O.W.S. CONVERSION TO ECONOMIC REALITY NEEDED

O.W.S. CONVERSION TO ECONOMIC REALITY NEEDED

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD Traditional Realist

This may be harsh to many people but none of us are entitled to other people’s property. When people decide to give someone else part of their earnings, it is called charity. When the government takes money through taxes from an honest individual and selects another to receive part of it after skimming off some for friends and self it is extortion or crony capitalism.

The Wall Street occupiers are right; crony capitalism is a cancer devouring our spirit. Instead of allowing market forces to determine what are the best products and companies, government leaders decide. They pick winners and losers based on politics. Large donations to campaigns purchase access to leaders and repayment in the form of special regulations, contracts and bailouts. Quasi-legal bribes become the cost of doing business. It is called state capitalism in China and is a hybrid economy, which is controlled by the central government. It leads in the long term to inefficiency and an undermining of competitiveness. It is a form of nationalistic socialism that Hitler used in Germany.

About 10-20% of Americans are confirmed socialists. These people are often so-called “intellectuals” who are indoctrinated in our universities. Many professors, media elites, students, union leaders and progressive politicians have been reluctant to publicly express their beliefs. They are now comfortable in this political environment to declare their political preference. This should be an eye opener to the average American.

This political forthrightness is good for our country as long as we have an open debate on the pros and cons of a centrally controlled society. Without the mature discussions we are vulnerable to a revolution from within led by a small band of ideologues. These intellectuals are destined to fail in establishing a better society.

For our country to regain its strength, citizens have to be weaned off government handing our money to certain groups to win their favor. This means perennial unemployment insurance, Obamacare, Medicare, Medicaid and other smaller give away programs have to be scaled back. The safety net has to be significantly reduced to save our nation.

There will be personal hardships that will have to be endured. Like any addict who has been seduced into a life style that leads to self-destruction, pain will have to be suffered before one can conquer the addiction. It will not be easy for many to return to reality.

Political officials parcel out the people’s money to others increasing these recipients reliance on government. This is the same way a pimp uses money and drugs to entice girls into prostitution. The caring folks help and encourage the addict to withdraw from a horrible existence. These mature people are not heartless. They understand to be free again a person has to give up the security and allegiance to false substances and promises spouted by charlatans.

Many charismatic leaders throughout history have created a vision based on falsehoods that have enslaved the citizens. Dependency on government inevitably is a path to slavery. Americans have to endure the agony of withdrawal from government bribes for their vote in order to gain freedom for themselves and their children.

Reality oriented people like those in the Old Testament and our founding fathers learned from human nature. In the Old Testament, Thessalonians 3/10, “If any man does no work, let him not have food.” In modern time these are the common adages that make the same point; “you don’t get something for nothing” or “there is no free lunch.”

Once we realize the historical validity of these common sense reality and economic observations it will help the OWS participants to understand why capitalism benefits the standard of living of so many while socialism/Communism does not.

Many Americans are learning the hard way that European socialism and crony capitalism cannot work. We are recognizing that our constitutional republic protects our economic and social freedom by restraining the power of the ever-expanding central government.

The people’s major weapon to return to economic reality is our self-education. Our citizens knowing history, understanding human nature and using common sense are the elements that will keep us on the right track to keep our free market system.

Dr. Maglio is the author of Invasion Within and Essential Parenting. He is a psychotherapist and the owner/director of Wider Horizons School.

Visit: www.drmaglio.com.

BANNING EXCELLENCE RESULTS IN MEDIOCRE EQUALITY

BANNING EXCELLENCE RESULTS IN MEDIOCRE EQUALITY

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

Modern society is being fed propaganda that we should treat everyone equally regardless of their actions and behavior. Progressives believe that a person who believes someone else is better than they suffers humiliation. According to their thinking this can be easily remedied by manipulating the situation to prevent excellence from rearing its ugly head.

In Melvin, AR an eleven year-old sixth grader, Demias Jimerson, was instructed that after making three touchdowns in a game he would not be able to score again if his team was 14 points ahead. He was considered by school officials to have an unfair advantage over other children in the league. Principal, Terri Bryant, said she is punishing him but wants other players to develop. “He’ll score almost every time he touches the ball.”

