Independent American Party Analyzes “The Mechanic”, An Article By Idaho State Senator Steven Thayn

Posted May 14, 2013 by Kelly Gneiting (IAP National Chairman)

The Mechanic

(This paper has been scrutinized by the IAP Chief Counselor, Robert Gorgoglione, whose comments are bolded and in brackets ][ ).

Robert, a hard guy to please since his Constitutional standards are very high (which is why he is the IAP’s Chief Counselor), commented that this article in it’s original form is “quite good.”  His additions are only complementary, as he sees it.  Feel free to download “The Mechanic” in it’s original form.

By Steven Thayn

We, the people instinctively understand that something is terribly wrong in the United States.  We seem powerless. We want to act; and are not sure what action to take.   This essay was written to give a brief explanation of what is wrong; but more importantly, what needs to be done.

We need to approach politics like a mechanic approaches a car or a cook making a pot of stew.  There are certain ingredients that need to be included, at the right proportion while other ingredients need to be left out.  It is a matter of fact and logic; not good intentions.

A recipe can be followed to achieve prosperity, peace and freedom.

We are not victims nor powerless.  We are the creators of our economic and social destiny.  We need not repeating the mistakes of the past. [What mistakes?]  Problems will continue and get worse until we replace poor policies with policies that result in peace, prosperity, and freedom.  [What policies]

Prosperity

Prosperity is universally desired; yet, few can explain how it is achieved. The story of the little Red Hen tells us almost all we need to know.  Bread must be baked and prepared before it can be eaten.  The material goods we enjoy every single day must first be created before they can be used.  Production is an ongoing process because consumption is an ongoing process.  If production stops, consumption stops. Prosperity is the natural consequence of work.

Conversely, poverty is the natural consequence of laziness. [And heavy taxes and regulation.]

This applies equally to individuals, communities, and nations.  A prosperous society focuses on and encourages work and production [How?] while poor nations highlight and obsess over consumption. [The slashing/elimination of taxes and the abolition of economic regulation-licensing, permits etc..]

Prosperity is created by those that work; not by those that eat. [Government regulation and excessive taxes destroy incentive or the desire to work.]

Social programs create eaters; not workers and create more poverty not less.

Peace

Peace is not the absence of violence; it is the presence of respect.  Respect is created.  Respect and violence cannot co-exist.  As respect increases, violence decreases.  Peace is created by teaching and developing respect for the physical body, possessions, opinions and choices of others.

Possessions

Possessions are brought into existence by man applying the labor of his hands to natural resources. [Provided government does not regulate and over tax.]  In a peaceful society, the effort of the laborer is respected and he controls the possessions he creates. [Only if government stays out of your life.]  For a thief or government to take the fruits of labor from the worker is an act of disrespect and violence.[1]  Redistribution of wealth discourages production and rewards consumption.  As government takes wealth from the productive and gives it to those that do not produce, poverty is created.

High taxes are a form of theft [Legal plunder]. A person does not have the right to the fruits of someone else’s labor nor does government have a moral right to give the fruits of labor to another.   Charity is a privilege of the productive; not an obligation of government.  Charity is not giving away the production of others.  Charity is giving away your own production.  The highest form of charity is helping people become self-sufficient.

Physiological warfare has been waged by the elites in America against the productive.  Workers, producers, laborers and businessmen are all made to feel guilty if they oppose tax increases to fund government growth.  What if government is actually harming the very people it is trying to help?  What if blind giving without expectation is harmful to the human spirit?

Freedom

Freedom is a function of respect given to others for the choices that they make as long as they do not interfere with the body, possessions, and choices of their fellow man.  True freedom of choice requires that natural consequences follow choice.  Consequences can be either positive or negative.  If a man or woman decides to learn a trade and earn a good salary, the tradesman should enjoy the positive consequences.  Likewise, if a man or woman decides not to work at all, the natural consequence is having no material goods.  Hunger is the natural consequence of laziness and should be the sole possession of that individual.   The productive should not be forced to feed the lazy by government.  A moral responsibility may exist; however, it cannot be enforced by government.  If government is given the power to force charitable acts; it has the power to make slaves out of the worker and controls the needy.  To take away the consequence of action is to rob a man or woman of their freedom.[2]

Division of Labor, Capital, and Machines

Industrial societies utilize the division of labor, capital, and machines to extend the value of labor.  All of these factors allow for widespread prosperity.  However, prosperity is at its very core a personal act.  Each person has the responsibility to work and produce.   Current government programs that remove this personal responsibility cause harm to the individual and the whole economy.

Cycle of Production

Production starts with capital.  Let’s use wheat seed as an example.  The capital (wheat) is invested (planted).  The crop must be cared for and then harvested.  The crop or product is then sold.  From the sale of the product (wheat), the producer pays his wages, pays production expenses (fertilizer, machine costs, etc.), pays taxes, and must have enough wheat seed (capital) left over to plant a crop the next year.   The private sector of the economy is a perpetual wealth generation machine.  It creates more wealth than it consumes.

Government is Consumption

“Government produces nothing; it is an exercise in pure consumption, and, usually, the destruction of capital.  As Nietzsche famously said, everything the State has is stolen.”  Will Grigg

Consumption is the reason for production.  Never-the-less, if consumption exceeds production for a long period of time, overall prosperity declines and poverty increases.   Government is 100 percent consumption.  Government does not pay taxes.  Government produces no material goods.[3]  It is impossible to have long-term economic stability and growth by growing government.[4]

It is impossible for a family to have a stable budget by increasing its consumption (expenses).  Likewise, it is impossible to create a stable national economy by growing government consumption.  To grow government to achieve prosperity is like trying to drive a car faster when the tank is empty.  The only way a car can run is if gas is put in the tank.

