The Blog of Alaska

Cotton Road — A Photo Essay

Posted on 18. March 2023 by Eric Niewoehner

Part of an ongoing series that I have dubbed “Cotton Road,” a journey into my past and a peak at the lives that preceded mine.

The Farm

Star Route. In the 1960’s, five homes lined this road where today only one remains.

The Peterson Farmstead. The tree-lined driveway yet remains, but all that survives of the house are a few pieces of the foundation.

The Moore and Mercer driveways — The Moore Driveway on the left, the Mercer driveway barely visible on the right.

It is amazing how things have changed in sixty years. This is “Star Route”, a road that simply formed a square on which the Post Office assigned the name. It is hard to imagine that along this portion of road four farmsteads resided, along with Ed’s dilapidated manse. Each farm was a fully functional farm, producing various crops and livestock. Today? The homes and barns are gone except for the house where the Moore’s used to live. Everything else has been transformed into giant rice fields.

Off in the distance is the bridge that used to be made of rickety wood timbers, but today is a solid concrete structure, spanning one of the drainage canals that make this area an engineering wonder.

The Peterson farmstead was just west of the Mercer farm. You can still see the tree-lined driveway, but the buildings are all gone. The only thing that remains is part of the foundation.

The Moores held a special place for me. This family was hard-working and poor. I remembered the children were usually busy with farm work. Up until a couple years ago, the old tractor was still visible on the right as well as the old barn. But both are gone now. To the right of the driveway is the field that used to be fenced off and was used for livestock and softball games.

When I was a kid I used to be so excited when we approached the Mercer farm after a long day of travel. The Moore driveway is on the left, but barely visible is the Mercer driveway on the right, in front of the telephone pole. Remarkable that beside the driveway once stood two giant trees.

This is the Mercer driveway, behind which once stood the Mercer home.

This view was once once filled with a dusty road that led to an old barn. You may remember that there was a gate that had to be opened before reaching the barn. It was small and badly weather-beaten, providing shelter for one or two milk cows, a few chickens and those dern sows. Behind that barn was a flourishing garden.

Beyond the barn was a contained barnyard where livestock could be directed to adjoining pasturage or to the second barnlot. This barn was also isolated by a gate. It was much larger. In fact, it may have served as a home being that its walls were lined with newspaper print. It was here that grain could be stored and it was here that the mad rooster resided. Also found in the barn was MaMa’s favorite animal — the bull snake.

Continuing the tour beyond the Mercer driveway was the crossroad. This is a view of where the Petty farmstead once resided. The driveway remains in the foreground, but gone are the barn, the house and several giant gum trees.

Looking to the east of the crossroads is what was once the sawmill road. The sawmill no longer exists. The slight rise along the horizon is the levy that runs alongside one of the drainage canals, the exact same canal where Julia and I once swam, providentially avoiding the cottonmouths that presumably populated its waters.

The second Peterson homestead. — The 2nd Peterson Homestead, where the porch swing collapsed on Jan’s head.

Proceeding north of the crossroads brings us to all that remains of the second Peterson home. It was famous for only one thing — the scar on Jan’s hairline where the porch swing collapsed, bringing a heavy beam crashing upon her.

Before moving on, two other photos are worth considering. The first is the view of the Coon Island Slough in the distance. As children, this slough had no special designation. Today it is a wildlife reserve. For our grandmother, it was a perpetual worry that in our wanderings we would either be drowned or consumed. Bill Mercer had a field that abutted this slough that had several shade trees, especially groomed for his small herd of pigs. I still have memories of joining him in calling the pigs and cattle to the gate by the big barn.

The final picture is almost haunting. All that remains of the farmsteads is this row of daffodils, a subtle hint that at one time someone lived nearby and planted them. It may be the one remaining legacy of Bessie Mercer. I never knew her to be a flower gardener, but you never know. She and Mrs. Petty may have taken the time to freshen up the place.

The Pettys

For the fourth time in the past fifty years I have reconnected with the Pettys. I found them so friendly as a kid and that gentle, kind spirit remains to this day. The two boys, Richard and Harley, were frequent sites at the farmstead. I recall Richard giving me a ride on the giant Minneapolis tractor. I have fond memories of those hot afternoons when Bessie and Mrs. Petty would sit under the gum trees shelling peas.

The Pettys bought the farm after Bill Mercer passed away and my first reunion with the Pettys was when they made the final payment. It was bittersweet as the buyer was a rice farmer who would eventually transform the landscape. Several years later I visited the area and ran across Harley with his son (Paul) picking blackberries along a road. Decades later I would return and discover where they live and spend an afternoon with them. Then just recently visited them again. Friendly as usual.

Sample of Harley Petty's craftmanship — Sample of Harley Petty’s craftmanship

Harley and his son, Paul, went into the construction business. In their simple fashion, they prospered not because of marketing, but by a reputation for creative craftsmanship and hard work. Harley’s home is a testament to his diligence and skill, taking something that just may have come from Bill Mercer’s scrap pile and integrating them into the railing. Heaven knows, that wood-stove back there may have been the same one MaMa used.

And nothing permeated the culture of the farm families more than their love of tractors. I always thought the Petty’s were a step or two ahead of the Mercers when it came to tractors, but Harley confessed he always marveled how Bill Mercer got the most from his Johnny-Poppers. The photo of the John Deere is a more recent model than that of Bill Mercer, utilizing electric start rather than that giant flywheel. The Ford tractor is almost identical to the Ferguson tractor that Bill Mercer purchased shortly before his death. It was the one he allowed me to drive on my own.

Ford Tractor, almost identical to Bill Mercer’s Ferguson.

Paul Petty “retired” from constructing homes and is now pretty much full-time doing property maintenance for a major landlord in Poplar Bluff. But true to form, he is busy doing something on the side. He and I found something in common when he showed me his work shop, displaying an awesome collection of lumber that he cut from his own sawmill. He picked up a hobby, retrieving sunken cedar logs from the slough. The cut slabs exposed a breathtaking display of what I call “God’s Artistry,” the culmination of hundreds of years of growth, penetration by bugs, collapse and submergence in water, and the random designs of wood grains.

The Art of God — Some art is in the hands of God. This wood grain is produced from timber that had been lying in a swamp for countless years.

A Different Time, A Different World

What strikes me driving through the area around Neelyville is how different life is here. The scattered farms that dotted the landscape during our childhood are largely gone, replaced by vast treeless spreads designed to handle the irrigation of rice. Growing rice was totally unheard of back in the 60’s. Today, there is not a cotton field in sight. The gin at Neelyville is gone. Bob’s store, or anything like it, is no longer to be found in the countryside, replaced by Dollar Generals and Walmarts in nearby communities. The school is now a church. All the kids go to a consolidated school in Neelyville.

What has vanished, and was vanishing even in our time, was the farming community. As sparse as the population was in the 1960’s, there was at least a church, a school, a grocery store, so-and-so’s plum orchard, and numerous neighbors to visit. There are a few homes that have emerged south of the farm near the slough, but other than that much has vanished.

I grew up to love hills and mountains, so the flat farmland was often barren and uninteresting to me. Evidently, many who we knew agreed. Bobby Peterson became an attorney practicing in central Alaska! Ronnie Miller also worked in the oil industry in Alaska, along with Terry. While Harley would leave farming, Richard would purchase land in the hill country around Ellington, Missouri and raise hogs. Staying near Coon Island would not have been easy if we had kept the farm.

But like any place, it has its unique attributes. The canals that lace the landscape are an engineering wonder, transforming thousands of square miles of swamp into some of the finest farmland in the world. Whenever you purchase a bag of Uncle Ben’s or Riceland’s rice, you may want to mentally note that it may come from the old Mercer farm.

Most of us never experienced Coon Island in winter or spring, but the land is transformed into a waterfowl wonderland, another Duck Dynasty. I joked about it when driving down with Teri and, true to form, the Petty’s appear wearing camouflaged shoes and jacket, and Paul sports a robust beard. I recall driving down the highway at thirty miles an hour matching the speed of the geese that flew all around my car. I laughed at the portly woodcocks as they flew over the Petty pond. And raptors sat on every other utility pole.

Great memories. Wonderful people.

Bill Saves the Cotton Gin

As a postscript, there is a story about Bill Mercer that provides some interesting insights into the man. Harley got this story from his father, Frank. What inspired the story was the wood-burning stove that sat on his porch. He recalls a time when the two families were well-acquainted back in the 30’s and 40’s when they both resided in Wardell. A crisis emerged in Wardell one year when the cotton gin broke down in the middle of the harvest. While a part was on order, it would take weeks for it to arrive. The farmers did not have weeks.

