Edwards for President

I have intentionally tried to avoid listening to the prattle and pablum of the Democratic (and some Republican) candidates as the WWE-like spectacle of the presidential campaign season begins. However, I was unwilling to totally isolate myself from the outside world and thus I was forced to take note of the parade of fools in Iowa.

I am glad that Barack Hussein Obama spoiled the party for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Unfortunately for the smartest woman in the world, she tied with the ambulance chasing, dead child channeling Breck Girl, John Edwards.

It was Edwards who nearly inspired me to channel Elvis Presley and destroy my new HD plasma television as I listened to his ridiculous rants masquerading as rhetoric. The man who personally made millions of dollars through lawsuits decried the excessive pay of corporate CEOs. Even though many of them make considerably less than he did as an attorney. He also spoke about "taking away the power" from "Big Drugs, Big Oil, and Big Insurance". I believe that is code for "Communism". He makes no pretense about his vision of the United States of America as becoming a socialist collective ruled by liberal elites who can "take care" of the ignorant masses.

I wonder where the oil, pharmaceutical and insurance companies will invest their capital when he and his ilk remove the economic incentive to innovate and produce. I am certain that he never read "Atlas Shrugged" but was moved to the core by "Das Kapital" and the Communist Manifesto. It is quite clear that he does not think that Americans should have personal property rights. Actually, he is clear only to those who can understand the implications of his Robin Hood rantings.

For example, he rails against "Big Oil" that rapes the little guy with $100/barrel oil. Forget for the moment that oil prices are controlled by OPEC and the laws of supply and demand.

1 barrel of crude oil is 42 gallons and 1 bottle of water is .5 liters or about 1/8 of a gallon.
A barrel of oil at $80 is $1.90/ gallon and $100/barrel is priced at $2.38/gallon before it is turned into gasoline.
A bottle of water priced at $1.00/bottle is about $8.00/gallon.

For the more sophisticated home-gamers: 3 barrels of crude is roughly equivalent to 2 barrels of unleaded gasoline and 1 barrel of heating oil. I am not taking this into account to make the math easier to follow for the working Americans.

How much capital does it take to fill a bottle of water compared to how much is required to fill an oil barrel?

If crude oil is $2.38/gallon and gasoline is $3.00/gallon and bottled water is $8.00/gallon, who is making "obscene" profits? Where is the indignation toward "Big Water"?

If a drug company has $500 million to invest, should it invest in a new drug, water or some other investment vehicle? According to candidate Edwards, the money should be given away. The drug companies should spend their money and give the drugs away at less profit than they could make if they invested their money in making bottled water.

What is more obscene? A-Rod making $275 million over 10 years to play baseball or a CEO of a major corporation employing 100,000 people making a couple millon dollars a year? Perhaps a trial lawyer like Edwards making a few hundred millon on a lawsuit?

Edwards, Obama, Clinton et al. want to nationalize as much as possible. They have not realized that socialism has been an abysmal failure wherever it has been tried. Their raison d'etre is to make as many people as possible dependent on government largess and to control as many aspects of the lives of the citizenry as possible. Of course, they don't come out and admit this. But, that is the end result of their proposed policies.

Capitalism is far from perfect. But, it has resulted in the most benefit to mankind compared to every other alternative. Freedom, private property rights and the economic incentive to achieve have also been astoundingly successful whenever they have prevailed.