Touring the Valley

Tariffs Are An Outdated Concept

Photo by Emil Kalibradov on Unsplash

The original idea behind imposing tariffs on imports goes something like this:

People are buying cheap foreign products instead of American products.
This is bad for American businesses, and for the economy in general.
If we make foreign goods more expensive, people will stop buying them.
Adding a tariff (tax) to imports will make those foreign goods so expensive that people will buy American products instead.

Of course, it's never quite that simple. This doesn't take into account the possibility that other countries will put tariffs on American goods, or that there may be reasons why people buy the foreign products even with the tariff. It doesn't take into account that American companies will decide to raise their prices, so their products become just as expensive as the imports. There are many possible complications.

The world today doesn't operate like it did back in the 18th century. Because the economy operates differently now, the old tariff theory just doesn't fit in the modern world.

Many - perhaps most - of those American companies actually use a lot of imported products. Their machinery and tools may come from other countries. They may be importing certain parts or raw materials. When the price of foreign products goes up because of tariffs, it creates higher costs for American businesses. They may be forced out of business because they can't afford to purchase more expensive materials. Or they may go forward, but they have to raise their prices because of the tariffs, and now they can't offer a lower price than the imported products.

Tariff of 1790
Tariff of 1792
Tariff of 1930

Beyond the Peter Principle

In their 1969 book, The Peter Principle, Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull described how people working in organizations tend to rise to a level of incompetence.

A guy who is very good at his job gets promoted. The new job may require some skills that weren't part of his previous job. He may or may not have those skills, but if he is able to master the new position and make a good impression, he is likely to get promoted again. Again, the skills needed for the new position are likely somewhat different. If he is good at that job, he'll get promoted again, If this continues, the guy will be finally promoted into a job that is completely beyond his ability. His incompetence means that he won't be promoted again, so he stays in that position, performing poorly.

According to this theory, hierarchical organizations eventually become filled with, and run by, people who just aren't very good at what they do. The Peter Principle is expressed as: "In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence." Its corollary is: "In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties."

These principles are on very public display in our government's current administration, which has carried them to an extreme level in which incompetence does not prevent people from being further promoted, and may even be the reason some people of low ability are placed in positions requiring knowledge, skills, and experience that they lack.

Incompetent people in positions of authority feel threatened by those whose competencies are significantly greater than their own, and will, whenever possible, expell them and replace them with incompetents with whom they feel comfortable

Wounded

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

This is a summary of my research into "U.S. presidents' injuries and wounds." This includes adulthood injuries before, during, and after the time in office.

Thomas Jefferson – Dislocated his wrist when he jumped over a fence; it wasn’t set correctly and caused pain the rest of his life.
James Monroe – Suffered a life-threatening wound in battle during the Revolution; the bullet was never removed. In later life, he injured his wrist falling from a horse.
Andrew Jackson – Before becoming president, survived bullet wounds when dueling or brawling, experienced lifelong pain.
Franklin Pierce – During his military service, was injured in battle when his horse tripped and fell on him.
Abraham Lincoln – Assassinated, shot in the head.
Rutherford B. Hayes – Shot in the arm during a Civil War battle. Later injured when thrown from a horse.
James Garfield – Assassinated, shot in the arm and side.
Grover Cleveland – After a secret operation to remove an oral tumor, he suffered depression and apparent poor health the rest of his life.
William McKinley - Assassinated, shot in the chest and stomach.
William Howard Taft – Experienced relatively minor injuries due to several random accidents.
Theodore Roosevelt – Survived assassination attempt, shot in chest. Seriously injured in a traffic accident that killed his bodyguard.
Herbert Hoover – Suffer fractured vertebrae in a bathtub accident
Franklin Roosevelt - was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down after diagnosis of polio.
Dwight Eisenhower – Suffered a serious knee injury and infection while playing football. Re-injured the knee several times playing various sports.
John F. Kennedy – Assassinated, shot in the head and neck. Also: Had been wounded while serving in WWII, received Purple Heart.
Richard Nixon – While campaigning (1960), his knee was slammed by a car door, causing serious injury and infection, leading to chronic deep vein thromboses.
Gerald Ford – Injured when an elevator door malfunctioned. Tripped and fell several times, extent of injuries (possible bruises or scrapes) unknown.
Jimmy Carter – In his 90s, needed a hip replacement after a fall, then suffered a cut and black eye from a second fall, and a pelvic fracture from a third fall.
Ronald Reagan – Survived assassination attempt, shot in the chest.
George H.W. Bush – Prior to becoming president, was injured in WWII when he had to parachute out of his airplane.
Bill Clinton – Serious knee injury from a fall.
George W. Bush – After leaving office, suffered a facial cut and bruise when he fell after choking on food.
Joe Biden – Had a sprained ankle and later a foot fracture, both incurred while playing with his dog. Experienced a couple of minor falls that did not cause injuries.
donald trump – while campaigning, survived an apparent assassination attempt, claimed to have an injured ear.

