Good Job Joe. One other factor is the spread of Covid to manufacturers around the globe who have been unable to work. But with over 100 ships backed up at west coast ports, this does not have a major effect on the system. Other than working with dock workers, the Biden administration has failed to stop the growing inflation hurting Americans who want to buy with the money Biden has forced into the economy. The government reported November 2021 and uptick in producer prices of .9%. Accelerating inflation is worsening as America struggles with the policies of ineptitude by those in power.

 

America did not intend to elect a part-time president working at donkey speed during a pandemic. Something like, warp speed, might have worked better. Mmmmmm, where have we heard those words before.

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HEADING FOR THE DARK AGES

The devotees of the philosophical underpinnings of Socialism depend on entangled ideas that form a confused string of concepts based on a utopian ideal. There are two ideas for the virtuous socialists that are frequently mentioned together: equalizing the masses and bringing down the wealthy. For the sloganeering socialist this process is defined in terms of absolute equity and equality. The opposing conservative point of view focuses on equality of opportunity. The socialist view determines success in terms of equality in result. Although socialism is primarily an economic concept, it cannot be separated from the social or political contexts of the day.

 

Equity and equality are two words normally associated together, but are in fact, words with two different connotations. Also, equity and equality serve the master of fairness. Fairness is an undefined term in any natural state. It stands for whatever the user of the word wants it to stand for. These three entangled words, equality, equity, and fairness have no standing in nature by themselves such as the right to choose one’s leaders. There is no structural reason for their existence. To clarify, equity and equality imply slightly different connotations. Equity is more of a social construct whereas equality is measurable in units of equal measure.

 

The socialist asks, why should one man have more than another? The religious point out that we are equal under God, the atheist points to our state in nature. “All men are created equal . . . .” The latter question is a little confusing. The former state is that all humans are born such that “Naked we enter the world . . . ,” We all enter the world with nothing intellectually or physically. Even if a child should be born and the single parent mother dies at that same moment so that the child inherits the mother’s estate, that child is, as a child, still naked for a moment and in a state of equality with all other just born children. But it doesn’t take long for inequities to develop. Mother-1 may be wealthy, therefore her child becomes wealthy. The child is still a child, only trivially different compared to others in the amount of clothes she wears. Child-2’s mother dies also, but leaves the child only debts to the hospital for the cost of being born. The two children as individuals are equal, but their estates are not. In order to achieve equity, they must achieve equality, therefore estate-1 pays (usually through insurance) for Estate-2s medical bills.. In other words, they are now equal and that is fair (fairness is achieved). A mathematician might put it this way:

 

ei (equity) + ea (equality) = fairness.

 

The involuntary arrangement where the estate of mother 1 pays the hospital bill for mother 2’s child seems fair to the socialist, and as a matter of humanitarian concern, perhaps to anyone else where the unexpected randomness of life creates damage to one’s life. After all, child 2 is not responsible for where he is at the moment of birth. These value judgments are often made. That is fairness is a desired state, fairness is defined as equity in action, which achieves fairness.

 

Since Child-1, let us call her, Mary, is too young to complain (and is orphaned) she has no say in what has happened. This is a blissful state for the socialist who believes in both equity, equality, and fairness. Not so surprisingly, the genetic code and environment of Mary and Child-2, we shall call her Jane, are not the same. In real life, the two children as they mature will set off on different paths. The socialist rolls on also, but realizes that equity and equality are distorted over time. Mary becomes wealthy and Jane has a drinking problem and slumps into poverty. The Socialist does not give up. Fairness is a maintenance concept requiring adjustments on the way.

 

Here is the second part of socialist entanglement theory. Uppity rich people need to be brought low. Fairness is related to the need to bring down the high and the mighty. Accommodation is made for elite members of the ruling class. They are the last ones to starve. Doing so is the only way to achieve fairness. The only way to do this is to divide the gross national product by the number of people in question. Entanglement theory posits that we are all together, as far as we know, on the great, blue marble known as planet Earth.

