Cap and Trade letter

Dear Senator,

Thank you for your response on the Cap and Trade Bill.

It’s a very noble goal to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, however in this rush to push this bill through we forget that the government should not be the one to decide on such important issues as alternative sources of energy and whether the use of certain kinds of energy should be encouraged or prohibited. Bureaucrats, no matter how far-sighted or educated, cannot make a correct decision on which sources of energy are viable and which are not. Only the free market can. Any kind of government interference in this matter will not only spike taxes and prices but it will also stifle independent competitive research and development. Let us not forget the examples of a not so distant past that illustrate very well the efficiency of free markets and the wastefulness and inefficiency of a controlled economy.

The Soviet Union, one of the greatest empires in the world, collapsed mostly due to economic reasons, due to the inability of the government to predict and control supply and demand or efficiently launch and promote innovations. I myself came from that unfortunate country to the United States in search of freedom, and it horrifies me to see my new home repeating the mistakes of my old one and slipping into the abyss of socialism. You don’t need terrorists or nuclear weapons to destroy a free country. All you have to do is to make the people of a free country embrace socialism and they will destroy themselves and their country.

If we look back at the history of the United States in the 19^th century we will see how much private initiative had to do with real progress and technological advances, especially in the energy market. In the 19^th century our energy market was developing, as Alex Epstein so eloquently put it, literally with the speed of thought, any new idea was tried as soon as it was thought of, because there were no obstacles in the form of government regulations.

Back then people were afraid that as soon as they ran out of coal they would be doomed. There were many so called scientists and analysts trying to predict the end of the world due to the limited amount of resources. If back then the US government had stepped in and monopolized the energy market and had tried to regulate coal distribution and the production of candles and lighting oils, we would all still live in the dark ages. Yet we were lucky, because that was the time of truly free markets, and in search of profit many innovators came up with the ideas of how to use oil. Those ideas changed history, and we leaped into a new more advanced era because we had oil and knew how to use it.

Do not forget that before oil and before coal people had to use wood. And then coal was a major discovery. What if back then the governments tried to regulate wood distribution and stifled any new ideas about alternative sources of energy like coal?

And by the way, carbon dioxide is not a threat. Oceans produce more carbon dioxide than all humans together. CO2 is required for life and in different historic periods more CO2 usually meant more vegetation and more prosperity. And it is not a general consensus of the scientists that the Earth is warming, in fact there is new data that the Earth is actually cooling. One of the EPA scientists, Alan Carlin, tried to express these ideas to his superiors. However this information was suppressed. Doesn’t it look like a conspiracy directed to destroying the USA and its independence and competitiveness? Here is an excerpt from the interview with Alan Carlin: (http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Suppressed-EPA-scientist-breaks-silence-speaks-on-Fox-News-49513762.html)

How about instead of regulating our energy sector the government deregulated it? What if we gave the initiative back to private entrepreneurs? Private businesses are always in search of profit and a competitive edge. If we get to the point where oil is no longer viable, the one who finds a better, cheaper and more efficient alternative source of energy will not only beat their competitors but solve another energy crisis problem for the rest of mankind.

A free human mind is always in search of solutions to problems. An enslaved human mind does not function. You may force slaves to do physical labor, but you can’t force a slave’s mind to work. It will always be inferior to the mind of a free man. American inventors have always been on top of the world precisely because they were free not only to come up with new ideas, but also to profit from them. No matter how many great scientists worked in the Soviet labor camps, American scientists could always beat them because they were free.

The Cap and trade bill will enslave American scientists in a predetermined government-controlled paradigm. Instead of being truly free to exercise their minds and harvest the fruits of their labor, they will have to struggle through a limited amount of alternative energy choices (most of which are not economically viable) in their government-created jobs.

How much efficiency do you expect from that? Are you so naïve that you truly believe that this kind of arrangement can help America solve her energy problems? I am afraid that if we stifle the human mind, if we rob private companies of their profits in order to invest in dubious government enterprises, if we impoverish people through higher taxes and prices in order to force them to convert to more expensive and less efficient sources of energy, we will create more problems than we are now hoping to solve. It will put this country at a huge disadvantage compared to other countries, and what is worse it will destroy private innovation that has always been a source of American wealth and prosperity.