Bill Mercer came up with a solution. The broken part was a steel valve. It was rather sizeable. He found that a perfect fit for that valve was an iron cover from a wood stove. He welded on a stem to match that of the broken valve, shaped the round cover from the stove to the same beveled circle and actually machined a replacement! All this in his blacksmith shop. Bill Mercer was not just a good man — but a hero to all the farmers that year.

Cotton Road

Posted on 19. October 2014 by Eric Niewoehner

In 2004, my grandmother, Bessie Barron Mercer passed away. She was the epitome of “diamond in the rough.” She was a tough, poverty-stricken, loving mother who spent most of her life improvising care and comfort for others. Yet, as one neighbor put it, “I can hear her singing across the cotton field.” And her laugh! It cascaded across the fields like the call of the pileated woodpecker.

One thing she would often say is that they moved from Oxford, Mississippi because of the boll weevil. As she slipped into the debilitating influence of Alzheimer’s, she would often repeat that story to others, and kept mentioning the “big white house” they left behind. That “big white house” piqued my curiosity and I set off on a journey to discover what she was talking about. Did that house still exist? Were the Barrons landholders? If so, did they own a plantation and hold slaves? On this journey I had four other objectives. I wanted to see my grandmother’s grave, proceed to Oxford, then at least take a look at Dyersburg, Tennessee to see the place they migrated to, and then move on to Wardell, Missouri to check on my grandfather’s grave. Finally, I wanted to see the farm, the place I spent many memorable summers. My grandmother died during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Bessie’s old home site in Long Beach, MS

She was a hundred years old and quite fragile. They evacuated her home and moved her to Pensacola, Florida to a nursing home, where she passed away a few days afterwards. After the personal care and space she had in her home in Long Beach, she must have certainly experienced the disorientation and loneliness of a nursing home, but under the circumstances of that natural disaster, it was the best that could have been done for her. She was buried later in Long Beach. I was in Alaska at the time and it was nigh onto impossible for anyone to travel to the Gulf Coast unless you had property in the area. I found her marker, a simple stone flush with the ground, probably the most fitting testament to her life. It was shaded by pine trees, resting in a well-maintained cemetery. I later visited the site of her last home. It was gone, one of the many homes destroyed in the hurricane.

Bessie Mercer’s Grave Marker

I arrived in Oxford in January, 2014. Everyone I talked to said you need to enroll on Ancestry.com. That is somewhat expensive and, besides, what’s the fun in that? My question revolved around property, that “big white house.” So I headed to the Recorder’s office and browsed through a few decades of deed registrations spanning the period of 1835 through 1920. Only one record of a Barron. It was a conveyance issued in a will. The man had died and left a conditional tenancy to several individuals, most likely in exchange of caring for his widow. One of those people was a Vic Barron (short for Victoria). She had married TJ Barron. Vic Barron was a witness and WJ Barron was a notary public. “WJ” was Bessie’s father, usually referred to as Jesse. TJ was not part of the immediate Barron family that Bessie belonged to, but there were only two lines of Barrons living in Lafayette County, as best as I could surmise from my research. It was the only hint of residence I had of any Barron. Later study of the census record showed the Barron families lived next to each other. With that knowledge, it led to some credence that the location described in the conveyance would point to the general area that they lived.

1910 Census Report

The parlance of plot assignments was NE ¼, Section 9, Township 10, Range 3 West, 160 Acres of an area also referred to as the Widow Duke land. Maps at the Recorder’s office show the Range lines (basically longitude), crisscrossed East to West by township borders, each township divided into four sections, each section divided into four 160 acre quadrants. Some people wonder what the magic of 160 acres is about, but it was the confluence of navigational math and the idea of a full-time farm in 1787 when surveying standards evolved in the United States. So what Mr. JR Cook had left to his widow was probably the full-size farm granted to the original settlers in the region. I found the location of the “farm” and it only deepened the mystery. It was hilly and blanketed by oak forest. This was definitely a far cry from the flat cotton fields I expected. I went away thinking that I might have to revisit the deeds office and do more research. Recordings have been known to be in error, but at this point I was running out of time and had to move on. My next question was “Where is the best place to grow cotton?” To be honest, I did not see any prime farmland in Lafayette County, yet a quick glance at its history shows it was a rich agricultural land. Where did it go? I went over to the county extension office and they pointed me to the USDA Soil Research Lab which was not far from the University of Mississippi campus. It was there that the truth became known.

School Register showing Myrtle and Alvey

What Ancestry.com cannot provide is Seth Dabney. About my age, he came to me draped in decades of knowledge on Lafayette County’s soil. He produced a book last updated in 1981. Within was a color map. Most of the county was covered in yellow which signified a type of soil. This type of soil covered the quadrant in question. Under prime conditions, this soil would have about a meter of rich top soil, followed by sand. Seth’s question to me was when, and I stated 1915. He smiled and replied, “In 1915, Lafayette County was experiencing desertification. About every inch of land was being farmed, and they grew cotton everywhere, even on hilly ground. At that time the top soil was being depleted and many farms were being abandoned. The exposed sandy soil was not treated with ground cover and the result was a broadening expanse of desert ground. In essence, the boll weevil in Lafayette County was merely the nail on the coffin. In conclusion, further study of the census record will be required to piece together the plots of land owned by various individuals in the area. This may make it possible to define where the LC Cook property resided and the surrounding families and structures. The “big white house” that Bessie referred to may have been the brief interlude in her history where she lived in a relatively fine house. Victoria was a daughter of LC Cook and it is conceivable that of the people who received the conveyance, the Barrons may have inhabited the house and cared for the widow and her farm. How this may have pertained to Jesse Barron’s family is not clear, but one thing gleamed from the oral history of my mother and others in the Wardell area was the tendency of families to allow their children to reside in other homes. Lautain, Bessie’s second daughter, lived in a home in Wardell so as to babysit full time the children of the local doctor. Erlene Hampton, later Miller, was a niece to Bill and Bessie Mercer and she often lived in their home to escape what may have been an abusive situation at home. So it may not be surprising to discover that Bessie may have lived in the big white house at times, assisting Vic Barron. No doubt, desperate poverty forced the Barrons to move north. Why Dyersburg remains a mystery. One trail to follow in the future may be to compare landholder names in Lafayette County with names near Lenox, TN, a small village northwest of Dyersburg. Oral research and school records pointed to that small village. It might provide a clue as to how Jesse narrowed in on that town.

Margerette Barron Grave Marker

Before driving to Lenox, I visited the only grave site where a Barron is buried in Lafayette Country. It belongs to Solomon H and Magarette Barron. Solomon died in 1886 at the age of 61, so he may have been the grandfather of Jesse Barron. All in all, it paints a bleak picture that only two Barrons, over nearly a century, have little recorded presence in Lafayette County and could not even afford a marked grave except for Solomon and Margaret. Thus was the life of tenant farmers. Lenox was a sharp contrast to Oxford. It rested on the edge of a massive flood plain that extends several miles to the Mississippi River. This would, no doubt, be perfect cotton growing conditions. Jesse, however, would move on to Wardell where Bessie would eventually meet Bill Mercer and marry. Yet many of the Barrons remained in Lenox, so much so that some remember “Uncle Bill”. I was able to obtain a couple of contacts but due to time constraints was unable to meet them. Wardell was, back then, about a day’s trip, impeded no doubt by the crossing of the Mississippi. Not sure whether there was a bridge back then, it was most likely crossed by ferry since cars were not yet all that prominent. It only took me a couple of hours. I located Bill Mercer’s grave. His grave, as well as the rest of the cemetery, was in good condition. I walked about the cemetery to see if any Barrons were buried there, but found none. What I did find, however, was something rather peculiar. The following families appeared: Mercer, Miller, Petty and Peterson. Anyone familiar with the Mercers would immediately recognize the name of their neighbors when they owned the farm at Coon Island.

