By Bill Falzett on 9/11/2009 10:09 AM

  We're all in this together...but some of us are IN more than others!

  A catch phrase I often hear in support of big government and social programs is, "We're all in this together." It never fails to elicit a warm and fuzzy feeling of security in a time of need. I believe it is appropriate to other things like sports teams, armies, or families, but in the context of society at large, I find it a troublesome notion.

  Evolutionary Psychologists have a concept for the notion of, "We're all in this together!"; it is called Reciprocal Altruism. The idea behind reciprocal altruism is that an individual is willing to risk a small portion of his own personal security, food, energy or other asset, to help another individual, so long as there is a reasonable expectation the act will be reciprocated at some point in the future. In the exchange, both individuals benefit, and are more secure working together. This concept makes sense; the logic works and it is intuitive. In essence it is the "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours", principle of life.

  Reciprocal altruism only works if certain conditions are met. In addition to the conditions of mutual benefit, there must also be a mechanism to detect "cheating", lest some individuals be exploited in the arrangement. Robert Wright has explored the concept to good effect in his books "The Moral Animal" and "Non-Zero", where he demonstrates how this phenomenon can significantly improve the fitness or reproductive success of the individuals or groups involved in the exchange. There is no doubt that Reciprocal Altruism, under the proper conditions, is a good thing.

  There are many systems of reciprocal altruism in nature. The most fundamental examples among humans are families, clans or small villages. Reciprocal altruism works well on this scale. Individuals are united toward many common goals and share burdens to the common benefit. In such a context, it is also simple to detect cheating. If an individual is disruptive or is not pulling his weight, it is obvious and he can be quickly reprimanded and brought into line, or ostracized altogether. As communities grow beyond the size of a village, many of the benefits remain, but it becomes more difficult to detect cheating and to effectively sanction against it. The system then begins to have pockets of corruption and exploitation.

  Our nation was founded as a rather broad system of reciprocal altruism. Individuals, towns, and in turn, entire colonies sacrificed a portion of autonomy and resources to gain the benefits of harmony, commerce and the security of numbers. Benjamin Franklin characterized the urgency of cooperation in these colorfully poignant terms just prior to signing the Declaration of Independence in 1776:

  "We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."

  The language of the Preamble to our Constitution also clearly lays out the expectations in this regard:

  "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

  The founding fathers clearly envisioned a very large system of reciprocal altruism to which we would ALL contribute, with the expectation of receiving benefits in kind, and in which we would all be free to enjoy the blessings of liberty and freedom. The success and prosperity of the United States is a testimony to their vision and to the benefits of reciprocal altruism.

  For all it's good, our system of reciprocal altruism has not been without problems because we have not been effective in dealing with cheaters. If you are a student of history, you know the system rolled along tolerably well for something like four score and seven years. At that point many decided there wasn't enough reciprocity going on to offset the sacrifice, and chose to quit the Union. I recommend the work of Thomas Dilorenzo to learn the real economic story behind the War Between the States, or the War of Northern Agression as it known by many. No matter what your conclusions about the war and the cause, the bottom line is that some among us were no longer feeling the love for our system of reciprocal altruism, and wanted out. In response, President Abraham Lincoln made war, and changed our system forever, from one of reciprocal altruism, to one of mandatory cooperation and unity at threat of death.

  With a population of taxable workers in thrall and paying tribute, our government has grown to immense proportions never imagined by the founders. Not only has this government spent every dime they can extort from the worker, their irresponsible borrowing to spend for entitlements, social programs, wars and police actions around the globe, ineffective agencies and bureaucracies, bailing out failing business ventures, and legislative pork, have put us trillions of dollars into debt, with no end in sight. At the risk of hyperbole, I believe that in effect, the working American toils every day at gunpoint to fund an out of control, irresponsible and financially insolvent government.

  Although I resent paying over half of the money I earn in taxes under duress, I concede there are benefits to our flawed system of reciprocal altruism. Furthermore, I retain a love of this country, and it is my belief that those of us who are fortunate to enjoy the fruits of it have a vested interest to keep the faith and to get back on the path the founders intended. I am committed to that, but I think it is fair to expect that cheating and exploitation will be dealt with immediately so that the productive can keep more of what they earn. We must cut entitlement spending, spending on unnecessary foreign military actions, and institute immigration policies that protect the American worker from the weight of cheating illegals who pay no taxes but burden our education, medical and social programs. We must insist on a moratorium against all growth in government, including publicly funded health care, and elect legislators who live within their means.

  I am fiercely independent, and I value Liberty above all else. Since Abraham Lincoln valued Union above all else, our sensibilities can never align. However, there is much to admire about the man, and there is at least one statement he made with which I agree:

  "You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative andindependence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves."

  It is time for those who claim, "We're all in this together!", to take a stand against cheaters and exploitation instead of expecting those of us who truly are IN to give more.

By Bill Falzett on 2/26/2009 12:16 PM

  Some 30 years ago, I was a High School Jr. living in Mansfield Texas.  At that time Mansfield was still a small town of several thousand people, mostly spread about the surrounding countryside.  There was an old downtown area at the corner of Main and Broad with a few ramshackle store-fronts that had seen much better times decades before.  In one of the buildings on Main St., across from the hardware store, there was a pool hall that looked like something out of an old western.  It was a long and narrow space with a beat up and dusty wood floor, a jukebox and five pool tables lined up parallel.  On the walls were the house cues, racks and chalk.  I don't recall a sign out front, but the proprietor's name was Fred, and everybody called this place Fred's Pool Hall.

