Flock Cameras, the Fauci Diaries & Idaho’s Prop 1 Vote

Bob Neugebauer Welcome once again to the Idaho Pulse. This is your host, Tea Party. Bob. Here to once again inform you of the more interesting happenings in our great state of Idaho. Today we have our good friend, Ron Nate of the Idaho Freedom Foundation to enlighten us on flock cameras, tax cuts, and the Bauchi Inquisition. So let’s get on with the show and introduce our guest. Welcome, Mr. Nate, to the Idaho Pulse.

Ron Nate Well, it’s great to be on again, Bob. Idaho pulse is awesome. I look forward to this every week to come and give a little update of what’s going on in Idaho, and also share a little bit of economics at the same time. So yeah. What do you want to talk about first?

Bob Neugebauer Oh, I don’t know. You can pick the topic today. I’ve been through so much this morning on the radio. Anything you have to say is going to be much better than what I had to say.

Ron Nate Oh, sure. Well, you know, we started reporting about flock cameras about a month ago. And that issue just keeps blowing up and up and up. You know, we find out, uh, city after city is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for cameras to create a mass surveillance state. You know, like I said last week, we used to shake our heads at countries like North Korea and China for having cameras everywhere, watching their citizens. And, and, uh, and here it is. Here it is in America, cities using your tax dollars to pay for surveillance to watch you. Now, you may say that, well, I never do anything wrong. So what’s the big deal? Well, the Fourth Amendment says that government cannot track you and and search you, so to speak, and invade your privacy. Um, unless there’s a reasonable suspicion of a crime and, and a warrant issued. And so this seems to violate the Fourth Amendment, in my opinion. Not only that, it’s offensive. They’re using my tax dollars to spy on me. That seems like an inefficient use of tax dollars. But they’ll claim you know. But the claim is, well, if you never do anything wrong, you don’t have to worry about it. Right. Until they define other things as being wrong. And then you’re in a surveillance state and a police state at the same time. So, uh, Idahoans, to their credit, there are a lot of people fired up over this. You see these city council meetings where they’re looking to approve the continuation of their flock programs. You see citizens standing up. I know in Idaho Falls, Brian Mckeller is, uh, submitting a tort claim against the city for, uh, basically a thousand dollars per instance of them illegally taking his picture. And that could be hundreds of thousands of dollars and just, uh, uh, and good for Idahoans. I mean, uh, governments like to operate in the dark, so to speak. They like to operate in empty city council rooms where no citizens are there because then they can do whatever they want, but the citizens are standing up to this and we’re going to keep tracking it. We’ll track the spending, we’ll track the violation of rights, and we’ll try and hold local government, government accountable. We have a new local government arm here at if we have Aaron Van Natta from Daily Caller, she’s joined our staff here. We have Rachel Hayslip, our policy director, running this, uh, local government accountability center that we have at Idaho Freedom Foundation. So first big issue.

Bob Neugebauer Well, I will tell you this. I made an issue out of these flock cameras. I wrote an article on it. And just to make people aware of what’s going on, and some clown had the audacity to make a comment that is this a fluff piece? You know, I, I am amazed at the ignorance of some people who just have no idea what’s going on in the world. And it irks me to no end. So, you know, you talk about it on the radio, you write about it in a newsletter and I say, is this a fluff piece? Excuse me. Anyway,

Ron Nate Seems

Bob Neugebauer continue.

Ron Nate like they struck a nerve.

Bob Neugebauer Yeah. Continue on, Mr. Nate, and give

Ron Nate Sure.

Bob Neugebauer us some more info.

Ron Nate Yeah. A couple weeks ago, um, Aaron and our local Government Accountability division, she, uh, wrote an article about Idaho Falls wanting to massively change their alcohol ordinances, which would affect a lot of businesses. Um, and not just bars, just simple restaurants who happen to serve beer as well. Uh, would be affected by this ordinance. It was a five hundred and seventy six page, uh, agenda for the meeting. And the ordinance was buried at page three hundred something. And, and so they’re really trying to slip it through. Well, we called it out. They postponed the vote. They’re going to meet again tonight. And in the meantime, uh, at least one city council member has expressed frustration that that this has even become a, a big issue like this that they’re being reported on and held accountable. So, uh, well, that that’s, that’s what accountability looks like is that when city council councils are uncomfortable, I think we’re on the right track here. So.

