The radio message came at 22:01:44.9 Martian time: “The Community-Organizer-in-Chief has left the Washington DC Bureau of Breadlines and has fled to his Martha’s Vineyard compound.”
It was to be expected. The People’s Economy had turned on him. Unfed jobless (and tattooed) masses were walking the streets looting, robbing and killing for food. Washington, the center for The People’s Economy was no longer safe. But, we felt safe in our star-ship Gorforit. That is, Friedrich and I felt safe. My name is Milton.
You should know that there were many Capitalists in The People’s America when the Hope and Change Desolation began ten years ago. But, since that time, there is now only a small remnant left.
Back then we were called the “Free-Market-eers.” As such, we were constantly booed and jeered by The People’s Media. Flash mobs of union workers, guided by The People’s Media, attacked us. And though we were peace-keeping people, many of us were battered and some lost their lives. At one point it became so bad that corporate jet owners were being hung openly on the Mall, right in front of Lincoln Memorial.
How did this all begin? A Progressive candidate (The Candidate) won the presidential election in 2008. This newly elected president began to stir up class warfare among the people. He incited people to turn against each other, neighbor against neighbor, because of money. The People’s Media joined in.
In 2011 a “Lean Forward” campaign was launched by the People’s Media. Soon, the slothful, the dimwitted and the envious began to call themselves “The Forward Thinkers” or the “Lean-Forward Thinkers” – commonly known as the “LFT”. Their numbers, mostly union workers and unemployed college graduates with useless degrees, grew rapidly.
The People’s Media which had once campaigned for The Candidate in 2008, now campaigned for the Lean-Forward group. The campaign encouraged these marauders to take from the rich (those who had a job and some income) and to give to the “under-privileged” – those who saw what others had and wanted the same things.
From the Oval office the president, via regular People’s Media broadcasts, told the citizens that government was the best mechanism to handle society’s problems. So, with the help ‘elected’ representatives he began to take away the people’s money through taxation. People were no longer able to donate to charities or to directly help their neighbor. Every dollar was excised from the people for the people in The People’s Economy.
The People’s Media, rousing the animal passions of the LFT members, encouraged demonstrations to take place against Free-Marketeer businesses. Soon, though, the demonstrations were replaced with random looting and pillaging of stores. Strife increased between merchant and customer, neighbors and friends.
Our nations’ economy, once strong and vibrant because of free-market exchange, was now subject to the whims of recalcitrant, angry mobs and inept tyrannical leadership. It quickly deteriorated until our present time.
So, a plan was decided at our last Capitalist conclave held in a secret hiding place near Mount Rushmore. Two of us would go to Mars and begin a free market economy on a new planet. Both Friedrich and I volunteered to go. We were the oldest in the group. If something happened we were both prepared to die.
We had the star-ship Goforit but not the fuel. The People’s Economy rationed both fuel and food. So, we had to put our heads together to find a solution. Now, we had done similar things like this before so we were not overly concerned but time was running out.
There was no IPO for this venture, no influx of cash. The US dollar had folded. Instead, we had to learn to create fuel out of gold bullion. And, as it turned out, a small amount of this fuel would take us all the way to Mars. Once there we could also use it to barter with the Martians. They have no gold on Mars but they do have good underground living quarters for the two of us. We could set up shop very quickly. In fact, it was the Martians who had offered to help us. They would benefit from us. It would be a mutually beneficial relationship, something no longer found in The People’s America.
We all believed, the Free-Market-eers, that is, that there would be defectors from the People’s Economy but we didn’t know when. Things were getting nasty in The People’s America. So we decided to plan ahead and get ready for the influx of homeless and hungry. We had to start somewhere new. Somewhere that wouldn’t be affected by The People’s Media.
It seemed to us that Mars was the best option since there was a significant time delay for any radio signal to reach that planet. And better yet, The People’s Media Broadcasts would easily get lost within the noise of space radiation and our own Sun’s solar flares. “Bingo,” I said when I heard this.
*****
“Milton”, Friedrich spoke glancing out Goforit’s small window at the silent Martian orb, “soon you and I will be able to start our booming life again, but this time, on the Red Planet!”
Milton replied, “A laissez-faire world at last. To Mars or bust, my friend, to Mars or bust.”
© Sally Paradise, 2011, All Rights Reserved
“In the field of medical care. We have a socialist-communist system of distributing medical care. Instead of letting people hire their own physicians and pay them, no one pays his or her own medical bills. Instead, there’s a third party payment system. It is a communist system and it has a communist result. Despite this, we’ve had numerous miracles in medical science. From the discovery of penicillin, to new surgical techniques, to MRIs and CAT scans, the last 30 or 40 years have been a period of miraculous change in medical science. On the other hand, we’ve seen costs skyrocket. Nobody is happy: physicians don’t like it, patients don’t like it. Why? Because none of them are responsible for themselves. You no longer have a situation in which a patient chooses a physician, receives a service, gets charged, and pays for it. There is no direct relation between the patient and the physician. The physician is an employee of an insurance company or an employee of the government. Today, a third party pays the bills. As a result, no one who visits the doctor asks what the charge is going to be—somebody else is going to take care of that. The end result is third party payment and, worst of all, third party treatment.”