Bill Mercer’s Grave Marker, Wardell, MO

I took a couple of photos of Wardell just for reference, including a row of abandoned shops. The one in the foreground was the dry goods store run by H…. where Bessie and possibly the Pettys worked. Mom tells the story of how a snake was discovered in the shoe section and everyone conspired to never tell Bessie about it – her fear of snakes was already famous. My next stop was Coon Island. All the years I was on the farm, I never heard the place described as Coon Island. But Harley Petty confirmed that it was known to them as such. What we knew as “the slough” is now a wildlife reserve, practically a Duck Dynasty paradise. The land we once knew as a ring of family farms of about 2-400 acres each, has been replaced with an unending rice field. The only house visible is the old Moore’s house, which today appears no different. Even the old tractor they used remains in the same place I remember it, back in 1968. The old barn even remains pretty much as decrepit as ever, but rather functional.

Harley and Bonnie Petty

The only family that remains is Harley and Bonnie Petty. They farmed into the mid 1990’s and Harley sold some of his acreage and focused on building homes. He has done very well, as did his son. I was able to locate the Petty’s purely by a chance encounter with Harley and his son back in 1981 or so, when I revisited the place. At that time, Ronnie Miller had a home in an area where the black top was extended to the southwest. On the way to his house we met Harley picking blackberries. It was ungodly hot, Harley was drenched with sweat, but had that infectious smile on his face. He is no different today. Well, it was upon that vacant field that he would later build his home and that of his son’s. Harley speaks fondly of Bill and Bessie. Bill was a giving man, always willing to put down everything to help a neighbor. Bessie and Harley’s mother would sit under the shade, sipping sweet tea and shelling peas. I recall those days as well, especially if I was the only one on the farm. Bored to death, about my only recreation was hopping the fence and visiting the Pettys. I recall Harley giving me a ride on what was then a giant tractor, the old Minneapolis. I remember the numerous gum trees because in those days no one had air conditioning and those huge shade trees seemed capable of producing some air movement on the hottest day.

Harley also confirmed the thread of news that led one family then another to Coon Island. The entire area was once owned by a timber company. So much timber was harvested that there was even a railroad built into the area. Most of the inhabitants were Eastern Europeans. But as the timber was cleared, it became obvious that the potential sale value of the land exceeded the regrowth cycle of the trees. The lumber company closed the operation and began selling the land. Because it was riddled with stumps, brush, trees and debris, it was sold at a substantial discount. Furthermore, banks were provided more incentives to loan money for this type of land. As a result, two families that had no land in Wardell were able to procure land: Pettys and Mercers. For Bill Mercer, he needed help from the daughters, but it would be the first piece of farmland owned in the line of Bessie Barron and Bill Mercer. The profoundness of this event cannot be measured. I recall the land, often wondering about the huge piles of timber that lined the fields. In the interim period, there was a lot of livestock farming and I recall how Bill peppered his farm with pastures for hogs and dairy cattle. I recall the auction barn outside Poplar Bluff. It no longer exists because I doubt there is a piece of meat within 30 miles of the place unless it is the family chicken. But the self-subsistent full-time family farm was evolving. Not long after Bill perished, the livestock was sold, the fences and barns brought down and rice was introduced. A few years after 1981, the Mercer home was demolished and is today nothing but a rice field (I bet the rice grows especially well where the outhouse was located).

Harley also answered another mystery – the church that Bill preached at. Their spirituality factored profoundly into their approach to life. Bill was seen as a rather quiet, modest man who was always willing to help. I have never met anyone who did not like him. I was young then and found him rather distant. But I sensed the ice breaking the day we were crossing the back barn lot. It was then that we were spied by this nutty rooster that proceeded to race across the barn lot and jump onto the tractor! After being lectured earlier that week about throwing dirt clods at that rooster, it was comforting to see my grandfather way-lay into that rooster with his big, steel-toed boot, kicking that old bird twenty feet into the air. Finally, a man after my own heart. Well, back to Bill’s church. From Mom, I found out he was a changed man after getting that farm. I have heard Bessie say that one day, while plowing the field, Bill stopped the tractor, got off, knelt and thanked the Lord for that farm. It still brings me tears to picture this big, simple man, thanking God for a farm. I appreciate the depth of his prayer the more I learn the legacy Bill and Bessie inherited, generations of being tenant farmers, hard labor supporting and supervising farms, but never owning one. Bill apparently never took another drop of liquor, a habit he was known to indulge in on the weekends. He felt led to preach the gospel on the street corner in Wardell, and that would evolve eventually to being a lay preacher at some unspecified church near Naylor.

Church of the First Born, Naylor, MO

Harley gave the name – the Church of the First Born. I did an Internet search for the church and it triangulated to the Sylvan Schoolhouse. That old schoolhouse is now on the National Historical Registry. I found it on the GPS mapping program and proceeded to locate the building. It took me down a meandering dirt country road. I took a picture of the place, but I was still a bit puzzled, I recalled as a kid riding in the back of the early 1950’s Chevy with a quilt over me, going up and down hills and seeing trees outside the window. Sylvan Schoolhouse was out in the middle of a flat plain with no hill in sight. Well, I tapped into the GPS program my next destination, Dora, Missouri. It took me through Naylor and I drove the few blocks of the village and found no hill or anything resembling what I recalled of the church. The route took me west and it was only within a few miles that the countryside changed to rolling hills. I kept my eyes open and to my surprise saw the sign – Church of the First Born. It was early Sunday morning, so I left a note in the door with my number and referenced Bill Mercer. Someone texted me a number to contact, a person who remembered Bill Mercer. The wonders of mobile phones and texting brought me, a total stranger to anyone in the Church of the First Born, into contact with a woman who was only a bit older than I. She told me the story she remembered of Bill Mercer. He preached the word, this simple man of little education, his hands calloused from hard work, who did not receive a salary for being a preacher. She was a teenager back then, and she told me the church at that time was in Naylor, but the building was long ago razed. The congregation then moved temporarily to the Sylvan Schoolhouse until the current church building was constructed. Yet, I still remember those hills, whether it was to a church they were traveling or a visit to one of many “brothers and sisters” that I saw. This woman, without solicitation, echoed the words of Harley and others – that he was a kind man.

As I completed this journey, I reflected on the significant truths we do know about Bill and Bessie. In this day and age, we can no longer easily trace families from our generation because not many of them consist of one man and one woman. Divorce and single-parenthood has made it difficult to trace families. In contrast, I saw the lineage of a desperately poor family sticking together because it was all they had – each other. These were people who saw the family as the only thing that mattered, that accepted one another regardless of the road that a head-of-household or circumstances would take them. It is an amazing testament. The other thing that has changed radically is the dispersal of the family. “Go West, young man” was Horace Greeley’s proclamation, but for practical purposes a large part of the family unit remained behind. And when they moved West, they moved together. Indications show that the Barrons may have migrated from Alabama, but they did so together, in much the same manner they moved to Dyersburg, Tennessee. Today? We and our children are spread thousands of miles apart. Our parents often age in isolation, far from the caring eyes of their children. It is the world we live in, mobile, virulent, evolving. In my own office I work alongside people who lived in Puerto Rico and Kwajalun, and another in Germany. As I type this paragraph, I live in Alaska, with my father in Missouri, a daughter living in Kansas City currently traveling in Morocco, and the other daughter living in New York City. Amongst Bessie’s descendants the exceptions are those who do NOT go to college. Everyone is fairly well off, living comfortably. The same applies for many of the Barron descendants in Dyersburg. They are well educated, hard working professionals. Jesse Barron would certainly be amazed. Bessie simply took it in stride, always thankful to her Lord for caring for her and her loved ones. Our generation is the end of the Cotton Road.

Where is the White House? I kicked myself for not taking a picture of the countryside around which the old house may have stood. To be quite frank, I was so confused over what I saw, that I wasn’t sure if taking a picture would say anything. So just imagine oak forest over rolling hills as far as the eye can see, and you have the idea. I drove down a gravel road that put me before an establishment that looked like it was from the set Deliverance. The location of the home may be south of Oxford down Highway 9 off County Road 3011. But I would like to return to Oxford and run through the documentation one more time. First, the census record shows the neighbors, some of which may have held title to land. Second, the school records I located should tell me the location of the school. Finally, I can work with the local historical society (which is outstanding) and investigate the Cook family and the so-called “Widow Duke.” With the added information, the location of the “white house” may be triangulated and the location confirmed.

