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SyndicateVan Jones and the American Dream
By Robert Ringer - Tuesday, March 1, 2011
As I watch events unfolding in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, et al, I wonder how many Americans realize that government employees are demanding rights that exist only in their progressive minds. They have been led to believe that their desires are rights, and that includes the right to have the government take someone else’s property and give it to them simply because they want it.
In Wisconsin, the protesters keep insisting that Governor Walker is trying to destroy their “collective bargaining rights.” I give Walker an A thus far for his courageous stand on this issue. But I stop short of giving him an A+ because he has not made it clear that there is no such thing as a right to collectively bargain. Only individuals have rights, and, whether a religionist or atheist, any honest, rational person knows that these are rights that are self-evident and inherited at birth.
In fact, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness really comes down to a single right: the right to liberty – to be free to live your life as you please, so long as you do not violate anyone else’s right to do the same.
If one truly believes in the fundamental right to be free, then he is obliged to agree that an employer has a right to establish the rules regarding anything he owns, which includes banishing unions from his premises.
The problem with public-sector unions is that the employer is the government, so there’s an inherent conflict of interest. As Democrats have realized for decades, agreeing to the suicidal demands of public-sector unions can keep them in power.
The raucous protests in Wisconsin and elsewhere have emboldened the 30 percenters – the loud and foul left that has fundamentally changed America from the land of the free to the land of soft socialism over the past 100+ years.
A good example of this was a column in The Huffington Post last week by that paragon of social justice, Van Jones. What got my attention was the title of the article: “Introducing the ‘American Dream’ Movement.”
Below is a reprint of a part of that article where Comrade Jones listed “the steps needed to renew and redeem the American Dream.”
Increase revenue for America’s government sensibly by making Wall Street and the super-rich pay their fair share.
[My note: The term fair share is a meaningless, abstract, subjective term that is impossible to define. And nothing could be further from individual liberty than the belief that government revenues should be increased.]
Reduce spending responsibly by cutting the real fat – like corporate welfare for military contractors, big agriculture and big oil.
[My note: I'm all for cutting corporate welfare, but the actual numbers make it clear that what needs to be cut even more is welfare to individuals and groups via hundreds of transfer-of-wealth programs.]
Simultaneously protect the heart and soul of America – our teachers, nurses and first responders.
[My note: Teachers, nurses, and first responders are not the heart and soul of America. Their jobs are important, to be sure. But the heart and soul of America is entrepreneurship - individuals willing to take risks and do whatever it takes to succeed. Entrepreneurs produce products and services that people want and, in so doing, create jobs and stimulate the economy - which is what makes it possible to pay teachers, nurses, and first responders.]
Guarantee the health, safety and success of our children and communities by leaving the muscle and bone of America’s communities intact.
[My note: Guarantee success? Really? The rest is unintelligible rhetoric - kind of like "hope and change."]
Maintain the American Way by treating employees with dignity and respecting their right to a seat at the bargaining table.
[My note: Employees do not have a "right to a seat at the bargaining table." However, every individual has a right to negotiate with any employer who, of his own free will, chooses to negotiate with him. In other words, a worker is free to sell his services in the open market - absent union or government coercion.]
Rebuild the middle class – and pathways into it – by fighting for a “made in America” innovation and manufacturing agenda, including trade and currency policies that honor American workers and entrepreneurs.
[My note: To Van Jones' credit, he does allude to entrepreneurs, but the rest of his statement is unintelligible. Who has the moral authority to "build the middle class" - and what does it even mean? How do you fight for a "made in America" innovation and manufacturing agenda?]
Stand for the idea that, in a crisis, Americans turn TO each other – and not ON each other.
[My note: Again, meaningless babble, though I admit that it might be a good idea to lecture progressives on cutting back on their hatemongering toward Tea Partiers, those who are financially successful, and just about anyone who doesn't agree with their strong-armed tactics to bring about a redistribution-of-wealth society.]
Honesty compels me to admit that if communism is the American Dream to Van Jones, he has a right to define it that way. However, my own definition of the American Dream gets back to that one unalienable right I mentioned earlier – liberty – nothing more and nothing less. The problem with the Van Jones American Dream is that it requires that the liberty of some people must be violated in order to satisfy the desires of others. By contrast, in my American Dream, liberty must always be given a higher priority than all other objectives.
It is impossible to reconcile these two philosophical views, which is why it is imperative that the state governors and the 70 percent majority of citizens not compromise in the showdown that is now playing out across the nation. It is the first of many showdowns to come over the next two years, and, from a psychological standpoint, I believe that winning the first one is extremely important.