Bob Neugebauer Yeah.

Ron Nate Well.

Bob Neugebauer Well, I, I find a lot of city councils nowadays are very uncomfortable because Idahoans are actually starting to wake up a little bit. You know, they’ve been sleeping for the thirty three years I’ve been here, but they are actually waking up now.

Ron Nate Absolutely. Absolutely. And so, uh, we’re, we’re staying on top of it. We know Idahoans are busy with their families and businesses and they don’t have the time to track all this, but we do. And, uh, you can see what we’re tracking as we do it. And so, um, and you can go to our website, Idaho freedom dot org, see our latest research articles. The very first article is the update on that alcohol ordinance in Idaho Falls. So you can read about that.

Bob Neugebauer Last call for alcohol in Idaho Falls. Have you ever noticed a difference between the two sides of Idaho? The east side and the west side? They are so diametrically opposed and difference in so many ways, because

Ron Nate Yeah.

Bob Neugebauer one’s dealing with corporate, the other’s dealing with agriculture. And

Ron Nate True.

Bob Neugebauer I guess that’s what defines the two.

Ron Nate Yeah. Um, one disturbing thing about looking at east and west Idaho is that it seems like the legislators are coalescing around establishment that, uh, East Idaho, their freedom scores are not very good. Um, and they mirror what’s going on in the Treasure Valley. So the representation, at least in the state legislature, looks a lot the same. I think East Idaho needs to wake up and restore their conservative roots, at least in who they’re voting for, to represent them.

Bob Neugebauer Well, I don’t think it’s just in the state legislature. Because when you look at our congressman from eastern Idaho, uh, what’s his name, simply? Oh, no. Simpson. And, uh, and his new agenda of allowing illegals to work here, that’s

Ron Nate Yeah.

Bob Neugebauer gotta tell you, something’s going on in this state. We didn’t see it coming, but we should have seen it coming with Simpson.

Ron Nate Absolutely, absolutely. So, uh, yeah, uh, a lot of that stuff is going on also, um, I didn’t have this on our list to talk about Bob, but I’m just going to insert this, if you don’t mind. Uh, the safety on the green belt in Boise is now becoming very questionable. We’ve had three instances. You know, we’ve had a stabbing, a murder, essentially. We’ve had an attack of a young lady, and then we’ve had an abduction and, and assault of a of another young lady, all happening on the green belt. Two of those instances are illegal immigrants. We broke the story. Idaho Freedom Foundation contacted Homeland Security and found out, yeah, that those two, uh, alleged perpetrators are indeed, uh, here illegally. And, um, these are some of the fruits of illegal immigration is that, uh, safety is compromised. President Trump

Bob Neugebauer And.

Ron Nate was not wrong in twenty fifteen when he came down the escalator and said, this illegal immigration, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending their rapists, murderers and, and criminals. And that’s what’s happening.

Bob Neugebauer You know, it’s funny, I was talking with my wife the other day, and I. I have very seldomly been accosted by anybody. And I told her, I says, there are three reasons why I don’t get assaulted. I wear a wooden cross on my chest, a Viet Nam hat on my head and a revolver on my hip. And that seems to warn most people don’t do anything with this guy.

Ron Nate That’s right. Also the the don’t mess with me attitude on your face.

Bob Neugebauer Yes,

Ron Nate Yeah.

Bob Neugebauer that’s part of it.

Ron Nate It’s all good. Hey, um, we have an article coming out from our one of our expert financial analysts, Fred Birnbaum. And, uh, and really what it’s showing, and I’ll just give a quick summary, but you’ll want to read the article because it has the data and everything behind it is that we’ve seen a series of videos of mostly Democrat legislators and some others saying that, oh, Idaho is in a budget mess because of all these tax cuts. Tax cuts have really hamstrung the government. And so they complain about tax cuts. Democrats want to raise your taxes, spend the money, have government grow. But, uh, Fred astutely points out, like Reagan did back in the day, that when you cut tax rates, that doesn’t necessarily mean less tax collections. Because indeed, when you look at the data, we have cut income tax rates, but the tax collections have gone up. And the reason why is, is something called that used to be called supply side economics, is that when you let the productive sector keep more of its returns, they become more productive. And so even though the tax rate is lower, the growing base in terms of productivity and increase means higher tax collections. And I’ll put it this way, the way I used to in my econ classes, a smaller slice of a very big pie can be bigger than a big slice of a small pie. And so

Bob Neugebauer Absolutely.