Sic Semper Tyrannis - Maybe

Photo by Ian Noble on Unsplash

This is a summary of my research into "What finally happened to some of history's dictators and tyrants?"

Pol Pot (Cambodia). Sentenced to life in prison. Died of heart failure, age 73. His widow remarried.

Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union). Remained in power, experienced years of poor health, died of cerebral hemorrhage, age 74.

Benito Mussolini (Italy). Trying to sneak out of the country, he was recognized and shot to death, age 62, along with his mistress, age 33. The crowd displayed their bodies, suspended upside-down.

Adolf Hitler (Germany). Defeated in war, he and his wife committed suicide, ages 56 and 33. Their bodies were burned.

Francisco Franco (Spain). Remained in power. After a period of ill health, died of natural causes, age 83.

Idi Amin (Uganda). After several coup attempts and violent conflicts, he fled the country and settled in Saudi Arabia, where the royal family supported him. He died of kidney failure, age 77.

Fidel Castro (Cuba). Facing health problems, he retired. After a period of declining health he died, age 90.

Juan Perón (Argentina). After a violent coup, he spent 18 years in exile, then returned for a 3rd term. Facing much opposition and in failing health, he had a series of heart attacks and finally died, age 78.

Gaius Caesar “Caligula” (Roman Empire). Assassinated in a plot involving the army and the senate, age 28.

Mau Tse Tung (or Mao Zedong) (China). Remained in power, although in poor health. Died after major heart attacks, age 82.

Nicolae Ceausescu (Romania) He and his wife were tried for genocide, found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed by firing squad, aged 71 and 42. The execution was videotaped and televised.

Queen Mary “Bloody Mary” (England). Remained in power. Died of natural causes, age 42.

Maximilien Robespierre (France). The members of the National Convention turned against him and ordered his arrest. He attempted suicide, seriously injuring his jaw with a pistol shot. He was executed by guillotine to the cheers of the crowd, age 36.

Muammar Gaddafi (Libya). After the fall of his government, he was on the run with a small group of loyalists. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for crimes against humanity. After a NATO bombing attack on his convoy, he was captured by a militia and died violently, age 68.

Saddam Hussein (Iraq). His government fell after a U.S. military invasion. After hiding for several months, he was captured, tried for crimes against humanity, and found guilty. He was executed by hanging, age 69.

Ferdinand Marcos (Philippines). Ousted by a revolution or coup, he fled to Hawaii with millions in cash and jewelry. He died of natural causes, age 72. His widow returned to the Philippines and remained influential in politics.

Augusto Pinochet (Chile). Voted out, he moved to the U.K. He was arrested on charges that included genocide and terrorism, but was released on medical grounds. He returned to Chile and was granted immunity from prosecution, plus financial support. He lost his immunity and was indicted for many crimes and placed under house arrest, but was never tried. He died of natural causes, age 91

Kim Jong Il (North Korea). Remained in power. Died (probably natural causes) age 71.

Nitpickers

Thanks for thinking of me, but I'm really not here for literary criticism.

Chop it Down and Sell It

Most people look at a natural landscape, a mountain, a forest, a river, and see beauty. We enjoy looking at beauty, and we enjoy being in places that are beautiful or naturally unusual. A walk through the Grand Canyon brings us much more pleasure and satisfaction than walking down a city street.

Some people do not see any beauty in nature. They do not understand why people will line up and pay a fee to visit a national park or nature preserve. These materialists look at a landscape and think about its potential to be used for monetary gain. Can the trees be chopped down and sold for lumber? Can the hills be scraped away and mined for precious minerals? Can the river be diverted for sale to farmers, or used as a dump for factory waste?