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Copyright © 2012 Robert Ringer
ROBERT RINGER is a New York Times #1 bestselling author and host of the highly acclaimed Liberty Education Interview Series, which features interviews with top political, economic, and social leaders. He has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, The Tonight Show, Today, The Dennis Miller Show, Good Morning America, The Lars Larson Show, ABC Nightline, and The Charlie Rose Show, and has been the subject of feature articles in such major publications as Time, People, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Barron's, and The New York Times.
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11 Responses to “Van Jones and the American Dream”
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“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” ~Philip K. Dick~
Personally, I grade Governor Walker with an F, along with so many of the other devious governors who cannot seem to openly express the truth about themselves or their real agendas. Walker did, however, reveal his true self when he held a conversation with an individual posing as the billionaire-conservative-businessman David Koch. When the impostor proposed that Governor Walker plant provocateurs among the protesters as a means to gain the advantage in the propaganda wars, Governor Walker didn’t reject the impostor’s idea outright on moral and ethical grounds; but instead, he made it known that he was worried that such a tactic was not as effective as what he was already employing to break the unions. Moreover, at the end of the discussion, Gov. Walker gratefully accepted the impostor’s offer to be flown out to California and be “shown a good time” after Walker crushed those “bastards”(i.e. union supporters).
By the way,if you want to to listen to a recording of the conversation, then try the following links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBnSv3a6Nh4&feature=player_embedded#at=431
http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/politics/scott-walker-20-minute-prank-call-feb-23-2011
This is your country America: A country where both the Democrats and the Republicans form a joint kakistocracy. Governors the likes of Walker can’t be viewed as men, but they can only be viewed in the context of being a politician. What enlightened adult listens to and actually believes these filthy, dishonorable, and shameless politicians anyway? Is there even one politician who is any better than an AIDS infected whore?
I wholly agree with Friedrich August Hayek that there is indeed a place for a union of workers whose rational self-interests coincide: People have a right to assemble and make themselves heard; however, the manner in which most unions are currently running is far too coercive and destructive to free-market capitalism. Of course, there is very little left of whatever there once was in the first place of free-market capitalism—the kakistocracy has seen to that! Don’t you agree? I mean, look at that crook Ben The Bankster Bernanke: By the time Ben is done counterfeiting trillions of U.S. fiat dollars for the Fiat Capitalists, the masses will have almost all of their purchasing power completely destroyed. And if you think that some of the unionized masses are yawping now because of the economic pressure that they are suffering under, then just wait until grandma can only afford to eat cat food for dinner and little Johnny has to drink watered down milk. This party is just getting started: There is going to be a deadly and confusing mix, hitting Americans in the form of waves, of asset deflation and commodity inflation that will further impoverish Americans. And the rippling effect will starve millions of poor people in third-world countries; yes, that’s right little ducklings, the economic crises isn’t over yet.
America has muddled through thus far, but just how long the system of phony Credit Capitalism can support The Tulip Capitalists and all their ponzi schemes remains to be seen. I always figured the system would completely collapse by the time the majority of Baby Boomers retired and became unproductive; however, it is currently my belief that I should be fully prepared to not wait that long. One thing is for sure: Every time the average guy or gal trades labor or a good for U.S. paper money, then, at that point, they are getting ripped-off by a monetary system that converts the value of real goods and services into a form of paper that, in turn, is divested(i.e. striped) of its purchasing power. Not one in ten-thousand, maybe even a higher ratio, can comprehend how they’re getting robbed by the system. The ignorant masses do, however, viscerally feel, like uneasy cattle, that something is just not right with the way that they’re being herded.
If you’d like to get clued in regarding what the authentic American Dream really is and how to restore it, then try reading Restoring The American Dream by RJR. The genius of Mr. Ringer is his ability to take a complex subject and make it understandable. Even if you don’t agree with every word that RJR writes—and I don’t—it is still one of the best books ever written for the average person.
Robert glossed over an important distinction in saying “there is no such thing as a right to collectively bargain.” Individuals DO have a natural right to join together and then bargain “collectively”; however, this RIGHT presumes no OBLIGATION on those they would bargain with to deal with these individuals in their joint “collective” — or even to deal with them at all!
Denying a legitimate right results in a defensible negative reaction from people in general, which is why the Union people phrase it as such. When stated as the attempt to force an obligation on the employers, however, the fallacy is recognizable and the advantage lost.
blitz120:
You are technically correct, no question about it.