Please, stop and think twice before you vote for any bill (this or any other) that will put private America in government chains. I believe that there are many other Americans who write petitions to you asking to support things like Cap and Trade or public healthcare. You have to remember that any such initiative will enslave one part of the population in order to serve the other part of the population. This is exactly the kind of democracy that our Founding Fathers were warning us against. When two wolves and a sheep decide what is for lunch the outcome is predictable. This country is a republic based on the rule of Law not the mob, and the Supreme Law of this country is the Constitution of the United States.

You have all taken an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution of the United States, and these kinds of bills are in complete violation of this monumental document. Stop thinking that more government is the solution of the problem. Stop thinking that you can please the ignorant masses by giving in to their irrational desires while violating the Constitution and the rights of the minorities, with the smallest minority being an individual. Don’t repeat the mistakes of the Soviets. More government is the problem that is now leading America on this path to nowhere.

Take a stand for freedom, this is what all free Americans expect from you. Don’t sacrifice the American principles for the sake of keeping your seat in Congress. You have to care about justice. You have to care about freedom and principles. You have to care about the real values that this country was based on, even if the majority sometimes thinks otherwise. After all it was not the majority that founded this country and its laws. It was not the majority that made this country great.

You have to take a stand. Simply voting or not voting is not enough anymore. You have to take a real stand for protection of the Constitution of the United States, for protection of the American principles and values. You have to take a real stand for the protection of individual rights. These rights do not include a free house, or a guaranteed job, or free healthcare. You have to take a stand and make yourself heard, so that others can join you! We have to save this country and what you are doing now is not helping this cause. You have to take a stand for what is right, not for what is required by the expediency of the moment! We The People of the United States of America are watching you!

Introduction

I am starting this blog as a form of a politically incorrect diary for myself and for the people who care about what is happening in America as much as I do.

I am relatively new to America. I came here only 3 years ago. I was born in the USSR, I grew up in the USSR until I was 9 and then in the new fledgling country called Russia.

I cannot say that life was bad there, after all almost any adult will tell you that their fondest memories are of their childhood. I was happy there as a child, because I didn't know any other life. But as an inquisitive and thoughtful child I was always looking for answers to serious questions that most children don't even think about. I remember that as a child I saw justice as one of the major virtues. I was judging most events in my life based on that concept or what I then knew of it. I remember that I was always ready to act in defense of justice and was always upset when justice was violated. I particularly remember one episode from my elementary school. As often happens we had a bully in our classroom. He was really nasty to everybody, bullying both boys and girls and being a peeping Tom in the girls’ bathroom. I remember when this bully hurt my friend. I don't remember what exactly he did to her, but I know that I was mad. I simply pulled his hair until he was crying. Guess what? I was punished for establishing justice and that was one of my first lessons on difference of opinions on justice.

I remember that at one point I saw the Revolution of 1917 in Russia as just. I was a child then, I didn't know much about politics or economics but I was well read in whatever books were available to me at that time. Most books taught me that it was just to take from the rich and give to the poor because the lazy and spoiled rich were exploiting the hard-working and starving poor. I honestly believed in that and was ready to grow up as a good citizen in order devote my life to the state and the common good.

My world collapsed with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The 90’s were really bad years. Those who were stronger participated in carving up the industrial heritage of the Soviet Union and establishing themselves in the new and cruel world of Russian “business”. Stories about murdered businessmen were so numerous that people got used to them. Consequently, most people didn't want to venture into that world because they cared about staying alive. Many were still working for government plants and very often they were not paid for their work for several months in a row. People survived mostly with the help of their small gardens where they could grow some vegetables.

