Equity - and Tom's concern

The word “equity” has several meanings – just part of the joy of the English language.

We all know what  equity in our homes means – today it means less than it did before Washington politicians and the nation bank – the fed, decided to devalue all of our home values by spreading what we had invested over the larger voting public.

We also know that equity can mean fairness – level playing field, where the rules are applied uniformly and consistently.  Which bring us to Detroit – America’s very own bankrupt refugee camp.

In the beginning, in 1776, those who chose to rebel against the king who made and enforced the laws, became traitors.  Then, as today, traitors can be killed by the in-place government.  The rebels had this idea that a nation would be better ruled by law than men.  Men are weak.  Men are greedy.  Men like to lord it over other men.  That seems to be nature’s way.  These rebels decided to make laws that say – if you do those bad things – are weak; are greedy – lord it over others – hurt others – steal from them – defraud them – you will be held to account.  This was not the established way – not nature’s way – most certainly not the way of the king and his court and his bureaucrats and his armies.

The rebels had an answer for this weakness of men – set up courts and judges and take the judges out of the “political process.”  That way the rule of law would prevail over the antics of men; mostly the antics of government men.

Which brings us to Detroit.

Detroit is America’s very own bankrupt refugee camp – not its only one but it is the only one presently under the complete control of a bankruptcy court and that means one person – a federal bankruptcy judge (kind of like a king.)  One person gets to say – you get this; you get that; you lose this; you lose that.  And then there is the law which supposedly tells the judge – as you decide who gets what, you must be “fair and equitable” – yep, there is that word again – equity.

What is the judge about to do?  We shall soon know but we already know this – the proposed distribution of assets – both now and in the future looks as if it had been prepared by the leaders of the Democrat party running for election and buying votes – big payoffs to the unions – peanuts to the banks, the  lenders, the bondholders.  Equity?  Only in the minds of Democrats.  Which is to say, “politicians, bureaucrats, their unions and their union leaders.”   In other words, the exact same group that ran a thriving town into the ground – into bankruptcy court – may be able to get the judge to rule that the rest of us should pay so that those responsible are not held to be responsible.  We’ll see.

Back to the rebels – when they set up their new government of laws to seek equity they said – you judges can serve for lifetime – you don’t need to run for election and reelection because then you will be above mere men who lie, cheat and steal and you will not be tempted to be like them (giggle – giggle.)

On Wednesday, we published an essay entitled – Tree of Liberty.  Wasn’t really an essay, it was Thomas Jefferson’s letter to William Smith and it was written about a concern Tom had about the new constitution that was being drafted back home – Tom was in Paris serving as the new nations ambassador to the French who had just helped the rebels beat off George III and his bureaucrats as well as his vicious army.  What was Tom concerned about in that letter?

He didn’t think judges should be appointed for life.  Why?  Well, after all, they are just men.  Weak as all.  Perhaps no part of this new government has failed the people as consistently and as predictably as the judiciary.    Tom got it right – a long time ago.  Please read the letter – just scroll down to Wednesday's post.

Also, if you are interested in hearing directly from a party to the Detroit bankruptcy action that is not receiving equity, please go to:  http://www.freep.com/article/20140903/OPINION05/309030029/Detroit-bankruptcy-pension-swaps?odyssey=obinsite

This matter of equity is rapidly becoming a matter of survival for our republic after only 225 years of existence.  It is way too important to be decided by just one man.  Deficits and debts are created by undisciplined men seeking power, prestige and profit at the expense of our nation.  They buy votes from uninformed citizens while the judges sit idly by.  This system is not working.