2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #247 "GROUPS LIKE TECHNOSERVE DO IT BETTER!"

       Are you aware of the charitable group called TechnoServe?  It (correctly) bills itself as providing “Business Solutions to Poverty” in 29 mostly poverty-stricken countries around the world.  For example, in Uganda it is using data captured by drones and satellites to help farmers determine where to allocate their limited resources to maximize their crops’ yields; in Mozambique it is using smart phones to facilitate more effective business decisions for cashew growers, buyers and manufacturers; and in Ethiopia it is making available solar-powered water pumps for irrigation systems to help family farmers cope with increasingly drier weather.  Furthermore TechnoServe also provides mobile banking services for direct payments to be made by the farmers.  And, importantly enough, it also provides all of its services equally to women and men!

       So this is yet another example of how private individuals, companies and foundations simply do a better job in philanthropic work than do (any) governments. Governments are, by definition, bureaucracies that must cater to political demands.  But the private sector can function directly to address the needs of those in poverty.  In addition, how much money that our government donates to a poverty-stricken countries actually gets to the people it is meant to help, as opposed to resulting in the local government officials driving around in expensive cars and opening up Swiss bank accounts?  This is not a total indictment of governments – they certainly fulfill some important functions.  But when it comes to things like aid to the poor and emergency relief, I suggest that governments much more often should contract with private foundations to address the problems.  (In that regard, maybe a good place to start would be for the US Government to abolish FEMA and simply contract with groups like the Red Cross for emergency relief?  Something to think about.)

Seen on one side of a sign in front of a bar: “I have mixed drinks about feelings,” and on the other: “Great Minds Drink Alike.”

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Please listen to our weekly radio show entitled “All Rise! The Libertarian Way with Judge Jim Gray” as we discuss timely issues, and show how they will be addressed more beneficially by employing Libertarian values and approaches.  You can hear it every Friday morning at 7 Pacific/10 Eastern by going to www.VoiceAmerica.com, clicking on the Variety Channel and then upon the word “live.”  You can also hear past shows on demand as well.  And, by the way, these 2 Paragraph columns are now on my website at www.JudgeJImGray.com, Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, and wordpress at judgejimgray.wordpress.com  Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty.  In addition, my new book entitled “2 Paragraphs 4 Liberty: Solutions that are Practical, Effective, Responsible, Libertarian, is now available at Amazon.com.   Please read and discuss it with friends, and send in a review.

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY #188: “NO FREE LUNCH”

It was Milton Friedman who coined the slogan “There is no such thing as a free lunch.”  And this is exemplified by the following story that was recently sent to me, which is: Once there was a chemistry professor in a large college who had some exchange students in her class.  One day in class the professor  noticed a young male exchange student who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt. When she asked the young man what was the matter the student told her he had a bullet lodged in his back.  He had been shot while fighting communists who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist regime.  In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, "Do you know how to catch wild pigs?"  The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke.  The answer is that you catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground.   The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn.  Then, when they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming.   When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. So you continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side.  The pigs, which are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, and then you can slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom.  They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught.  But soon they go back to eating the free corn.  They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, and quickly they begin to accept their captivity.

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening in America.  “The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops, welfare, medicine, drugs, etc., while we continually lose our freedoms - just a little at a time.  And then, in not so long a period of time, we are captured.”  So all of us should always remember that there is no such thing as a free lunch!  Dr. Friedman also gave us another eternal truth when he said that we get more of what we subsidize, and less of what we tax.  And the truth is that today we are subsidizing entitlements, victimization and even laziness, and taxing success.  So what are we getting more of?  Does this concern you?  It certainly concerns me.

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Quotation for the Week: “I know that God will not give me more than I can handle.  I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.”  Mother Theresa

By the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, and wordpress at judgejimgray@wordpress.com.  Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty!