Silence Dogood Wire

Photo Attribution: Ph_general_map.png: Seav (=Eugene Villar)derivative work: Kpjas at pl.wikipedia / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

There is no doubt that free trade provides enormous benefit to societies, by stimulating foreign investment, ramping up exports, and increasing the amount of goods and services available. That is why economists have been advocating free trade policies since 1776 when Adam Smith produced his landmark book on capitalist economics, The Wealth of Nations. To see this phenomena in action all you need to do is look to the four Asian tigers. Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore. These countries are all extremely wealthy and are hubs for tech and manufacturing. Compared to their other Asian neighbors such as the Philippines, or even China, their standard of living is much higher for all of their citizens. The fact that these countries are so well developed is extraordinary given the fact that they were not at the centers of the European dominated age of industrialization. Their rise to global prominence can be attributed to nothing less than free trade which has bestowed economic well being on every country that it has touched throughout the modern era. 

Despite the benefits, free trade also creates a huge amount of interdependence among countries which is sometimes a dangerous prospect. Given this fact, the outbreak of Covid-19 begs the question; How reliant do we want to be on China? This is a country who is encircling the sovereign country of Taiwan, asserting its power in the South China Sea, and expanding its international possessions so as to increase its global dominance. In fact, the alarms were being raised at the outset of this pandemic that China would block pharmaceuticals to the U.S. of which they control an immense supply. Although they have not directly blocked these goods the New York Times reported that at one point they actually cut off the exportation of face masks. 

Given the fact that the communist regime which holds power in China committed a massacre in Tiananmen Square and prevented its own citizens from spreading the word about the coronavirus it seems extremely short-sighted to place our fate in the hands of  a government hungry for global dominance. The benefits of free trade, as we know, flow both ways, and it is important not to lend our hand to a country who has taken aggressive action against its neighbors and oppressed its citizenry.

After this crisis is behind us it is important that the U.S. stop handing lucrative trade deals to China. According to the World Bank China has 373 million people living below $5.50 a day despite the fact that they have the second largest economy in the world. This extremely low level of income seems incompatible with the size of the Chinese economy.

The U.S. should instead move a majority of its manufacturing plants to the Philippines which will provide the benefits that come along with cheaper goods as well as curb China’s regional power. The Philippines is a perfect candidate for setting up U.S. owned factories, due to the fact that according to the World Bank they have a very stable economy which was previously expected to grow 6.1% in 2020 and 6.2% in 2021. This economic stability is an extremely important indicator of political stability which is a necessary prerequisite for any investment within a region. 

Additionally, it is important not to give trade deals to countries who let their citizens live in squalor such as China does. The Philippines would also alleviate this moral issue associated with free trade, because of their concern for the quality of life of their citizens. In fact, the Philippines has actually promoted overseas employment since the 1970s in order to increase the economic well being of its citizens, despite the obvious effect of brain waste which causes highly skilled workers to leave the country. This has made overseas remittances an integral part of the country as about 10% of the  population works abroad.

The benefits both morally and politically of moving manufacturing operations to a less aggressive Asian country are numerous. By providing the Philippines instead of China with trade deals, we would alleviate the potential of China using its economic power to cut off valuable supplies to us and we would illustrate to them that we do not support their aggression in the South China Sea. We would also provide a country who has been struggling to provide for its citizens with economically beneficial industries that would alleviate poverty in the region and prevent worker exploitation.

Your humble servant,

Silence Dogood

Photo Attribution: This photo is a work of the U.S. federal govt. and in the public domain

With the outbreak of the novel coronavirus and the loss of almost all economic gains made under President Trump, many people are rightfully rethinking their decision on who to vote for in the upcoming election. However, it is important that we as voters do not vote for an opposing candidate for the simple reason that we don’t like the other one. If you don’t look at things carefully you may end up with someone even worse. With that being said we should compare President Trump’s response to the coronavirus to the hypothetical response of democratic frontrunner Joe Biden before we make our decision on who to vote for.

Joe Biden has claimed to be the hero America needs on the covid-19 issue. He has no doubt engaged in a huge amount of politicization of this pandemic and argued that he would be better equipped to address this issue. Additionally he has outlined a plan which he believes would stop the pandemic. However, when one goes over its contents, it is extremely similar to the actions which have already been taken by President Trump. On Joe Biden’s campaign page his plan for the coronavirus includes mortgage and rental relief, employer assistance for job maintenance, interest free loans to small businesses, providing needed jobs, and cash assistance or targeted refundable tax relief. His plan for alleviating burdens on the health side of the equation include making tests available to all and providing a number of makeshift hospitals.

