Virtually everybody who reads LewRockwell.com regularly knows that politicians cannot create jobs or wealth. Such is axiomatic to straight thinkers.
The honest politicians…
Let me restate that previous lead-in.
Congressman Ron Paul knows that politicians cannot create jobs or wealth.
The remaining politicians either:
- Don’t know they can’t create jobs or wealth or
- Willfully lie
If I were to place a bet, I’d put my money on #2.
Can We Blame Their Public Education?
Don’t blame their public education because most politicians are wealthy liberals (on both sides of the aisles) who went to private schools. Interestingly, hardly any of them send their own children to government schools. Although they don’t care about your kids they do care about their own.
Last week, the brilliant hedge fund advisor, part-time economist, and all-around happy guy John Mauldin wrote the following:
“…one quote I read this week which showed that government regulations cost more in terms of jobs than all the outsourcing to India and China. I readily complain about the cost of government regulations in my business. “
He goes on to ask the only valid questions about regulations:
“…How much does regulation cost the medical profession, up and down the chain? Construction? Manufacturing? Education? There is no place safe from expensive regulations.”
Far be it of me to correct Mr. Mauldin, a man I admire as a father of a wonderful family even more than him as an investor. Yet my correction is small; instead of “regulations” I would more accurately give them the title “unconstitutional laws.”
It’s obvious that while they cannot create jobs or wealth, they can destroy jobs and wealth. As a matter of fact, they are very good at just that. A few politicians might see they can destroy jobs and wealth and think if they oppose the other party, then they will create jobs and wealth but only the free market can do that.
The regulatory stranglehold is the primary weapon used to destroy free-market jobs and wealth and build the socialist state they so very much desire.
The Most Disabling Regulation of All
One swell act of socialism resulting in back problems after being forced upon American shoulders was the one that disables all Americans. It’s called the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA disables Americans. All Americans. The ADA will disarm you even if you have only one arm.
I regret I never traveled to Washington to campaign against the ADA in 1990 when it was being praised by liberals such as Bob Dole and President George H. Bush. Countless conservatives are still scratching their heads over why they cast a vote for either one.
In the early 1990s I stated on national television how the ADA would be disastrous, primarily in its damage to truly handicapped people and to our economy. To its discredit the ADA far surpassed my expectations. I couldn’t have guessed how much abuse it would generate. I knew it would be dangerous but I had no clue that it would grow so rapidly, be exported to so many other countries so quickly, and be used by so many as a crutch. Those with crutches are people the ADA authors said they wanted to help; instead, the ADA itself became a crutch.
Out of repentance from not speaking out against it before it was passed, I’ve spent the years since exposing the ADA’s real dangers. I’ve been busy.
If you don’t think the ADA affects you, because you are not disabled, you are gravely mistaken. The businesses you enter, the prices you pay, the design of products you buy, the Web sites you visit, and the very homes and neighborhood you live in have already been changed by the ADA.
Love the ADA and Hate the Disabled
So many ADA-related topics are possible to discuss, cuss, and expose. Writing about the ADA requires severe restraint because the ADA targets so many aspects of American lives.
Readers of this site rarely work for the government, so one of their first concerns is cost versus benefit received. Government-legislated wheelchair ramps, wider doors, and bathroom grab bars mean that many handicapped people get along better. But the cost everyone pays that makes this deal a lemon.
Considering its stated goals, you might expect the ADA to be regulated by the Department of Health and Human Services. Actually, while the HHS has some control over the ADA’s administration, the ADA falls directly under the United States Department of Justice. For eight years, Attorney General Janet Reno had front-line responsibility to enforce the ADA.
The U.S. government takes the ADA very seriously indeed.
They say they passed the ADA to help end discrimination against the handicapped. Did you see people kicking crutches out from under the disabled before 1990? It didn’t happen.
What now happens though is that the ADA-generated discrimination of the handicapped harms them in ways they may never see. When a struggling small business owner was told by Janet Nero [sic] to spend $25,000 to over $100,000 to change the entire parking lot layout, to widen every door, to change all door knobs (round doorknobs are illegal in post-ADA commercial America — you didn’t know that, did you?), to lower some counters, to raise other counters, to add a ramp in front, to change the bathroom entrance, to replace every bathroom fixture, to add handles and bars throughout, to replace some built-in benches and stools, to eliminate inventory so as to have room to widen the aisles, and possibly be required to provide home delivery. All of these caused financial hardship to every small business.
You now need to ask yourself the real question: Is that small business owner more likely or less likely to view disabled customers with happiness, care, and compassion?
The owner will let the handicapped customer fend for herself because the owner was already forced to accommodate under threat of losing his business for not complying. His help has already been coerced; he’s not likely to offer more.
Both Sides Pay
A writer whom you may have heard of, Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., once wrote:
“Whenever possible, employers tend to shun disabled employees, which is why even the official figures reveal a higher unemployment rate among authentically disabled people than before the act passed. …disabled people are perceived as walking lawsuits.”
“Walking lawsuits.” What an embarrassment the ADA has been for truly handicapped people. Be it far from me to edit the wise Mr. Rockwell’s words but I might change that a bit to call them rolling lawsuits.
Another real evil is that the ADA’s steeped in ambiguous wording. Ambiguously-worded laws can be used against the innocent any time. Ask any business owner who was sued for “violating” the ADA.
Who knows the needs of a customer best?
- A small business owner who knows many of his clientele by first name or
- Inefficient, uncaring, faceless government officials who tell every business owner what is needed for customers?
If you’re not a business owner, you’re a consumer so you’re affected. And some consumers in America still pay taxes instead of getting a free ride on those who do so you’re affected. As a taxpayer, you get a double whammy.
The government decides how much money you as a taxpayer spend when they take a business owner to ADA court. They decide how much money you as a taxpayer spend to pay the business owner’s damages through a higher cost of living. You pay both sides in all ADA battles. You cannot win. Officials in authority are the ones who want to put you in jail if you speak out against the disabled. (It doesn’t surprise you that there are now hate crime laws in America regarding handicapped people? You’d better not call ME peg-leg if you want to keep your house!) They set the rules, they set the penalties, and they haul you to court. They are just following regulations — regulations they designed.
Apathy’s In, Respect and Sympathy’s Out
When the government takes over prostituting the handicapped to line its own pockets, power, and friends (attorneys always seem to get paid no matter which side of an ADA case they take…), family and neighbors stop helping the handicapped. It’s human nature. Consider the man in Denver who saw his brother, a bum, on the street passed out. He stopped, put the man in his car, drove him to the nearest shelter and dropped him on the doorsteps. Institutional welfare teaches people to have apathy towards those they need to help. People no longer need to respect or have sympathy toward the handicapped because the government took over the compassion business.
Your apathy towards the handicapped will grow proportionally to the ADA. Your expenses will also.
People have been afraid to speak out against the ADA except for Lew Rockwell and a few others that I can count on one hand (and considering my hands, that number is very low). It’s time to speak out against this horrific law that disables normal Americans and grossly increases discrimination against the handicapped.
March 4, 2004