 

So, what happens when Governor Nanny grabs takes the wealth of Mary? Does that make Jane wealthier? That might happen in the short run, but Jane, with a different genetic code, different experiences, different desires, and different environment is not capable of reproducing Mary’s success. Jane dissipates her wealth in Las Vegas, buying expensive cars, and enjoying the wild life. For a moment the economy of Las Vegas grows which benefits everyone. But when Jane runs out of money, Governor Nanny turns again to Mary. But Mary has become an artist. Why should Mary continue to support Jane, whom she doesn’t even know. Was she working 60-hour days for the fun of it, or was the idea of financial success a part of it? Governor Nanny doesn’t care. The reduced circumstances of Jane need to be addressed.

 

The socialist state does not build wealth. It doesn’t even pretend to build wealth. American socialist Bernie Sanders has three homes and is a millionaire. He makes no apologies and does not attempt to explain the contradiction, just that he wrote a successful book and he was happy to keep the money. That he seeks redistribution of wealth in the United States, appeals to a different side of him; that is, socialists seek wealth in the form of power. They may even hoard wealth and power becoming the elites of the nation. Elitism is a requirement of the socialistic model because Socialism is not a natural state in complex economies. It is a top down philosophy in which experts, including elite leaders, rule for the sake of the masses in a form of noblesse oblige one relegated to the Lords and Ladies of European society. Socialists seek self-aggrandizement in their own way. That is why Communist and Socialist governments rule by fear. Even within early societies there was a hierarchy based on a skill set in demand for those societies. Early societies had no choice. Living in a tribe of a few dozen surviving humans is not a test of socialism. Rather, it is the confinement by the natural environment that imposed itself on early humanity; poverty was not a community goal.

 

The Free Enterprise philosophy is a bottom up system with a regulatory device called competition. There is, of course, government for the purpose of establishing the rules of the game. But it serves a purpose to create its own equality. It is a mistake to think that it guarantees success to the entrepreneur. Perfection does not happen. But when the rules are the same and the rules are just, the idea of equity and equality merge into fairness in the same idealistic way claimed by Socialists.

 

The frightening part about Socialism is that it is an economic system seeking a bottom in a downward spiral. Socialism seeks the lowest common denominator. It averages down until it finds the authoritarian floor in which the Orwellian state must regulate the details of an unnatural system not suited to the human experience.

 

Hong Kong, which is the economic jewel of China is in the throws of that environment. They know their freedom is at stake. The equality of socialism and the forces of government enforcing it in a system where the rule of law does not exist points to the loss of liberty, not equality of wealth and status. Imagine a world of equality. It suppresses the skilled at the expense of growth. Riots and violence between the free Chinese and the restricted Chinese will likely result in an averaging down of the Hong Kong people. Venezuela has seen the same process, there is only averaging down and loss of liberty—the life blood of economic success and scientific discovery that makes life better for a country’s citizens.

 

Science will die because it depends on the wealth an economic system brings. The degree of freedom counts for something, for if socialism averages down, free enterprise averages up in the opposite way. Equality among the unequal does not exist. Ideological Socialist puritanism is a prescription for a new Dark Age. A period of economic and scientific decline will not stop until the people are starving and overwhelm the elites with revolution. History can repeat itself. Americans will have restricted healthcare because there won’t be enough money to pay for it, nor enough skilled physicians to undertake the rigors of medical training and cost of medical school for little pay. The pulse of the economic system that creates wealth, rather than redistributes it, will end in zero.

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INDEPENDENCE DAY 2019

Flag of the U.S.S.Constitution

A country is like a person. It is neither wholly good nor wholly bad. Countries have a lifetime and display national characteristics by which they become defined. The French are romantic, the Italians are creative, The Germans are precise, Americans are extroverted and brash. Any sort of generalization is both correct and incorrect at the same time.

On the fourth of July, Americans celebrate themselves, the founding of their country, and their country’s achievements. Celebrations are good as they force the negative, combatively contentious personalities to rethink their nature, ideals, and history in the form a more complete view.