RJR
Shared
Thank you for writing this
Doc Ellis 124
The whole “Union Movement” is a Communist front and always has been. It almost destroyed the American auto industry and still may. Van Jones, a professed Communist himself, is still one of Obama’s most trusted cronies. If it was up to Obama, every sector of the economy would be unionized, from supermarket baggers right on up. That would guarantee his re-election and that is all that he seeks. The simple truth is that all unions will have to be eliminated if the country is to survive. Their obscene pensions are bankrupting the Republic. I’m not sure that the Governors have the stomach for that reality. We will see soon enough. The teachers union is the most insidious of all and is the primary reason our students on average do so poorly in math and science. The only thing that a teacher can ever do is to stimulate a student to learn on his own. This was impressed on me by a response by one of my students in an anonymous questionaire we were required to administer at the end of each term. “He made me want to learn.”
The Governors have their work cut out for them. The teacher’s union is the perfect place to start.
[...] As I watch events unfolding in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, et al, I wonder how many Americans realize that government employees are demanding rights that exist only in their progressive minds. They have been led to believe that their desires are rights, and that includes the right to have the government take someone else’s property and give it to them simply because they want it. In Wisconsin, the protesters keep insisting that Governor Walker is trying to destroy their “collective bargaining rights.” I give Walker an A thus far for his courageous stand on this issue. But I stop short of giving him an A+ because he has not made it clear that there is no such thing as a right to collectively bargain. Only individuals have rights, and, whether a religionist or atheist, any honest, rational person knows that these are rights that are self-evident and inherited at birth. [more...] [...]
I believe the confrontation in Wisconsin is just a warm-up regarding the issue of so-called collective bargaining & union rights — this single issue alone has the potential to turn the country inside-out. If the status quo is maintained and union power is not put in check then watch for Tea-Party Act II, or something perhaps less subtle.
The topic of Labor Unions has been one of those taboo subjects that average people aren’t supposed to talk about – sort of like asking how much your co-workers make. Most consider the subject of unions complicated & boring, and are therefore unable to rationally engage in conversation. They believe it’s one of those things in life you just have to tolerate, like an occasional headache. However, if people knew the facts about how these evil & immoral entities came into existence, the source of their power, how they operate, and what real negative economic & moral consequences they have inflicted on society, then I believe the average person in the private sector would now stand-up for ‘their rights’!
The history of labor unions has been an untold story that’s naturally ignored by the lame-stream media, and surprisingly by most of those who advocate for a free market (Mr. Ringer not included). Why? Well, besides being politically incorrect to talk of such things, there hasn’t been a lot of easily accessible data or in-depth information about it simply because it’s a convoluted topic that’s been, more or less, kept under wraps by, guess who, the government & unions. Not one person in 10,000 understands the background of these shady & parasitical organizations and how they came to be. Once exposed for the fraud they are, and the dishonesty, corruption, illegal activity, violence, nepotism, malfeasance, racketeering & unscrupulous actions they cause (get the picture?), watch out.
If anyone knows the story of unions better than Mr. Armand Thieblot, I’d like to know who they are. He’s written as excellent essay entitled, Unions, the Rule of Law, and Political Rent Seeking that’s packed with mind-provoking facts & figures that gives the reader the stark & unbiased naked truth. I highly encourage you to read it and it’s linked below.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj30n1/cj30n1-2.pdf
“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people… They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.” — Thomas Jefferson
I believe Stephan F. underestimates the fraction of the electorate that recognizes the evil that the Union Movement has always been It has always been integral with the Progressive Movement. The only question is whether the Governors have the stomach openly to defy and expose them. This is a golden opportunity which, if lost, will be very hard ever to regain.
In 1982, Pres. Ronald Reagan discussed the fate of the Solidarity Union in Poland and used these words to show what he thought of unions:
“By outlawing Solidarity, a free trade organization to which an overwhelming majority of Polish workers and farmers belong, they have made it clear that they never had any intention of restoring one of the most elemental human rights—the right to belong to a free trade union.”
This is why I prefer to say I have the “freedom” to do something rather than the “right.” Workers have the freedom to get together with other workers and attempt to bargain (as a group) with an employer, but the employer has (or should have) the freedom to refuse to bargain with that group.
Government officials are morally obligated to refuse to bargain with unions against the interests of the taxpayers. Government is taking money from the taxpayers by force, so the least it can do is keep the amount of taxes to a minimum. They can do that partly by getting the “best deal” they can when hiring employees. That will not happen with a union.
To me, a “right” comes into play after the government steps in and does something to me with its authority. It can arrest me, for example; then I have the RIGHT to a phone call, to a fair trial, etc. Until the government exerts its authority, I do whatever I want (within limits) because I have FREEDOM. My freedoms do not imply any obligation on someone else’s part. My rights, though, imply an obligation on the government’s part. The taxpayers will have to foot the bill for my fair trial (a right), but not for any of the the activities I choose to engage in while I have freedom.
Yes, I know, the founders sometimes used the word “right” for certain things I’d prefer to consider (for the sake of clarity) merely elements of my vast freedom.