Mexico stands as stark example of what the reality of “Free Markets” would spiral down to. Even the father of the concept of “Free Markets” Adam Smith admits in his tome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations that they are an oxymoron that cannot exist because if the people have no recourse then they cannot challenge the power structure (which is supposed to be the agent of change). Their only recourse is the judicial system, which means there need to be laws (regulations), which means the market isn’t free. In Mexico, a ruling class has run the country for its own benefit since the get go. The only regulations are the ones put in place to benefit those already in power.

The same thing almost happened here! If it weren’t for TR and the Trust Busters, the inheritance tax (which is designed to be a confiscatory tax that prevents an aristocracy from rising in this nation, and is backed today by some of the world’s most wealthy individuals) Child Labor laws and the New Deal, Glass Steagle (which Clinton, Rubin and Weill shattered) FDIC, FNMA, the SEC (an agency designed by one of the most notorious Wall Street inside trader (when it was legal) and short sellers; Joe Kennedy) and a whole host of regulations… one of two things would have happened. We would have become a Fascist state like Italy, or a Communist state like Russia. In either case the US would have been a basket case and Hitler would have won the war (which also almost happened exactly BECAUSE Mexico was a basket case and open to overtures from Hitler).

Libertarians like to say that they are against all of those sorts of regulation but that they are sure that when the time comes, they’ll be able to provide a good military defense.

Winston Churchill said, “If you’re not a Liberal when you’re young, you have no heart. If you’re not a Conservative when you’re old, you have no brains.”

By Liberal, he means “Self determinant” the belief that there is no need for authority. By Conservative he’s referring to the need for a centralized government (In WC’s time the world was still reeling and dealing with the choice between royalty and democracy and WC’s opinion was that there needed to be a strong central figure of absolute truth, a king”ish”. Churchill was a Conservative and a royalist. Keep in mind that the Tsar, who was a “Divine Right” leader, had just been brutally deposed.) Today’s Conservative is just slightly right of the leftest (as opposed to leftist) fringe; Libertarians (who actually see themselves as the purest “Conservative Purists”). Today’s “Liberal” is far to the right of the “Libertarian” (and as such right of the “Conservatives”). It would have made Churchill’s head spin but the assessment remains the same in that the ideology that endorses a strong central government is the ideology that Churchill described those not of the ideology as having, “no brains.” The ideology endorsing regulation is the Liberal ideology.

As to “guessing” “would” and “might;” the “Would” of if you weren’t born rich then your life would be entirely different if it weren’t for the regulations placed on our economy in the early part of the 20th Century (including New Deal). Isn’t as much a guess as it is a conclusion. Given the explication above it is an obvious conclusion that life would be different for all of us. Even if it weren’t for the Great Depression and WWII, the cycle of boom and bust would have continued to depress our standard of living, and there would be no reason for the rest of the world to have invested their money in the US.

As to your Californian status… Well I admit that it seems that you are currently located in Ca, what with the Griffith Park stuff and all ” I’m a volunteer member of a Greater Griffith Park Council, the Parks, Rivers and Open Space Committee (PROS).” I mean I guess one “Might” do that from a distance but I don’t know why one “would”. At some point I had read your blog that said you had a nice weekend in Northern (er) Ca only to have come home to the fight over the cartoon of Obama as a car salesman(?).

Anyway, I don’t know, don’t care how long you’ve lived in Ca or if you live there now. Except that you see that my guesses are based on more than just blue sky. My “Guesses” about “Would” and “Might” are actually conclusions that are drawn from the available evidence not from “fact” made up.

Meanwhile you “From The Right”ers will, (I guess) go right on with your “facts” like F.D.R. actually extended the Depression. And those of us who believe that facts must be based on valid evidence (which includes all of the evidence and not just the data cherry picked to beg the question) will continue to see you as the rhetorical sophists that you seem to be so proud to be.

No Barstows left in Barstow, and I’m not from Calif. You’re doing a lot of guessing about policies and the “woulds” and “mights.” Libertarians might take offense at your comparing the result of Mexico to their tenets. Or are you saying they wouldn’t? That any political party or philosophy would be pleased to be associated with that mess?

A good cartoon has a point of view, which is hopefully innovative, and admirably funny. I don’t always succeed on all points, but I have fun trying. Much as I’d like to proselytize, there’s no room in one cartoon. A body of work might work. That’s the ticket, these will be my next book!

As far as going after people on the internet, I surely have good reason. The main person doing this is an “editorial cartoonist” himself, and this is defamation in order to hurt my business. We’ll see how that shakes down.