Our Emerging Muslim World

Starting with the Muslim — Arab Wars in 634 AD and continuing into the late 1800s Muslim armies engaged in an unimaginable conquest. They swept across north Africa, crossed the Straits of Gibraltar into Spain. Their armies advanced into eastern Europe as far as Austria. Islam exploded from the Arabian Peninsular as far east as northwest India and west across northern Africa to the Pyrenees in Spain and engulfed much of eastern Europe. They controlled a land mass larger than any current nation other than Russia. Their Barbary pirates controlled the seas. They were intent on world dominance in order to convert the world to Islam.
Not all modern day Muslims share their desire but many do. Past ambitions were curtailed but, perhaps only delayed.
The following insights give an indication of how the demographic shift is changing our world. It is a profile of the world our children and grandchildren will inherit.
Statistical studies show a fertility rate of 2.11 per family is essential for a culture to sustain itself. Historically it is shown that if the rate drops below 1.9 that nation will fail. If it drops below 1.3 it is impossible to recover. Consider these current rates in Europe. France the rate is 1.8, England 1.6, Greece 1.3, Italy 1.2, and Spain 1.1. The rate in the 31 nations constituting the European Union is 1.38.
However, the population rate is not declining in Europe. It is growing because of Islamic immigration. In France where the rate is 1.8 among the French it is 8.1 among Muslims in that country. By 2027, one in five people in France will be Muslim. At the current rate in 39 years France will be a Muslim country.
In the Netherlands 25 percent of the population is Muslim. 50 percent of newborns are Muslim.
In Russia there are 23,000,000 Muslims. Shortly 40 percent of the Russian Army will be Muslim.
The German government was the first to speak publicly of this dramatic change. They estimate by 2025, Germany will be a Muslim state.
The 52,000,000 Muslims in Europe are expected to double in 24 years. Since 1990, approximately 90 percent of the growth has been Muslim. By 2050, Europe will be a Muslim state.
In Canada the fertility rate is 1.6. Between 2001 and 2006, the population of Canada increased by 1.6 million. Of these immigrants 1.2 were Muslim. The Muslim faith is the fastest growing religion in Canada.
In America the fertility rate is 1.6. If the Latin population is included the rate is 2.2. In 1970, there were 100,000 Muslims in America. Today there are 9,000,000.
At a recent meeting in Chicago of 24 Muslim nations they stated that at the present rate it is estimated there will be 50,000,000 Muslims in America in 30 years.
These figures show a demographic change but do not indicate what cultural change this will mean. Laws, institutions, and governments in general change when there is such a population and polity change. The ideological deviation will be a seismic shift in society.
Could it be that those of us in churches and synagogues are good timing ourselves to death and singing praise courses while not trying to change our culture or at least preserve it? Are our schools so involved quibbling over the form of reporting they fail to teach what is worth reporting? If this well goes dry we will dramatically miss the water.

Economics And Taxes

Any person who as a child had a little red wagon knows the thrill of riding in it compared to the burden of pulling it fully loaded. Things get complicated when there are more people riding in the wagon than there are pulling it.
The same is true in economics. When there are more people dependent on government than are providing for it a burden is imposed on the providers.
In America we are about there. Under new tax proposals 9% of the population will pay 74% of the taxes while 50% of the population pays no income tax. History reveals this has happened before with dire circumstances.
Pithy comments often communicate great truths. Consider:
“A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” George Bernard Shaw
“I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself by the handle.” Winston Churchill
“Government is the great fiction, through which everybody seeks to live at the expense of everybody else.” Frederic Bastiat French Economist (1801-1850)
“If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it is free!”  P. J. O’Rourke
Further proof that the principle of taking from the rich and giving to the poor is not new. It comes from Voltaire in 1764: “In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.”
Bronze this quote from Thomas Jefferson and put it on the mantel of your mind: “The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”
This by Benjamin Franklin deserves to be enshrined in our memory hall of fame: “When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”
Against that backdrop interpret this by James Bovard, Civil Libertarian: “Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.”
A collection of quotes without one by Ronald Reagan would be incomplete. “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
Economist Milton Friedman confirms this in his quote: “We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidized nonwork.”
Comfort and caution are found in these words by Abraham Lincoln: “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
One thing greatly needed in order to preserve our republic form of government and economic free enterprise system is a better informed electorate.
We have in place in America a system that can afford such education. It is the public school system. Educators are objects of my esteem. I appeal to them don’t quibble over what type reporting system to use while failing to educate youth in the virtues that made America not perfect but the greatest nation on earth. Don’t dwell on our imperfections but the principles on which our country was founded and has been enabled to survive.