Cindy Wity 
Outsourcing
August 23, 2011 Leave a comment
The radio message came at 22:01:44.9 Martian time: “The Community-Organizer-in-Chief has left the Washington DC Bureau of Breadlines and has fled to his Martha’s Vineyard compound.”
It was to be expected. The People’s Economy had turned on him. Unfed jobless (and tattooed) masses were walking the streets looting, robbing and killing for food. Washington, the center for The People’s Economy was no longer safe. But, we felt safe in our star-ship Gorforit. That is, Friedrich and I felt safe. My name is Milton.
You should know that there were many Capitalists in The People’s America when the Hope and Change Desolation began ten years ago. But, since that time, there is now only a small remnant left.
Back then we were called the “Free-Market-eers.” As such, we were constantly booed and jeered by The People’s Media. Flash mobs of union workers, guided by The People’s Media, attacked us. And though we were peace-keeping people, many of us were battered and some lost their lives. At one point it became so bad that corporate jet owners were being hung openly on the Mall, right in front of Lincoln Memorial.
How did this all begin? A Progressive candidate (The Candidate) won the presidential election in 2008. This newly elected president began to stir up class warfare among the people. He incited people to turn against each other, neighbor against neighbor, because of money. The People’s Media joined in.
In 2011 a “Lean Forward” campaign was launched by the People’s Media. Soon, the slothful, the dimwitted and the envious began to call themselves “The Forward Thinkers” or the “Lean-Forward Thinkers” – commonly known as the “LFT”. Their numbers, mostly union workers and unemployed college graduates with useless degrees, grew rapidly.
The People’s Media which had once campaigned for The Candidate in 2008, now campaigned for the Lean-Forward group. The campaign encouraged these marauders to take from the rich (those who had a job and some income) and to give to the “under-privileged” – those who saw what others had and wanted the same things.
From the Oval office the president, via regular People’s Media broadcasts, told the citizens that government was the best mechanism to handle society’s problems. So, with the help ‘elected’ representatives he began to take away the people’s money through taxation. People were no longer able to donate to charities or to directly help their neighbor. Every dollar was excised from the people for the people in The People’s Economy.
The People’s Media, rousing the animal passions of the LFT members, encouraged demonstrations to take place against Free-Marketeer businesses. Soon, though, the demonstrations were replaced with random looting and pillaging of stores. Strife increased between merchant and customer, neighbors and friends.
Our nations’ economy, once strong and vibrant because of free-market exchange, was now subject to the whims of recalcitrant, angry mobs and inept tyrannical leadership. It quickly deteriorated until our present time.
So, a plan was decided at our last Capitalist conclave held in a secret hiding place near Mount Rushmore. Two of us would go to Mars and begin a free market economy on a new planet. Both Friedrich and I volunteered to go. We were the oldest in the group. If something happened we were both prepared to die.
We had the star-ship Goforit but not the fuel. The People’s Economy rationed both fuel and food. So, we had to put our heads together to find a solution. Now, we had done similar things like this before so we were not overly concerned but time was running out.
There was no IPO for this venture, no influx of cash. The US dollar had folded. Instead, we had to learn to create fuel out of gold bullion. And, as it turned out, a small amount of this fuel would take us all the way to Mars. Once there we could also use it to barter with the Martians. They have no gold on Mars but they do have good underground living quarters for the two of us. We could set up shop very quickly. In fact, it was the Martians who had offered to help us. They would benefit from us. It would be a mutually beneficial relationship, something no longer found in The People’s America.
We all believed, the Free-Market-eers, that is, that there would be defectors from the People’s Economy but we didn’t know when. Things were getting nasty in The People’s America. So we decided to plan ahead and get ready for the influx of homeless and hungry. We had to start somewhere new. Somewhere that wouldn’t be affected by The People’s Media.
It seemed to us that Mars was the best option since there was a significant time delay for any radio signal to reach that planet. And better yet, The People’s Media Broadcasts would easily get lost within the noise of space radiation and our own Sun’s solar flares. “Bingo,” I said when I heard this.
*****
“Milton”, Friedrich spoke glancing out Goforit’s small window at the silent Martian orb, “soon you and I will be able to start our booming life again, but this time, on the Red Planet!”
Milton replied, “A laissez-faire world at last. To Mars or bust, my friend, to Mars or bust.”
© Sally Paradise, 2011, All Rights Reserved
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Filed under 2012 election, capitalism, Conservatism, conservative, Culture, Current Events 2011, Economics, Political Commentary, science fiction, short piece, social commentary Tagged with capitalism, demonstrations, economic, economy, free market, Friedrich Hayek, Lean Forward campaign, liberals, Milton Friedman, progrssives, sci-fi, The Left, unions