This inability to value or appreciate nature's beauty and wholesomeness is often accompanied by an inability to appreciate the arts. These guys don't read books, attend concerts, or visit museums. Most of us derive pleasure from beautiful and interesting creations, contemplating works of art, listening to music, reading engaging stories, seeing a skillful performance. The materialists are strangers to emotional or intellectual pleasure. For them, there are only two kinds of pleasure. One is ego gratification, which may be derived from receiving other people's attention, admiration, and obedience, or from acquiring material possessions, which they see as the only real measure of human worth. The other pleasure they recognize is physical: sex or goal-oriented sporting activities that emphasize individual achievement rather than teamwork, like golf or trophy hunting. Those activities also provide ego gratification.

These materialists do not perceive human beings as having value, except to the extent that they have wealth or can be used to create wealth. Workers, as a group, have value because their labor generates wealth for the employer. The individual worker is not of much value, but is disposable and replaceable. People who are unable to generate wealth for the master class, such as retired or disabled persons, are seen as completely valueless. Young children are valued for their potential as future workers. More and more, the materialists look for ways to turn children into workers at younger and younger ages, setting up systems to remove kids from school and place them in physically demanding jobs.

The materialists' ideal world is one in which they are universally recognized as superior beings and they have complete dominion over everyone and everything they see.

Random Thoughts

Prophecies of Apocalypse (ca. 1861), Raphael’s Almanac

Wastefulness, destruction, and vandalism are not traditional conservative values.

Rudeness and vulgarity are not traditional conservative values.

Many who label themselves conservative are the kind of people their genuinely conservative predecessors would have found disgusting.

Once upon a time, the world could count on America to be American. No matter who the president was, or who got elected to Congress, we knew who our allies were, and they could count on us. We knew who the bad guys were, and we were on the side of the good guys. And then...

Here's an idea for a law that will never pass. Require the top executives of industrial corporations to drink the water where they dump their chemicals.

I am so tired of women's stroke and heart attack symptoms being labeled "atypical". No! Women are half the human population. Our health issues are a normal part of human life. Our symptoms are typical. Start calling men's symptoms atypical, because they aren't the same as those of normal women.

Terrorists want the population to be frightened, uncertain, and constantly on edge. It's working. Millions of seniors and disabled people are terrified of losing their financial support; whole communities fear that their neighbors will be disappeared; anyone with investments is on edge, expecting a crash any day now; people in general are outraged to see history purged from government websites; veterans are losing their jobs or expecting to lose them; families are stunned to see parks closed; and everyone is reeling from rising prices, the threat of government-sponsored identity theft, despair over the end of medical research, and the realization that we are now ruled by a regime that defiantly ignores the will of the people and would gladly see us all die.

Because MONEY is more important than anything else.

"Avarice" (1904), James Ensor

National parks are popular! They actually bring in more money than it costs to run them. Yet the Republican regime wants to kill them. Why? They want to trade the public good for private gain. The plan is to sell our natural resources to ruthless industrialists, to be torn apart, mined for minerals, drilled for oil, and stripped of lumber. Creepy rich guys will pay a lot to be allowed to shoot all the animals. The Grand Canyon is huge. It would be a great place to dump toxic waste.

None of the money generated by destroying our parks and other agencies will be used to benefit Americans in any way. Old people will still be robbed of Social Security and Medicare. Research to cure diseases will not be funded. Disaster relief will not be provided after storms and fires. Laws that protect our food, water, and air will not be enforced. Schools will be closed. Children will not be fed. Medicaid will disappear. Even weather forecasting will be stopped.

Where will all that money go? Will it be refunded to taxpayers? No. Will some helpful programs be re-opened? No. Instead, there will be more ad campaigns praising Dear Leader. An irresponsible billionaire will get more government contracts. Dear Leader and his buddies will spend even more time using government-owned planes to fly off to resort vacations. They will hire more private soldiers to guard them from contact with the public. Wealthy Republican donors will buy more yachts, do more golfing, and have more fancy parties.

The sole purpose of the Republican regime is to create permanent damage in exchange for the temporary gratification of the oligarchs. A billionaire's lifestyle will not be improved or harmed if his net worth goes up or down by hundreds of millions, but seeing it go up on paper makes him feel better for a little while, and that's a good enough reason to make sure our grandchildren never walk in a forest or see an eagle.