What is “Church of the First Born?” I am sure all of us who knew Bill Mercer (who we affectionately called “Papa”) were somewhat curious about the sort of Christian religion he practiced. Harley and Bonnie Petty gave me some insight into the church at Naylor. It was at one time inhabiting an old school house in the middle of a farm field. I recall it being in Naylor, where it actually was at one point in time. Found out from a current member that the church in town was long ago torn down. What remains of the church assembly is a few miles west of Naylor as the countryside transforms to hills. It is technically the Church of the First Born Hebrews 12:23. This distinguishes it from two other religious groups bearing the same name. There is a sect of Mormonism that calls itself the Church of the First Born and, to my surprise, the actual historical name of the Assemblies of God is the “General Assembly and the Church of the First Born.” What is peculiar about the Hebrews 12:23 is a strong commitment to the small, informal assembly governance, something rather akin to the Plymouth Brethren (of which Garrison Keeler was affiliated in his youth). It explains how a new, older and uneducated Christian could become a lay pastor like Bill Mercer. While the style of worship is unique to each congregation, they adhere to the practice of the spiritual gifts, aka Pentecostalism.

There is a humorous twist to this style of Christianity in that my mother never let me live it down when I commented to her how many cousins I must have, for Mama and Papa had a lot of “brothers and sisters.” Brother this, brother that. And most of that sort of talk revolved around magnificent Sunday afternoon barbeques at somebody’s house. It is one of my fondest memories, smelling the fried chicken, BBQ of some sort, mashed potatoes, fresh green beans or black-eyed peas, with corn and tomatoes. And, of course, sweet tea. It was the sort of Christianity that had room for a woman who could scarcely sing a note, much less play the piano. But Bessie would do both as she banged out hymns and sang with little concern about what others may have thought. I would sit in the front pew, sometimes under a quilt as I would drift off to sleep.

The Church of the First Born has recently gotten into trouble in the realm of faith healing. It appears a vast majority of the churches have the common sense to advise their members to go to a doctor. But some, alas, have refrained from taking their children to a doctor when it is clearly obvious that medical assistance is needed. I never knew Mama and Papa to avoid a doctor, although they were emerging from an era when most people could not afford one. Until the 1940’s, “faith” was about all one had. While you could say a lot of things about the faith of my grandparents, “blind” was not one of them. If there are any regrets I have at Papa’s early passing, it was that I never got a chance to talk to him about God as an adult. And we all grieve that Bessie seemed to have wilted like a flower when Bill passed away. Gone was the piano, gone were the hymns and gone was the laughter — although the latter would occasionally bubble to the surface when one of us would remind her that about the only way to cure stupidity was laughter.

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My Mother’s Obituary

Posted on 26. June 2014 by Eric Niewoehner

Gloria E. Niewoehner, affectionately known as “Tommie”, left this mortal world to be with her Lord on June 25, 2014 at the age of 87. Born January 25, 1927 in Wardell, Missouri to William W. and Bessie Mercer, she would graduate from the University of Tennessee – Memphis and embark on a successful career as an X-Ray technician working in Austin, Texas, News Orleans, and the Ellis Fischel Cancer Research Center in Columbia, Missouri.

June 3, 1994.

She was united in marriage to Carl H. Niewoehner on March 24, 1951 in Memphis, Tennessee. With her husband she would reside in New Orleans and Poteau, Oklahoma before arriving in Columbia, Missouri in 1955. She is survived by her husband, Carl, her son Eric of Juneau, Alaska, and three grandchildren: Rachel Epler of Kansas City, Missouri, Kaitlin of New York City, and Sean of Juneau, Alaska. Also surviving are two sisters: Lautain Scruggs of Atlanta, Georgia and Janette Kornman of New Orleans, as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

To most, she will be remembered as a woman of deep compassion with a “can-do” pragmatism that left its mark on many: her church, Lenoir Retirement Center, American Legion Auxiliary, Mid-Missouri Food Bank, Meals on Wheels, Section and Division Leader of the United Way, Volunteer Action Center, and co-founder of the Koinonia House.

To her family she was a wonderful mother and grandmother. She adored her grandchildren. She was a model of charity, graciousness and service towards others. She was a rock of faithfulness, demonstrating the importance of commitment to family.

To her husband there were many precious memories of a faithful wife and mother, fondest of which were the annual family trips to Canada that continued for almost fifty years, camping and fishing on remote lakes south of Hudson Bay. They traveled in their motor home in 49 states and all the Canadian provinces. For their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary they finally went on their long-delayed honeymoon taking their first cruise.

True to her beliefs, she donated her body to University of Missouri School of Medicine for medical research. Her cremated remains will be interred at the Missouri State Veterans Cemetery at Jacksonville, Missouri. Memorial services will be held at a later date. She has asked that memorials be directed to the Missouri Food Bank or to Oakland Christian Church.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

So Now You Still Think a National Sales Tax is a Bad Idea?

Posted on 27. May 2013 by Eric Niewoehner

In 2002 one the largest accounting firms in the United States was Arthur Andersen. Today, it evidently inhabits a conference center in St. Charles, Illinois. Web searches produce an archived web page and it listed as being in New Delhi, India in Google Maps. What happened?

Two things happened. First, there was Enron. And energy firm that morphed into a giant brokerage operation fleeced billions of dollars from investors, which included their very own employees. It was revealed that Andersen cooked the books, participating in the scam so as to advance its own business agenda. The second thing was what was called the DOT-COM bust in the stock market when it was revealed that accounting firms such as Andersen inflated the value of intellectual assets, what we often refer to in the IT industry as “vaporware,” what accountants call “good will.” While not necessarily criminal, it undercut the integrity of the accounting firms who participated in the financial reporting as millions lost billions.

Andersen lost its license to practice accounting. It never recovered because no one could trust them anymore.

Today the headlines are filled with a similar event except this time it is the IRS. What people are reading about today is not only a scandal pulled off by a few government employees with an ideological bent. It will undercut the faith and trust that people have in the IRS. Just think what will happen when the IRS, enforcing laws WE approve, go to court and find itself being put on trial? Who will believe that a case in court is filed based on the impartial and fair judgment of the IRS? Once there is doubt, litigants will countersue to make the IRS prove they are impartial.

If you don’t believe me, you only have to look at the environmental laws. Like taxes, WE (not somebody else) elected representatives who passed laws to protect the environment. To enforce those laws they created agencies such as the EPA. When a case lands in court, it may surprise you that the defendant is often the EPA. Why? Because environmental groups insist that it is the EPA that is at fault in its science and administration in protecting the environment. As a result, a case can stretch out for over a decade before being decided.

Inject that cycle of litigation into the IRS scandal. From now on, an agency that should be fair and impartial, will be forever doubted. In the private sector, that is solved by simply removing a license to practice accounting. How do you solve that if it is the IRS?

Is Power Benign?

Rather than toss around labels such as “liberal”, “progressive” or “conservative”, I use the term “Statist”. A Statist invests power in the State to accomplish social and economic objectives otherwise left to the individual. They enact laws that usually construct physical institutions and inject policies into the social and economic lives of its citizenry that affect how they live. The fundamental belief of an American Statist is that power is benign because it is administered by rational people under the framework of law. The IRS, for example, is an agency that can be fair and impartial. Laws define its mission and laws restrict its scope. The people who work in the IRS are life-long professionals. They are not out to “get somebody.” They simple do their job. WE, the people, make the rules. They apply them. If there is something wrong with the IRS or any other agency, it merely needs to be “reformed” or “tweaked.”

Yet it is now evident that it was not a matter of IF, but only of WHEN Statist philosophy would be discredited. Fundamentally, what changed all that, was the growth of government. When the IRS was created, the expenditures of the federal government as a percent of the total economy could be measured in the single digits. Today, it approaches 40% and with the addition of national health coverage could exceed 50%. To spend that money the government must collect that money. What has evolved is an agency that affects 50% of the economy. THAT IS POWER. It has nothing to do with being liberal, conservative or whatever. It is, by simple mechanics, an institutional vested with considerable power. Its decisions can affect a large segment of American society. And, as is suspected, can affect the political process.

Add to the fire a set of tax code that is about as vague as it can get — the non-profit tax codes for organizations that are “educational” and those that are “political”. One is tax deductible, the other is not but is exempt from taxes. The code is vague and it basically relies on the written word of the applicants. How does one prove that your mission is “educational”, or that your organization is “religious?”

Next, add more to the fire a Statist administration. The current administration is stuffed with activists who wish to strengthen the State and to have the State replace the private sector. To do that they need power and to collect money to sustain it. The upper levels of government agencies are appointed by the President and to varying degrees the directors of those agencies (the career professionals) are appointed by the President’s appointees. Every administration has the opportunity to “set the tone” that determines what policies an agency will emphasize. This usually involves moving personnel into position to apply those policies.

