What? Me Worry? Advice to My Liberal Neighbors

In his seminal Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy Joseph Schumpeter marvels that democratic governments ever get anything right. Says he in Chapter XXIII:

[D]emocracy does not mean and cannot mean that people actually rule... Democracy means only that the people have the opportunity of accepting or refusing the men who are to rule over them... [D]emocracy is the rule of the politician.

Thus:

[T]he democratic method produces legislation and administration as by-products of the struggle for political office.

That H.R.1, the first legislation proposed by the current Congress, is all about rejiggering the rules for elections to favor the majority party, the Democrats, is thus not a bug but a feature. 

It is thus perfectly normal that the current $1.9 trillion stimulus package in Congress all about rewarding Democratic constituencies and very little about getting the economy back on course.

There are, by the way, some storm signals flying:

The American Spectator: "Inflation will destroy the middle class." The stimulus bill will stoke inflation and "a prolonged inflation will destroy the already weakened middle class and worsen the widening wealth gap in America." Is there any indication that the people in the Biden administration or that Nancy and Chuck have the least bit of interest in this?

National Review: "The Mother of all Stock Market Bubbles." The ratio of stock market valuation to GDP is right now 25 percent above the previous high at the peak of the NASDAQ bubble of 2000.

Powerline: "Storm Clouds for Biden." The Washington Post's business and economics columnist, Steven Perlstein, is retiring, and his last column basically tells the Dem faithful that their economic agenda will end in ruin.

And the politicians aren't paying attention because their trade is not fixing the economy but getting elected. And after you get elected you reward your supporters. And you think about ways to make it easier for you to get elected in the future.

Yes, but how do I protect myself? First, don't think you can completely protect yourself. But obviously you don't want to have too many dollars. You don't want to get sold out with an underwater mortgage.

And don't sell out at the bottom!

Meanwhile, a message to my liberal friends with the BLM and the #WeBelieve signs.

If you beat up on the police, what you get is fascism.

If you let your anti-fascist mostly peaceful protesters run wild, what you get is fascism.

If you permit runaway inflation, what you get is fascism.

If you beat up on the commoner middle class, what you get is fascism.

If your administration just caters to gentry-liberal virtue signalling, what you get is fascism.

This is actually not that hard. The tribe of the commoner is the nation. When the commoner is afraid, he rallies to the nation.

So, if you are a member of the Cathedral with all the perks and the power that go with it, the one thing you want to take care of is to keep the commoner sheep safely grazing. Don't sicc wokey wolves on them; and don't wipe out their modest jobs and their modest savings and their kids' education.

Do that and you will rule forever. The alternative is Literally Hitler.