Vanity of the Politicians

Recently in Orange County, Florida our elected leaders have approved funding for a $500 million dollar Orlando Performing Arts Center (OPAC) and a 61 mile, $1.2 billion dollar, conventional train from a moderately populated area to a lightly populated area intersecting a few heavily populated areas. $19.6 million per mile, versus $4 million for a very elaborate conventional mile of highway.

The reason is simple, the contractors, the elites, want the money and they do not care if the project is viable or not. There are only two or three train projects in the world that make money; I suspect our train system will not be an economic winner, just a guess. For that money we could buy the poor 120,000 Chevrolet Aveo’s. Just a thought.

...................................... Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs (behind podium) celebrates a $1.2 billion dollar 19th century ...................................... conventional train project that will cost $19.6 million dollars per mile and will be a permanent financial ...................................... drain on the municipalities involved. Tony Soprano with heels and glasses.

As most “Tea Party” people I was not interested in politics much before Obama but suddenly found myself supporting candidates who I did not know personally sweating it out in the 95 degree Florida summer heat canvassing for them. The escalation from a socialist economy to a fascist one will motivate the masses, and it did me. This led to my familiarity with local politicians.

Being around local politicians I became recognizable to them somewhat, better than most but certainly not on a close friendship basis. I have attended some meetings and talked a little trash with them. In that time a few items of interest stand out:

First it does not matter if a Democrat or Republican is elected; the citizens will get the same waste and abuse. The competition between Democrats and Republicans is not about fiscal responsibility. Responsible spending versus wild spending, but about who gets to spend the billions of dollars raked in from the working public. The political spoils of war. Some would call it a mafia turf war between Tony Soprano and Vito Spatafore.

“Republican” Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs who in her short six months has lobbied for $1.7 billion in projects “for the people.” Did we need the deception from her in her campaign as a “fiscal conservative?” Her opponent, Bill Segal, the developers’ best friend, was at least honest in his allegiance to developers. What difference would it have made? Same crap, different party.

Florida Congressman John Mica's political donor CSX Railroad will get a nice $432 million check from the people. A Colorado passenger car manufacture has donated to Mica and received contracts as early as 2003. “Everybody has different vested interests,” Mr. Mica said in an interview.

Second politicians believe that they are doing well. They get other government employees from universities, bureaucracies, agencies, to praise them on what a grand job they are doing and what a benefit they will be doing by spending millions on public projects. They surround themselves with like minded “enlightened” government wonks who know a lot about nothing.

Third they get contractors to praise them on what an immense job they are doing and how spending millions will help the local economy, benefiting the contractors, of course. See John Mica as exhibit “A.”

Fourth they have no concept of economics or the harsh reality they impose on others with their oppressive tax burden. Not a clue. Sociopath political bullies. See Teresa Jacobs as exhibit “B.”

In Orange County the unemployment rate is 10.6%. One would suspect “Republican” Mayor Teresa Jacobs would show some respect for the plight of the working man, yet her first priority was to go ahead with a $500 million dollar Orlando Performing Arts Center (OPAC). Not road improvements, not sewer improvements, no jail improvements, none of that for “Republican” Teresa Jacobs. She wanted a performing arts center in Orlando, Florida that will compete with Sea World, Disney, Universal Studios, Amway Center, Ripley’s Believe it or Not, Wet and Wild, Gatorland, Cirque de Soleil, Holy Land, and hundreds of other private sector companies trying to make a profit.

What are the chances a tourist family coming to Orlando will attend a high-end $500 million dollar performing arts center to watch “West Side Story”? Do families want to see Cirque de Soleil or West Side Story when they are on vacation in the number one family tourist destination in the world?

And why is local government competing for that entertainment dollar?

The City of Orlando has done this in the past. Ben White Raceway lost $106,000 a year in the 1990’s and was closed in 2002. Why would the OPAC be different?

Who will be the clientele for the $500 million dollar OPAC?