Even that was not as scary to me as the change in ideology. Everything that I had been taught was changing before my eyes. The same teachers who had taught me about Lenin and the Party a year before were now teaching me about the usurpation of power by the Bolsheviks and the martyrdom of the Tsar family. That was more than I could take because contrary to most other kids I was not aacepting information blindly, I was trying to analyze it before absorbing. I was not able to resolve my confusion but I definitely learned to think critically and verify information before trusting. Coincidentally I faced another injustice. I did my homework myself, I studied hard, I spent my time to prepare for the school and then at school I was surrounded by a bunch of my classmates who had neglected their work and now needed my help. They expected my help as if I owed it to them and if I refused they took it as a slight to them. I know that it often happens in school and my experience was not new in any way, but what I saw as a real problem was that the same attitude didn’t stop in school but went into the adult professional and personal lives.

I saw many other unjust things in my life too. My grandmother who had worked her entire life 6-7 days a week for 10-12 hours a day for the state in her kolkhoz and couldn't save any money for retirement, (because the amount of money that she was receiving at her work was barely enough to survive and the state was supposed to take care of you after your retirement), after her retirement was receiving a smaller pension from the state than her next door neighbor who spent her entire life avoiding work under the guise of numerous non-existent ailments. Those who were foolish enough to save money for retirement or for any other needs, depriving themselves of everything, like my other grandmother or my parents, were robbed of their money by the new Russian government. Almost overnight inflation swallowed everything they had. To make it clearer, imagine that today you have 100 000 dollars in your savings account, tomorrow you wake up and you have 100 dollars in your account.

Life was full of injustices. Yet Russians always went on, complaining, but eventually getting used to it. Poor health care, bad roads, horrible utilities, dirty streets were considered normal because they didn't know any better. Most people who knew better did their best to leave Russia. I realized that most problems that we had were inherited from the USSR and magnified in the new world of relative “freedom”. I saw the problems but I couldn't name them or their causes. Not until I accidentally came across one of the books of Ayn Rand. In her simple logical manner she answered all the questions that had been troubling me. I got the answers most of which I already knew somewhere deep in my mind. These were the answers that I knew as a child, but then was taught to think differently. I was finally able to grasp the concept of justice completely, the way it should be, instead of fairness the way I had been taught.

Life can give us unexpected gifts sometimes. It happened that Ayn Rand also introduced me to the United States. Thanks to her I met the love of my life and left Russia for America. I was going to see the world that Ayn Rand admired so much, the world of freedom and capitalism, the world of individual rights and justice....

Well, I was in for a disappointment. Of course, I was amazed how different the USA was compared to Russia. I saw wealth and prosperity where I was supposed to find "rotting capitalism" as they had taught me in Russia. Now I knew where wealth and prosperity came from and what I found was logical. But behind this beautiful facade I saw familiar themes. Behind this prosperous and happy world of citizens and private businesses I saw the same grinning specter of communism that I hoped I had left in Russia. I saw a world where people were taught by their government to live according to the motto "From each according to his abilities to each according to his needs". I saw a world where people were taught to be their brother's keepers. A world where unconditional love to your neighbor and devoted service to the state became more important than justice. The only difference was that I had left Russia at the point when people were trying to cure themselves from that disease and I came to America at the point where people were getting sick from the same disease. I couldn't believe my eyes. America that had everything, America that had a great history of individual rights, America that had the history of fighting against socialism and collectivism, America that had the history of living according to real values was now in the process of losing everything. I was learning history almost from a clean slate because I realized that my knowledge of American history was very superficial and in many cases incorrect. I learned about the spirit of the Founding fathers and the philosophy that made the revolution possible, I learned about the gradual erosion that had been taking place over the last century and the cause of that erosion. Even then I was not ready to brace myself for the events that started unfolding after the election of the first black president of the USA apparently without regard to his other qualifications outside his skin color. I feel like I am on a roller-coaster ride to socialism. In a blink of an eye we have lost more in the last half a year than probably in the last 20 years. At that rate in three and a half more years there will be nothing left from the USA. We all will be living in the USSA (United Socialist States of America).

I guess that is the main reason why I decided to start my blog. I don't know how much I can do or how many people I can convince to fight for their lives. At least this blog will help me to put my thoughts in order and track the dizzing events that have been happening so rapidly, as well as their causes and effects.