Now that the left has taken to criticizing Donald Trump for everything and anything, they have also seized on the extravaganza he is planning to celebrate the Fourth as a day for criticism of his plans for a more military inclusive demonstration than some of his predecessors. Conservatism Bittersweet will pass by their carping and whining, because it is more important to reflect on the meaning of American history than it is to acknowledge the irrational hate speech of a deranged opposition.

The United States was the first nation to establish a modern Republican form of government, the significance of which cannot be overstated. Providing a constructive mechanism for disagreement and debate allowed the country to adjust to historical changes as it grew and matured based on established principles of equality in discourse. The founding of the United States Constitution has been the country’s finest achievement. The one great failure was the Civil War. But even the great failure was turned into a triumph when the country defeated the Confederacy after choosing Abraham Lincoln, the finest president since George Washington. Slavery, an archaic legacy left by the English, was eliminated and opened the door to other changes to the countries oppressed minority. Thus, the greatest of the Constitutional achievement has been the ability to change over time—to adjust to the evolving problems.

Contrary to the Marxian, Socialist view, the future cannot be predicted. The future is like the weather and is the summation of forces too complex for even supercomputers to understand. What took humanity so long to evolve to this point of industrial and intellectual accomplishment? Partly it has been a matter of scale. There must be an underlying economic base to produce what the world has produced in its abundance. But it has also been the ability to achieve free thought and innovate based on that free thought, where others feared to go or could not imagine. Greatness does not come so much from overcoming fear as it comes from individuals acting fearlessly for the next great idea that moves the world. All democracies owe the United States for the precedent that allows them to achieve and grow. The top ten innovative countries in the world are all democracies. The United States is third in per capita patents in the world. We are the engine of successful world economies, and have been so for many years.

Among the great achievements of the United States, has been the reaper by Cyrus McCormick, innumerable inventions from Thomas Edison, and many other Industrial achievements by Eli Whitney, Robert Fulton, Samuel Morse, Elias Howe, and a long list of others who facilitated economic growth. That the United States grew into a mighty industrial and international power allowed it to defend itself and others against dictatorships and oppressors around the world. One thing leads to another for a country as for a person.

Social growth has been marked by many successes. Overcoming slavery and granting women’s suffrage broadened the countries world view. Providing a haven for masses of poor from oppressive or depressed countries from around the world has benefitted the growth and understating of Americans and made the point that there is value in people around the world who only need a haven to survive and succeed. America has been that umbrella for the world—a place of comfort, opportunity, and rest from malevolent oligarchy.

Nothing is more significant than the amount of wealth America has produced. Sometimes this concept is maligned as greed or selfishness. But economic wealth has allowed the country to defend itself against vicious foes who do not uphold basic human rights. It has allowed the country to develop life saving drugs, medical devices and procedures for the entire world. The nation’s wealth has fed the world when a part of it would otherwise have starved. For many, the United States has been the savior from oppression of the body, mind, and soul. From the very founding of the country, disparate peoples have been saved by American generosity, openness, and innovation founded on a powerful economic engine.

Perhaps one of America’s great strengths is to acknowledge its failures. Slavery, mistreatment of native peoples, and the exclusion of women from political decision making, reflected poorly on the country, though world conditions were no better. In contemplating our ideals of democracy and capitalism, we can look backward and see how our democracy has led the world in human and material advancement.

We can and should salute our flag proudly for what we have accomplished. We can look upon our beautiful land as a gift from God. It is a gift we must work and nurture, for nothing is certain except we shall be rewarded for doing what is right, just, and fair in a world where these values do not always survive or flourish. We also salute those of us who never made it. We salute the dead of our wars who fell on beaches and fields so that the rest of us could carry on in their name. They rest in peace on foreign lands as well as domestic, and in our memorial to them we pledge a better life for those who arrive in the future. Individually we remember the immortal words of an American who did what no human could ever do again by establishing our flag on the infinities of space, as we live our principles, both individually and collectively, for every day; we take “one step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”

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DIVISION IN AMERICA

Flying flash bang grenades, foul invective and, violent threats to fellow human beings seem to coincide with the appearance of Donald Trump on the political scene. So, is it true that Donald Trump has caused these sordid events to occur?