This sounds extremely similar to the measures taken by President Trump. As reported by the New York Times, President Trump has asked Congress to pass funds to provide 500 billion dollars to give directly to taxpayers and early on he ordered federal agencies to prevent foreclosures and eviction before April is over. He also deployed two military hospital ships which is exactly in line with Biden’s proposal to increase the amount of makeshift hospitals. Additionally, he has utilized wartime laws to his advantage to increase production of medical supplies and has been working to increase the number of tests available. All of these actions fall directly in line with what presidential candidate Joe Biden has proposed which suggest that they are more unified on this issue than one might expect. 

If you are unhappy with the way this virus has been handled as many voters probably are, it is important to keep in mind that voting for the other side will not always garner you the results you are looking for. If anything, the response to the coronavirus of President Trump and the proposed response of Joe Biden should be a wake up call to the American people that we can not put all of our trust in politicians to keep us safe. We need to rely on reporting, science, and our best judgement. Freedom comes at the cost of knowledge and if we are not willing to accept that cost then we will have professional bureaucrats such as these making our decisions for  us. 

Instead of voting on the covid-19 response we should instead look to the future and vote for whoever we think will provide us with the best shot at recovery. The politicians have played their part, but now it’s up to them to let the market do its job.

Your humble servant,

Silence Dogood

Photo Attribution: Gage Skidmore, retouched by Wugapodes / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)

Many Americans probably let out a sigh of relief when Bernie Sanders dropped out of the election. He was an extremely radical politician who wished to fundamentally reshape American life. Although he is now out of the race it is important not to forget that he was a surprisingly popular candidate in many circles. It was alarming to see the fast rate at which Bernie Sanders moved up in the national 2020 presidential polls. An ABC News/Washington Post Poll found that Sanders was at a whopping 32 percent which was 15 percent above Biden who was then standing in second place. 

The more Sanders talked about his proposals the more and more it could be seen that he was merely a remnant of the cold war era in which intellectuals argued over the merits of capitalism or socialism. According to the Washington Post, he actually went on a ten day honeymoon to the Soviet Union in 1988 in which “he was enthralled with the hospitality and the lessons that could be brought home.” Because many of his ideas were very popular it is important to remind anyone who espouses his viewpoint are actually endorsing.

Although many may seem to think he has shed his belief in the need for radical implementation of socialism because he uses the word democratic socialism, there is no way in which democratic socialism can be brought about. The word democratic implies that all economic decisions will be decided by the people, but this is untrue and Sanders knows it. The reason he wants to expand government activity and government agencies is because they have almost limitless power. In the book The Road to Serfdom, which decried socialism (a book which Sanders almost certainly read because he attended the same university where its author worked), F.A. Hayek correctly stated that, “the democratic statesman who sets out to plan economic life will soon be confronted with the alternative of either assuming dictatorial powers or abandoning his plans” (Hayek 158). The point being that while Sanders may still believe in democratic elections, a governmental superstructure that has no limited power and is necessary for socialism will be untouchable by the people. 

Democratic socialism  can be compared to the principle of democratic capitalism. In democratic capitalism there are individual actions upon which the economy runs that should not be interfered with, because human interaction should not be prevented from taking its natural course to improve the economy. And on the other hand, democratic socialism is also a set of values where the government directs which people can sit on the boards of companies and make financial decisions. Both consist of ultimate values on which the economy rests and a both consist of ultimate frameworks that cannot be changed. For example, in our constitutional democracy which was built on capitalism, even if most people in a state believe that a baker is wrong to refuse a same sex couple a wedding cake, there is no way that they can force him to make the cake, even with a majority, because the constitution provides a set of ultimate values. Democratic socialism would consist of the same principle in which certain overarching values could not easily be changed by the people.

Not only his plans for the economy, but also his plans for the future of journalism, have an authoritarian note to them. In an op-ed he published for Columbia Journalism Review Sanders explains how the government will take a more active role in journalism right after he laments the fact that people are not talking about the issues he is concerned about as much as he would like. Interesting how a man who believes his viewpoints aren’t being expressed enough in the media would have his administration take a more active hand in it. I can’t help but recall how Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman stated that, “From 1933 to the outbreak of World War II, Churchill was not permitted to talk over the  British radio, which was, of course, a government monopoly administered by the British Broadcasting Company” (Friedman 19). Governments should never have a hand in the dissemination of information, especially when they decry the fact that the viewpoints that they wish to see are not being propagated enough. This will inevitably lead to the government spoon-feeding the people information that will keep them in power while trying to stop the spread of controversial information.