In the 20^th century, government growth has taken place in one major area – social spending.

Government social spending in 1905 virtually did not exist.  The combined tax burden in 1905 of all state, local, and federal taxes was only 8 percent of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) [It can be so again by abolishing all regulatory agencies, immoral and unconstitutional spending and redistribution of the wealth social programs].   Now, social programs consume 58 percent of the federal budget and 20 percent of the state budget.  The total tax burden is over 50 percent of the GDP!

The cause of this massive increase in government spending has one cause and one cause only.  The USA embarked on an effort to replace the family with government social programs.  The history of the 20^th century is one of a gradual transfer of responsibility, power, authority, and funds from the family to the federal government!  As the federal government has increased the magnitude of social services, costs have skyrocketed and the family has entered a steep and steady decline.

Federal social programs compete with the family to provide the same services.  However, intact, functional families are self-funding while federal social programs are not self-funding.  Also, the federal government only funds dysfunctional, non-self-funding families causing the proliferation of non-functional families.  For example, the unwed pregnancy rate went from 5 percent in 1964 to 48 percent currently.  This increase in unwed pregnancy rate can be traced directly to federal programs that pay for unwed pregnancies.  American social programs are an investment in consumption and social decay.

Social programs that encourage the formation of non-self-funding families increase social problems and grow government power.  A new approach is needed where the family is strengthened in order to provide more of its own social services allowing the state to decrease its efforts and reduce budgets.

Why America has Budget Deficits and Economic Instability

America is creating its own economic problems by adopting and implementing policies that cause unemployment, budget deficits, violence, crime, and poverty.  A few of these harmful laws are:

• Environmental laws that restrict access to natural resources necessary to grow the economy and create material goods.  Without access to natural resources, production and prosperity are not possible.

• Government social programs crowd out the family, removing family resources, and thereby create more social problems than existed before.   This is counterproductive.

The solution to America’s problems require changes in two areas

• Grow the economy (increase productivity) which will increase tax base, increase jobs, and increase prosperity

• Transfer authority and resources back to stable families in three areas:  Education, medical costs, and entitlements.  It is time to empower the people with their own funds.

Grow the Economy

Our desire is to create prosperity by growing the middle class.  The purpose of the economy is to produce material goods.  The key to a growing economy is increase production in the areas of:  mining, agriculture, logging, energy production, and manufacturing.  Policymakers need to take steps to encourage the growth of jobs in natural resource industries.

Regulatory Reform

A simple change in state policy to encourage production would be for state regulators to streamline applications and shorten timeframes needed to start a new business.  A regulator should have a dual role of protecting public interests and facilitating business success. [No government has the moral or constitutional authority to regulate anyone or anything – Licensing and permits must be abolished!]

Planning and Zoning is an area of reform needed at the local level to streamline and simplify local planning and zoning decisions. [All zoning should be private. Government zoning creates corruption and favoritism.] How can a local community be prosperous without jobs?

Regulatory reform is low-hanging fruit.  It can act like a tax cut by reducing business expense thus leaving more money in the hands of business to grow without reducing tax revenue. [Abolition, NOT reform is the answer. A little regulation, like a cancer, will, in time, grow into a monster.]

Cultural Change

Most of our economic and political problems come from thinking errors.  Many of our citizens believe that producers are motivated by the profit motive, profit motive is evil, and therefore, production is evil.  This attitude is dangerous because it creates a cultural environment where production is punished; despite the fact that prosperity is impossible without production.

This anti-production attitude is common when discussing the issue of using natural resources on public land. [All public-government lands should be sold off to private enterprise] Idaho is made up of 63 percent federal land on which the citizens of Idaho have limited access.  This federal land is largely unused which means Idaho citizens derive little economic advantage.

$30 million from Idaho’s 1 million acres of public endowment land, above cost, are annually deposited into the public school budget.  No funds are deposited from the 9 million acres of federal land.  Under current federal management practices, federal lands cost more to manage than they produce.  If Idaho managed the 9 million acres of federal lands the same way that it manages state lands, there would have been a total of $300 million deposited to public schools.[5]  [Public-government schools should be abolished. Why? Because they are based on legal plunder and compulsion and force. This is a violation of the rights to individual liberty and property rights. Abolishing the government school would eliminate about 80% of the property tax. This would be a huge increase in consumer purchasing power.]

Until the average citizen in Idaho sees the link between access to public land, increasing productivity, a growing tax base, and a general increase in prosperity for all citizens, any real changes needed to stabilize the economy are not possible.[6]

Growing Tax Base

Government does not pay taxes.  The private sector pays taxes.  The private sector must grow in order to grow the tax base.  A $50 billion economy at a 5% tax rate will generate $2.5 billion.[Eliminating both the Sales and Income tax would create an explosion of economic activity and growth that the lowered property tax etc would be more than enough to finance all moral and constitutional activities of the state government. Up until about 1970, Connecticut had great prosperity without a sale or an income tax.] However a $60 billion economy at the same 5% tax rate will generate $3 billion which is $500 million more in taxes.   A growing economy benefits everyone including government.

Jobs or forest fire, which would you rather have?

Reducing the Consumptive Footprint of Government

Government is needed and important.  Never-the-less, the footprint of government can be reduced by increasing the role of the family and the private sector in social services, education, and medical costs.  The specific steps to be taken will follow in a later pamphlet.