The U.S. of Venezuela

Two of the most economically illiterate events in history occurred during the past couple of days.

President Obama's talk to the nation sounded more like something Hugo Chavez would say than what a President of the United States would say. He extorted BP -- took $20 billion from the company, its shareholders and employees. Remember that BP drilled so far out to sea because of two reasons: first, the government would not permit any closer or on shore drilling; the federal government put a $75 million liability cap on BP. Only those two factors enticed the company into drilling. Now, the Obama administration once again changes contracts or pays no attention to private property rights. It stole money from Chrysler and gave it to the unions. Now he steals from BP and creates a slush fund to be run by government. I wonder who will receive those funds?

Did you notice that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet decided to shame all rich people into giving away all their money. Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett are launching a drive to persuade billionaires to give away the majority of their fortunes. Here is what the press had to say?

What started as a series of very private dinners last year became a public campaign Wednesday when they called on their fellow billionaires to sign a “Giving Pledge,” to donate most of their wealth to philanthropic causes of their choice.

The pledge isn’t legally binding, but they hope the effort will generate more money to address important social problems and set a standard that becomes the norm, former Gates Foundation Chief Executive Patty Stonesifer, now an adviser to the Gateses, said in an interview.

The potential for philanthropy is huge — the United States alone has at least 400 billionaires with a net worth that Forbes estimates at $1.2 trillion. If those billionaires gave the minimum pledge of half of their fortunes to charity, that would triple the current amount of charitable giving in the United States, Seattle Times reports.

Eli Broad and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg backed an initiative started by fellow billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates for rich Americans to give at least half of their wealth to charity.

If you have seen John Stossel's Greed, you might recall how T.J. Rogers ripped into Ted Turner for giving away $1 billion to the U.N. Rogers was absolutely correct. How can such successful peple be so economically stupid. They did more good for the world creating businesses and jobs and making profits than they could ever do giving money away. You want to help people in poor nations, then create opportunities for them. Give them money and you simply create dependence. Give them a job and you create freedom and self esteem and opportunity.