Despite the Wolves

While I was ranging near and far for work today (mostly far), I of course heard the news on the radio: the Dow dropped 450 points today, Chicken Little died of a heart attack, and it's all Bush's fault blah blah blah. I heard a lot of politicians trying to take advantage of the opportunity for personal gain, particularly the disgusting socialist ones. And while folks are on a panic induced demolition of their portfolios, I decided to take action, too.

I'm buying.

When something like this happens, a lot of bad investment choices get flushed down the toilet, and a lot of good investment choices look like they will be. It's those latter ones you have to keep your eye on, the stuff that people are selling only because everyone else is selling everything else. That's when you need to accept risk and swim upstream rather than going with the flow. (Know what else goes with the flow? Turds and logs. Do you want to be one of those?)

With risk comes reward; in constantly seeking after and clamoring for safety, there is less. It's unfortunate that so many in our society both fail to understand and appreciate this, as evidenced by the amount of support enjoyed by politicians like Barack "He who shall not be middle-named" Obama who have a promise for every occasion. Again and again he promises a vision of a benign collectivism as the answer to all of this turmoil and fear and [insert personal problem here]. It brings to mind something I read on the plane coming back from Madison, Wisconsin this weekend:

"There are strong reasons for believing that what to us appear the worst features of the existing totalitarian systems are not accidental by-products but phenomena which totalitarianism is certain sooner or later to produce. Just as the democratic statesman who sets out to plan economic life will soon be confronted with the alternative of either assuming dictatorial powers or abandoning his plans, so the totalitarian dictator would soon have to choose between disregard of ordinary morals and failure. It is for this reason that the unscrupulous and uninhibited are likely to be more successful in a society tending toward totalitarianism. Who does not see this has not yet grasped the full width and gulf which separates totalitarianism from a liberal regime, the utter difference between the whole moral atmosphere under collectivism and the essentially individualist Western civilization."

-- F. A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom

There is no benign collectivism, particularly once the leader doesn't find it easy to get his way, more so for a leader who tends to refer to himself in messianic terms. Messiahs are not supposed to fail, so when one does, it's the fault of someone else and then there must be punishment.

Still, here I am, running after opportunity while so many run from it. And I do this knowing that there are millions of you out there who won't dare to go with me, who won't offer assistance should I fail, but you'll have your hands out when I succeed. And when I refuse you, then the knives will come out.

Hey... it's what you people are. If you don't like it, change.