Wikipedia notes an Einsteinian principal, as follows: “simultaneity is not an absolute relation between events” Put another way, two events occurring at the same time do not prove that one occurred as the result of the other.

In the case of the Trumpian presidential candidacy, it can fairly be said that rough language and ad homonym attacks happened during the primary. By conventional standards, John McCain was a war hero, and yet Trump suggested the opposite. Trump, also, denigrated a Muslim family speaking against him at the Democratic Convention whose son had died in service to his country. At the same time, patriotic Republicans were getting ready to nominate Donald Trump and elect him.

During the Campaign, Trump, the presidential candidate, labeled Hillary Clinton as “crooked Hillary”. That the truth is a defense in argument, makes the candid, if impolite words, more stinging. Trump jumped from mere slander to sharp harangues that said something. Hillary Clinton committed felonies in using a non-government issued server and obstruction of justice in destroying equipment and information belonging to the government in an attempt to cover up her crime.

Up to that point, the Left-leaning press, had mocked Trump in documented scenes of derisive laughter while denouncing the possibility that a billionaire businessman and reality show host with orange hair could ever become president of the United States. As the race progressed, this view never changed because they knew that America saw what they could plainly see, Hillary Clinton would be the first female president and her views were the mainstream and the embodiment of American values.

On election day, the bad news arrived like that old two-by-four on the forehead. The idolizing press wept and struggled to explain the Clinton loss. It was not just a political setback, but the death of a vision. As Hillary supporters began to absorb the setback, their emotions and their minds began to separate.

As time went by, the Hillary opposition coalesced behind a cabal of Department of Justice and FBI conspirators who contrived to undermine the authority of President Trump by inventing a story of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Never mind revelations by Wikileaks of actual collusion by the Hillary campaign to deny Bernie Sanders the nomination. Among other revelations, this appears to be a case of blaming the victim for what the perpetrator did herself. As noted, Hillary through her Democratic National Committee (DNC) tool contacted Russians using a route designed to create deniability. The DNC/Hillary actors contracted the firm, Fusion GPS, who contacted British spy Christopher Steele, who contacted the actual Russians who produced the so called “dossier” implicating President Trump before he became president in scandalous behavior in Russia. The dossier has, since, been repudiated by Christopher Steele as untruthful. Money will work wonders when you are talking millions of dollars from deceitful Democrats. Recent information shows the true collusion was between Bruce Ohr of the FBI whose wife works for, surprise, Fusion GPS. The Left continues to fight the facts as they are revealed one by one by investigations through congressional inquiries.

Still in denial over their stunning loss of the sure thing presidency, the Left contrived to connect Trump to actual knowledge of and collusion with a known attempt by Russia to induce division in America by releasing, what has become, “fake news.” The idea of simultaneity appears. If the sun rises and sets every day, and so does Trump from his bed, there must be a connection.

So, you ask, what does this have to do with the idea of division in America? The answer is that it is not the coarse-speaking Trump who has lowered the level of respect in this country, but the very real actions of Trump’s political opponents. It is obvious that emotions play a strong part in the enfolding events and magnify every word into vitriol. But the reality of the Trump Presidency has been the true nightmare for the Left. Truthfully, it has been a Shakespearean drama once the left realized how deeply conservative the president actually was and is.

The vision of Hillary as the first female president lacks consequence compared to the actual damage done to the world view of the Left—a view taken as sacrosanct and universally understood on their part. No longer would the selected elite be running an empire dedicated to the fear of death by planet overheating. The regulatory environment established by the Left, much of it by presidential executive order and bureaucratic control, appeared to collapse as the people realized the connection between suppressed employment and their own lives.

Even before the President took office, business confidence was boosted. Then, a tax reduction was signed by the president, jobs became plentiful, minorities once cast outside the circle of wealth, now had a way to build their own lives around income greater than the handout culture cultivated by the Democrats.

Great symbols of left wing victory came crashing to the ground as oil leases were granted on sacred democratic turf they thought would never be touched by any president. The same was true for bureaucratic control as Trump cited a new rule: for every new regulation, two had to be eliminated. Automobile mileage regulations were frozen, thus saving American automobile companies millions of research dollars. The research dollars will become investment dollars, and more liquidity percolates through the economy generating even more business activity and more jobs in a virtuous circle.