Ron Nate yeah.

Bob Neugebauer Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I, I don’t know what what don’t the government officials, after they’ve been in office for two or three years, not understand that less taxes means more income for the people, which means more spending from the people, which means more income for the state government, for crying out loud.

Ron Nate Yeah. And by the way, um, just my, my instincts here is I don’t necessarily want the government to get more money anyway, but if lower tax rates leads to higher tax collections. Stop whining. Stop whining about cutting taxes, Democrats, because it’s not it’s not hampering government one bit. I would actually like to see tax rates cut so much that even the the smaller slice is still smaller. Because government has grown too much. It deserves to be tapered back at some point.

Bob Neugebauer Well, I’d like to republish that article in the Gem State, if you would not mind

Ron Nate Not

Bob Neugebauer and give you

Ron Nate at

Bob Neugebauer attribution,

Ron Nate all.

Bob Neugebauer give you attribution. But I like to think about the fact that, uh, we just had raises and taxes both in Boise and Meridian. They’re coming.

Ron Nate Yeah, yeah.

Bob Neugebauer Two

Ron Nate And

Bob Neugebauer of

Ron Nate so.

Bob Neugebauer the two, two of the biggest cities, literally in Idaho.

Ron Nate Idaho is supposed to be a red state. We’re supposed to be a low cost leader, so to speak, that

Bob Neugebauer Yeah.

Ron Nate you should be able to live your life at a low cost, low cost of government. And, uh, um, I’ll talk at the end of this program today a little bit about some economics theory on, on what wealth and prosperity look like in a free economy. I got a couple more topics to talk about first. Hey, uh, have you noticed that Anthony Fauci is in the news? Little old Anthony Fauci?

Bob Neugebauer I understand that

Ron Nate Yeah.

Bob Neugebauer one is really raising some eyebrows.

Ron Nate I love this. Uh, and I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this, but a few observations. Number one, Rand Paul releases his, uh, Fauci’s diary, which raised a couple questions in my mind. Number one, how does Rand Paul have the have the Fauci diaries? But they’re not in dispute. Everyone acknowledges those are the Fauci diaries. Number two, uh, who keeps diaries anymore. But anyway, he’s doing it. He did it prolifically. Number three, what he wrote in his diaries was in direct contradiction of what he was saying in public. In fact, it was flat out lies he was telling the public. And should we be surprised he was part of deep state? What he put in his diaries contradicted what he was saying in public because there was a public agenda, and the agenda was that we’re going to shut down businesses, we’re going to curtail the economy. We’re going to force everyone into vaccinations, force everyone into masks. And, uh, just, just, uh, show you that the government is the most important entity here. And this is what I’ve always said is that during Covid, I don’t know if the government learned how to control a virus that well, but they sure learned how to control a people.

Bob Neugebauer Well, I think most people understand that. Or if they don’t, they should go back and reread the fact that, uh, our good friend Governor Little was looking for. Uh.

Ron Nate Oh heavens. Yes. Um, yeah. I mean, they’re controlling a people. And man, the frustration on this and now the revisionist history. Governor Little saying he was a champion for businesses and and families. BS he shut down businesses, kept the liquor stores open, shut down churches, told families they couldn’t visit their family members in the hospital. Yuck. Anthony Fauci, same thing. Uh, and and, and then this week, he gets called to testify. Now, remember, he’s been pardoned by Biden from twenty fourteen to the present for anything and everything he could have possibly done. So once you’re pardoned and you can’t be held accountable for anything, you lose your right to plead the Fifth Amendment. You do not have the privilege of trying to protect yourself because you’re not under threat of conviction anyway. He pleads the fifth anyway, in violation. Violation of that constitutional principle. He ought to be held accountable and thrown in jail for contempt of the Senate. And so claiming the Fifth Amendment won’t even won’t even talk or answer to his blatant contradictions between his diary and what he said in public. So that’s frustrating. Not only that. President Trump yesterday spouting out there how wrong Fauci was, how he always knew Fauci was wrong, how blah, blah, blah. Fauci was wrong. Slow. Fauci was, you know, he was a super masker. All these things about it’s revisionist history. Trump was arm in arm with Fauci for a lot of this. Trump gave Fauci the Medal of Honor, and now he’s saying he was always opposed to Fauci. It’s like nineteen eighty four all over again. We’ve always been at war with East Asia. The past cannot be changed, but the past is always alterable. Uh, we’ve all we were we were at war with East Asia. We’ve always been at war with its new speak all over again. And I cannot believe it’s coming from our government telling us flat out lies as if they’re true when we know what was true or not. He gave him an award. Now he’s saying he always opposed Fauci. It’s crazy town. Crazy.

