I am a Radical... You should be one too

This week I have been bombarded, in a good way, with discussion, debate, conversation and many other vices that have centered on the idea of being a “radical”.  Discussion that revolves around whether bipartisanism is important or whether a person is too extreme and should not fight for what they believe.  I have had class discussions in history class about how people are offended or feel like a person should not try to convince them of their ideology.  A mindset of “to each their own”.  That is one of the most ludicrous statements I think I have ever heard.

The idea that a good Christian is one that would never try to persuade another human of their faith is contradictory to even being a Christian in the first place.  The call of Christians is to tell others about Christ.  Even aside from religion, if one has an opinion or ideology or a viewpoint, that person should be led to try and get others to see things that way as well. 

Readers, we should all be Radicals in life.  A radical for what we believe in is the way to be.  What is the point of being Luke warm?  I am a radical and proud of that stance.  I believe with a strong passion and desire for things to be done the way I view them.  I want our country to elect a man to office that has my exact views.  That will never happen unless I’m President. 

There should be no such thing as a moderate.  We hear this idea that we need more moderates and that the extreme right and left are destroying our political democratic process.  Readers let me be the first to tell you that a moderate is someone who is unsure of themselves.  A moderate is someone who might not even have an opinion on an issue.  If you vote for President Obama, you are a radical who believes in what you believe.  And that is likely large government in our lives.  No moderate would vote for this President.  If you vote for Mitt Romney you are a radical in what you believe.  We should all be Radicals. 

There are people out there that believe that a person who believes that a child’s life begins before delivery in the hospital room or wherever it might be, and thus is against abortion is a Radical.  Well great.  That person should be a radical.  They should radically stand by that decision and belief.  But don’t act like you are a “moderate” person for believing that a woman should have a choice on what to do with that child or “her body”.  If you view it that way you are too a radical.  We are both radicals. 

I have arguments with people that believe they are right because they are in the middle.  That makes no sense to me.  No one in the middle will ever sway my opinion on anything.  If you do not have conviction of your beliefs and passion for it then you will never impact anyone.  I have passion for economic principals.  I believe that the Tea Party is radical.  Not in a bad way like the media and those on the left want you to believe.  They are radicals because they are passionate about what they stand for.  What they stand for is not extreme.  They believe that the size and scope of government has gotten way too big.  If that is radical than I’m a radical and proud of it. 

Strive to be radical readers.  Stop believing this nonsense that the far right and the far left is destroying the nation.  That we need common ground to fix this nation.  Ladies and Gentlemen, the lasting domestic legacies of former President George W. Bush that people hate are where he compromised.  He made everyone unhappy.  No Child Left Behind, Prescription Drug Program, McCain-Feingold, Immigration policy.  No one was happy because he camped out in the middle.  Even on tax issues he cut taxes sure.  But he did it in a “moderate” way.  He should have reformed the tax code instead.  He should have been a radical!! 

Readers stand firm.  Have debate.  Try to convince people of your sides.  And never argue against someone because they are a “Radical” and therefore their views are too extreme to be used.  Our founders were radical.  Karl Marx was a radical.  Adam Smith was a radical.  So what!  The question is not whether they are radical or not… it’s who is right? I am passionate that I am right.  And until I die I will try to convince others of my views and my ways.  I will do it respectfully but with passion and energy.  I am a radical and I am proud of it.  You should be too.   

Why I care more

How can we not have the FDA?  They check our food to make sure it is not contaminated.  They are to make sure that our drugs are safe for the marketplace to be sold to consumers.  Anyone for ending the FDA has to be evil as they apparently do not care about protecting a person's health just like us terrible guys do not care for women's health by arguing that I should not be forced to pay for her birth control.

But what if I said that I care too much for our health to be willing to keep the FDA around.  I mean lets look at some of the situations that are created with the FDA.

Can the government be sued for messing up when it comes to regulating and inspecting drugs?  Are government employees often fired for bring poor at their jobs?  The answer to each of these is a NO!  Because of this we get the worst of both worlds.  An FDA that is very slow to approve drugs on the market because there is no incentive for them to approve a drug that can help people unless its very very safe because they are not going to make a profit by approving the drug anyways.  But at the same time they will not be sued or fired often for approving a drug or not inspecting food thorough enough.

If the FDA was demolished, then a private insurance company would have to back up a drug company or food company and their product.  That insurance company is in it to make money so you very well better believe that they will make sure food is not contaminated.  They do not want lawsuits so they will get these things right way more often than wrong because the risk of being wrong is being sued in court, having profitable contracts voided, being fired as an employee, or going out of business altogether due to not doing a satisfactory job.

At the same time, there is an incentive to approve drugs to the market that would allow doctors and patients to make more decisions for themselves.  Insurance companies can say that this drug has a high risk and thus to insure it we charge much more.  But drug companies want to approve drugs because that will make the companies more profitable and make them more money as well insuring more drugs.  Thus good drugs that have side effects but can still be helpful despite those side effects will be approved more often than they are by the current FDA.

Many people want to act like Libertarians do not care about people because we want to get rid of rent control laws, minimum wage laws, regulations, the FDA, OSHA, and other things... But in reality... we want to get rid of many of those things because we care MORE than others.  Its like if I'm against some kind of government law or oversight than that means someone else cares and I do not.  But as a libertarian I look at the incentives of laws and the consequences and base my opinions and views there not based on the nation that we need protection from everything.  I care more so I put more time into studying the results than someone who supports simple government protection.

Unfortunately Libertarians are not winning the argument on this because so many of them want to focus on things like legalizing gay marriage, pot, getting our military behind our boarders only, and abortion "rights".  Thus they alienate so many and in fact more often than not the base that usually supports their economic ideas, the conservatives, and thus little is accomplished.  Hopefully younger conservative libertarians like myself will change this and can shrink government.

Gas Prices

Just a quick blog entry today...

Watching a news show that did a segment on gas prices sparked my interest in a new debate that is anti-oil companies and their effect on gas prices.

No industry is probably attacked in our "capitalistic" economy more than oil companies.  There is a new argument used to blame them for the high gas prices that has recently been in the news due to what is happening in California.

The new argument is that these companies are exporting too much gasoline to other countries that are buying it and thus lowering the local supply of gasoline here in America, and driving prices higher here in America.  Now that impact on the actual price here in America is very minimum anyways but lets go with this argument and entertain the thought.

What are we to do?  Tell "big oil" to not sell their gasoline to the best buyer willing to offer the best price.  Are we to expect oil companies to do the "patriotic" thing and turn down foreign buyers in order to supply more gasoline here in America?  The reality is that global demand is outpacing the global supply and this drives prices up.  If our oil companies were to do normal business they would sell this gasoline to the best buyer.  I would argue that if they chose to keep that gasoline here, the supply in other countries would go down, thus driving up global OIL prices and thus it would end up costing more to purchase oil and possibly offset the lowering price of gasoline if oil companies were to keep that gas here.

The other argument is that the government should get involved and force oil companies to keep that here or to somehow maybe restrict or tax those exports in a way that would punish oil companies for doing that.  But do you really expect other countries to not react?  If you believe that our wonderful government can restrict our products from going abroad and do this without other countries responded by restricting goods coming here then you are drinking the cool-aid.  This would of course hurt our economy in other areas where other countries pass restrictions against America.

I have blogged on a more long term solution in the past.  But this is a new argument that is designed to demagogue oil companies once again.  I just wanted to let you know... its not nearly that simple.  Read those past blogs to understand more about how to get gas prices down.