History Lesson On Economics

One of my most stimulating times in school was when I took four history courses the same term. It is not to be commended. Fitting the right characters with their contemporaries in the right era can get confusing. The study of history is to be commended.
Noah Webster, known as the “Father of American Scholarship and Education,”(1788) said, “Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country.”
One reason our nation is in the vortex of a destructive milieu is we are being lead by members who for all practical purposes opted out of the study of history.
Harry Truman said the only new thing in the world is the history you don’t know.
Lord Bolingbroke, an 18th century political philosopher, noted that history is philosophy taught by examples. Every historical event was the outgrowth of a philosophy. By studying the events of an era the philosophy that fostered can be known. The outcome of the period reveals whether a good or and unproductive philosophy gave rise to it.
America is now embracing a basic philosophy that has been tried by a number of societies. History records the result of our current political philosophy. We are now taking baby steps tracking the former Soviet Union called Communism. We are not there but we are flirting with a precursor called socialism.
Many older members of our society lived through World War II, the Cold War and other major wars. In keeping with the statement by Bolingbroke we saw the result of the philosophies that gave rise to those totalitarian states. Their failure shouts loud and clear that the philosophy creating such governments doesn’t work.
It is amazing to listen to some leaders of congress in interviews evidence they have no sense of history as they espouse flawed philosophy that has inevitably led to failure. They evidently don’t know the lessons made graphic by history. Or, if they know them they opt to try to defy them.
We have a president enjoying a 65% popularity rating who gives evidence of little or no history of the virtues that created the greatest nation on earth. Are there errors in the fabric of our history? Lamentably there are tragic ones. Let’s acknowledge this and get over self-flagellation in order to distill from our own history the philosophy of government that gave us the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
One brief history lesson form John Marshall (1819), “An unlimited power to tax involves, a power to destroy;   because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation.” History reveals it has been tried and found wanting.
Daniel Boorstin, a historian and Librarian of Congress, postulated that trying to plan for the future without a sense of the past is like trying to plant cut flowers.

The Result Of Socialism

The following came to me from Iryna a native of Russia who now lives in Anchorage, Alaska. She says the following illustrates how conditions were in Russia under socialism.
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but he once failed an entire class.
That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor, then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone world receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.
The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.
As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the one who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D. No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
All failed, to their great surprise. Then the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. Iryna asked, could it be any simpler?
There are indications President Obama is moving us toward socialism. When I write anything about him that is not complimentary it has nothing, for celerity I repeat nothing, to
do with race and everything to do with ideology. I grew up in Mississippi in a family with no racial prejudice when racism was the norm. As a child I was with my dad on many occasions when he took the unpopular position of being an advocate for all races. I have never been a racist, but I do love the American capitalistic free enterprise system that rewards excellence.
The illustration of what happened in the economics class is played out in countries where socialism prevails. Socialism would do the same thing to our work force and economy it has done elsewhere. Russia is exhibit “A” of the failure of socialism. Many older Americans observed the demise of the ideology and related economic system it embraced in Russia. It has never worked in any society. That leaves many musing over why any American would be inclined to advocate any form of it.
Capitalism is far from perfect but when allowed to freely operate it is far ahead of any governmental system that comes in second. The free market has its liabilities but it has more assets than any alternative.
Those in the above illustration represented as making F’s are ultimately the losers under socialism because eventually the producers, like the A students who quit studying because it profited nothing, quit working hard and the economic system fails.  Then everyone suffers.

What Is Socialism?

Increasingly it is being said our nation is becoming more socialistic. There is a vast mass of adults who have little or no idea what that means.
Karl Marx gave us a good working definition: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
The government determines your ability and sets your production goals. In doing so they determine your needs as a producer and they take the rest.
Under our free enterprise capitalistic system the owner/producer is free to operate the business, make a profit as desired, pay salaries and taxes, and give to the causes of his or her choice.
Under the communist form of government the government takes your business, runs it, and keeps the profits to distribute as they wish.
Under a socialistic system you continue to own and operate your business, the government determines what your needs are and allows you to keep enough to meet your needs. They take all the profit to distribute as they please.
This takes away the freedom of the free enterprise system and inevitably results in a decrease in initiative. Socialism is an economic system with government having considerable control over the wealth of the nation and property to dole out the profits as they see fit.
This is done under the guise of social justice. The problem is the bureaucratic elite, the government in power, defines what social justice is. They determine what is fair not the people.
Consider this scenario. You own a plant that manufactures widgets. For those of us who have lived our lives under a republic form of government and have worked in a free market it is hard for us to realize socialists consider you owning the factory as being exploitation. Regardless of the pay scale and your benevolence toward the workers and charities it is still considered exploitation and this is what they sell the masses on.
In a socialist state if you decide to build what you consider a new and improved widget you have to get the permission of your unmotivated work force. You must incorporate in the design the innovations government dictates. The government also decides how the profit is to be used for the good of society.
Pause a moment before we go further. Who now would be in control of your business? There are people in government now running our bureaucracy. Are you pleased with the job they have been doing? These are the kinds that will indirectly run your business.
Socialism necessitates a larger government to make the decisions for the businesses and decide on the social good. The power no longer remains in your hands but in the hands of an unelected elite group of unknowns.
As formerly productive people become more and more burdened by the power of the many over the few they become less and less motivated. Businesses become less productive. The pattern through the years has set the stage for government to move from socialism to communism and take your business. Its  a short step.
Now a more formal definition of socialism. “Various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned and/or controlled collectively by a central government that plans and controls the economy.”
Abraham Lincoln said, “If the voters get their hind side too close to the fire they will just have to sit on their blisters.”
In the last few months America has gotten closer to the fire. Some blisters are beginning to show.