Canaries in the Coal Mine

Canaries were placed in mines because they detected poisonous gases and passed out before the miners succumbed. So the miners watched the canaries and got the heck out fast if the canaries were dropping. The three headlines cited below are early warning indicators. Few will heed them. Those that do will prevail. The parenthetical comments are quick summaries of the issue as presented by TheFundamentals.

Virginia prepares to oppose national health mandatory purchases (Tenth Amendment issue)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/10/AR2010031003908.html

Moody’s warns about US debt rating (Deficits = Debt = Destruction syndrome)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/business/global/16rating.html

Texas moves to include conservative doctrine and “founding fathers principles” in school curriculum (State differentiation issue)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html

For those who believe in simple fundamentals such as “live within your means,” “no such thing as a free lunch,” “save for a rainy day,” limit your debts and pay them off as soon as possible” and “be charitable to those less fortunate,” what are we to do?  No, we are not going to get serious reduction of government spending from Sacramento, CA or Albany, NY or Springfield, IL. Charlie Rangel and Nancy Pelosi and Dennis Kucinich are not going to hold a news conference and announce support for loser pays litigation rules or right to work laws for federal employees. But there are states that realize that their economic freedoms which are the basis for their personal freedoms are significantly under their own state control and these smaller entities are much more likely to embrace financial responsibility and reject the special interest and fiscal promiscuity that now dominates the largest of the states. And these states, states like Virginia and Texas, and hopefully yours, are embracing the simple concept of recognizing that business and labor and education and health care providers need to compete to win; not be protected to be comfortable. The unions that run Springfield and Albany and Sacramento have seduced the politicians of those states into a curious suicidal mission guaranteeing second, third and even lower places for their citizens so that their relatively small number of beneficiaries getting public paychecks, benefits and pensions and the relatively small number of other protected insiders have a comfortable, cushy existence. In the old Soviet Union these beneficiaries were know as apparatchiks. The apparatchiks of Albany, Springfield and Sacramento are ignoring the canaries in the mine. TheFundamentals is betting that more states will embrace a positive and open approach to competition. These folks are paying attention to the canaries. This is not rocket science. But just watch the laggards in Sacramento, Albany and Springfield howl as they slip further behind the winners. Watch them run to Washington and kneel before their gods distributing largesse, rules, protection and handouts. The evolving America is not going to look like a national politicians dream. It will much more resemble an economic version of an athletic contest. The winners will standout and they will have embraced TheFundamentals.

One more canary reference.  Americans are ready to be led out of this deficits = debt = destruction syndrome.  Will that leader arise?  The people are way ahead of the politicians on this change.  Will the people sustain and persist?  Some think not.  They are ignoring this large canary.  We're betting on the people.