Despite the fact that Sanders uses the guise of democratic socialism to disguise his true motives, the end result will have the effect of removing our political and civil freedoms for the service of his faulty conclusions. Bernie Sanders is either ignorant or intellectually dishonest and I am inclined to believe the latter given that Paul R. Gregory who has a PhD in economics from Harvard writes that the Democratic Socialists of America want “to abolish capitalism as we know it.” The fundamental assumption of capitalism is that you have control over where you employ your labor. Who decides where we employ are labour in a government run society? Most likely the government.

Although Sanders is out of the race it is important to recognize that even though his ideas seem radical they are extremely appealing to many people. Let’s not forget about the Bern, because if we discard him as a crazy old man, we may forget that his ideas carry real weight. It is important to spread the world left, right, or center, that these sorts of ideas are tyrannical and should have absolutely no place in  American politics.

Your humble servant,

Silence Dogood

We should all be ashamed of our politicians. It should not have taken a global outbreak for us to realize that we have a monster in this world to be reckoned with. This is a monster that extends its grasp over its citizens by controlling their access to online materials and censoring the media. This is a monster who opened fire on its citizens and committed the Tiananmen Square massacre. This is a monster who imprisoned millions of Uighur Muslims in internment camps in order to prevent political dissent. This is a monster who forced women to abort their babies and abandon them in the streets during their one child policy. This is a monster that is the product of a communist regime who killed millions upon millions of people. This monster is China and the nations of the world can no longer grant them the privileges that come with being a part of the international community.

The actions of China within its borders are inexcusable on every moral level. However, domestic suppression has turned to international tyranny which the world must reckon with. The Chinese government has sought to encircle Taiwan, a state with a democratically elected president and the United States government has failed to recognize this state’s sovereignty for fear of our relations with China being harmed. In fact, President Donald J. Trump made a phone call with their leader and the politicians lashed out at him as if he had committed some irrevocable evil. The Guardian reported that one Democratic Senator stated that “This may make for great reality TV, but it doesn’t make for great leadership in a divided world.” I don’t know about you, but allowing China to assert its dominance over a sovereign state with 23 million people and a democratically elected president doesn’t sound like it will heal a divided world.

This pandering to China is not merely a phenomena reserved for its relations with the U.S. The UN provides for the wants and needs of China on a daily basis. As reported by Foreign Policy 4 out of 15 of the specialized UN agencies are run by Chinese Nationals. By comparison the U.S., Britain, and France lead the same number. This country who has been rapidly developing its economy and military to establish dominance in the South China Sea currently portrays itself as a developing country to the WTO. This is despite having the second largest economy in the entire world according to the World Bank. It would be expected that this high status among the nations would be predicated on good behavior from China, but the country’s past and present show that this is not the case.

The outbreak of Covid-19 must be the final straw in Chinese dominance and any privileges which it has had from either the U.S. or the global community. The Chinese government suppressed American reporters, allowed its citizens to live in filth and contract the disease, and prevented its own doctors from spreading the news about the severity of this disease. The New York Times reported the death of Dr. Li Wenliang who spoke out about the coronavirus long before it became a global pandemic. This man was silenced by the censorship of the Chinese government and was prevented from warning all of us of the impending disaster. Even if the Chinese government did not engineer this virus, they must be held responsible for at least some of the havoc it has wrought on the world and we must realize that this path to global destruction has been long in the making.

Right now the virus has caused layoffs and sent the economy into a downward spiral. When single mothers and fathers are put out of jobs and need to go on food stamps to feed their children it is time to take action. The dominance of China is no longer contained in their borders. This communist regime is attempting to spread the disease of oppression and tyranny across the world and it is up to every one of us to prevent that from happening. Democrat or Republican it is up to us to raise this issue to our representatives, because it is not enough to isolate ourselves in our own country. Oppression in the world will always end up on the doorstep of the most free country in the world. Just as we did in the Cold War it is up to us to defend the values of the West and prevent this dragon from consuming us.

Your humble servant,

Silence Dogood