Pro Commerce

Are you smarter than a gang-banger?

I have been pointing out the rise of Jew hate scarves (Palestinian kaffiyahs) in San Francisco (and two I saw in Seattle). Several friends have questioned whether the people wearing the kaffiyahs understand the connection to terrorism.

Here is the answer: San Francisco gang members, the Divisadero Gang, all wear Palestinian kaffiyahs.

When told by teachers and administrators at their Gateway High School the connection between the kaffiyahs and terrorism they said they 'knew that... it is the reason they wear the kaffiyahs'.  No gang colors, just a provocation for police and other people who know what the kaffiyahs symbolize. Nearly all the Divisadero gang members are black. They have killed several teenagers and wounded many more.

The good news: Jew-hating-kaffiyah-wearers who wander into the Western Addition of San Francisco will be attacked by gang members and are also likely to be attacked by rival Nortenos gang members in the Mission area too.

How America can grow

In several decades China will have a GNP equal to ours.  That statement is true only if we continued to be hobbled by our Lilliputian ( lefty-environmentalist) commercial absurdities. Keep in mind that the San Francisco Bay Bridge was built in 3 years in 1935, today half of it is being replaced in 12 years.

The United States is capable of growing much faster than it currently does in its best years.  We can grow vigorously by following these eight steps to economic growth:

 1. Remove half the stop signs and traffic lights over the next decade that now exist for no sound reason other than the incompetence of our local governments. This is the first item on the list of steps to faster American commercial growth because it is symbolic of the absurd commercial conditions that burden all of us every day. Read here to learn why stop signs proliferate with no benefit to anyone.

2. Put all OSHA rules on a 10 year renewal cycle and require them to be re-instated only if the number of deaths or injuries cost 50% as much as the loss of productivity (value each life lost at $5 million.)

3. Limit all EIR (Environmental Impact Reports) to two written pages, one month of time to produce and at a cost of less than .5% of the cost of the proposed project.

4. Institute significant tort reform.  This is a subject I don't know much about but there are plenty of models in State Health care reform measures.  Americans will always sue, but the cost in time and settlements are generally unwarranted.

5. All civil law suits need to be modified so that the hours of trial and scheduling can include self employed jurors. 

Together, OSHA, EIRs, environmental restrictions and court costs are the main forces that drive business out of the U.S.

6. Give all foreign graduate students in the U.S. immediate green cards so they can work.  This is the most productive group of innovators American can have and we drive most of them away.

7. Lift the limit on H1B visas for highly skilled workers to one million per year and allow stays of up to ten years.

8. Allow all new small businesses a five year grace period on filing tax forms and associated reports.  No unemployment payments, worker's comp or social security withholding.

Then stand back and watch America grow at 5-8% per year with no unemployment.

Gulliver met the Lilliputians: America today

I can't help see America much like Gulliver in his travels.  When he first reached Lilliput he is tied up by hundreds of Lilliputians who are only 6 inches tall.

America threw-off our four greatest restrictions on commerce in about 1960 when we finally destroyed in one short period: the hereditary upper class, our retail price control laws, our extensive barriers to imported goods and our 'white Europeans only' immigration laws. 

With those new commercial freedoms our society was poised to explode with growth.  The explosive growth finally came when Ronald Reagan reduced taxes and government regulations. Our economy burst it seams when the costs of the Cold War were dropped significantly by the mid 1990's. Growth was astounding to everyone.

While we have had more than a decade of astounding productivity growth too from 1992 to 2005, we are again in a period of severely restrained growth for the past four years.  Why?

It is the Lilliputians.  Steadily, cumulatively since the first burst of commercial freedom in 1960 the Lilliputians (often referred to by me as Neanderthal Lefties) have been putting tiny binders and ropes on our great engine of commerce.  Starting a  business means paying a whole array of taxes, penalties and meeting endless restrictions and barriers.  Running a business means dealing with even more pernicious, daily, bureaucratic obstructions.

The Lilliputians have us tied down. (I love this graphic.)

The San Francisco Bay Bridge was built in 3 years in 1935, today half of it is being replaced in 12 years.  In the next blog I will list some of the restrictions we need to remove to promote our commercial exuberance.