Patterson Irrigator | Your Local Paper - His VOICE

December 2, 2008 Patterson, CA

Polls

Latest Forum Posts

Taking a Knee
unclebuck 15-11-08 13:51

Re:Football
unclebuck 07-10-08 15:24

Re:Football
unclebuck 02-10-08 12:59

Login Form

His VOICE

Print

E-mail

Written by Earl Hiatt / Community Columnist
Friday, 18 April 2008
Freedom, peace lead to prosperity This column is the last in a series on federal economic policy and this spring’s stimulus package. The vision of many ignoring the dollar’s weakness — remarkably crass and ridiculous even as it is compelling and dangerous — is that the dollar will continually be supported by the rest of the world no matter how many dollars are printed, without noticing the inflation, the lack of faith and the criminality of it all. What most don’t understand in this country, but what is well known in many other countries, is that runaway inflation wipes out the middle class. The rich know how to survive. The engine of economic growth is in creating new wealth, not redistributing existing wealth. What we need is liberty, honest money, peace and free-market prosperity. Freedom and peace lead to prosperity. Earl Hiatt / His Voice What is the strongest case for currency with a gold standard? That it would end inflation and the business cycle? Those are benefits, but neither is the main one. The gold standard would force the political class to come to us and ask for tax increases whenever it wanted to expand. This is the main reason politicians hate gold, besides the fact that most politicians have flunked Economics 101. A good example of this can be found in a recent interview of Sen. John McCain. He was strongly against pork-barrel spending, and rightly so, bragging that he could save $30 billion a year. But he blithely dodged the fact that the war he wants to continue is costing about $1 trillion per year. The United States became the greatest, most prosperous nation in human history through low taxes, constitutionally limited government, personal freedom and a belief in sound money. We need to return to these principles so our economy can thrive again. We need to lay the groundwork for long-term prosperity. The four-point plan should include tax reform, spending reform, monetary policy reform and regulatory reform. If “stimulating” the economy is the way to go, then California (like always) is ahead of the curve, as we have a $14 billion deficit coming next year — our great leaders want to add another $14 billion for health care. I know, let’s immediately pass a $28 billion bond to cover the expense so we can borrow our way to recovery. And, if for some strange reason it doesn’t work, then we’ll simply borrow more next year. How’s that for a stimulus package that’s guaranteed to make us rich very soon? Patterson resident Earl Hiatt is a semi-retired agri-businessman whose major interests are nutrition, economics and religion. His columns appear occasionally on the Irrigator Voice page. He can be reached by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Set as favorite Bookmark Email This Hits: 211 Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment Name Email Title Comment smaller \| bigger Subscribe via email (Registered users only) I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.