Sanctioned Stealing Must Stop

“Mr. White is a happy man,” I said to my son as we toted some weeds to the back tree line.

A surprised smile lit up Ryan’s face. “Is Mr. White coming up?” he asked.

Here is a 17 year old young man wondering happily whether one of his father’s friends and business associates is on his way. Why? Simple. Mr. White is a man of impeccable integrity. He conducts himself with the same principles to all people at all times. Children immediately recognize and admire integrity, explaining why Mr. White has been a favorite of everyone in the house for as long as they can remember.

For Mr. White sets an example for all of us to follow. Mr. White manages the environmental claims department of a major national insurer of higher risk business insurance, particularly involving the transportation of hazardous materials. His job involves mitigating loss to people, companies, and their property and restoring any environmentally impacted areas to as good or better condition than before. In many instances Mr. White finds individuals, companies, regulatory authorities or even clients trying to use these incidents of misfortune as opportunities for windfall personal enrichment. And sometimes Mr. White honors me by calling on me to assist him in his battles against these unscrupulous scoundrels.

You see, Mr. White pursues a zero-point policy against this kind of nonsense. When someone tries to cut corners, identify hazards that don’t exist or mischaracterize materials so they can get paid at higher rates, Mr. White always calls them out. For he knows that if you let one thing slip by, even if it appears small and not worth the time, he knows that these little things will be used as precedent for much larger cases. The act is what is bad. And the act I call sanctioned stealing. Mr. White fights this war every day of his professional life. And I challenge all of us to examine what we do and join him in this fight to eradicate the core problem destroying the prosperity of America and our freedoms as individuals.

Sanctioned stealing embodies the idea that if the government gives its blessing or abets your extortion, the act of forcibly taking the fruits of another’s labor becomes morally and ethically acceptable. This concept embodies the core principle of Liberalism and all Leftist ideologies. Leftists harness the coercive power of the state to force individuals outside of their circle to bankroll all kinds of activities and programs they do not support. These activities and programs enrich political allies while being largely ineffective. If an activity or program had widespread support or was effective, there would be no need to use coercive state power to implement it. Cooperative free enterprise manages such activities and programs just fine.

So who are these sanctioned stealers, and what are they stealing? The true answer is most of us, and we are stealing the opportunities, hopes, dreams and personal freedom of others in addition to their personal wealth and property. ALL mandates, subsidies, grants and social programs administered by government are examples of sanctioned stealing. That is a big claim. But let’s look at a few specific examples.

Everyone talks about welfare recipients as people stealing from the system. And in many, many cases this viewpoint can be supported. But what about the people taking money in the form of agricultural subsidies, i.e. getting paid NOT to plant a crop or getting paid a price far in excess of what the free market dictates due to a government price support? What about the farmers planting more corn because the price has skyrocketed due to the ethanol mandate? Their is no difference. Both the welfare recipients and the farmers are using their political power to get politicians to implement coercive state power to take the wealth earned from the rest of society and give it to them.

Please understand, I am not picking on farmers and welfare recipients. They just became my first examples. Most people understand the untenable benefits package of MPS teachers and the unsustainable pursuits of the Teachers Union as a clear example of sanctioned stealing. Most people also get that the high speed train nonsense pursued by Tom Barrett and Jim Doyle clearly shout sanctioned stealing. After our last contentious Wisconsin legislative session, most of us understand how any renewable energy mandate kills manufacturing jobs and leads to higher energy prices for everyone. Obviously a picked few benefit from the suffering of the masses. And the dividend for the politician is that he or she gets to control it all. Or so they think.

But there are many more subtle examples that permeate almost all elements of society. Government issued scientific grants have become the primary route for funding research. Such a mechanism, as subtly coercive as it may be, inevitably results in funds being directed to politically allied individuals, at least in part, as we have seen by the manmade global warming/climategate fiasco. In addition, the assessment of research value will also become politically charged, leading to a greater percentage of unproductive, unessential and economically worthless research. Higher education loans and grants issued by the government for college should be looked at as taking the earnings from someone not wanting or able to attend college to give to someone who can. So the guy who can’t afford college and has to work gets the honor of paying part of the bill for the one who can. How backward is that? Most people think that a municipal home building inspector is an essential function of local government. But when you break it down, this function removes the financial and safety onus from the property owner to the community. The other homeowners get to pay to make sure your home is safe or that the buyer of your house knows it meets certain codes. Why shouldn’t the assurance of code compliance and safety not be the responsibility of the parties involved? Why should the community pay for this?

The examples of sanctioned stealing are endless. Tax credits for new windows, cash for clunkers, child care credits, school breakfast and lunch programs, municipal development grants and loans, many zoning restrictions and regulatory oversights qualify for this designation. Frankly, it is nearly impossible for anyone to escape the web. But to accept this system and not fight it does make you an accomplice. For example, being in the environmental business I should have been all in favor of regulation of carbon dioxide emissions. There certainly are plenty of opportunities created by this facade for someone like me to make a pile of cash. But it would all be fake and serve no true purpose. It would be sanctioned stealing. I have opposed this false conclusion of manmade global warming leading to catastrophe since day one based on scientific data and fact. I will never participate in lobbying for carbon dioxide emissions regulation for any reason. Unfortunately, if these regulations do go into effect, I would be obligated to assist clients in dealing with them. But I would continue to fight each day to get these regulations repealed, even though this repeal would mean the personal income generated by these services would vanish.

Critical assessment of our individual circumstances reveals how sanctioned stealing affects us all personally. Public utilities and community maintenance service positions are used as employment agencies or family heirlooms. We justify our involvement with such programs with “I don’t make the rules” or “I just do what I’m told.” While it may not be possible or even prudent to not comply or participate in these webs, it is essential that we realize what is truly happening and not support these elements. Remember, the politician takes his cut from each sanctioned stealing transaction. This cut ever increases the incentive and ability of the politician to do more transactions. And the more of these transactions we all participate in as individuals makes us more of a slave to their continuation.

Fortunately, some politicians understand sanctioned stealing and its’ effective destruction of society. Newly elected Governor Chris Christy of New Jersey has truly taken this task to heart in one of the most notorious cases of a state where sanctioned stealing has become the society norm. By taking on the Teacher’s Union and other political trough feeders he has outlined exactly what needs to be done in Wisconsin and Washington. The Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has taken on the sanctioned stealing promulgated by the Federal Government in failing to enforce the immigration laws. And the sanctioned stealing culture of Milwaukee County at it’s height during former County Executive Tom Ament’s tenure has been completely reversed by current Milwaukee County Executive and gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker, much to the chagrin and loud protests of the trough feeders and crony class. These champions of sanity in the political realm need all of us to support them vigorously and continually, especially in the traditional media which has become the mouthpiece of Leftist propaganda and chief advocate of sanctioned stealing.

Until we quit using the government as our bully to steal from our neighbors, Leftism will continue to spread, contaminating our free enterprise system and destroying our personal liberties, the heart of the American Dream.