The elites of Orange, Seminole, and Osceola counties. Government workers making $80,000 a year and more. Judges, doctors, lawyers, politicians. A few businessmen. Some curious spectators. Maybe an occasional tourist. High school groups forced into to it by their teachers. Some minority groups to give the façade that this is not an elitist endeavor. Everyone but the common man who works for a living and paid for the OPAC.

The few elites in Orange County have seized $500 million from the private sector and will build a palace for the government parasite class, doctors, professors, and lawyers to recreate and have fun. I liken it to the popular students at high school stealing the lunch money from the poor students and throwing a extravagant beer party on the beach complete with kegs, barbeque, free gas money, and some recreational drugs thrown in for good measure.

Sunrail connects Debary, Sanford, Altamonte Springs, Orlando, Kissimmee and Poinciana. No connection to Sea World, Disney, Universal Studios, Bush Gardens or Orlando International Airport. A great deal for retirees with nothing better to do. Only 2,100 passengers per day will be served

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Meanwhile the poor kids lost their lunch money, went without eating, suffered humiliation, were ostracized, and criticized for behaving like weaklings. Its all fun and games for the popular kids, but traumatic for the weak and disenfranchised kids who always end up hungry and paying for the fun and games of the popular kids. Nothing has changed after high school ended in Orange County, Florida. The popular kids are still stealing the poor kids money and having a party with it.

For the record the performing arts center is a gross misallocation of resources that will produce 1,799 jobs at a cost of $278,000. The $278,000 is from the Obama Administration on the cost per one government job created for the 2009 stimulus program. The private sector will lose 2 to 2.2 jobs per one government job created according to various economist including Gabriel Calzada of King Juan Carlos University in Madrid.

The OPAC will cost the private sector 3,598 to 3,958 jobs. Sometimes on facebook public sector employees express contempt towards the private sector employees referring to private sector jobs as “more pizzas” and “pizza jobs” as if losing some “pizza” jobs was no big deal. Maybe a job that pays $10 per hour with meager benefits is no big deal to a fire fighter that works 80 days a year making $80,000 with full benefits but that “pizza” job is feeding someone’s family. These politicians are stealing the food off the table of working families to finance their ethnocentric egos, lifestyles and contractors. Is there no decency when times are tough and unemployment is above 10%?

Apparently not. The privileged class serves the privileged class. Let the peasants eat cake.

Florida Governor Rick Scott could have saved the day and killed Sunrail but was intimidated by lawyers and Congressman John Mica

The $1.2 billion dollar rail project will create 4,200, local calculations, to 4,317 jobs, using the Obama Administration cost projection numbers. That means the private sector will lose 8,400 to 9,497 jobs. The counter argument will be lots of “free” federal money.

So if some guy loses his job in Maryland it is okay because he does not live in Florida?

Why are these projects being approved when the unemployment rate is above 10%?

Because of a fundamental lack of understanding of economics and the need to satisfy the financial needs of the large contractors who put these politicians into power. The second is fairly easy to understand. Politicians love campaign donors and supporters. Contractors want a return on investment.

The first, economics, is not so easy to understand because of the misinformation in economic textbooks. Most politicians, like Jacobs and former Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty, did well in college and most likely paid attention in economics class when the professor told the astonishing story tales from John Maynard Keynes and Simon Kuznets on how the gross domestic product (GDP) is equal to consumption (C) + investment (I) plus government spending (G) plus exports minus imports (NX) or Y = C + I + G + NX. The fallacy here is the government spending is equal to investment or consumption spending. Not true, as has been demonstrated in recent years by the various bail outs and stimulus programs from both Obama and Bush.

Under Bill Clinton we had a balanced budget and the federal government consumed 18.2% of the GDP. Under Obama we owe 95% of the GDP in debt and the federal government consumes 25% of the GDP. Do the math. Governments are good at creating bubbles that bust, and not much else.

Pssst John Maynard and all the impenetrable professors out there, the correct equation is Y = C + (1.05) I + (-) G + NX. Don’t say I never did anything for you. Steal the equation if you like. Its okay.

