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It’s understandable that so many people in minority communities identify with President Obama. First African-American president. First person of color to become president. I took personal pride in another one of President Obama’s historic milestones: first mixed-race president. Around the time that Barack Obama was a half-black kid being raised by his single mom in Polynesia (Hawaii), I was a half-Polynesian kid being raised by my single mom in a black neighborhood. I identify with President Obama in many ways, and understand why he inspired so many people back in 2008.
But it’s no longer 2008. It’s 2012, and people are suffering. And as much as people may like President Obama, we have to be honest enough to admit that our communities are suffering because of his policies. How much more pain are we willing to inflict upon our communities just because we want to root for this president? We have to judge this president not by the color of his skin, but by the results of his policies.
President Obama’s policies have been devastating to minority communities and to the most vulnerable in our society. America is suffering through the longest period of high unemployment since the Great Depression: Unemployment has been stuck over 8 percent for almost three-and-a-half years under Obama, after averaging only 5.3 percent under President George W. Bush. Minority communities have been hit much harder: African-American unemployment is 14.4 percent, and black youth unemployment is an obscene 44.2 percent. Latino unemployment is 11 percent. I recited these figures recently to a gathering of Pacific Islanders in Nevada, which is being crushed by the highest unemployment rate and worst housing crisis in the country. They didn’t need to hear these numbers to know that their community is hurting. If you had tried to tell these folks, three-and-a-half years into the Obama presidency, that their ongoing misery was President Bush’s fault, they would rightly have considered that to be an insult to their intelligence.
Unable to defend his own record, the president has launched an avalanche of attack ads that even the liberal Washington Post has decried as dishonest. With even many of President Obama’s strongest supporters praising the high ethics and excellent track record of Bain Capital, the bottom line is this: If you have a problem with Bain, you have a problem with private equity; if you have a problem with private equity, you have a problem with capitalism; if you have a problem with capitalism, you have no clue what it takes to create jobs and help poor people escape poverty.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.Businessmen vs. Bureaucrats
There are generally just two ways people deal with each other: with reason or with force.
Reason is the businessperson's approach. Regardless if he is a trader, a CEO or lemonade-stand operator, the capitalist understands that if he wants something from you, he's got to offer you a value in return. He can't force you to buy his real estate, "green" energy, or failing auto company, he can only try and convince you though discussion and trade that it's in your own self interest. The choice is always yours.
That basic fundamental negates the cliched and commonplace assertion, popularized even by our own elected officials, that trade is destructive and that profit-seeking businessmen are evil. In reality, just the opposite is true: Regardless if it's for a share of stock, an education or a sandwich, voluntary trade is productive as both parties' needs are satisfied. After all, that's why they're trading.
Force is not the tool of businessmen, but of bureaucrats. Whereas a businessman must appeal to your mind, government bureaucrats effectively put a gun to your head. They force you to you pay for banks, insurance companies, and deadbeat homeowners. They also force businesses to sell certain types of products, offer certain types of wages and operate in a certain fashion.
If a hooded thug stole your savings or tied your arms behind your back, we'd call it a crime. It's still a crime even though it's a suit-wearing bureaucrat doing the stealing.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
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