The IRS is not immune from that. What we are seeing is that individuals were placed into position of authority to affect an election. THAT IS SERIOUS STUFF. Furthermore, because it is the IRS, it has extended its abuse to destroy the fortunes of private businesses and individuals who contributed to conservative causes. There is a word for that, a word that most Americans refuse to admit exists in the American political landscape. Its called “oppression.”

It must be emphasized here that the IRS is largely composed of people who are fair minded, who have a very difficult job to do, who are available to talk and inform. I have worked with agents in the past while I was a consultant and they were very helpful. The problem is not people, its institutional. You create an agency that affects 40% of the economy, there will be a concentration of power in that agency. And within that agency there are people in positions of power because of their political connections, who will have an agenda, an agenda that will have consequences on a particular group of Americans.

The Solution

The answer is to remove judgment calls from the tax code and the only way to do that is to get the government out of the business of defining “income.” What is fair and transparent are financial transactions. It is called a “sales tax”.(1) It begins by placing everybody on the same playing field. Whenever an item or service is purchased, it is taxed. Ironically, everything we now buy is taxed but we simply do not see it. It is buried in the cost of doing business. A sales tax puts that out in the open.

It is “fair” because it largely removes the ambiguity that riddles the American tax code today. What the heck is “income,” and some kinds of income are taxed more than others. Most Americans may not realize this, but did you know your income is taxed twice? What is a business expense? What is a charity? What are legal deductions that “reduce your taxable income?” These questions can be addressed by reading hundreds of pages of tax code.

It is fair because the it removes from the economy the expenditure of billions of dollars on filing taxes. Can you imagine what would happen to the American economy if $6 billion was redirected from CPAs and lawyers to research and development, education, boats, home improvement, better diet or a new set of clothes?(2) Imagine how people are affected when they can redirect their wealth and good fortune from one-choice (the tax preparation fee) to multiple, unlimited choices, spending that money on what pleases them?

It is transparent because it is visible. It’s there in everything you purchase or sell. It informs you the total effect of all those countless policies and “feel good” programs. If you don’t like the sales tax, you, through your representative, can vote to lower it. When your representatives are voting to expand funding for defense, and it adds 1% to the sales tax, you will understand beyond any doubt that it is you that is paying the bill. Fact is, you have always paid the bill but you have never known just how much it really has cost you.

There will still be an IRS (its been around in some shape or form since 1866). What will need to be considered are the following:

It will automatically remove from its domain countless millions of people who do not sell anything. For the average American, it will release $143 to $250 dollars per year in tax preparation costs to spend as they please.
Tax withholdings will end. That will put into your pocket 15-25% of your income, which will compensate for the added sales tax you will pay.
Income filings will be limited to those wishing to receive tax credits: low-income, disabled and elderly. This is a simple formula that provides a monthly check to compensate for the sales tax.

It is theoretically conceivable that the term “non-profit” may be mute because the term implies that there is a proof of income. The IRS will no longer be determining what is income, but simply measuring transactions. For the Tea Party, it means that they pay taxes when they buy paper or ad time. Its contributors are no longer deducting the contributions from their income for tax purposes. When they sell a T-Shirt, they include a tax.

This will lead to a debate on what is considered non-taxable, the same debate that occurs at the state and local levels for their sales tax. Because the size of the national sales tax is substantial, it would not be wise for the federal government to engage such a policy. Exempting an organizational because it is a church, charity, hospital or political group, will mean providing them a 23-30% advantage over taxable entities (figure based on estimates of what a national sales tax would be).

The issue of what is a “tax credit” will be the serpent in the garden. Anyone who follows state and local government knows that they often roll out tax incentives to businesses to encourage them to invest in their state or communities. Americans may not want to see their mortgage deductions removed or they may wish some compensation for giving to charities. That will open a Pandora’s box, reducing the national sales tax to the same quagmire as our current tax code.

Yet there is one huge difference between an income tax deduction and a sales tax credit. The income tax deduction is a defensive measure. The government withholds your income, and you have to apply a deduction to get it back. Sales tax credits require that you apply for it. How many Americans will want to invite the IRS into their lives, fill out the paper work, etc. for a few bucks of tax credits?

Another strategy that will be debated will be tax discrimination. In this case, Congress may wish to lower sales taxes on mortgages to encourage home ownership, or they may limit sales tax on food items (which Missouri does) or exempt taxes on medical services.

Finally, fraud will still be there. The IRS will still be commissioned to identify it and seek justice. Those who apply for tax credits may be investigated for welfare fraud. Businesses that claim credits may be audited. And if Congress continues to offer special interests and favors to various parts of American society, it will only add to the potential of fraud and, most likely, abuse from those in power.

(1) — Another term that is kicked around a lot is “value added tax”. A VAT is applied on every transaction, whereas sales taxes are applied at the “final sale.” Being that a “final sale” is a moving target, it is understandable how the VAT is more attractive. It is also attractive because it lowers the level of the sales tax (or the VAT on the final sale). But, truth be told, the accumulated costs of a VAT is the same of a sales tax. It is also less transparent as the cost of the item you are buying contains countless components that may have been taxed at several different levels of the manufacturing, delivery and wholesale process.

(2) — The $6 billion figure pertains to the direct cost of tax preparation. Some studies point out that the total cost of the progressive tax code of the U.S. is $600 billion! This accounts for the accountants, clerks, IT systems and lawyers that are devoted to reporting “income” and calculating the taxes.

Sources:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-02-22/business/ct-biz-0222-andersen-q–20130222_1_conference-center-grant-thornton-arthur-andersen

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_20th_century_chart.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_preparation

http://blogs.wsj.com/totalreturn/2013/01/24/what-tax-preparers-really-charge/

Posted in Economics, Politics | Leave a comment

If Only We Could Vote with Our Feet — The Toy Gun

Posted on 20. January 2013 by Eric Niewoehner

Once again something that three adults in a room could figure out in a ten minute conversation has catapulted into a lawsuit. Once again the taxpayers of a school district are going to actually consider defending a bunch of bumpkins in court. The cost? Even if it is just preliminary filings and immediate dismissal, it may cost the equivalent of half a year’s salary for a school teacher.

The case? A five year old who pointed a plastic gun that shoots bubbles. She was suspended from a kindergarten class because she apparently pointed a toy gun that shoots bubbles at another student. Wow! She was labeled a “terrorist threat” and suspended for 10 days. Her parents went to the school officials and negotiated the charge down to “threatening to harm another student” and her suspension was reduced to 2 days. Gee, aren’t they nice.

Nothing demonstrates, in my mind, the clumsiness of the bureaucracy of education than how the school system has handled the “terror” problem. To be fair, school teachers and administrators aren’t all to blame for this. They often get handed nutty laws that are nearly impossible to reasonably apply. The “no tolerance” policy has come down like a sledge hammer. Now, after Newtown, Connecticut, it is gone beyond the pale.

What is absurd about this incident is that every parent in America knows what I mean when I say “kids are kids.” Kids see something on the television and the next thing you know they are acting those things out. I use to do that as a kid, playing cowboys and Indians. Then came Star Trek, Star Wars, etc., etc. Each year kids have new fantasies to play out. Somehow, magically, that same kid leaves all of that imagination and play at the door when they enter the school?

The problem I have with this scenario is not that teachers were concerned about the toy or what the child said. The problem is how this minor incident had to be catapulted to a public debate and subsequently a lawsuit. School officials develop these “rules” that border on stupidity. A kid says something and then they are sentenced, no questions asked. I have been in that situation as a parent and the one thing I leave with is a deep impression that school officials are about as dumb as ducks when it comes to handling certain situations.

Yes — I must stress that point. They are as dumb as ducks. Handed crazy laws they make stupid rules. And the result is a decline of respect of school teachers and officials. My personal experience with this sort of stuff has left me very cold towards public school officials. And think, if you will, what that does to school kids when they make a simple mistake and get ostracized and punished. Teachers evolve from being parent-figures that can be loved and trusted, to being thought police and enforcers. You go day-to-day with a heightened sense of paranoia knowing that a simple slip of the tongue or unguarded action can result in punishment. Maybe most of my readers don’t get it, but once you “get a record” it haunts you the rest of your time in school. If that record builds a “pattern” evolves. You are no longer a part of the general school population, but a marked person. We call them criminals in the adult world.

