{"id":814,"date":"2022-03-14T19:42:12","date_gmt":"2022-03-14T19:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rubinwealthadvisors.com\/rubinreport\/?p=814"},"modified":"2023-11-15T17:05:51","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T17:05:51","slug":"big-government-sucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rubinwealthadvisors.com\/rubinreport\/big-government-sucks\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Everything Sucks! Central Planning Leads to Decentralized Suffering"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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I was on my way to see Charlie Kirk and Dennis Praeger speak the other night in south Florida when I realized I needed gas.\u00a0 It had been a couple of weeks since I\u2019d filled my tank as I\u2019ve been trying to reduce my carbon footprint by unicycling and skateboarding to most meetings.\u00a0 Little did I realize that when I turned into the station I was in for a shock.<\/p>

In the approximately two-week interlude between filling station visits, the price of a gallon of gasoline had risen from $3.69 to $4.59.\u00a0 When I shared my shocking news with a friend in Northern California, he replied, \u201cWow!\u00a0 Are you ever lucky.\u00a0 It has hit $6 here!\u201d<\/p>

Penniless, I proceeded to the event where I listened to Dennis and Charlie diligently discuss the evils of socialism and excesses of big government, a message with which I am typically in tune. But on this particular evening, after my foray to the gas pump, I found particularly appropriate.<\/p>

Charlie Kirk was once known as the \u201cbig government sucks guy,\u201d owing to a slogan he created at Turning Point USA back in 2014.\u00a0 Eight years later, with big government being joined at the hip with big business in terms of imposing collectivist type policies, that phrase can be reduced by three syllables into the more succinct, \u201cbig sucks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>

Big government sucks, I agree.\u00a0 Big education sucks. Big Tech sucks. Big, it turns out, is bad.\u00a0 Dennis has always said that everything the left touches turns to\u2026well\u2026let\u2019s just say it doesn\u2019t turn to gold. Now Dennis is saying that \u201cBig\u201d and the left have become the same thing.\u00a0<\/p>

Let\u2019s stay with my gas station experience by way of example.\u00a0 In September of 2019, the United States passed a threshold it had not crossed since data started being kept in 1949.\u00a0 In the aforementioned month, the United States exported more petroleum than it imported.\u00a0 There\u2019s a very technical term for such an event.\u00a0 It is \u201cenergy independence.\u201d\u00a0 After decades of the U.S. being dependent upon foreign sources of oil, in particular from the Middle East, we were finally unbeholden to any other nation.<\/p>

The average price of a gallon of gasoline in that month was $2.69, almost two-full dollars less than the price I paid earlier this week.<\/p>

What happened?\u00a0 Big government happened.\u00a0 The Biden administration has inhibited domestic energy production mention Keystone etc.\u00a0 and has once again made us dependent on foreign oil.\u00a0 Not Russian oil, I hope?\u00a0 Fear not.\u00a0 Big government has removed our dependence on Russian oil and replaced it with dependance upon Venezuelan and Iranian oil.\u00a0 If you still don\u2019t believe that the Biden Harris Socialist Administration didn\u2019t actively work to make these high gas prices, read this recent piece posted at Townhall.com.\u00a0<\/p>

The truth is that everything that gets turned over to large entities for control becomes subjected to the kind of centralized planning more typically associated with communist countries than with free market republics.\u00a0 Centralized planning replaces the dynamic and quick decisions and adaptations of the marketplace with the cumbersome processes and nefarious motives of \u201cstar chamber\u201d executives.<\/p>

Centralized planning is now evident in almost every aspect of American life.\u00a0 Education is controlled at the federal level more than ever through the Department of Education.\u00a0 The SEC is now interfering in how corporations constitute their boards of directors along racial lines instead of merit and competency.\u00a0 Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies inhibit the ability of companies to raise various forms of capital unless they comply with costly and arbitrary \u201cstandards\u201d of conduct.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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