Sunday, February 5, 2012

Non-Profits

The theory has been that non-profits are needed to avail a social safety net, so that charitable functions can be decentralized away from corrupt and inefficient political power mongers. Unfortunately, corruption knows little of decency or modesty and quickly learns how to overcome the politics not only of governments but also of charities. Once charities are reduced to much the same centralized corruption as government, then it becomes ridiculous to hope to replace inefficiency and corruption by relying on charities. Nearly every other institution of significance has been corrupted by cronyism, so it's only to be expected that opportunities respecting money and power in non-profits cannot remain unexploited. Crony power secondary to self worship has us in an evil vise grip. So the kind of reform that's needed will not be undertaken by powers that be. Those powers will not dis-establish themselves. The reform that's needed must be undertaken not by an ocean of new regulations (which would only be corrupted to service cronies), but by sensible and general measures calculated to restore common sense and decency. That will not occur, however, unless and until there's a general awakening. There's every chance such awakening won't occur until the cell doors have closed to the last chance. We may be seeing the last vistas of ordinary decency and liberty, as faux gods of crony self interest finish extending their overlapping spider webs to the very last of our material hopes. If the income tax cannot be repealed and replaced with a progressive consumption tax, then at least the deduction for charitable contributions should be repealed. Moreover, the talk of ending death taxes calculated to limit the progressive rise of an aristocracy is fundamentally misguided. Most likely, however, the noise machine will continue to drown any awakening to common sense.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If America desires to be reasssimilated, rather than divided and prodded into some new agglomeration, then America needs to rethink how its leaders are funded and vetted. Those with understanding, empathy and energetic Will should be availed liberty to look out for their own interests. However, leadership tends to devolve to those energetic and persistent persons who deem themselves most entitled and knowledgeable. So how can ordinary middle class strivers defend their liberty against intrusions of busybody elitists and their puppets? Perhaps begin by recognizing that there's little reason to expect an elitist would appreciate, much less wish to pursue, interests of the dominant productive middle class. To enlist an elitist leader to champion the cause of middle class folk who would be free, it's vital that the leader be acculturated to feel kinship with middle class strivers. How should such feeling of kinship be acculturated? Value assimilation can proceed along many paths, such as paths for: conquest, economic competition, crony dealing, corruption into short term pleasures, or enlistment in common causes and visions of others. The founding cause of America is to avail freedom of expression and enterprise to all Americans who wish to respect and pursue such freedom. The founding cause is not to avail freedom to cronies operating under false flags to sell Americans into international dependency upon despots. We can readily see what Obama is doing. Now we need Republican leadership that wants not to sell America to cronies, but to restore America's backbone, i.e., its middle class.