The Left has responded to the demolition of their empire with hate speech, and silence at the atrocious, rock throwing, window bashing, behavior of anarchist groups. And as they contribute to the retrograde confrontational nature of American leftist culture, they are defined, as the clergy say, by what they choose to ignore.

In the end, it was not Trump’s language that  lowered the level of discussion, but it was the act of tearing down the leftist world created by the Obama administration that did the trick. The response by the chief sponsors of the welfare state has generated the language of lies, obfuscation, and deception that reveals how the Left has lost their judgment along with their minds. The substance and revelatory nature of the Trump administration is what continues to exercise the hateful side of the Left in America. With business confidence restored, President Trump has been able to create jobs by reducing bureaucratic weights on business activity. He has also stimulated the economy with tax reductions for most taxpayers and the result has exposed the drag on the economy created by the Obama administration.

Finally, it is the unmasking of the truth that the left cannot abide.

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CATCHING YOUR TAIL

Like a great beam of light, the Trump administration has revealed a great deal about the mischief of the Left in America. At the top of the list of revelatory events must be the suppression of normal economic activity and the effects of subdued economic development.

 

President Trump, freshly elected, but not in office yet, invigorated the economic juices of America by a few simple acts of kindness. His response to Obama economic suppression was to criticize American manufacturers who sent jobs to low cost foreign countries and to support the workers who had languished as a result. Some of the companies backed down and brought a few jobs back. The mere act of firmly supporting a growth economy galvanized his support and reinforced his image as an economic enforcer. That made his other promises even stronger He promised tax reform in the form of tax reductions. Additionally, he threatened strong measures against unfair trade practices by trading partners and he sent into retrograde bureaucratic regulatory expansion. In carrying out these policies as an elected President, the economic measures ignited a level of optimism that has led to staggering growth prospects.

 

Under the Obama Administration, the eight-year dark ages of minor league expansion growth hovered around 1%-2%. Under Trump, growth has been nearly substantially improved. Confidence, the one thing that economics has difficulty understanding when inputting data into their models, exploded and the country has enjoyed a massive growth of activity it hasn’t seen for many years. And now comes economic growth of 4.1% from the Trump Administration.

 

Meanwhile, the Democrats and other resisters, have seen their schemes and secret agendas revealed. Chief among these is the truth about economic suppression. Not only were they holding back in a lazy economic boat drifting wherever the current took them, but they were actively suppressing the economy. Why would they do such a thing?

 

Clearly a happy economic outcome works against the Left’s agenda. If the country is swimming in happy waters, they don’t need the socialist welfare state. If the American worker has a job, he/she probably has health insurance. How can you implement a health insurance program which forces people to buy insurance at a higher cost when they can get it as part of their workplace compensation? Dependency is their middle name. How do you force a single payer system on them when they have the goods in hand?

How do you create envy in a satisfied people by taxing “Cadillac policies”?

 

What President Trump has exposed is the scheme by which the Left in America chases its own tail. The worse the economy is, the better to impose more controlling regulation on the public, and as the economy grows worse, the perverse emphasis is to create more dependency on them in a never ending downward spiral.

 

Having been exposed by the Trump Administration, they now rely on lame arguments. They tell us they can create jobs, too, with a return to the environmental policies that suppressed economic wellbeing. Perhaps literally true, but obviously the net difference is not the same. They tell us we need them to bring in additional poor people to bolster an economy with low-wage labor. Ironically, the left tells the American people spot shortages of labor can be helped by admitting people illegally into the country when it was such illegal entries that suppressed wage growth in the first place.

 

If the confusions of the Left in this country could have produced more jobs, then why didn’t they produce more jobs. If they could have brought tears to the eyes of newly employed steel workers, why didn’t they. If they could produce more healthcare through the private enterprise system, why didn’t they. They know the answers. They would have exposed their own suppressive policies for what they are – a failure. As a result, they now have no policies for economic advancement. They chase their economic tail, yet they can never catch the truth of their actions.