  Fred was a crusty old guy of indeterminate age, maybe 70, maybe 80.  He was about 5' 2" tall, and I would guess around 250 lbs.  Every time I ever saw him, he was wearing the same pair of worn out blue denim bib overalls, a lumberjack shirt and work boots.  In his mouth was a moist and chewy cigar, that he pulled out when he growled and mumbled his largely unintelligible speech.  He smelled like tobacco smoke and the sweat of a working man.  Old Fred was like a bull-dog watching over this pool hall, snapping at anybody who got out of line and generally keeping the order.  That was his job and he took it very seriously.

  Clipped to the right side of his overalls was chain that hung down maybe ten inches, and looped back up and into his pocket.  Normally his right hand was in the same pocket, while his left was busy fingering his cigar or jangling the bulge of quarters in his left pocket.  When somebody needed change for the pool tables, Fred pulled the right hand out of the pocket along with a very fat wallet on the end of the chain.  He opened the wallet, stuffed in the bills, and dropped it back into his pocket.  The left hand then fished out several quarters and spread them out on the edge of the table to complete the making of change, then reached back up to his soggy cigar.  This went on hour after hour all day long.

  It was normally on evenings or weekends when my friends and I would stop in.  I was no pool player, and being of modest means, I simply did not have money to spare to drop into the slot.  I was mostly there to hang out with the guys, and crack wise.  From my description of Fred, you can probably guess that he was not too keen on wisecracks or wiseguys in general.  In fact he commonly ran somebody off for some minor irritation or infraction of his rules.  As you can imagine, being a wiseguy, I was inclined to live on the edge; I wanted to push the envelope, but stop short of getting banished from the hall.  On one such occasion, I happened to have an extra dollar to play pool, so I called Fred over to our table.  He walked over with his smell and his grumpy attitude, snatched my dollar out of my hand, and began the routine of making change.  I remember the stack of money in the wallet was especially impressive this day.  There was more money in there than I had ever seen.  So, I reached out my hand with pointed finger, touched the bills inside the fat wallet and said something genius like, "Wow look at all that; You're Rich!"  That was when Fred smacked me up side of the head with his smelly cigar hand and snarled "GIT OUTTA MY MONEY!"  My friends were falling about the place laughing as I put on a stupid comic's grin.  Fred coolly laid my four quarters on the table and walked off chewing his cigar.  His expression didn't give away much emotion, but the twinkle in his eye and the fact he didn't run me off told me he got a kick out of the episode.  I think old Fred got this one right; He had worked hard for that money and I had no business in it.

  I had not thought of this story in many years until recently when I heard of President Obama's plan to raise taxes on the wealthiest 2% of Americans.  According to him, the wealthiest Americans are those couples who make more than $250,000 per year, and he and his minions are poised to milk the politics of envy for everything its worth.  Though we do not yet fall into this vaunted category as defined by Obama, my wife and I worked our way through college, and have shown up to work every day to put ourselves into the position where that number is within our reach in the near future.  We have worked for it our entire lives.  We have a nice home with a hefty mortgage, modest 401K plans, and late model cars.  It may look to a goofy high school kid or others with limited perspective that we have a lot, but believe me, every penny is spoken for in debt.  While we may be approaching the upper percentages among workers and wage earners, we are by no means rich or among the wealthiest 2% of Americans.

  When I think of a bureaucrat greedily eying the fruits of my labor, and coveting the money I have worked for all my life, I see myself sort of like crusty old Fred.  I don't wear the same clothes every day like he did, I don't chew cigars, and I can communicate tolerably well.  However, don't let this semi-polished and civilized exterior fool you.  I am a working man, I pay my bills, I take care of my obligations, and I watch my money.  Bureaucrats beware as you ogle the size of my wallet, and make plans to reach inside.  Like Fred, my instinct is to slap a knot on your head and growl, "GIT OUTTA MY MONEY!"

By Bill Falzett on 2/16/2009 1:18 PM

  Okay, so I haven't actually been away fishing for three months.  The truth is I was so exhausted with my efforts to stem the tide of Obama Socialism, that I needed a rest to mend myself psychologically.  In the months leading up to the election, try as I might and try as I may, I found it nearly impossible to write something positive about the situation.  Invariably I found all my journeys led me down tortured paths and ended in dark blind alleys.  My efforts to deliver a positive message simply led nowhere.

  After the election, I got calls and e-mails from many of like mind who predicted disaster and ruin for our country.  Like them, I had also read all the gloomy news about the economy and the serial bailouts.  I had reached a bad news overload, and my state of mental health was just not satisfactory.  I knew something had to change.

  To the doomsayers, I bid them hang on, keep a positive attitude and take care of their jobs.  I preached to my co-workers about our good fortune to not only have good jobs, but to also be working in the Medical industry with taxpayer funded Universal Health Care a heartbeat away.  I turned off talk radio, stopped watching the news, and pointed my web browser toward anything but news sites.  I also shunted all political emails to the trash bin.

  Rather than continue to obsess over the bad news all day, I turned my focus to other things, generative stuff to busy my hands and mind, and pursuits to make me feel better and more secure.  I bought an old truck to work on; I bought a wooded lot on a lovely little lake in the Piney Woods of East Texas; I bought a canoe to paddle the river nearby; I bought a classical guitar to learn to play; I planted a couple hundred Pine seedlings around my home; I bought a shiny new handgun, only nominally as an affirmation of my second amendment rights; and I cherished unseasonably sunny days driving the country roads with my top down.  I was also able to play a lucrative game of cat and mouse with a canny mortgage broker and made away with a 4.5% refinance on my home.  I found many positive things to enjoy and to be thankful for in my life.

  Gone fishin'?  Only figuratively, but I'm done fishin' now and I feel much better.  Spring is on the horizon and I am cleaning my fish and looking ahead to the future.  Thanks for stopping by, and for reading patiently through all these mixed metaphors.  I hope you will check back in on me from time to time to read my whoppers, scribblings and big fish stories.