And all this evolves because a school teacher, school official and parents can’t sit in a room a discuss the problem.

I find it interesting how in a private school setting I never had to deal with this matter personally, but knew how they handled issues of discipline and morality. Kids were not automatically suspended. Parents were never excluded from the process. In fact, it was radically the other way around. The way to resolve a problem as a child was the way we would expect adults to resolve the problem. There was discussion, a solution explored and, since it was a Christian school, prayer. As an officer on the parent council I was really impressed how over the decades parents did not have to go to court to solve a discipline matter.

The Columbia Public Schools, however, had a much different approach. A seven year old accidentally takes a pocket knife to school and shows it to a friend, in full view of a teacher. He doesn’t know that there is a “no tolerance” policy at the school. God forbid, the parents must have been sorely negligent not to inspect his coat and backpack every morning. He had earned it for selling popcorn for the Cub Scouts. He was proud of that knife. His pocket knife was seized and never returned. The parent attempted to get the knife back. The teacher could not help. The school principal could not help. The parent had to go to the director of security for the entire school district and request the knife! No dice. Knives are never returned. In one fell swoop a seven year old in the Cub Scouts was placed in the same playing field as a teenage gang member. The effect on the child and the parents was permanent. They became disengaged from the school, the teachers and the officials. How could they participate in supporting the public school when they and their child were regarded as negligent and criminal?

If we had a choice in schools what we would see play out in this situation would be more creative solutions. To be fair, public school officials try many different approaches to handling violence and they do this with very difficult laws and rules. Private schools have to deal with the same set of laws, but often come up with more reasonable alternatives on the rules they construct and how they resolve issues. When a parent is not just a blob of ink on a policy, but a customer to be engaged, then officials realize that to solve a problem a parent needs to be involved and discipline is not a set of rigid standards but guidelines. To ostracize a five year old over a plastic gun that shoots bubbles borders on insanity. Only at a public school could you see this happening.

As is a recurring theme in this blog, these sort of problems are only resolved when school districts stop treating parents and their children like automatons. This will only happen when they realize that a parent does not have to sue a school district in court to express their unhappiness, but only has to pick up their child and walk away. Parents will prefer schools where reasonable adults administer a place where kids can feel welcomed and loved, and where parental involvement is encouraged and respected. Treat parents like criminals enough times, a school gets a reputation for being a police state.

Source:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/19/pennsylvania-girl-5-suspended-for-threatening-to-shoot-girl-with-pink-toy-gun/#ixzz2IR6JNHry

Posted in Education | 1 Comment

If Only We Could Vote with our Feet

Posted on 14. January 2013 by Eric Niewoehner

Would you prefer to have your tax dollars go to where people are free to choose, or be directed where people are more tightly controlled?

Todd Starnes has recently posted a controversy brewing in Phillipsburg, NJ (see below). The local school district took the liberty to fire one of their substitute teachers for allegedly violating school policies on distributing religious literature and not being neutral in matters involving dialog with students on religion. Walter Tutka was retired and worked part time as a substitute teacher. This case is gaining national attention not only because it is an affront on our religious liberties, but also because Mr. Tutka is fighting back. Whereas folks from all over the country will be supporting Mr. Tutka, the citizens of Phillipsburg will have to foot a very costly legal bill. If it proceeds up through the federal appeals court and to the Supreme Court, the tab could reach into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Pity the taxpayers of Phillipsburg.

As a Christian I find school policies such as Phillipsburg’s offensive and tyrannical. This case cries out for common sense, but alas there are not enough adults in the room to resolve this matter. The man is guilty of nothing. And going unnoticed is the actual effect on the children. Can you imagine the effect on a child when they learn that the repercussions of simply asking a question is to cost a man his job? What sort of impression does that make? How does that build respect and trust for teachers?

Yet as a citizen I see things from two other standpoints. First, I respect the argument of those who would support a policy of speech control. How would I feel if my child innocently engaged a Muslim about some book they were carrying, then learning that they shared about how to become a Muslim, showing up at my house with the Koran? I don’t have to agree with this argument. It is from such paranoia that these policies evolve. It is bigotry born from fear.

A second perspective, however, is revolutionary. What if people could choose the schools they wished to attend? Lawsuits such as this would virtually go away. If you fear Christians, go to a school that unabashedly prohibits any discussion of Christianity. If you think that diversity should include religion, to respect and tolerate people of different faith, then you can go to a school that advances that philosophy. And if you wish to go to a school that advances the Christian faith, so be it.

Imagine no lawsuits. Imagine millions of dollars being redirected from attorneys to the classroom? Imagine school teachers being able to choose schools that agree more with their world view. Imagine teachers being able to work without a cloud of fear hanging over them? Imagine liberty — the freedom to speak, to debate, to question and learn.

People who defend board-governed public education do so for only one reason — control. An educational system that puts control in the hands of parents frightens them to no end. What they see is a world in chaos. This world must be controlled. How control is implemented varies considerably around the U.S. In Phillipsburg, it is considered tantamount that control includes what you say and how you think.

We are all taxpayers when it comes to public education. Typically attached to either sales taxes or property taxes, public education is one of the most regressive elements in our tax structure. Even if you are a store clerk on minimum wage renting an apartment, a part of that rent pays for property tax (roughly one to two months rent). So ask yourself this question. Would you prefer to have your tax dollars go to where people are free to choose, or be directed where people are more tightly controlled? You figure it out.

Sources:
http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/teacher-fired-for-giving-student-bible.html

Posted in Christian Stuff, Education | 1 Comment

A Solution to the Hobby Lobby Problem?

Posted on 3. January 2013 by Eric Niewoehner

Recently a rather humble, obscure family-run business has been launched into the nation’s headlines by refusing to comply with the federal mandate that owners must violate their religious values, their faith and their conscience by requiring that they provide health insurance that covers abortifacients. Back in the 1980’s the controversy over medicinally-induced abortions emerged in the national debate when RU-486 was invented and became distributed by European governments. It wasn’t licensed for U.S distribution until 2000.One of the chief concerns about state-sponsored health insurance is that the power of the State is imposed on the individual, to compel the individual to obey the law or suffer stiff penalties, even time in prison. For Hobby Lobby, they are facing $1.3 million in fines daily for non-compliance. For the owners of Hobby Lobby, devout and outspoken Christians, it means a compromise of what they view to be their personal religious beliefs. As with most health insurance plans, the employer is required to pay for a substantial part of the insurance. This means that the owners of Hobby Lobby are being asked to take their money and pay for something they would find morally unconscionable.

It is sad, indeed, that what we are witnessing in 2013 is what Mark Levin articulated in Liberty and Tyranny. The power of the State will grow and supplant liberty. What was once a personal decision to make, a right we have always taken to be a given, is now a decision left to our betters in Washington. What was once a personal, moral decision that would be exercised without fear or repercussions, is now an act of defiance against the State.

The courts have traditionally sided with religious organizations in these matters. Catholic Charities, being a Catholic organization, is clearly defined to be Catholic in its leadership and mission. There is no ambiguity there. So religious organizations have often gained exemption from these sort of requirements. The leftist in the Democratic Party have repeatedly pushed through legislation forcing religious organizations to comply, but the courts have usually ruled that constitutional protections apply where the organization is clearly religious in nature. Not so for individuals. It is logically far more difficult to determine what is a Christian individual than an organization. So you have cases like Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A where a devout individual, who owns a large business concern, extends his values into the business. At what point are those values at odds with the law? And are those values constitutionally protected? They are far more difficult to define and the odds that Hobby Lobby will win are steep.

Another aspect of Statism is that a committee of “experts” and politicians determine what is the best solution. Don’t ask me why, but for the U.S. government it is determined that the only solution is to employ a comprehensive health plan. Comprehensive, full-coverage health plans are invariably the most expensive, but to the end-user (the employee) it appears to be very inexpensive. They go into a clinic and pay a small deductible (or co-pay). Most users of comprehensive health plans are totally clueless as to the true cost of health care. The provision of the service and its costs are totally abstract.

Health Savings Accounts, however, employ a different strategy. The cost of the insurance is substantially less. In most cases, the employer contributes to the employee’s HSA account. The deductible is usually very high. For my family, it is $3000 per year. For an individual, it would be $1500 per year. In the five years I have used it, only once have I spent more than $3000 dollars. Employees are free to contribute their own amount to the plan. It is tax-free. If the account grows, you can even invest in mutual funds. They are less expensive because the employee makes more intelligent decisions on how resources are allocated. They are more informed as to costs and, logically, more aware of the benefit they receive from their expenditures. Singapore has national health coverage and is considered one of the most efficient and advanced medical marketplace in the world. And almost everyone is covered through an HSA plan.