Demias was considered too superior to other young athletes in the conference. Even if he were placed in an older age group where it would be more difficult for him to shine, he would make others who may be older feel inferior since they were not as good as or better than this youngster. Demias must not be allowed to excel or other children will give up, not try harder to become better.

Our culture is failing to appreciate that anyone who performs on an excellent level elevates everyone around him. It motivates others to try harder. Instead we are protecting our children from the difficult lessons taught by reality.

This psychological and emotional coddling is happening throughout our educational system. We have established policies that promote grade inflation to assist unmotivated students to learn the rewards of laziness. We do not even keep score in children’s sports.

In the business world our government is prohibiting employers from giving honest evaluations of former employees. It is even being considered that asking a potential employee how long he has been unemployed would be discriminatory. The government rationalization is everyone should be given a new start by disregarding the mistakes of the past. We do not want people to be harmed by the harshness of the truth. Rather than allowing an individual to improve we are willing to pass on a flawed worker to another unsuspecting employer.

Even though our government is attempting to legislate fairness in the workplace, Occupy Wall Street, also called the 99% Movement, is about the unfairness of life. They would like to prevent a talented person in a particular field from using his accomplishments or high level performance to economically rise above the 99% of the people. Many believe the entrepreneurs need to be held back from receiving their just rewards or many less hard working will feel envy. The profit motive of capitalism is seen as a cruel and unusual consequence for the 99% unless they are involved in business.

The OWS believe the unequal distribution of wealth within a society is criminal to the less fortunate. This concept means 99% of the American citizens need to have their wealth confiscated by the citizens of poor nations. These poor Americans would be the 1% of rich people when compared to the entire world. In poor nations the average worker’s yearly salary is less than the average US poor worker’s weekly salary. For world equality the worker of a poor nation should have the right to a fairer salary provided by the “poor Americans.”

International progressives are philosophically against hybrid capitalism. China and Cuba are now using some legal and illegal strategies of capitalism to increase the national wealth. This should be stopped because they are encouraging an income gap between the slackers and the profit seekers. Cuba is encouraging home ownership and private business. China is employing economic incentives to foreign businesses to relocate to their country and price fixing to discourage foreign competition to increase their market share. Producing more wealth by turning a Marxist nation into a capitalist one only enlarges the gap between rich and poor.

There is one foolproof way to gain world equality. It is through One World Governance. Creating a world without national borders will make it easier for the ruling class to more evenly distribute wealth equally to all the workers. They believe it is imperative we create a global society to level the playing field. Equality in a poor country is much more virtuous than developing a rich country where there is a large gap between rich and poor in the view of progressives.

The current strategy of dismantling standards and expectation of excellence is too slow a process. Once positive incentives to work are banned, the nation’s spirit will deflate. Diverting the behavior of the masses to the lowest common denominator does achieve lower national standards of living while increasing dependency on the government will take generations.

American elites must lead the way to open the borders and to punish the capitalist 1% worldwide for being over ambitious, productive individuals. This would be done for all people except a small minority of ruling class intellectuals who would deserve all the privileges of wealth for making the masses equal. This will bring the people to a level of equal mediocrity, which will be distributed throughout the world.

This ruling class will have the moral dilemma of living in extraordinary luxury while maintaining their agenda for a total equality as the best method of living for the masses. Deep down the ruling class knows with all it’s heart that they are superior but they do not want the hassle of having to keep up with arrogant upstarts. They understand that mediocre quality for the masses is an inoculation against worker uprisings. It is best to squash all competition for everyone’s benefit especially for the chosen few.

Dr. Maglio is the author of Invasion Within and Essential Parenting. He is a psychotherapist and the owner/director of Wider Horizons School.

Visit: www.drmaglio.com.

DISPATCHING JOE PATERNO WITH AN UNDEFINED MORAL CODE

DISPATCHING JOE PATERNO WITH AN UNDEFINED MORAL CODE

By Domenick J. Maglio Ph.D. Traditional Realist

The past decade some powerful people in Happy Valley have said that modern football has passed by Joe Paterno, the 85-year old coach. The pressure to win at Penn State is equal to or greater than any other collegiate football program in the US. It was not only the stress of winning every game but the pressure of being the most revered person in the Nittany Lion Nation, Pennsylvania and by many Americans.