Bob Neugebauer Well, I see two things coming in the future. First of all, I see a lot of lawsuits by the States. I think

Ron Nate Yeah.

Bob Neugebauer that’s going to be the first thing. He’s going to lose a lot of that money that he has, uh, or, or garnered from all of these accolades he got. But by the same token, I think the biggest problem is all the people who are injured from this vaccine that was an EUA vaccine. Nobody seems to want to be responsible for this virus has basically denied most of the claims from people who had taken this vaccine and had been injured. This has to change. We have people who have sued Johnson and Johnson cost them five billion dollars. We had them sue the asbestos companies, cost them billions of dollars. What is the difference between them and the United States government for screwing up?

Ron Nate That’s right. Exactly. Yep. So, um, full agreement there, Bob. Uh, let me see two other things before I get to my econ lesson. Uh, number one is that, uh, we’ve posted an article on the proposition one, the abortion initiative, this abortion initiatives on the Idaho ballot. I know there are a lot of conservative groups coalescing together. Work against this because we’re talking about babies lives here. Before the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v Wade in Idaho, there were one thousand five hundred abortions a year in Idaho after the Dobbs decision. Uh, The abortion centers had. This had to shut down. And so yeah, it’s true. Some some girls and women are going across state lines to have their abortions or getting medication, not medication is the wrong word. Baby killing drugs sent through the mail to them. And so then we don’t have the stats on that, but do we really want to go back to the paradigm where it’s abortion on demand? And even worse, this proposition one goes the other direction. It not only makes abortion legal up to viability, it doesn’t define viability. And then it says even beyond viability, if you have a willing healthcare professional, it can go beyond that. And so technically, up to nine months technically up to partial birth would be legal in Idaho. Health care professionals not defined just says licensed health care professional doesn’t even have to be a doctor. Arguably, an EMT would fit that category after only a few months of training getting their license. Uh, no parental consent, no parental notification of this. Young girls can go get abortions, and their parents don’t even know the trauma that they’re going through right there in

Bob Neugebauer Well,

Ron Nate their own.

Bob Neugebauer if this passes, it’s telling everybody killing’s okay. It’s no different than what Fauci did. What’s the difference? You’re killing people.

Ron Nate That’s right. Idaho. You know, it should be a culture of life in Idaho. If any state is going to stand up against abortion, I hope it’s Idaho. We can be a red state that says, you know what? We do value life here. Thomas Jefferson wasn’t wrong. We were all endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights. And the first of those is the right to life. And so if we can’t protect the most innocent amongst us, we should stop calling ourselves a red state. Stop calling ourselves a beacon of freedom here. We have work to do on this. So let’s make sure we we kill that initiative and by a lot.

Bob Neugebauer I agree wholeheartedly, my friend. Sixty

Ron Nate Awesome.

Bob Neugebauer six million babies is enough.

Ron Nate Absolutely, absolutely. Okay. Uh, last topic before my lesson is, uh, my wife did a post on Facebook yesterday and she is not wrong. My feed has been filled up with, uh, pictures of Idaho legislators who have gone to a white House sponsored state leadership conference in Washington, D.C. over thirty legislators from Idaho are there. And, uh, apparently the leadership conference, if you look at the agenda that the white House is sponsoring this, it’s basically a lot of federal agencies, federal administrators, uh, uh, DC suits, if you will, kind of giving their agenda and marching orders to the states. These are the priorities we’re working on. They and they cloak it in to make America golden again or whatever. But this is what we’re working on, and we want to partner with you. Um, to me, having been a state legislator, having been a policy wonk for decades now, it’s a little disgusting to me to see state legislators go to Washington to get their marching orders to, to get the federal government’s plan to it’s basically a big lobbyist dinner, right? They’re telling you this is what we want to have happen in the States, and we want your partnership for it. I elect state legislators to be the the wall of separation, the bulwark against federal overreach. And now it looks like they’re going there to walk hand in hand. I haven’t seen one legislator report back that. Can you believe this is what the federal government wants to do? Well, I’m not going to let it happen. I’m going to protect Idaho from this agenda. Everything in that agenda is not gold. There are some rural health transformation. They’re sending a billion dollars to Idaho over five years to run a federal program.