The beauty of the HSA plan is that by and large the everyday decisions regarding health care are fully determined by the individual. My insurance company, for example, does not cover the alternative medicine costs. But you can pay for the costs from the HSA account because it is medically related.

Apply HSAs to the abortifacient controversy. The drug in question, mifepristone, is provided by Planned Parenthood for $300 – $800, the cost varying by location and any testing requirements. It is usually applied in a time of crisis, hopefully a one-time event. A young woman, who works for Hobby Lobby discovers she is pregnant and does not wish to be. She goes to Planned Parenthood and pays for the drug from her HSA account. It is as personal to her as if she went and purchased homeopathic remedies for migraines. Hobby Lobby is not involved. They are not ever informed of it.

Some would argue that Hobby Lobby would still be subsidizing an unconscionable act because they contribute to the HSA account. Maybe so, if that is the way you want to see it. But when that young lady got her last paycheck, she went and purchased a nice dress and some perfume, which she wore on that particular night that enticed the young man to be affectionate towards her, probably coupled with a nice meal and alcohol. Hobby Lobby contributed to the final consequences of sex indirectly by giving her the means to do that. As you can see, the logic of extending any involvement in health care to this controversy is very slim. Ultimately, pregnancy was the consequence of many personal decisions. That young woman’s decision to resolve that problem through mifepristone was her personal decision. Unless she was a very sick or oft-injured person, it is most likely that insurance coverage was never applied.

The national health plan can also be re-written to allow abortifacients to be paid only through HSA accounts, even if it exceeds the annual deductible. In other words, the employee can use an available resource (the HSA account), and the employer is not involved by subsidizing coverage of expenses. Thus, an employer is never put in a spot where they must choose between personal faith and participation in the national economy.

I am personally rather skeptical that this idea will ever be implemented simply because Statists see health care as a means of control. They find purpose in being part of the control process, of managing things. Comprehensive health plans require intensive management, specifying what is covered, for what value and from whom it can be provided. HSA plans are less accommodating to control. Health care will ultimately be as inefficient and cumbersome as public education. Hopefully I can be proved wrong.

Disclaimer: As with many of my editorials, the information is food for thought. It is not necessarily my deep-felt convictions. If you find you have something to add to this discussion, feel free to do so. Only rule I follow is this — speak trash, get no reply.

Sources:
http://www.marklevinshow.com/sectional.asp?id=32892
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mifepristone
http://www.geha.com/geha_health_plans/hdhp/index.html
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/abortion/abortion-pill-medication-abortion-4354.asp

Posted in Christian Stuff, Economics, Health Care, Politics | Leave a comment

What’s “fair” when paying a Congressman.

Posted on 2. January 2013 by Eric Niewoehner

I put this idea out as a basis for discussion — this is no definitive solution. Have fun.

With the recent wrangle over Congressional pay a great deal of discussion has gone about regarding what is fair. It is indeed ironic that in light of all the rhetoric by some who accuse parts of our population as being “rich”, with wealth that is “substantial”, even “undeserved,” that the argument turns towards the accusers.

Congressmen get approximately $175,000 per year. When they retire, they get a pension. Some people call it “generous” or “excessive.” What are the facts? First, the highest government pay rate is G-15 for federal employees, which equates to about $155,000. In essence, Congressmen are at a super-scale, an unpublished G-16 or G-17. It is approximately 13% above the highest pay scale for federal employees. As for pensions, the pension formula for Congressmen is not much different than what you would find in the private sector for well-endowed corporations or other government institutions. In 1986, reforms were enacted that required legislators to receive retirements primarily through Social Security with a supplemental retirement program called FERS. Congressmen do not receive their pension until they reach retirement age and the supplemental program is similar to any other defined contribution retirement program. Retired Congressmen are receiving any where from $40-150,000, depending on the length of service and whether they served for more than five years.

Now — let’s introduce the politics of envy that has permeated the Washington landscape for the past three decades. It is the “rich” I am speaking of. It is interesting that when Obama advanced tax increases for “the rich,” that the figure that defined a rich person was $220,000. Convenient, isn’t it. It proves that maxim that “rich” is what the “other guy” gets paid. On the question of what is fair in pensions, it is fair to say that Congressmen do not get preferential retirement.

But in this age of economic depression, a substantial amount of well-deserved scorn has been thrown at the super-rich CEO’s and such who rack in millions in base salary and then reap bonuses despite managing firms that lose money. It cheats the stockholders and it cheats the poor chums who work under them. They lose jobs, but executives get bonuses. Are Congressmen any different? To their credit, they did not pass themselves a pay raise. Whether all federal employees need to participate in their suffering is debatable. The clerk at the Social Security office is not responsible for running a multi-trillion dollar operation. Congressmen, however, should be. It is fair to ask whether their salaries and their pensions should be tied to their performance as managers of our tax dollars.

So what would constitute “fair” for Congressional pay and pension allocations? It is clear, given the huge indebtedness that previous Congresses and the current Congress have bestowed on future generations, that something needs to be done to Congressional pay and benefits. After all, like corporate CEO’s, are they not responsible for the fiscal health of our country? Would you, as a private citizen, expect your pension check to be electronically deposited into your bank account each month if your employer was facing bankruptcy? If your employer was losing money, would you expect that responsible adjustments would be made to protect the firm? Would you be alarmed if your employer lost money, yet paid out generous bonuses and pay increases to people who were simply not getting the job done, risking your pension? Would it surprise you that when such things do happen that sometimes the owners go to jail?

To begin with, a “fair” pay rate should be GS-15, the top tier of federal workers. As of now, that tops off at $155,000. It is reasonable that Congress should get no better.

Second, pay increases should be matched with other federal employees.

Third, the 13% difference mentioned previously, should be used as a performance bonus. This bonus would be based on a composite index of rating agencies which would assess whether the fiscal health of the U.S. government has improved.

Fourth, pensions are averaged-out based on the fiscal performance of the government. Yes — you read that right. For a government to occasionally go into debt is to be expected, but an “investment return” that extends over, say, 12 years, should be plenty of time to provide an average allocation for pensions. Debt that is dangerous is that which is progressively building, with no reprieve. That has been what we have faced since George Bush was elected in 2000. Ronald Reagan also experienced the same thing. When revenues increased during good times, Congress simply spent the money rather than reduce the debt that had been generated during the recession of the early 80’s. What is “fair” is that pensions should be awarded based on performance.

More than anything, it would immediately make Congressmen personally vested in the fiscal well-being of our country. No longer would they be able to embark on fiscal fantasies and mindless political platitudes without recognizing that the dumb decisions they have made regarding the fiscal health of the U.S. directly affects what they will receive when they retire.

How would that work? Let’s suppose the current deficit actually flattens out (fat chance) at 16.5 trillion dollars, or approximately $48,000 per person in the U.S. Now suppose a Congressman’s pension is the top rate of $130,000 per year. Due to the impact of past decisions on the average American, an impact accrued by this man and his colleagues, $48,000 is deducted from his $130,000 pension allocation. Wow. That would certainly strike home.

Look at it from the political perspective. This same Congressman servers in Congress for 30 years. Over that time he has been a member of Congresses that have passed deficit budgets for 27 of those years. Year after year, the deficit keeps climbing. And year after year this Congressman has used his seniority to push through pork barrel projects and favors with no accounting as to the long term consequences. Then he retires and, voila, has to give some of it back. Maybe the next generation of elected representatives will think twice before being so rash.

Posted in Economics, Politics | 2 Comments

Foreign Policy On a Budget

Posted on 18. September 2012 by Eric Niewoehner

What does foreign policy look like when we no longer have the option of increased indebtedness?

In most respects I am the polar opposite of the policies that President Obama and his fellow Democrats advance. At some point we are going to have to face up to a hard truth in this country — we must pay our bills. It is sad, indeed tragic, that my children will confront this crisis and pay dearly to repair it. I will probably be too old and sick to care — or else retired in some other country. 🙂

Yet there is one thing I seriously do not favor from the conservative side — foreign policy that is essentially “off-budget.” Our current president, to his credit, has actually been what in many respects IS CONSERVATIVE in foreign affairs.