Another part of the fallacy is that government spending is autonomous, or an expenditure that does not depend on the level of GDP. Ridiculous “magic money” created out of the governments’ gluteus maximus one would suspect. The theory is that if the economy is underperforming there is a GDP “gap” that needs to be filled in with government “stimulus” or “liquidity” such as the Obama stimulus package or on a local level the Orlando Performing Arts Center and Sun Rail. Because of the economic misinformation taught in our colleges and universities these politicians believe it is justified and good to spend other people’s money, “helping” the economy. University economic professors reinforce this fallacy.

The problem is that resources and money do not magically appear out of the government gluteus maximus. Money has to be taxed, printed, or borrowed. Each of which has a negative impact on the economy.

Taxed money and resources have to come from the productive private sector. When these resources are utilized in a nonproductive project like government rail, society will lose jobs and a portion of the potential standard of living that would have been created if the resources were utilized in a more productive manner such as more car pooling garages along I-4 and other main arteries.

“There is no free lunch” to quote Milton Friedman.

If the money is printed, or in modern times “Quantitative Easing” or QE I and QE II, inflation will result. We have increased the monetary base “power money” (reserves and cash) 200%, or 18% of the GDP in the last three years. Normally these monetary episodes take about three years to “work” their way through various financial institutions and contractors before the inflation is apparent on “Main Street.” John Law performed a similar “miracle” on the French economy from 1715 to 1719. Four years and the “monetary miracle” became a bust. Year one 2009, 2010, 2011, …

Folders’ coffee up 55% from $8.97 to $12.94 at Sam’s Club in the past three months. Producer Price Index is up 15.3% annually the last six months. The official consumer price index (CPI) up 4.2% annually the last six months. Food riots in the Middle East. Inflation in China. 2009, 2010, 2011 …

Just because the Bureau of Labor Statistics has fancy economist that can separate the inelastic consumer items out from the CPI hiding the genuine inflation rate does not mean that there is no inflation problem. The former USSR was quite successful for decades at inflating all kinds of statistics and even had Nobel Prize winners on staff like Leonid Vitaliyevich Kantorovich to perform inconceivable feats of mathematics to show the world what a great system communism was. It was there in black and white so economist like Paul Samuelson could marvel at the progress of the socialist utopia and predict the USSR GDP would soon be surpassing the USA GDP, by the 1990’s.

If I had known what idiots economist were I never would have taken up the subject at UCF. No wonder we are the laughing stock of the academic world. When you believe in English fairy tales economics can sure be a difficult subject.

To a Keynesian economist inflation is a mysterious event caused by price “shocks,” cost push, demand pull, and other storybook gibberish. To everyone else the central banks of the world are following the idiotic advice of the Keynesians economist and printing money like it was water. More money supply, more inflation.

Okay enough theory.

The bottom line is the politicians have been indoctrinated and insulated by fellow beneficiaries in government and well as contractors to the point where they are completely out of touch with the working private sector workers struggling to put food on the table. This wall of separation is apparent in the photo ops that occur with all the smiling politicians celebrating their successful seizure of cash and food from the peasants.

The political class vulgarity was on display July 1, 2011 when the $1.2 billion dollar rail project was approved.
The bottom line is the politicians in power are professionals from nice families who never went without food, jobs, health insurance, and public recognition of their accomplishments. Most like Jacobs have been moving from one government job to another mixed in with some private sector work at the highest levels to fatten her resume and make contacts’ with the people she will serve in government. That would be the elites, the popular kids in high school who now all have $400,000 dollar mortgage’s and BMW’s.

This insensitive and offensive display of gluttony is similar to the popular kids ripping off the poor working class kids in high school. Approving and supporting the Orlando Performing Arts Center in the middle of the “Great Recession” is beyond the pale. Do these politicians have no general good judgment to understand they are stealing from a already depressed private sector and taking food out of the mouths of children dependent on these people who produce “pizzas?”

The time for the peasants to grab a pitch fork and get payback is fast approaching. These politicians in Orange County, Florida are the worst among us. They have no sense of graciousness and reverence for their fellow citizens during a time when the labor force participation rate is at a 29-year low. The least they could do would be to not show off to the poor kids about what a magnificent party everyone had at the beach, at the OPAC, with their stolen funds.