Bob Neugebauer Ron,

Ron Nate That’s not

Bob Neugebauer let me

Ron Nate the

Bob Neugebauer ask

Ron Nate proper role.

Bob Neugebauer let me ask you, when you’re

Ron Nate Yeah.

Bob Neugebauer getting almost forty percent of your state budget from the federal government, what in the heck do you think they’re going to do? They’re going to acquiesce. They’re going to go and listen to the lobbyists, and they’re going to do the bidding of whoever’s paying the bill.

Ron Nate That’s right. And so I I’m I’m just a little frustrated that, uh, a lot of state legislators who are supposed to be protecting state sovereignty now simply because the administration happens to share the same party logo. Think it’s okay to co-opt with the federal government and impose policies from the top down instead of protect our freedoms from the bottom up?

Bob Neugebauer Well, all I can say is pull your pants down, boys, because they’re coming after you.

Ron Nate Holy cow. I didn’t go there. Uh, you ready to talk some economics,

Bob Neugebauer Let’s go.

Ron Nate Nate? Ten or fifteen minutes here of economics. And, um, if you’ve tuned in to the last couple episodes with me on it on the Idaho Pulse, we’ve been talking about comparative economic systems and economic freedom. We’ve talked about, uh, pure capitalism versus command economies and, and, uh, the prosperity attached with that. And so I just want to wrap that up today, if you don’t mind. One of the things we mentioned was that, uh, what is one of the biggest drivers of prosperity of a thriving economy is the ability to specialize in something you’re good at and then trade for the things you’re not so good at. Specialization and trade lead to more economic prosperity than pretty much anything else we man has yet discovered it is, uh, and and specialization and trade are only possible in a free economy where there’s secure property rights, the ability to trade people have access to, uh, to the courts when they’ve been wronged and, uh, a sound money. So those things are necessary for specialization and trade to happen. And then the specialization and trade lead to the prosperous economy. And so if you think about it, specializing, uh, in terms of an economy or terms of an individual, a jack of all trades is the master of none. But when we do what we’re good at and then trade for what we’re not good at, we tend to be much better off. Specialization increases production. It increases technological advance. If I’m if I’m a specialist and I only produce sweet potatoes, I find and I adopt and I perfect the system of growing sweet potatoes. I get the best machines for growing sweet potatoes. I get the best workers for producing sweet potatoes. I become a sweet potato expert, but if I’m trying to do everything for my own well-being, I may may be doing a lot of different tasks, but I’m mastering none of them. And then the trade benefits both traders, because you only trade when you get something more than you’re giving. And when both parties in a trade feel that way, both parties benefit from a trade. If one or the other party don’t feel that way, then they don’t trade. So voluntary trade happens only to the extent that both parties benefit. So let’s not diss on trade either. Um, last week I talked about, uh, you know, how this leads to a lot of prosperity. And I know that the, the naysayers out there go, yeah, but all the wealth is only going to the top. Well, the top one percent earn twenty percent of the income, but they’re paying forty percent of the taxes. The top ten percent, uh, may Maybe, uh, earning, um, you know, a fifty percent of the income, but they’re paying sixty six percent of the taxes. Uh, Thomas Sowell says despite the voluminous, uh, and often fervent literature on income distribution, one cold fact remains. And that is income is, is not distributed. It’s earned. So, so don’t be fooled by people talking about the unfair income distribution. It’s not a fixed pie. Income is earned. And so when somebody is prosperous, when somebody is doing better than others in the economy, it’s because they’re producing more than others, producing more value for the economy than others. In fact, a free economy, a capitalist economy is the is the only economy yet discovered that have pulled the masses out of poverty like no other system has. So here’s here’s my kicker on this. Bob, do you want to do you want to let let let’s do a little thought experiment on this. Right. Wouldn’t

Bob Neugebauer I have

Ron Nate it.

Bob Neugebauer to think. I really have to think.

Ron Nate A little bit.

Bob Neugebauer It’s not my

Ron Nate Let’s

Bob Neugebauer nature.