Consider this basic proof — As a conservative, I would state that if we are to balance our budget we must reduce spending.

Second — military intervention increases spending.

Conclusion — If you really want to balance the budget, tread carefully.

Obama has done just that. Instead of doing something profoundly off-the-mark like going to Iraq to conduct a war off-budget, he has first weighed the cost. Clinton was no different. He stuck to his guns, so to speak, with the conflict in Bosnia. It was a European affair and needed to be solved in that manner. The crisis remained unresolved because the Europeans could not act effectively, in concert, solve the problem militarily. The US weighed in and things quickly changed. But it was a limited engagement with very specific goals and with a plan for recovery financed and directed by Europeans.

Now compare that to how Obama handled the situation in Libya. In “leading from behind” it enabled the primary parties involved to wage the campaign. He withdrew from Iraq. He has done as well as any president in conducting the thankless war in Afghanistan. He has stayed out of the conflict in Syria. Much to Netanyahu’s chagrin, he is urging more patience with Iran. Hate to say this, but he looks a lot like Teddy Roosevelt. He speaks softly, but carries a big stick. The US is in the Persian Gulf, US military force has been relentlessly pursuing our rootless enemies in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia.

Hawks on the other side have often argued that the president show “leadership,” but I have yet to figure out what they mean by that. On the surface it seems to mean “saber rattling.” But beyond that it is like buying a boat in Alaska, which we facetiously refer to as “a hole in the water you throw your money into.” Does showing leadership mean you rapidly throw a billion here, a billion there, into exhibiting military power? If so, how is it paid for?

I ask this question because conservatives need to ask that question. What does foreign policy look like when we no longer have the option of increased indebtedness?

Let me give you a hint — it is cautious and measured. It is very risky. It is not a safe world or a world I would prefer. But it is the world we can afford. It is a military that is smaller, more agile, technologically advanced, and rarely used. But it is not a military that can support a multi-front, on-going set of campaigns. It is a military that strongly defends primary, direct interests of the US. It is a foreign policy that simply tells the world — “If you like the pax Americanus, then pay for it!”

It is a profound truth that wars are not planned on a five year budget. Conflict rarely consults the economists. The one thing we often forget is that the random variable in the Middle East during the GW Bush administration was the tiny country of Israel. If the US had not taken on Iraq, Israel possibly would have. We forget that they were not concerned about so-called weapons of mass construction. What concerned them was that a certified lunatic has running a country with deliverable payloads of destruction. If Israel had acted first, what then? All hell would have broken loose. They would have left Iraq in shambles, as well as any other fool who chose to stand in there way. So Bush may have acted with some justification. Yet what was totally unjustified was conducting the war off-budget. If we had paid for it back then, maybe we would not have gone into Iraq in the first place.

Today we see the same scenario re-emerging except it is Iran, not Iraq, that is threatening to destroy Israel. Combined with the distant threat of Iran is the immediate threat of an attack from Hezbolah forces in Lebanon. With Obama holding back, Israel will most likely take the initiative. It will drag US forces into a conflict and will most likely replicate the scale of activity we saw in the Gulf War of 1991. While I doubt boots will be on the ground in Iran, it may come to that.

How will we pay for another Gulf War? With our credit card maxed-out, we better consider that question soon.

Lyndon Johnson was the first president who proposed the myth that we can wage a major military campaign and yet advance welfare in domestic policy. We paid the piper in the 70’s with currency instability, dropping productivity and hyper-inflation. Reagan, ironically, was very careful about how he extended military power, but also advanced the myth that the US could continue as before. Every president since has failed to confront the truth that guns and butter are, ultimately, substitute goods. You can’t have one without forfeiting the other.

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The Cost of Being Particular

Posted on 28. April 2012 by Eric Niewoehner

I paid two different medical bills this weekend. One was for $57 and the other for $181. Both were for a routine visit to a doctor. The low figure was for a family practice in southern Georgia. The high figure was for the same in Juneau, AK.

This is probably not news to folks who have lived in Juneau long. It is the price of being particular. Unlike other capital cities, we are only accessible by boat or air. So what degree is a 218% difference in the cost of medical care associated with the unique challenges of living in Juneau? That’s a lot of margin to make up.

There are two essential elements to an efficiently operating economy: an informed consumer and mobility of resources. Juneau has considerable deficits in both. First the informed consumer. Juneau’s medical market is heavily weighted by government employees, particularly Tier 1 full coverage employees who virtually never see a medical bill. I see it in the eyes of my friends who work for the state when I tell them what it cost to visit the doctor. You pay what!? Well, why don’t you have full medical coverage? (I have an HSA account.) What they don’t realize is that it costs everyone $181 to simply walk through a door and sit in a chair in a doctor’s office. The difference is that I know it. My friends, on the other hand, pay their minor deductible of $15-40 and not realize that the rest of us pay the difference. What full medical coverage does to the consumer is keep from them the true cost of medical care. The main reason medical policy is in crisis today is because people by and large are unaware of the true costs and are proposing solutions with very little knowledge of costs.

The other element is the mobility of resources. This affects costs from two angles. First, land is hyper-inflated in Juneau because of city and state ownership of land. Development is rather slow around Juneau because it is highly controlled. This affects a major component of expenditures in what economists call “rent”. It goes beyond the cost of the doctor’s floorspace. It affects everyone he hires and himself. To hire a registered nurse means you offer that person a salary that will return a similar standard of living that could be procured elsewhere. Ask anyone who hires people at Bartlett Hospital and SEARHC and you will see their eyes roll and their heads shake from frustration. It is tough to get people to move here when it is so expensive to live. Land is a vital component of that cost. The first significant difference between Juneau and Missouri, I observed, was that governments control land in Alaska. In Missouri, their economy breaths intuitively because land is privately held. It is used when it is needed as it is needed. The only role of government is planning and zoning, but even that produces a tiny fraction of the delays I have observed in Alaska. And this is not to be largely blamed on the federal government. The City of Juneau needs to get out of the land business.

Second element is that we can’t go anywhere else. We really need to get out of the box here. A casual glance at a map will tell a first grader that the natural trading partner of Alaska is not Seattle, but CANADA! First the never-to-built-road to Skagway. Imagine, if you will, that a trip to Whitehorse did not entail $800-$1000 in expenditures? Yet that is what it can amount to if you include a ferry ride for your family and car, plus one to two nights in a hotel. The distance to Whitehorse from Juneau is about the same as a trip across the state of Missouri. Travel cost was the gas to drive down the highway. True, add the depreciation on the car, but most people don’t think that way. They usually look at out-of-pocket costs and time and compare that to the added benefit. But if I included depreciation and meals, a trip across state in Missouri and back again would be $400!. That is steep — a 150% increase in cost. That element is added to almost every product we purchase in this town.

This lack of mobility has little to do with geography. It is self-inflicted. I think of this every time I watch Italian Job or Casino Royale as you see the people driving through incredibly engineered highways and tunnels and realize that we are absolutely in the dark ages. The State of Alaska and the federal government have engineered nothing but absolute impotency. And we pay the cost in everything we purchase.

While we are determined to build a road to Skagway, a road through the Taku Inlet into British Columbia is just as appropriate. I mention the Taku Inlet and our natural trading partner, British Columbia, for another reason. A fundamental component of an economy is energy. While I commend the work of AEL&P, as an IT administrator it is abundantly clear why Juneau will never be a host to an IT industry — power. More specifically, Juneau does not reside on a grid. Instead, it is on linear system that is highly exposed to the usual array of natural events. My colleagues often look upon Juneau with a bit of humor, being that we are the only capital that has power outages of 30-45 minutes on a regular basis. This is not to say that my colleagues down south don’t have similar challenges, but they have the luxury of having a grid. If a tree falls over a power main, power is often restored in a manner of minutes through another source. This also comes into play during seasons of power deficits. A grid enables the electrical company to purchase power from outside sources, which is critical for supporting growth and insuring stability. Well, can you imagine Google, or E-Bay operating on our power system?

There are people who read this and simply like Juneau being inaccessible. But they are usually the same people who blame doctors for their high medical bills, and if they don’t it is because they work for the government and never had to pay the full cost of medical care or medical insurance. It is realistic to assert that the 217% difference is partially attributed to our population size and our place on the globe. But 217%? Land policy we can, as local citizens, fix — and hopefully somebody in government will fix accessibility to other markets.

Posted in Alaska, Economics, Health Care, Politics, Uncategorized | Leave a comment