Conservatism taught to my children

Why are there wars daddy?

Well, because countries, like people, have differences.

My teacher says that these countries should just talk and not go to war.

I agree to a certain extent. All options should be explored and exhausted before going to war. However, once all options are exhausted, there are two paths; appeasement or war. What is appeasement daddy? It is giving the enemy what it wants. Appeasement never works. It leads only to further demands. It delays the inevitable war or leads to surrender. It is like the bully at school who demands a dollar. If you give him a dollar to make him go away, I promise you he will demand another dollar tomorrow.

Your teacher says we should talk to our enemies. There is one truism son: When good negotiates with bad, good loses every time. Son, we believe in freedom, democracy, and capitalism for everyone. It is a system that has proven itself to produce the most human happiness where ever it has been tried. All other systems fail in comparison. If the enemy rejects freedom, democracy , and capitalism, we have nothing to negotiate.

To often those who want to negotiate to promote peace just want to be left in peace. Peace can be had instantly through surrender but this is no way to live. Our system is the best and we will have to sometimes fight to keep it.

Thanks for the question son.

Right on

Conservatism taught to my children

How was the game son? Great dad. I played well. Did you win? Well, they don't keep score. Why don't they keep score dad? Yes, that's right. I forgot about that.

They don't keep score because they want to protect the self esteem of the players on the losing side. When you lose you don't feel good do you? No, I feel bad when we lose. But dad, the Toronto Maple Leafs keep score. The players must feel really bad all the time. That's funny son. Yes, they keep score. They aren't children so they don't need to protect their self esteem. Is it good that we don't keep score. No son, it's bad.

They want to protect your self esteem. In other words, they want your self esteem to develop and grow. But they misunderstand how self esteem develops. A positive self esteem comes from accomplishment. When you can look in the mirror and say "I did a good job" you are developing positive self esteem. If you know you didn't do a good job but someone tells you that you did your self esteem doesn't grow. You know they aren't being truthful but simply want you to feel better.

When you win; rejoice, but also ask yourself what you did well and what could use improvement. When you lose, ask yourself why you lost. Try to correct it. True self esteem will come when you beat the team that beat you. This is accomplishment. You improved yourself and the proof is that you beat the team that could once beat you.

By not keeping score the league is robbing you of this process. But do you know what the dirty little secret is son? No dad. The kids are keeping score in their heads. I bet you know what the score was don't you son. Yes dad. We won 3 -2. Atta' boy son. Thanks dad.

That's a lesson for you. Accomplishment and overcoming obstacles will make you a better person.

Conservatism taught to my children

Thank you for helping me mow the lawn. What kind of chocolate bar do you want? The reason I am buying you a chocolate bar is you assisted me with my tasks. You earned the chocolate bar. The reason I am not buying your brother or your sister a chocolate bar is that they didn’t help. This is an important lesson in life. If you want something, you must earn it.

Here comes mommy. Mommy is a liberal. Mommy wants you to share your chocolate bar equally with your brother and your sister. Now that she is gone, I want to reiterate, it is your chocolate bar and you decide what to do with it. Any decision is fine with me. Let me point out one thing. Your sister has a broken leg and I believe she wanted to help but couldn’t. She hung around the whole time. I agree, I think you should give her a piece. This is an important lesson in life. It is noble to help those who can’t help themselves.

We’ll continue tomorrow.

Right on

Obscene profits

There is only one number quoted when the charge is obscene profit. That is the profit number. One billion dollars, for example. That is a big number. Any business that has one billion dollars of profit must be regulated.

It is a big number. But, what if $10 billion was invested. The return is then 10%. Not too obscene. If $20 billion was invested, people are getting fired if profit is one billion.

The profit number doesn't tell the whole story.

The Canadian Dollar

I love it when our dollar rises. I am richer when our Canadian dollar rises. I can buy more lettuce and golf balls and gas per dollar when our Canadian dollar rises. Some get hurt when our Canadian dollar rises (vs. the US dollar). Manufacturers who export to the US get hurt. Their product becomes more expensive to Americans and less will be bought. This is somewhat mitigated if inputs needed to manufacture the product are bought from the US.

There is an attitude in Canada that a rising Canadian dollar is bad for Canadians. It isn't. It is nothing but a positive except for exporters. As there are more Canadians than Canadian exporters, a rising Canadian dollar is a net positive for Canada.

Let it rise Bank of Canada!

Right On.

LCBO & profit

Again I heard on the radio that the LCBO (liquor control board of Ontario) was great for Ontarians because it generates a profit. This is hogwash.

The LCBO is a pure monopoly with a product that is relatively price inelastic. Inelastic means that if the price changes, sales do not change by much. If the price of a 6 pack goes up by 1$, I will still by the six pack (my name is not Joe).

The LCBO generates a profit by inflating prices with the full knowledge that sales won't decline by much. Who pays the bill? Me the consumer and other business. If I have $100 of disposable income per week and I pay $13 for a 6 pack, I have $87 to spend elsewhere. If the price was $7, I would have $93 to spend elsewhere. I lose by not being able to buy an additional $6 of other goods and other business loses by not selling me an additional $6 worth of goods. Should I decide to save the $6, the banks have more money to lend to a budding entrepreneur.

Government should not be in business. Government business reduces disposable income and crowds out other business.

Right On

Pension payments to public servants is where we get taken

I sat down with a 55 year old lady who is contemplating retirement. She works for the federal government and earns $90,000. She has been with them for 30 years. Because she has been there 30 years she is entitled to full pension. She will get $55,000 per year plus inflation starting now. I did a present value calculation. If inflation averages 2.5% and she lives to 85, the present value of her payment stream is over $1,000,000. The RRSP account of someone her age without a pension would have to be over $1,000,000 to be in a similar situation. I have never seen an RRSP account over $1,000,000.

You can argue that her salary of $90,000 is too much. But, her pension is definitely too generous. This is where the tax payer gets shafted.

Unions inflate pensions rather than wages because they know that this draws little attention from the taxpayer.

Right On