Ron Nate let’s think about King Louis the fourteenth of France. This is back in the early seventeen hundreds. He lived like a king. He had hundreds of servants. And here’s the story on this. Every evening, King Louis would sit down for dinner. He would have dozens of servants, actually, probably hundreds of servants prepared dozens of meals. And so he would walk up and down the tables and pick out what he wanted to eat. It was like, chuck-a-rama. Only a lot nicer. Uh, I don’t know, but but dozens of dozens of dinners prepared each night. And so. And then he would eat whatever he wanted and then, you know, go and retire, whatever. And that’s living like a king, having all of his, his, his castle, his Versailles, taking care of the gardens, taking care of hundreds and hundreds of servants to serve at the king’s will. Now, that’s what living like a king is about. Wouldn’t you like to live like a king?

Bob Neugebauer I live like a king. I hate to tell you, but I don’t have the. I don’t have the same variety.

Ron Nate I know you have more. Think about what it is like to live like today. Uh, what are you going to eat tonight? Well. Do you. If you wanted Mexican food tonight, could you find it? Absolutely. If you wanted pizza, Italian food tonight, could you find it?

Bob Neugebauer In my freezer.

Ron Nate Absolutely. If you know, think about I, I live in Boise tonight. I have the the choice of eating at hundreds of different restaurants. I could have Mexican, I could have American, I could have Italian, I could have German, I could. There’s all sorts of food that I could have tonight. No, I don’t have a hundred servants preparing all these meals for me. But there’s hundreds of establishments out there trying to make me happy. Now, King Louis got those servants to serve him through coercion and force. But there are hundreds of folks out there who want to serve me a nice meal tonight with a smile on their face. Not because they love me, but because they love themselves. And the market economy has turned us into a servant economy where we serve each other all the time. I taught economics for for twenty five years as an economics professor, I was serving my students and serving my university, and they were paying me for it, and I was doing it voluntarily. And that’s a market economy, me. But in a king economy like King Louie, he had hundreds of people serving him, not with a smile on their face, but through fear of reprisal if they didn’t do it right. And I would argue that today’s economy allows the everyday man to live like King Louie did, in fact, better than he did. We have more choices. We have people serving us because they want to serve us and trying to be nice to us because they want us to come back. We have more choices than King Louie, and we have it done by people who are voluntarily doing it for us.

Bob Neugebauer So

Ron Nate That

Bob Neugebauer I’ll

Ron Nate is.

Bob Neugebauer tell you something. I

Ron Nate Yeah.

Bob Neugebauer agree with you. Okay?

Ron Nate Uh. Huh.

Bob Neugebauer We do have all of that.

Ron Nate Yeah.

Bob Neugebauer But my problem lies in the fact that we never give credit to the small businesses that create this atmosphere. It’s always the big corporations that seem to get the notoriety. And the fact that they are the big producers of what’s going on in this country, when it’s really the small businesses that rule this country.

Ron Nate You’re so right. If we look back at seventeen hundred King Louis, he did it by force because there was no such thing as a market economy back in in, uh, early nineteen hundreds, you have John D Rockefeller, the richest man on earth at the time, probably approaches Elon Musk in terms of correcting for inflation and stuff. Uh, it’s estimated that John D Rockefeller is probably worth about eight hundred billion dollars back at that time. And, uh, John D Rockefeller had mansions. He, he lived like a king because he’s a rich capitalist. He got rich by providing a lot of good things for people. Standard oil, a lot of other a lot of manufacturing. But he was one of the few rich people at the time, and it was hard for the everyday Joe to live like him. Now let’s fast forward to today. Okay, so I’ve given you two scenarios. I’ve given you the King scenario. No, no volunteerism. And I’ve given you John D Rockefeller early capitalist scenario. Let’s go to today. Elon Musk is Uber wealthy. And there are there are others who are Uber wealthy. There are a lot who are very wealthy but who live right here with us. I would argue somebody today that earns one hundred thousand dollars, two hundred thousand dollars lives better than John D Rockefeller. Did you think about what he could afford with his equivalent two hundred billion? Yeah, he could build a big house. But you know what? His big house is a lot like some average rich people today. Big house. Uh, the the house today has indoor plumbing, has electronics, has computers, has all sorts of, you know, has a yard that is more self-sufficient than it would be back then. I think that a rich, uh, a moderately rich or middle class person can live measurably, like one of the richest people of just a hundred years ago. And this is through volunteerism. Again, people doing what they think is best for themselves, producing for others, producing for themselves, and living like kings and like rich capitalists of the past. I don’t think there’s much difference in the in the quality of life between an Elon Musk and a Bob Neugebauer today, as there was between a King Louis and your average peasant.