Joe Paterno is a living legend. Not only is he the most winning all time coach in division 1 football, but also he did it with class for over a half a century. Under his leadership he never received a recruiting violation or an NCAA sanction against his football program. He maintained one of the highest graduate rates of any division one program.

Joe Paterno did everything the right way. He was gracious in defeat or in victory. His coaching adversaries treated him with utmost respect as he did them. No one had a bad word to say about him. His unpretentious life style of living in a modest home a few blocks from the campus and his ritual of making himself accessible to students on his walk through the university created a great admiration for him at Penn State University.

Mr. Paterno was the ultimate role model for the students at Penn State. They called him “Papa Joe.” They stood by him holding a vigil to keep him as head coach before he was unceremoniously fired.

Mr. Paterno's crime was not anything criminal. Rather it was a supposed “lack of moral follow up.” He reported an accusation by assistant coach, Mike McCrearry, who said he witnessed retired Coach Jerry Sandusky committing a sexual act on a 10-year-old boy.

This was a hearsay incident not something Joe Paterno witnessed. He reported the accusation to his superior. Mr. Tim Curley, athletic director and the campus chief of police according to the law in Pennsylvania.

Mr. Paterno followed the letter of the law but according to the Board of Trustees he supposedly did not do enough. No one has yet said what he should have done to meet the board's moral standard since their standard is not defined. The board's immediate dismissal without due process appears to be a political hatchet job to tarnish his reputation and eliminate Joe Paterno, and to CYA themselves especially Governor Tom Corbett.

Child sexual abuse is a horrible, destructive act to a defenseless child. The perpetrator should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. However, why should Joe Paterno receive such harsh consequences before any investigation stated what should have been done differently?

In another incident in 1998, Coach Sandusky was investigated by the State Attorney's office and a child protective agency for alleged sexual crimes with a minor and no charges were filed. The State Attorney Gricar who did not pick up the case suspiciously went missing in 2005. The records of this case and another incident with Sandusky and a minor in the 1999 Alamo Bowl should be re-opened.

Coach Sandusky was the head of The Second Mile Foundation a non-profit for children. He was given special honors and was given rewards by President George H. W. Bush and Senator Rick Santorum as well as emeritus status at the university. He had a high profile at Penn State and nationally in athletic circles.

Rumors of sexual indiscretions of Mr. Sandusky were widely circulated. Applying the same Paterno moral standard would mean the people in the Second Mile Foundation, the media and politicians should be similarly fired for not doing more about these rumors.

If after the investigation evidence becomes public and shows Mr. Paterno did have first hand knowledge of other Sandusky incidents he should be prosecuted for failing to report them to the police.

On the other hand, if the investigation shows he met his full legal duty he should be given a full apology by the media and the university. Hopefully this would allow his name to be reinstated on the Big 10 trophy given to the winner of the conference. Coach Paterno’s impeccable reputation as an honorable man should be restored to the level it existed before the board dragged him into this mess.

"Whacking" the reputation of this legend for political gain should be considered an immoral act. The Board of Trustees needs to address the specific way Joe Paterno did not meet his moral obligations. They owe it to all of us to know and understand this new moral code to avoid any other instances. Once this moral code is established, it will make many people more comfortable in judging the reason for obliterating the role modeling and moral life of an honorable man like Joe Paterno.

The recent trend of dropping unsubstantiated allegations to the media to soil a person's reputation without a hearing is a disgusting and un-American act. In our American justice system, a man is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

The removal of our current and past heroes lowers the moral bar. This makes many of us feel better thinking that our renowned role models are no better than we are, although it unravels the social fiber, which binds our society

Character assassination of virtuous people has to stop. This scandalous practice is undermining our historical, present and potential heroes who are needed to inspire us all. We need exceptional individuals to elevate our standards and expectations of our selves, of others and our nation.

Dr. Maglio is the author of Invasion Within and Essential Parenting. He is a psychotherapist and the owner/director of Wider Horizons School.

Visit: www.drmaglio.com