Charlie Munger - "Suck it in and cope, buddy. Suck it in and cope."

I read today in this Bloomberg piece that Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's partner (and ultra wealthy fellow) said we should all be thanking God for the bailouts of the Wall Street banksters.

He comes right out and tells us, the little tax-paying people, that plainly we should be footing the bill for bankster malfeasance. He actually said, “There’s danger in just shoveling out money to people who say, ‘My life is a little harder than it used to be,’” and “At a certain place you’ve got to say to the people, ‘Suck it in and cope, buddy. Suck it in and cope.’”

This is very interesting to me. We see from the same Bloomberg article:

"Berkshire had advanced 26 percent on the New York Stock Exchange this year as of Sept. 17 and benefited from a recovery in earnings at some of its main bank holdings. It is the largest shareholder of Wells Fargo & Co., the biggest U.S. home lender, with a stake valued at more than $8 billion. Berkshire also owns $5 billion of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. preferred stock. "

This is interesting in that Wells Fargo and Goldman received $35 Billion in combined bailout funds; I guess if I had no principles, or no honesty, I'd be happy with this situation, too. After all, someone just stepped in and made my company a boatload of money by saving the losers on which I was so heavily staked! I guess I'd be trumpeting about the greatness of bailouts, too, if I was set to benefit so handily from them.

But, I can't help but think I'd also be wondering when I threw away my principles and accepted that stealing was just fine. Apparently, the old attempts at hiding the theft are getting tiresome, and I should just 'suck it in and cope' with the blatant admission by old rich men that some of us are more equal than others.

Yuck.

Mosques, Muslims and Hypocritical Politicians

I can't add much to this discussion that is not already being said elsewhere.

I simply want to share that there are two words that state all that is needed to encompass and refute any complaint about Muslims building a mosque near the former World Trade Center site in New York:

Private Property

The politicians who have all sworn to uphold the constitution (which is explicit about protection of private property rights) are such hypocrites when they speak against the construction of the mosque. But then again, the political establishment generally takes part in eminent domain seizures of property to the government, so I guess it shouldn't surprise anyone to see the abject failure of the vast majority of politicians to speak out against any criticism of the building of this mosque (with one prominent and notable exception).

Doubly stolen money!

I thought it was pretty funny to read that prisoners have defrauded the government (the taxpayers, really) out of funds by taking advantage of the recent tax credit for home buyers.

I guess I think it is funny because the money is stolen to begin with (debt issued by government when the government doesn't have any resources to pay for anything except through taxes) from the people.

Oh well. One day maybe, sometime real soon now, the folks running government will mend their spendthrift ways and live within a budget. Maybe.

Why "From No Man By Force"?

Because peace will set us free.

Voluntary exchange, peaceful enjoyment of life, liberty and the fruits of our own efforts, cannot fail. When individuals act to exchange for mutual benefit, all parties move away feeling satisfied. When an agreement for exchange cannot be achieved, the involved parties are free to move away and search for another peaceful and agreeable alternative.

The day when this philosophy, as simple as it is, will replace the philosophy that it is OK for one group of people to force another group of people to bend under arbitrarily written rules is long overdue.

We owe it to ourselves to act morally, peacefully and in our own self interest. We do not need a stack of codes, rules and regulations to guide us. Title 26 of the US Code (the IRS tax code) stacks about 20 feet high when printed on 8.5" x 11" sheets!! Natural law and peace will guide us, if we really want to change the world in which we live.

By living this way individually, the world becomes a better place for everyone.