Bob Neugebauer Well, I will tell you this, uh, while I, I tend to agree with you, I

Ron Nate Mhm.

Bob Neugebauer find that while we have this free society, we always talk about and all of these opportunities, we have big government that’s always hanging over our heads with rules and regulations, making it more difficult for small business to operate in a free state So

Ron Nate Yes.

Bob Neugebauer that they can do the things they need to.

Ron Nate And and I, I will make this appeal to to the government and the government wonks out there. Stop trying to make my life better. It’s not your job to make my life better. Just get out of the way. Let me improve my life. Stop it with the regulations. Stop it with taking my tax dollars for what you think I need more than what I think I need more? Uh, F.A. Hayek, Austrian economist. Back in the day, he said the idea that humankind can shape the world according to wish is what he calls the fatal conceit. And the fatal conceit is this is that government and do gooders out there thinking they know better for society than the individuals in society know for themselves. He wrote this too, and this is one of my favorite quotes in economics. This is F.A. Hayek. The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. The do gooders in government think they can design the utopian society. They imagine they can make the world beautiful, but they really know very little. The price mechanism operating through its own virtue is that the hundreds of thousands, the hundreds of millions of different preferences by consumers and limitations by suppliers, allocate resources much better than a government planner ever could. You get the goods you want shipped from all the corners of the world, because somebody out there who wants to make a profit knows they do it by making you happy. And so that that is prosperity that helps us live today as an average citizen, better than a king did back in the past.

Bob Neugebauer Well, I do think that you’re absolutely right in what you’re talking about. But I question the problems again today that come up when we have a government that is going to tax and tax in so many different ways. And I will say that things have gotten easier over the over the years. But when you get certain people into the legislatures and the offices, you take a look at what’s going on. You know, I remember back in the nineteen seventies when I was making over two hundred thousand dollars a year, you know what? My tax rate was seventy percent.

Ron Nate It’s outrageous. It’s

Bob Neugebauer Yeah.

Ron Nate outrageous. Yeah. Um. God. Thank you, Democrats. And thank you, Reagan, for getting into office and lowering that top rate down to thirty six percent or so right around there. Uh, but thirty six percent, I mean, that sounds oh, that’s much better than seventy percent, but it’s still outrageous. Why does government think it gets a third of every new dollar you earn? It’s, uh, It’s beyond the pale. Are they providing that much value, or are they reallocating resources away from the individuals? Not to necessarily what’s best for society, but what’s best for their reelection?

Bob Neugebauer You hit the nail right on the head there. That’s where it comes down to.

Ron Nate Mhm. And so if they control the purse strings, uh, they become your benefactor and they run on that. And so that’s, that’s where politics hits economics. And that’s, that’s what keeps me engaged in this fight, is the central planners will never outdo the millions of individual decisions. And the central planners have an incentive to try and always claim that they’re outdoing the decisions of millions of individuals. And so we need to have policy that fights back against that. The Austrian economists were right. The American founders were right that government should be limited. And that’s what a constitution is all about. And then people can be free and prosperous.

Bob Neugebauer Well, I don’t disagree with you there, my friend. Let’s just hope you can get the word out to everybody else, because there are too many in our legislature in particular that don’t understand these facts.

Ron Nate And that’s why I come on the Idaho Pulse every week, because you are a conduit to the people of Idaho. And so we’ll keep spreading the word. We’ll keep fighting the good fight. So so we we give you information. We also go and influence the legislature. We hold the governments accountable, including local governments and, uh, Idaho Pulse, Idaho Freedom Foundation. We’ll keep working together for Idaho.

Bob Neugebauer And don’t forget to send me that article that you guys are going to put out, because I want to get that out to everybody we can.

Ron Nate Okay. We’ll do that. Absolutely. Thank you Bob. Appreciate the

Bob Neugebauer Write

Ron Nate Idaho Pulse. You guys

Bob Neugebauer that.

Ron Nate do great work.

Bob Neugebauer Thank you. Ron, you keep trucking away there, buddy.

Ron Nate Alright. Thank you. Peace out.