Who is the Asshole?

Favorite joke by Mr. Kimmel at the White House press dinner Saturday (and I paraphrase):  The difference between the people that watch Bill Maher and the people that watch Bill O’Rielly?  The folks that watch Bill Maher know he is an asshole!

Is Capitalism “Moral”?

I attended a luncheon with Steve Forbes yesterday and he made an interesting statement that capitalism is moral because is “provides products and services that people need or want.”  It struck me that we had now entered the outer reaches of reason in our defense of the free markets.  I was waiting for all the suits in attendance to get up and start singing “Onward Christian Soldiers” while marching around the room!

CLEARLY capitalism is not immoral or moral by its nature it is amoral.  This is apparent in that I can be a great business person and admired in my community and the world while selling a legal product that kills my customer; fast food and cigarettes being 2 obvious examples.  There are millions of examples of good free-market, capitalist decisions that were intrinsically evil (that harmed people).  I can be a legal war profiteer, or a large multinational that makes a calculated business decision that it is cheaper to pay damages and wrongful death claims then to fix a faulty product.  There are also many wonderful examples of hard charging capitalist whose behavior in their business dealings (at least) skirted the outer edges of “morality”  that ultimately have used their wealth for powerful good in the world; Bill Gates.

I would remind Mr. Forbes that like a vast majority (if not all) of human enterprises and systems, capitalism is about the choices one makes that make it moral, that is the way it is in our fallen world.  While I love “Onward Christian Soldiers” as much as the next guy, morality is a lot tougher than your choice of economic system or political persuasion.   

But Isn’t That the Country you Want!!!

On a recent episode of Bill Maher’s show the subject of taxes came up by way of the idiotic “Buffet Rule.”  One of the guests was the estimable Matthew Weiner, creator of the wonderful TV show “Mad Men.”  Weiner implied that in paying more in taxes the government is able to do more for its citizens and (I guess) firm up the “safety net,” and be more like the “country we want.”

The first issue you have to tackle here is that if I were to offer to pay an extra $100 in taxes the percentage of that money that would go to “social welfare” is small (approximately 7%) and over half would go to defense.  Of that 7% that goes to social welfare what amount do you suppose ACTUALLY gets to people in need and what percentage gets chewed up by the government bureaucracy?  This is of course a hypothetical question as there is no real way to know this as there is virtually no accountability or transparency in the governmental process but we clearly know that waste and inefficiency rule the day.

I would propose to other progressives like Mr. Weiner who like to feel good while our government picks their pocket that they consider non-profits.  My CPA firm does a lot of work with non-profits and while they tend to be somewhat inefficient by nature there is far more transparency and accountability then there will ever be in any government program.  There are non-profits that cater to virtually any interest or concern in virtually any part of the world.  Concerned with hunger in Africa, Asia or your hometown?  There is a NPO that serves that need.  You can go to the great Guidestar website (guidestar.org) and you can see the organizations tax returns, independently audited financial statements (generally) and get a real sense of HOW much of your donation is going for administration and fundraising vs. its stated purpose.  Try doing that with the food stamp program.

Want a kinder, gentler nation, lower taxes by 5% and let folks give that 5% to the charity of their choice and we will get a lot closer to Mr. Weiner’s vision.