This is a test post for MaestroDev.

May all our orchestrations be agile.

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One morning, our 10 year old bopped into the master bathroom to retrieve her hamster. She was in a good mood, chatting all kinds of mushy, doting, love words to the mouse as she carefully lifted him from his cage.

It was shaping up to be a routine morning until my wife walked in a said, “What’s that in your hair?”

The night before, she’d spent the pre-bedtime hour rolling in soccer field grass and apparently, a few tiny ants decided to hitch a ride to Casa de Malgeri.

At 10 years old, our daughter has the horse power of a small pony. While that comes in handy when we rearrange furniture, her auxilary super power, “scream-demolition,” is annoyingly uncontrollable.

After I extricated myself from the ceiling hole her scream launched me through, I joined my wife in trying to calm the histrionics.

“EWWWWWW!!!!! EWWWEEE!!!! EWWWWW!!!!” she wouldn’t stop.

I decided to try a different tactic. “HEY!” my scream was not as potent as hers but it got her attention. “GIRL UP!”

The effect was immediate. Her tears of baby-like fear vanished from the heat of her anger. Unfortunately, it was directed at me and I sensed my life was in danger. I bravely marched forward.

“How can I trust that you’ll be able to handle yourself on bike rides and when you’re out alone with your friends if you can’t handle a few little ants!” Ooooo, that hurt, but if I was going to make a key point it was my duty as a Dad to risk my life doing it.

Her arms stiffened, her eyes buldged, her clenched teeth behind her beautiful poofy lips would have crushed a steel ingot. She turned from me slowly, perhaps driven by some primitive law of nature that prevents a child from pulverizing a parent.

I slipped away quietly and jetted off to work in one piece.

My gamble seemed to work but all I can say to my fellow Dads out there is, “Be careful with the “Girl Up!” thing. It can get VERY scary.

ObamaCare passed because enough citizens and legislators believe some version of the saying “money is the root of all evil”. This allowed a far left president to persuade legislators to take a giant step towards Socialism.  Despite a huge majority of opposition to ObamaCare, I lump citizens into this assessment because some of us elected President Obama and gave the Democrats an overwhelming majority in Congress.

The bedrock principles of Capitalism are freedom and mutually beneficial exchange, otherwise known as “honest profit making.” Capitalism has an extensive and rock solid theory to support its ideals. Along with that its record of achievement when compared to Socialism is both extraordinary and undeniable. When both theory and reality are ignored or passively dismissed to the detriment of oneself and society, root causes must be identified and questioned. The root cause in this case is the premise that money is the root of all evil.

I’m aware that some will say, “The saying is a Biblical misquote, the original saying being, the love of money is the root of all evil.” It may be factual that the original Biblical quote was intended to warn people about the evils of ill gotten gains. However, that intent has been powerfully overwhelmed, crushed and substituted with its present day incarnation, “money is the root of all evil.” The result is ObamaCare.

Getting back to root causes, I believe with confidence that humans by nature are good. They want to help others, but the overriding value is the quest for morality, the quest to “not be evil.” Even though Capitalism’s ability to “help thy brother” has proven itself time and time again, one of its core features is the pursuit of individual wealth, the honest pursuit of money. The most honest pursuer of money on earth cannot stop the guilt when their own virtue is turned against them because of their subconscious acceptance of money as the root of all evil. If in some corner of their hearts and minds they buy into the idea that money is the root of all evil, they become defenseless in the face of those who claim to be the champions of social justice, fairness and compassion through Socialism and all its variants. They will not rise to the level of intensity required to stop legislation like ObamaCare.

The root cause of ObamaCare is the lack of widespread reverence and universal moral support for honest profit making.  However the last eight months indicate that the tide may be turning. If Americans  forego the idea that money is the root of all evil and embrace honest profit making, they’ll rid themselves of unearned guilt and allow their nature given goodness to drive them to make things right.

Visit http://www.kids4biz.com   for “Bedtime Stories about Capitalism”

There´s a lot to write about inflation but only a slice will be covered here. The goal is to show, by example, how the government uses inflation to increase Socialism. The example also shows how the public is deceived into blaming Capitalism for higher prices and the ensuing economic problems. The example, in this case, is a slightly modified version of one provided in “Capitalism” by George Reisman.

Many people experience inflation, and even define it, as a general economy wide rise in the prices of goods and services. While rising prices are only a symptom of inflation, not inflation itself, the example will focus on the symptom to make a few points.

Let´s say you´re in the pharmaceutical business making and selling a heart drug and on January 1st you buy $100 worth of chemicals to make the pills. To keep things VERY simple, let´s say the chemicals are your only cost and on December 31st of that year you sell all your heart drug pills for $110. That means there´s $10 gross profit for your business, from which you pay $5 in income taxes to the government, leaving $5 net profit. There´s also $100 left to buy chemicals to make next year´s supply of heart drug pills. If there is no inflation, you can operate your business year after year. Now let´s run through that example again, but this time with inflation. Here´s how it goes.

After you buy your $100 worth of chemicals on January 1st, let´s say the government creates 10% inflation. Simply put, they do this by working with the Federal Reserve to increase the money supply. Money is created out of thin air for Socialist programs. On December 31st you now sell your heart drug pills for $121 instead of $110. Since there´s $21 in gross profit, the government will want $10.50 in taxes leaving $10.50 net profit for your pharmaceutical company.

HOLY COW! Now the news media swings into action, proclaiming you´re gouging the public, doubling your gross profit to over 20% and your net profit to over 10% in one year. You´re the villain and the government is called in to do something about your unbridled greed. Let´s finish the math to see what a travesty this is and how the general public is deceived.

If you want to continue your business in the following year, the cost of your chemicals on January 1st is not $100 but $110 due to inflation in the price of chemicals. If you subtract this from your revenue of $121, you´re left with $11. The government takes $10.50 in taxes leaving your company with 50 cents in net profit!

That´s right, the government created inflation and the government took the bulk of the money through increased taxes ($5 in year the first year and $10.50 in the second year). The government now has even more money for its Socialist programs and private industry has that much less. Finally, along the way, the media views you as the greedy Capitalist, the people will call upon government to regulate your business and the market will become less free.

Welcome to the Kids4biz blog. I hope you find what’s written here interesting and fun. I look forward to your comments.